He slowly stepped onto the last stone steps, still carrying the person on his back.
As if he crossed an invisible barrier, the darkness in the tower dissolved away, and the sky's light poured down.
He could hear the sudden rapid breathing of the person behind him. The hands and arms around his neck tightened, and the skinny body trembled slightly against his back.
"Don't be afraid," he soothed in a low voice.
The top of the tower was empty, surrounded by ancient tall pillars rising upwards while the opposing pillars connected to form a semi-spherical shape. It was like a birdcage, dividing the blue sky overhead.
There was a huge and mysterious formation engraved on the ground. The formation was composed of countless golden runes, which made people dizzy at first glance.
The exit of the stone ladder was the center of the formation.
Someone stood on the edge of the top of the tower, his back facing them.
On top of the tower, there was a man with silver hair and a high crown. The wind lifted his snow-white crane cloak. His hands hung beside him, holding a sheathed black longsword.
The qi of the other party seemed to have perfectly integrated into heaven and earth. It was difficult to spot any flaws.
He knew that the other party was the "tower guard" of this tower.
"Since you have gone down, you shouldn't have come up again," The tower guard said with a cold voice. His voice was like ice that will never melt.
"–Why aren't you bringing him over?"
The person on his back seemed to tremble even more.
Now, anger raged in the bottom of his heart. It was the anger that first accumulated from seeing this person at the bottom of the tower.
He raised his hostile eyes and said coldly: "What does that have to do with you?"
"I have suppressed him in the Pagoda for a hundred years," The tower guard said, "It's my responsibility to eliminate demons and to eliminate evil."
"Ha," He sneered. "You people in the Dao sect say that you want to eliminate the demons and defend the dao, but why couldn't they directly kill this Lord back then? Why did they take this innocent person beside this Lord and imprison them?"
"Innocent?"
The tower guard turned around.
His pupils reflected the colour of the blue sky. Crystal clear with no desire or pity.
The tower guard said lightly.
"He is not innocent."
"As a Daoist, he willingly fell into the devil's way. Using his flesh as a vessel to serve the demons, he developed a demonic body and became a lap dog for the demonic sect. He took the side of the evil-doers."
"He broke the Northern Territory boundary enchantment. This act allowed the demonic sect to drive straight in. The Nine Turn Refining Array was destroyed by him alone, allowing you to escape. Hundred years of chaos caused rivers of blood to flow in the human world.
"Even when he was suppressed at the Buddha Pagoda and his demonic body had been knocked down to the bottom of the tower, shattered several times, his devilish thoughts were undiminished. His demonic heart was too hard to remove—"
"But the person who forced him into the demonic sect was this Lord!" He suddenly interrupted, "The one who forced him to destroy the enchantment of the Northern Territory was this Lord. The one who created a bloodbath in the Northern Territory and caused harm to the world was this Lord! Only the Nine Turn Refining Array, only the Nine Turn Refining Array... I did not expect that he would... for me..."
At this moment, he was silent, but his eyes were flushed red.
After a long while, he said hoarsely.
"Ji Suyue, he was also a disciple of your Sky Sect, who had practiced in Sky Sect for decades. As the Sect Master, can't you see through his nature?"
The tower guard said indifferently, "Since he was expelled and has left Sky Sect, he has no relationship with my Sky Sect anymore."
"What 'no relationship'." He said coldly. He turned his head, "Before this, this Lord has agreed with you that as long as this Lord seals his cultivation and breaks through the ten thousand restrictions outside the Buddha Tower, I can see him alive personally. Now that I have seen him and I have saved the person, shouldn't you—make your move?"
The tower guard did not immediately answer.
There were void ripples in the place he was looking at.
Someone caressed their palms and smiled: "The Demon Lord already knows the plan, yet still has the courage to come. This is truly admirable."
The voice fell, and two people walked out of the void.
One of them looked handsome, with endless stars in his eyes. His body had a misty aura, only faintly discernible.
The other was wearing a robe, eyes closed, and had one palm on his chest.
His scarlet gaze fixed on the person who spoke. He sneered: "Chen Weiyuan, back then, you received a sword from this Lord on Duanwang Mountain and fled in embarrassment. Hiding in your Tianji array for nearly a hundred years, are you finally not shrinking your head like a tortoise? You look like a grasshopper, jumping in front of this Lord. Do you honestly want this Lord to compliment you for being so courageous?"
Chen Weiyuan's complexion was slightly stiff, but he quickly recovered: "The Demon Lord is joking. Me coming here this time, one, is to help my fellow Dao Sect to put an end to the chaos completely. Second, I really missed my wife and wanted to see him."
He smiled faintly, "Even though he has committed a big mistake, we have been in love with each other for dozens of years. After this chaos is over, I will ask the Sect Master for forgiveness and take him home so that he can be watched over."
"Shut your mouth!" His eyes were full of hostility: "Chen Weiyuan, don't even dare to think to do that."
Chen Weiyuan was still smiling, but when his eyes moved behind him, he paused for a moment. Then, he turned his head to the side to speak to the monk: "Master Fawu, it's time."
Fawu nodded.
Turning around again, he bowed to him and said: "Amitabha Buddha. This benefactor has boundless evil karma, and the cycle of karma in the world has reached the time when the benefactor needs to pay it off."
He said coldly: "Stop talking nonsense, just make your move."
In a flash, Fa Wu smashed the Buddha beads on his neck, and a burst of blue light penetrated the void: "If the demon soul does not die, the demon body will not dull. Ordinary methods can't suppress the demonic star. Please, Immortal Venerable and pavilion master, and everyone else, please help this poor monk to form the Zhou Tian Star Battle formation!"
Chen Weiyuan smiled and nodded. An astrolabe appeared in his hand, drawing thousands of stars to reflect into the array and slowly disappear.
The tower guardian's longsword came out of its sheath. Stepping into the void, he sank into the great heavenly formation.
At the same time, the golden formations at the soles of his feet lit up.
The endless air current swept through, and the birdcage made of stone pillars broke. The strong wind formed a new cage, and the sky darkened.
He was carrying a person on his back, standing on the top of the tower, and looking around.
The Buddha Pagoda was located at the highest point of the Western Continent Mountain Range.
From where he stood, almost half of the Western Continent could be seen.
He saw countless points of light flying in the sky. Thousands of daoist cultivators were controlling magical weapons, merging into the formation. Each of them became one of the thousands of stars in the formation, like moths to fire.
In the vast wilderness of the Western Continent, countless flags swayed, with the Buddha Tower as the center. The armies of the ancient tribes already settled under the tower.
There were enemies all over.
And he carried a person behind him, his body exhausted of spiritual power.
He had used his self-sealed cultivation base to break through the ten thousand restrictions outside the Buddha Tower. This act consumed his soul's power, depleting it to its lowest level.
It's just that a Nine-Turn Celestial Demon Body trained to great success is essentially an immortal body. No formation can limit him besides the Nine Turn Refining Demon Array that used the Heavenly Demon Bone as a sacrifice in the past —— now that the Heavenly Demon Bone has been destroyed, so what if there is the Zhou Tian Star Battle formation? Even if it is powerful, if he is willing to abandon his demon body and escape with his demonic mind into the void, he will naturally be able to escape.
... But, the person behind him will be completely destroyed in the formation.
This is the trap they set up for him.
On the high tower, night smothered the sunlight.
Thousands of cultivators plunged into the large array, and the shining starlight was a precursor to the opening of the yellow springs of h*ll.
The person behind him stopped trembling at some point.
Five pale, thin fingers clasped his shirt. They felt like a flower branch about to wither.
"Lord."
The person behind him called out.
His voice was hoarse, cold, and exhausted. It was as if there was a difficult dream to awaken from.
"...Put me down and get out of here."