The Demon-Sealing Pagoda stood in the center of the imperial city, surrounded by layers of imperial guards and dark guards.
However, the guards and dark guards could only stay a thousand zhang away at most. The pagoda held countless demon cultivators and devil heads, who were day and night refined by its array, emitting miserable wails and vicious curses.
Although the Demon-Sealing Pagoda dissipated 99% of these sounds, the remaining 1% could affect the minds of martial artists below the Innate Realm within a thousand zhang.
Anyone who heard these wails and curses would immediately go mad and fall into the demonic path.
To isolate the sounds, the Great Han Dynasty built a wall to seal off the pagoda.
Lin Yu easily bypassed the guards and dark guards. After crossing the three-zhang-high wall, he immediately saw the towering Demon-Sealing Pagoda.
The moon shone brightly, but the light around the pagoda seemed absorbed by something, making it much dimmer than its surroundings.
At a glance, wisps of black demonic energy coiled around the pagoda, surging like octopus tentacles but unable to break free from its confinement.
Miserable wails and curses poured into Lin Yu's ears like sound waves, but with a thought, he blocked them out.
He walked toward the pagoda and smiled, "Lord Ding, after exterminating the demon cultivators and devil sects, the major dynasties pooled their national strength to build the Demon-Sealing Pagoda, using arrays to refine these fiends. It's said the pagoda's lower levels hold Purple Mansion realm demon cultivators and devil heads, while the upper levels hold those above the Myriad Transformations Realm. I wonder how many are still alive after all these years!"
Demon cultivators inherited the blood of demons, gifted and hard to kill. Devil heads received blessings from demon gods, able to regenerate limbs, making them extremely troublesome to slay.
The best way was to imprison them and use arrays to wear down their vitality, which was why dynasties built Demon-Sealing Pagodas.
"Lord Ding, you should give up now!"
Lin Yu looked at the pagoda ahead and shook his head helplessly. The sealing array of the Demon-Sealing Pagoda was extremely powerful, laid by many experts when the Great Han was at its peak. Even a Myriad Transformations Realm expert couldn't force their way in.
"Give up? Why give up?"
Lord Ding smiled, "The array of the Demon-Sealing Pagoda is indeed strong. With your strength, you can't break in, but we can find a way to make the demon cultivators and devil heads come out themselves!"
"Make them come out themselves?" Lin Yu asked in disbelief.
"If I'm not mistaken, every full moon night, the pagoda's array is at its weakest. If we make a small move, we can create a gap in the array at the middle of the full moon night, allowing demon cultivators and devil heads below the Third Rank of the Purple Mansion to escape."
Lord Ding smiled proudly.
"Then we just need to wait outside the pagoda. When those below the Third Rank of the Purple Mansion escape, we kill them, and you refine them to get endless spiritual energy for higher realms." Lin Yu suddenly understood.
"Exactly. If calculated properly, this gap should only allow one devil head to escape each time, making it easy for us to handle. As your cultivation grows, we can gradually widen the gap to harvest demon cultivators and devil heads from the pagoda endlessly!" Lord Ding nodded with a smile, "These fiends are heinous. Relying on the pagoda to refine them would take who knows how long. Our action is definitely a great deed!"
"Good, Lord Ding. How do we create a crack in the pagoda's array?" Lin Yu made up his mind and was ready to act immediately.
Under Lord Ding's guidance, he only destroyed one array node to easily create a gap in the pagoda. This gap wouldn't appear normally, only when the array was weakest on full moon nights. Demon cultivators and devil heads below the Third Rank of the Purple Mansion could escape through it, but the gap only appeared briefly—at most, enough for one person to escape each time, as Lord Ding said, making it easy for Lin Yu to handle.
...
Half a month later, Lin Yu sneaked into the imperial city again and came to the Demon-Sealing Pagoda.
It was a full moon night. He waited outside the pagoda, eager for demon cultivators and devil heads to appear.
In the lower level of the Demon-Sealing Pagoda, dozens of demon cultivators and devil heads huddled in various places. The pagoda walls were inscribed with talismans, and heavenly thunder burst from them from time to time, sweeping the space like silver whips, lashing mercilessly at these fiends.
No matter how infamous they once were, they could only wail in pain under the thunder's strike, unable to resist.
They had endured this for countless years in the pagoda. The lower level had once been overcrowded, but as demon cultivators and devil heads were refined by the thunder, only dozens remained.
"Eh!"
The Black Dragon True Person, struggling to survive in a corner of the pagoda, was numb from the thunder's bombardment. Suddenly, his expression changed, and surprise filled his eyes.
Beside him, a tiny crack slowly appeared in the previously indestructible pagoda wall.
At this moment, the other demon cultivators and devil heads in the pagoda were dying from the thunder's torture. Except for Black Dragon True Person, no one noticed the crack.
"This is a chance to escape the Demon-Sealing Pagoda!"
Joy appeared on Black Dragon True Person's face. Although imprisoned in the pagoda for hundreds of years, he wasn't ignorant of the outside world. At first, the royal martial artists who patrolled were Myriad Transformations Realm experts, then gradually Purple Mansion realm masters, and in recent years, only Innate realm warriors.
What did this mean? The outside world's martial arts were declining. The Great Han Dynasty might no longer have Myriad Transformations Realm experts, or even many Purple Mansion realm masters.
Black Dragon True Person had once reached the Eighth Rank of the Purple Mansion. Over the years, his cultivation had been weakened by the thunder in the pagoda, and now he only had the Second Rank of the Purple Mansion. But he believed that once he escaped, he could act freely with his current strength. Then, using the demon sect's blood sacrifice technique, he could restore his strength and even advance to the Myriad Transformations Realm in no time!
With this thought, Black Dragon True Person didn't hesitate and rushed toward the crack.
"Eh! What is Black Dragon True Person doing?"
"Look! Why is there a crack next to Black Dragon True Person?"
"Black Dragon True Person is trying to escape through the crack! Follow him quickly!"
...
Seeing Black Dragon True Person disappear into the crack, the demon cultivators and devil heads in the pagoda charged madly toward it. But before they could approach, the crack vanished without a trace.