Chapter 785 - 770: The Dominator of This World

After Aragon’s sudden outburst, Duanmu Xie had struck him with a single palm, leaving him half-dead, but he still showed no sign of stopping.

An infuriated Duanmu Xie struck out, seizing the wretch in his hand.

But Shen Lang said softly, "Let him go."

Duanmu Xie didn’t dare to disobey and released his grip.

The moment he was free, Aragon unleashed another frenzied aura and tried to lunge at Shen Lang!

’Just as I thought!’

Shen Lang’s eyes turned cold, and an eerie light flashed.

The Death God Nail flickered once before pinning Aragon to the ground!

Aragon’s agonized scream resounded through the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron, startling Yuan Bupu and Flower Soul from their Cultivation.

"My Lord, spare me! My Lord, spare me! I’ll never do it again, never again!"

Only when the Death God Nail pinned him down, continuously draining his power, did Aragon come to his senses. He howled miserably, begging for mercy.

Shen Lang snorted coldly. "Taking you in was just a whim. I never thought it would turn out to be a mistake."

The Ghost King sidled over. "Boss, he’s not quite the same as when we first met, is he?"

Shen Lang said nonchalantly, "You were around him before. Did you not notice anything?"

The Ghost King tilted his head in thought. "I just felt that he was much stronger and more formidable than me, but his soul was teeming with violent hostility, and his Evil Qi was overwhelming... He tried to devour me several times!"

"And while he acted respectful toward you, Boss, he didn’t really respect you at all."

"But I just don’t get it... His Soul Blood is in your hands, Boss. How can he be so unafraid of death, so unafraid of his soul scattering?"

"It’s not that he isn’t afraid. He’s simply not aware of it," Shen Lang said in a low voice.

"The Resentful Fierce Souls within the Hungry Ghost Dao are mostly the souls of Demon Beasts, teeming with hostility. For millennia, they have slaughtered and devoured one another. Every soul is laden with evil and chaotic impurities, a fusion of the overwhelming resentment and Evil Qi from countless others, making them ferocious and tyrannical to the extreme."

"Most of the time, they survive almost purely on instinct."

"Aragon’s Cultivation may be stronger and his Spiritual Wisdom higher, but that strength means he has devoured even more Resentful Fierce Souls. If something triggers the remnants of those souls within him, he can become just like the others in the Hungry Ghost Dao—an agglomeration of Evil Thought, filled with a malevolence that is difficult to purify."

Hearing this, the Ghost King gave the Death God Nail a thoughtful look before realization dawned. "It’s because of the Death God Nail!"

Shen Lang nodded. "Precisely. When I brought out the Death God Nail, the Netherworld Qi and the aura of countless Resentful Fierce Souls within it agitated the chaotic and domineering Evil Thought lingering in Aragon’s body."

"Under the control of that Evil Thought, the ferocious and tyrannical energies within his soul dominated his mind. Even with his Soul Blood in my grasp, and even with Duanmu Xie posing a mortal threat, he still wanted to tear any creature he saw to shreds and devour it."

"Perhaps in that state, his entire soul is consumed by a single word: devour."

"No, no, no, Master, I’m clear-headed now! Please, Master, spare me!" Aragon only half-understood Shen Lang’s words, but he instinctively knew they didn’t bode well and the consequences would be dire. He could only kowtow repeatedly and beg for his life.

Shen Lang snorted again. "Even though I can annihilate you in an instant, the ferocious and tyrannical energies in your soul dominate your thoughts. Your evil nature is impossible to change!"

Sensing the displeasure and killing intent in Shen Lang’s voice, Aragon kowtowed furiously. "I can change, I can definitely change! Master, spare me! I’ll never do it again!"

A flicker crossed Shen Lang’s eyes as he sank into thought.

When he had first subdued Aragon, Shen Lang hadn’t given it much thought. He simply felt a King Martial Realm Late Stage Ghost might have some use, so he kept him around.

After all, Shen Lang had relied on the Ghost King for many things in the past.

Now, it was clear there was a great difference between the Ghost King and Aragon.

Although the Ghost King had devoured some Beast Souls during his Cultivation, he was primarily formed from the soul of a human Martial Artist and was thus more worldly.

Furthermore, the Ghost King had only taken a few hundred years to fully form. In such a short time, the negative emotions and evil energy accumulated in his soul had not become too immense.

But Aragon was different. He himself was likely a Fierce Beast’s Fierce Soul to begin with.

He had then survived for over ten thousand years, growing stronger by devouring the souls of other Fierce Beasts until he reached his current state.

Through the Soul Blood he controlled, Shen Lang could sense it: Aragon, like the other Resentful Fierce Souls in the Hungry Ghost Dao, was a combination of fear, hatred, violence, and savagery.

Although he had grown to the King Martial Realm Late Stage and was capable of thought...

...that beast-like instinct was still present, an instinct that simply wanted to tear any living thing before it to shreds. It was an urge that would be impossible to eradicate.

A creature like this by his side would be not only a waste of resources but also completely useless.

Worse, Shen Lang could even foresee a day when, if he were in a crisis, Aragon would not hesitate to turn on him and leave him for dead.

Of course, Shen Lang wasn’t afraid of such a creature, nor was he particularly concerned about how to deal with Aragon.

What troubled Shen Lang were the three other Evil Ghost Kings from the Hungry Ghost Dao.

Originally, Shen Lang had wanted to refine them directly and have the Ghost King devour them.

But on second thought, he realized it would be quite difficult to execute.

With the Ghost King’s current meager abilities, how could he possibly devour powerful Ghosts at the Emperor Martial Realm?

Even if he were to erase the Spiritual Wisdom of the three Ghosts, it would still be incredibly difficult for the Ghost King to devour them.

Moreover, the only one under his command who had truly reached the Emperor Martial Realm was Duanmu Xie.

Duanmu Xie’s brother, Duanmu Zheng, had not yet recovered to the Emperor Martial Realm.

In this situation, three Emperor Martial Realm Ghosts were invaluable.

Shen Lang’s parents in Celestial Phoenix City were currently protected by the power of the Imperial Dragon Sect, along with Hong Yu.

Back then, a King Martial Realm Cultivation was considered incredible.

But now, it seemed far too weak.

Adding to that, Shen Lang’s relationship with Demon Path Forces like the White Bone Hall was tense. He had to prepare for the worst-case scenario...

Shen Lang’s original plan had been to completely subdue these three Emperor Martial Realm Evil Ghost Kings and dispatch two of them to secretly guard Celestial Phoenix City.

That was why he had temporarily spared the three Evil Ghost Kings.

But seeing Aragon’s behavior now...

’Looks like I’ll have to expend some effort and use the Tai Chi Diagram to purify them completely. I just wonder if it’s possible to do so without damaging their Origin...’

At this thought, Shen Lang stretched out his left hand, retracting the Death God Nail. With his right, he conjured a vortex that instantly sucked in the barely conscious Aragon and the Ghost King.

With a wave of his right hand, screens of light rose up around him, displaying the outside world in all directions.

At that moment, Monk Bu Se was furtively making his way along a winding mountain path, right beside a deep abyss where a biting Gang Feng howled.

Then, Shen Lang sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and his consciousness immediately sank into the Tai Chi Diagram.

Inside the Tai Chi Diagram, it was quite a lively scene...

Without the pull of the evil aura from the Death God Nail, Aragon had regained some clarity.

He had witnessed Shen Lang’s Star Absorption Technique many times before.

Having been dragged directly inside this time, Aragon thought he was a dead man. The moment he appeared in the Tai Chi Diagram, he began scrambling about frantically, shouting, "Spare me!"

But before he could take more than a few steps, a cage formed of thunder and lightning descended from the sky, trapping him instantly. He was unable to move a muscle.

The fifteen King Martial Realm experts who had been knocked out with the Ten Fragrance Soft Tendon Powder during Naluo King’s rescue had long since been killed by Shen Lang, their Nascent Souls drawn into the Tai Chi Diagram.

In the time since, five of those Nascent Souls had been completely absorbed by the World Tree.

The remaining ten Nascent Souls, their Spiritual Wisdom erased, were pierced by dozens of Thunderbolt Chains, letting out constant, instinctual wails.

As for the five people who had been with Mu Feng in the Hungry Ghost Dao, all five were here.

Their five Nascent Souls were likewise completely locked down, letting out inhuman, terrifying screams as if they were demons being tortured in Hell.

Closer to the World Tree were the three Emperor Martial Realm Evil Ghost Kings that Shen Lang had subdued in the Hungry Ghost Dao with the help of the Ghost Venerable.

These three Ghosts were currently receiving different treatment than the Nascent Souls; they were only trapped in a cage of thunder, not pierced by Thunderbolt Chains.

As long as they behaved themselves, they would not suffer.

However, the moment these three Evil Ghost Kings saw Aragon appear, they instantly lost control and began to shout and roar!

As the three Evil Ghost Kings began to howl, Aragon actually fell silent.

He crouched inside his cage, his eyes blazing with Ghost Fire as he fearfully took in his surroundings.

It was a good thing he was a Ghost; if he had a physical body, his teeth would likely be chattering.

If it weren’t for the countless Thunder Pillars and the colossal, sky-high tree within this Tai Chi Diagram, just seeing the innumerable Ghosts and chained Nascent Souls would have made Aragon think he had arrived in the Nine Netherworld Prison!

Less than ten meters from the three Evil Ghost Kings, thick Thunderbolt Chains descended from the sky, binding the Nascent Souls of Zuo Feng and Zuo Yun.

The two hung their heads, their auras faint and weak.

Beyond them, myriads of Ghosts flew about in the Sea of Chaos, far from the World Tree.

These were all Resentful Fierce Souls that Shen Lang had drawn in from the Hungry Ghost Dao.

However, though these Resentful Fierce Souls were numerous, their Cultivation was far inferior to that of the other captives.

Therefore, Shen Lang didn’t waste even a sliver of the Tai Chi Diagram’s power on them.

He simply let them fly about in the Sea of Chaos, since they couldn’t escape anyway.

As for the people from the White Bone Hall and the Blood Wing Demon Sect who were captured in the Stone Forest where they had encountered the Rock Demon Lord, they were not inside the Tai Chi Diagram.

Shen Lang had spared their lives, knocking them unconscious and tossing them into a Trapping Array within the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron.

Hundreds of people had been watching when he dealt with them, so it hadn’t been appropriate for Shen Lang to use lethal force.

By keeping them alive, he could extort a hefty price from the White Bone Hall and the Blood Wing Demon Sect later on.

...

Less than ten seconds after Aragon and the Ghost King appeared, Shen Lang’s figure materialized beside the World Tree.

The moment Shen Lang’s figure appeared inside the Tai Chi Diagram, the entire space fell utterly silent...

Although it was only an illusion condensed from a wisp of Divine Thought and appeared exceedingly weak...

...every Ghost and Nascent Soul within the Tai Chi Diagram had the distinct feeling that to face this figure was to face the entire world itself.

This person was the Dominator of this realm!

With a single glance from him, any powerful being here would be reduced to dust and smoke!