This was yet another Desolate Ancient Era ruin.
What differed was that while the ruins outside were endless, barren deserts, this Desolate Ancient Era ruin contained mountains, rivers, trees, and flowers.
However, the mountains were desolate mountains. The rivers more resembled swampy mudflows. The trees were withered trees, the flowers and plants were wilted flowers and plants.
The feeling it gave was like a sinister, terrifying abyssal hell. Whether mountains, rivers, flowers, or trees, though they still existed, they were all dead—like skeletal remains stripped of life. Eerie blood mist permeated everywhere, filled with an aura of death.
Looking up, there were over a dozen holes in the sky above, each slowly rotating like a chaotic current vortex. Gu Qingfeng had jumped in through one of these holes. Gazing at the other hole-vortices, he pondered internally—were these vortex holes gateways to other Desolate Ancient Era ruins?
Without further thought, he immediately leaped up and exited through another vortex hole. Sure enough, just as he suspected, it indeed led to another Desolate Ancient Era ruin.
He re-entered, then continued passing through other vortex holes. Going in and out seven or eight times consecutively yielded the same result. In other words, these dozen-plus vortex holes each led to different Desolate Ancient Era ruins.
Earlier, while Gu Qingfeng and the Black Pig Monster King were chatting, a tremendous explosion had inexplicably erupted within the ruins, followed by the emergence of a vortex hole. Could it be that the situation was the same in the other Desolate Ancient Era ruins?
It wasn't clear for now. He didn't continue his in-and-out exploration, but instead returned to the blood-mist-permeated Desolate Ancient Era ruin to investigate.
Carefully sensing the blood mist.
This stuff seemed like a kind of demonic aura, yet also didn't.
It felt like a kind of Original Sin aura, yet also didn't quite match that either.
Whether it was demonic aura or Original Sin aura, or perhaps both, Gu Qingfeng couldn't determine for the moment. It felt profoundly sinister.
Continuing forward, the blood mist grew denser, the deathly aura increasingly intense.
Suddenly.
Ahead, he discovered a blood pool. Calling it a pool was less accurate than calling it a springhead. Moreover, the blood mist was emanating from this springhead. The spring bubbled with blood-water, like boiling blood. Strangely, once the blood-water emerged, it quickly transformed into blood mist that spread out.
Before he could examine what this thing actually was, Gu Qingfeng spotted two people not far away.
Two women.
One of them was stunningly beautiful—a beauty so bewitching it was sinister, and flamboyant to an extreme. This was a Demon, and a Heavenly Demon at that.
Upon seeing this woman, Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but freeze, because he recognized her. It was Man Tu Fan, whom he had met several times before.
Even now, he clearly remembered: just after the Current Era began, after his rebirth in the mortal world, he had once encountered Man Tu Fan inside a secret realm. Back then, Man Tu Fan seemed to have been suppressed within that secret realm by the Buddhist Dao. Their second meeting was within the illusion of the Daoless Era. In his impression, Man Tu Fan seemed to have some indescribable, ambiguous connection to both the Daoless Era and Original Sin.
Beside Man Tu Fan was another woman. This woman wore a set of black robes, arms crossed. Her features were somewhat androgynous—a handsome beauty. If not for the high ponytail she wore, Gu Qingfeng truly wouldn't have been able to tell if she was male or female.
This woman's existence, like Man Tu Fan's, was that of a Demon. The difference was that Man Tu Fan was a Heavenly Demon, while this woman was a Monster-Demon.
That's right!
A Monster-Demon.
Both demon and monster.
Throughout the ages, whether it be Immortal-Demon dual bodies or Demon-Monster dual bodies, such existences were exceedingly rare.
Immortal-Demon dual bodies defied the heavens. Frankly, such existences throughout history weren't few, but none met a good end. Immortal and Demon opposed each other like fire and water. The higher the cultivation, the harder it became to balance them. Once control was lost, leading to the Immortal and Demon aspects running wild, death was inevitable.
Demon-Monster dual bodies were similarly uncommon.
Immortal-Demon dual bodies were always achieved through later cultivation.
Demon-Monster dual bodies, however, could only be formed innately—requiring one parent to be a demon, the other a monster, for such a hybrid to be conceived.
Common sense dictated that demons and monsters, upon coupling, would not conceive, nor could they bear children.
However.
Nothing in this world was absolute.
Some demons and monsters, upon coupling, did bear children—and the children born were precisely Demon-Monster dual bodies.
Speaking of Demon-Monster dual bodies, there was a very ancient mythological legend about them.
The myth said that children born from the union of demon and monster were all calamity stars, destined to bring about great catastrophes...
Thus, the ancestral founders of the Monster Dao and Monster Dao established a heavenly oath-curse, cursing that demons and monsters together would be infertile.
Clearly.
This curse had taken effect. Since ancient times, demons and monsters coupling generally did not produce offspring. Even if one or two broke the curse and gave birth to Demon-Monster dual-bodied children, they didn't become calamity stars as the legend foretold—at most, they were just stronger than ordinary demons or monsters. Later on, everyone gradually stopped making a fuss about it. As long as demons and monsters could bear children, they could do as they pleased—no one bothered with such trivial matters.
Gu Qingfeng stared at the Monster-Demon woman standing beside Man Tu Fan. He felt this Monster-Demon woman was not merely stronger than ordinary demons or monsters.
The Monster-Demon woman appeared ethereal, real yet illusory, flickering in and out of sight, giving off a deeply seductive and sinister feeling. Gu Qingfeng didn't extend his divine sense to probe her. His intuition told him this Monster-Demon woman was not simple—possibly more terrifying than imagined.
Especially when he appeared, and the Monster-Demon woman stared at him with that ambiguous, half-smiling expression, it truly gave Gu Qingfeng a hair-raising, spine-chilling sensation. He thought to himself that this Monster-Demon woman either hailed from the Guixu or, damn it all, from the Huangxu.
As for Man Tu Fan, when she saw Gu Qingfeng, her beautiful face first showed a flicker of surprise, as if she hadn't expected Gu Qingfeng to be here either. Then, her gaze grew complex.
This complexity contained anger, yet also helplessness; contained pain, yet also entanglement; contained worry, and even more contained endless hesitation and confusion.
At this moment, the Black Pig Monster King also caught up. First glancing at the blood-colored springhead, then looking at Gu Qingfeng, he was just about to open his mouth to ask something when he spotted Man Tu Fan and the Monster-Demon woman. The Black Pig Monster King's mouth opened, but the words on the tip of his tongue were forcibly swallowed back.
Though he didn't recognize Man Tu Fan, he could tell she was a Heavenly Demon.
The existence of a Heavenly Demon was terrifying enough as it was, let alone one appearing in a Desolate Ancient Era ruin. Despite being a Monster Dao Throne himself, back in the Great Desolate, even he would have to make a detour upon encountering a Heavenly Demon. Ever since he started roaming after emerging from the Ancient Era, he had deeply understood one principle: whenever you encounter any existence bearing the 'Heavenly' prefix, run as far away as possible. Whether it be a Heavenly Immortal or a Heavenly Buddha, a Heavenly Demon or a Heavenly Monster—it was all the same.