Demon Suppression Peak

Just as the Qingxuan Sect was teetering on the edge of collapse in the storm.

An elderly figure stood suspended in the void.

He trod upon drifting clouds, his body like the flowing wind. His usually kind and benevolent eyes were now as sharp as a falcon's. His plain white robes were mottled with bloodstains, and in his right hand, he dangled a string of round objects. A terrifying aura of murderous intent radiated from his entire being.

He stood there quietly. No one knew when he had appeared until Lin Qingxue called out, suddenly making everyone aware of his presence.

"Grandpa!"

Lin Qingxue waved her hands in pleasant surprise.

Lin Heming turned his head and gave her a slight nod. Then, he frowned and looked at Mu Wanxi, a rare trace of astonishment in his eyes.

"Mu Wanxi? Aren't you dead?"

"Lin Heming?"

Seeing the newcomer, Mu Wanxi narrowed her eyes.

Obviously, even she had to feel wary of this unparalleled number one genius of the Eastern Wasteland.

Why is he back?

The System was equally bewildered by this.

Lin Heming shouldn't have returned.

It had expended a tremendous amount of effort, not hesitating to consume its origin power to alter the memories of countless women in the demonic path, making them hate Ye Shu to the bone. It had quietly laid out a scheme, triggering border riots, all to lure away this number one genius of the Eastern Wasteland.

After luring away the Child of Destiny's greatest early-stage support, doing anything else would be a breeze.

As for how furious Lin Heming would be upon returning and seeing the Child of Destiny dead?

Or what would happen to its host and this group of female leads?

Sorry, but the System didn't care.

By then, it would have already stolen the Child of Destiny's providence and made a clean getaway.

This world would also collapse as its providence dissipated.

But now, everything had changed.

Lin Heming was back.

He had returned unexpectedly. According to the System's calculations, the diversion should have delayed him for at least two years. But unexpectedly, he had returned in less than half a year.

It wasn't that it didn't want to alter Lin Heming's memories.

It was because it couldn't.

Or rather, doing so would be worse than doing nothing.

Not everyone was as foolish as Mu Yunxi or Feng Mengli. After all, even among the female leads, didn't they all have their own various perspectives?

The more of a genius and the stronger a person was, the more flawless and unified their state of mind.

Their understanding of themselves was also more profound.

Tampering with such a person's memories wouldn't turn them against the Child of Destiny; instead, they would find inconsistencies between their memories and the behavior of themselves and others, thereby discovering the flaws.

Therefore, rashly tampering with the memories of such people was useless.

It would only arouse their vigilance.

Women appeared more emotional and prone to acting on impulse, so they were easier to influence with false memories.

But now... Lin Heming was back.

How exactly did he come back?

In stark contrast to the uncertain and alarmed attitudes of Mu Wanxi and the System, Li Daoyuan looked as if he had seen a massive savior.

"Senior Brother Lin, you're back!"

Lin Heming calmly raised his left hand, stopping him from continuing.

"We will talk later."

"Wait until I finish dealing with the things in my hand."

Hearing him say this, Li Daoyuan was taken aback. He only then noticed that Lin Heming was still carrying a bunch of round objects in his hand, and those things... were clearly human heads.

Lin Heming casually tossed them, and the heads instantly scattered on the ground, rolling everywhere.

"The Hall Master of the Blood Fiend Hall, the Commander of the Shadow Guards, the Patriarch of the Thousand Demons Path..." The Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall read out the names of the heads one by one, his eyes filled with horror.

These were clearly the leaders of the various demonic factions in the Eastern Wasteland.

Figures who made countless people tremble in fear at the mere mention of their names.

Every single one of them could stop a child from crying in the night.

But at this moment, they were all gathered here, reduced to nothing but dead heads with eyes wide open in grievance.

"Senior Brother Lin... what is this?"

Li Daoyuan finally realized that the blood on Lin Heming's body was probably not his own, but that of these demonic cultivators.

"I never went to the border from the very beginning," Lin Heming said calmly.

"Investigating is too troublesome and yields little results. It's better to just sweep through them again and again."

"For the past three months, I have not rested day or night."

"Every demonic faction in the Eastern Wasteland worth their name has been uprooted by me."

"Today, there is no longer any demonic path in the Eastern Wasteland."

"If any demonic acts occur again, they will be as clear and visible as a drop of ink in clean water."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire scene fell dead silent.

Everyone stared blankly at Lin Heming, at his bloodstained white clothes, and at the heads rolling at his feet.

Three months.

Day and night without rest.

Uprooted completely.

No one dared to question these words, which almost sounded like the drunken boasting of a madman.

Because the rolling heads were already proof.

This was the strength of the number one person in the Eastern Wasteland.

However, just when everyone thought this was already enough.

Lin Heming was seen slowly raising his hand, turning his wrist.

Rumble—

The earth roared, and dust flew into the air.

A three-thousand-zhang high mountain peak was forcefully pulled up from the ground, suspended above the Qingxuan Sect, blotting out the sky and the sun.

Subsequently, Lin Heming waved his sleeve.

Whoosh!

Ant-sized black shadows flew out from his sleeve, landing on the suspended mountain peak, rapidly enlarging, and turning into demonic cultivators bound by spiritual energy.

"Lin Heming! You old bastard! You will die a horrible death!"

"Kill me if you have the guts! Otherwise, the day I leave this mountain will be the day your Qingxuan Sect is destroyed!"

"Argh!!! It hurts so much!"

"Let me go! I really don't know anything, I was just passing by! Lin Heming, aren't you of the righteous path? You can't slaughter the innocent!"

"I beg you, I won't ever dare do it again."

"Lin Heming, I only killed a few mortals. Let me go, and I am willing to work like a horse for your Qingxuan Sect. I am a Golden Core cultivator, my life is worth far more than those mortals!"

Countless demonic cultivators howled in grief in unison.

Some looked ferocious, swearing to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin.

Some wept bitterly, crying out their grievances with tears and snot.

Others hurled abuse, cursing him for deceiving the world and stealing a good name, falsely accusing good people, with endless foul language.

But more of them were prostrating on the ground, begging for mercy.

Lin Heming turned a deaf ear to it all, his eyes cold and indifferent.

"Noisy!"

He waved his hand again, and flocks of crows covered the mountain peak.

Cross-shaped wooden stakes were planted into the ground, locking the demonic cultivators onto them. Three crows stood on the top of each stake, their pitch-black eyes staring at the demonic cultivators, occasionally letting out eerie caws.

"W-what are you trying to do?"

The demonic cultivators looked terrified. Then, under their fearful gazes, the crows' sharp beaks pecked down viciously.

"Ah—"

Screams echoed one after another, and blood splattered.

Some had their eyeballs pecked out, some had their ears torn off, and some had bloody holes pecked into their faces.

"T-too cruel."

The many disciples below were all shocked by this cruel scene. Their faces turned pale, and they covered their eyes, not daring to look anymore. Some even began to dry heave.

Seeing this, Lin Heming shouted fiercely.

"All of you, raise your heads!"

The many disciples below trembled all over, lifting their heads quiveringly, though their eyes still dodged the sight.

Lin Heming pointed at the newly formed mountain.

"Look at them. Look at their miserable state. I want all of you to engrave this moment into your memories."

"You are the newly risen suns of the future."

"You are the future me."

"You are the hope of the human race, the defenders of righteousness in this world. If you lack even the courage to face the miserable state of your enemies, then what right do you have to speak of guarding the righteous path, or wielding your swords to protect the common people?"

Lin Heming's voice was deafening, striking like thunder and making the disciples tremble all over.

"Facing demonic cultivators, you actually feel it is cruel!"

He flicked his sleeve.

A massive screen of light that blotted out the sky suddenly appeared in the firmament, flashing with bloody scenes one after another.

There were massacres of villages and the annihilation of cities.

There were people using living humans to forge artifacts.

There was a pregnant mother whose abdomen was brutally sliced open to extract her child, the infant then refined into a pill right before her eyes.

There were those who tortured mortals purely for pleasure and amusement.

Incident after incident, scene after scene.

It was shocking to the core.

The scenes in the light screen were a thousand, a million, a hundred thousand times more cruel than the sights on the mountain peak.

Just looking at them made one nauseous.

But the images seemed branded into everyone's eyes; even if they closed their eyes, they could not escape them.

Watching it made anger rise from their hearts and fierce hostility surge in their guts.

A knot of suffocating resentment built up in their chests.

Having stirred up the wrath in their hearts, Lin Heming waved his hand again, pointing at the severed heads on the ground:

"Remember this. I killed these greatest demonic overlords."

"Not because their sins are profound, but because I feared the Azure Profound Sect would have no worthy successors to suppress these scourges. Fearing future disasters, I killed them."

"Otherwise, I would have definitely made them taste the ultimate suffering of this world!"

"But looking at it now..."

His gaze burned like a torch, sweeping over the disciples below whose eyes were now blazing with the flames of fury.

"With this kind of performance from you, how can you convince the masses?"

"How can you protect the Eastern Wasteland?"

"I see there is no need to even torture these small fry anymore, lest after I die, you get devoured by these pieces of trash and end up with your bodies dead and your dao vanished!"

"It is only a pity for the mortals harmed by them!"

"The punishment they suffer now is not even a ten-thousandth of what their methods inflicted, and this is all due to your incompetence!"

As soon as these words came out, all the disciples present instantly felt a deep sense of shame.

Indeed.

If they did not even dare to face the miserable plight of their enemies, how could they speak of upholding justice and maintaining a flawless Dao heart?

They raised their heads one after another, their gazes resolute.

"Please rest assured, Elder Lin. We disciples will certainly train diligently and not disappoint the world's expectations!"

"We disciples will grow into towering trees to protect all living beings!"

One voice rang out from the crowd, followed by a second, then a third. The rising and falling shouts surged like a tsunami, wave after wave, quickly drowning out the screams of the demonic cultivators.

Seeing them rekindle their fighting spirit one by one, Lin Heming finally nodded in satisfaction.

These children had been raised in the sect for too long, like flowers in a greenhouse.

Without touching blood or seeing white bones.

How could they achieve greatness?

Lin Heming looked at the crowd below. With a wave of his right hand, golden light bloomed, and golden runic marks flickered at the base of the mountain peak where the numerous demonic cultivators were imprisoned.

As the array patterns lit up, the flesh and blood that had been devoured from those demonic cultivators grew back at a visible rate. At first, they were optimistic, but as the crows pecked at them endlessly, they finally broke down.

"Kill me! I beg you, kill me!"

"Lin Heming! You are not human!"

"Even as a ghost, I won't let you off!"

"Wait until I get out! Wait until I get out! I will definitely tear your body into ten thousand pieces!"

Lin Heming turned a deaf ear to them.

He waved his right hand, and the mountain peak plummeted from the sky, taking root in the back mountain of the Azure Profound Sect. Those screams and wails were all sealed within, never to leak out the slightest bit again.

After doing all this, he looked at the crowd below again.

"Remember what you just said."

"From now on, this mountain peak shall be called the Demon Suppression Peak. All captured demonic cultivators will be sent here to suffer the agony of being pecked by ten thousand crows. But remember, this is far less than a ten-thousandth of what they inflicted on their victims."

"Every disciple may go up the mountain at any time."

"In front of every demonic cultivator, there will be a record of the crimes they committed and the punishment they are receiving. You may challenge them as you please. The victors may kill them, or propose the torture you desire, and I will make it happen for you."

"Do you understand!"

Following Lin Heming's furious shout.

A chorus of responses immediately rang out from below.

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

The sound waves rose higher and higher, shaking the entire mountain peak. Blazing flames burned in everyone's eyes—a thirst for power, an adherence to justice, and a hatred for evil.

Looking at the impassioned disciples, Mu Wanxi's expression looked somewhat ugly.

She hadn't expected that as soon as Lin Heming returned, he would seize the initiative and establish his dominance.

As such, in the eyes of the Azure Profound Sect disciples, he was probably the undisputed number one in prestige.

But as the Sect Master, Li Daoyuan had his doubts.

"Senior Brother Lin, I'm afraid this move of yours..."

Li Daoyuan took a step forward, his expression hesitant, but he continued to advise, "I'm afraid it will taint these children with demonic nature. Over time, they will be entangled in bloodlust..."

Lin Heming didn't care at all and said indifferently.

"When striking against the demonic path, we must be even more ruthless than them. Otherwise, how can we deter those who delusionally attempt to walk the demonic path?"

"Daoyuan, you must remember."

"Mercy can be left for opponents, it can be left for enemies, but it must never be left for the demonic path."

"You are also someone who has weathered great storms. Have you ever read those popular novels circulating in the mortal realm? They write that those of the demonic path are all heroic, true men who dare to love and hate, while we of the righteous path are all hypocrites with false sentiments. Mortals do not understand the deeper meaning and naturally feel that the demonic path is unrestrained and carefree, not knowing that this is nothing but a method used by the demonic path to bewitch people's hearts."

"The principle of using a fierce visage to suppress evil has remained unchanged since ancient times."

"This..."

Li Daoyuan hesitated for a moment, having to admit that although Lin Heming's views were extreme, they were not without reason.

"Alright."

He nodded and said no more.

"Very well."

Lin Heming also nodded in satisfaction, then put his hands behind his back. His gaze swept over Ye Shu below, as well as Lin Qingxue standing next to him, their hands tightly clasped.

As for why Medusa had disappeared?

From the moment Lin Heming appeared, she was like a mouse that had spotted a cat, slipping away into Ye Shu's sleeve in a flash.

"I'm not afraid of him."

Little Medusa pressed her fangs against Ye Shu's wrist and whispered, "It's just that this Queen has run out of energy and came back to rest for a while."

Lin Heming withdrew his gaze and looked at Mu Wanxi.

"Now, tell me."

"With so many of you gathered here, you couldn't have come specifically to welcome this old man back to the mountain, could you?"

"Hmm?"