Chapter 277

Chapter 277: A Guess about the Great Devil

Snake Maiden stared at the Devil Cultivator’s cold eyes and still got goosebumps as she asked: “He is the Demon Beast?”

There was another platform on the far side. Several thick chains wrapped the Devil Cultivator and pinned him to it.

Shen Sang Ruo felt spiritual power flowing through the chains. This was what restricted him, just as they had guessed.

And also…

Her eyes half narrowed and her brows drew in. [This feels more like a seal.]

At once, several questions rose in her heart: [Who is he? Why is he sealed here? Who sealed him? How long has he been sealed? What is his tie to the Barrier Ward around Starfield Plain? What is his tie to whoever guarded the treasure?]

[What does he want? And what will he do next if he gets it?]

Her thoughts raced.

The Devil Cultivator glanced at them, then pulled back his gaze like a man looking at corpses. He did not intend to speak.

His mocking expression said he did not care to talk to them. He clearly believed they would die here and he would get what he wanted without saying a word.

Shen Sang Ruo’s thoughts sharpened, and she formed some guesses about several of those questions.

The one who set the Barrier Ward, sealed the Devil Cultivator, and protected the treasure was the same person, or the same group.

Judging by the Devil Cultivator’s strength and the seal’s power, he should be a Great Devil who had tried to stir up trouble within Starfield Plain and was sealed for it.

The seal did not seem complete. The people who sealed the Great Devil knew he would someday recover and return, so they added another Barrier Ward that locked the Great Devil inside Starfield Plain.

They also laid a Formation to guard the treasure, to prevent the Great Devil from invading, and to wait for another part of the Human Race to discover the trove and think up a counter.

There had to be something in the treasure that tied to the Great Devil’s seal, something that could help him recover his strength and break free.

When did all of this happen?

A bold guess rose in her mind: [Could it be linked to the chaos during the Ninghua Sect era?]

Daoist Wu Wei had known about this region, and back then there had been no Barrier Ward.

By the time the area was found again today, the Barrier Ward had appeared, and in between there were no records at all.

So perhaps during the great chaos in the Cultivation World, Devil Cultivators had worked evil alongside Heretic Cultivators, and in the end other Cultivators sealed them here.

Not all Devil Cultivators are the same. One faction is radical, the other conservative.

Radical Devil Cultivators are violent and greedy. They urge slaughter of Cultivators and seize lands in the Cultivation World. Like some Heretic Cultivators, they use the flesh and blood of Cultivators to cultivate and often act with Heretic Cultivators.

Conservative Devil Cultivators, however, are no different from ordinary Cultivators; they simply cultivate with Devil Qi and keep a steady heart without being warped by it.

Daoist Wu Wei had told her that, back then, the Heretic Cultivators had indeed joined with many Devil Cultivators.

This Great Devil was very likely one of the radical Devil Cultivators who joined that chaos.

Cultivators must have fought this Great Devil in Starfield Plain and sealed him only after a fierce battle.

The clash wrecked Starfield Plain. Devil Qi spread, Spiritual Qi dried up, and the plain became a ruin.

Only after thousands of years did Spiritual Qi suppress Devil Qi enough for Starfield Plain to begin to revive.

Then the seal slowly loosened. Badly wounded, the Great Devil started releasing Devil Qi across Starfield Plain.

[It all fits.]

On the far side, the Great Devil did not know that Shen Sang Ruo had already pieced together almost everything. He still thought that once he grabbed what he wanted, he could shatter his shackles.

Snake Maiden watched Shen Sang Ruo think so seriously and did not speak, only stood quietly at her side.

What did the Great Devil want?

That thing was critical. She absolutely could not let him get it.

Most of the treasure had already been Teleported out of Starfield Plain. Only two things remained: the Beast Core in Snake Maiden’s hand, and a clump of Divine Soul Power that could not be sent out.

Shen Sang Ruo’s eyes widened: “Right, it is the Divine Soul Power!”

The Spirit Jade Marrow could not be sent out, and she had thought that was a coincidence. But every item linked to Divine Soul Power had also failed to Teleport. That was no coincidence.

Only the Barrier Ward around Starfield Plain could block Teleportation.

That Barrier Ward existed to keep the Great Devil from leaving, and he wanted that clump of Divine Soul Power so badly. From this, she inferred he was a Devil Cultivator who focused on Soul Method.

If he got the Divine Soul Power, his strength would surge and he could break the seal.

She lifted her eyes and, in a steady voice, told Snake Maiden her conclusion and the Great Devil’s goal.

Snake Maiden murmured as it clicked for her: “So it is the Divine Soul Power.”

Thinking back, that clump had been hidden very deep, and seals had been set all around it, clearly to stop anyone from taking it easily.

“But we are so far from him,” she said with doubt. “He only trapped us. He cannot do anything to us.” She frowned, puzzled. “Is he hoping to starve us?”

A plan laid for a thousand years, only for this?

She still couldn’t make sense of it: “Why not drag us to his side and snatch the Divine Soul Power?”

“I guess he doesn’t have that much strength and can’t beat us, so he can only warm the water and boil the frog,” Shen Sang Ruo said with a raised brow. “Even at this distance, he is afraid we might hit him.”

She did not lower her voice. The Great Devil heard every word.

His face instantly darkened, and the demonic lines made his expression look even more savage.

Back then, those hateful Cultivators had injured him so badly he had only a shred of soul left. If not for being a Great Devil highly skilled at Soul Method, he would have died.

With the seal pressing on him, he had spent thousands of years repairing his soul, and only in the last near thousand years had he Reforged the Flesh.

If his enemies were only Foundation Establishment or Golden Core, he would have attacked at once.

But his foes were a Nascent Soul Early Stage Cultivator with several Demonic Beasts, one of them near Divine Transformation.

[He could not possibly win.]

If he had not prepared for ages and poured everything into the Devil Qi, he might not have been able to drag them here at all.

So he chose this roundabout method.

But so what?

The Great Devil’s smile turned cruel. Soon, they would lose their souls completely and become living corpses.

Snake Maiden rubbed her chin, her face growing more serious as she asked: “If he is boiling the frog, what ‘warm water’ did he set for us?”

“We should find out soon,” Shen Sang Ruo said, eyes steady. “Most likely it is tied to the soul.”

The next moment, she felt Little Koi inside her sea of consciousness thrash in panic, while Kui Ox and Zhu Miao showed no change.

In its soul state, Little Koi was very fragile. Any force that touched the soul would hurt it badly.

Shen Sang Ruo’s face changed at once.

The struggling Little Koi pushed a message to her: [Something is stealing my soul.]

After this, it would also reach Zhu Miao and Kui Ox, who were bound to her by a Bonding Contract.