Chapter 2051: Heart Demon Flowers

The many dark shadows before him looked like mist, seemingly without real bodies, yet their strength was extremely formidable, matching his sword aura without any weakness.

Zhang Xuan's expression turned grave: "Could this be... the Decay Beasts?"

The books he had read before contained records of Decay Beasts.

This was a life form unique to the Hollow City, nourished by the power of decay, ferocious beyond measure. Once injured by them, the black qi would smoothly invade the body, corroding even true qi, and was nearly impossible to treat.

Back then, Elder Bai Ye was wounded by this very thing.

"Let's see how strong you really are!"

Having confirmed their identity, Zhang Xuan no longer retreated. He turned the Tongchang Sword from defense to offense, sending dozens of sword qi stabbing downward.

A single stone broke the wind, layers of waves piled high.

This sword technique required little skill; with sufficient true qi, one could easily learn it. But precisely because it was so skill-less, it was all the harder to master.

In the thousands of years of Lingyun Sword Pavilion's history, few had fully mastered it, and Zhang Xuan was certainly one of them.

As the sword technique was unleashed, each of the dozens of sword qi carried the peak power of an immortal monarch, striking the Decay Beasts.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Decay Beasts exploded into powder, collapsing another large section of the already dilapidated ruins.

"They don't seem that strong..."

Seeing a single sword qi kill one beast, Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could finish his thought, the dark shadows before him wavered, and the shattered Decay Beasts gathered again, attacking as if they were immortal.

"This..."

His face darkened.

After a moment, the broken Decay Beasts recovered again, as if his sword technique had had no effect.

"Could they be something like soul-type beings?"

His soul leaped out from between his brows and struck down with a palm.

Great Compassion Demon Palm!

The ultimate technique of Qiuwu Ancient Sage, modified by him to be even more profound. Especially when executed by the soul, its attack power was stronger, dealing irrecoverable damage to spiritual entities.

The palm force crushed down, shattering the Decay Beasts. But just like the sword qi attack earlier, they recovered after a few breaths.

Zhang Xuan was at a loss.

If these things kept coming back no matter what, even with his sea-like internal energy, he wouldn't be able to hold out!

"Eye of Insight!"

After trying several more methods without success, Zhang Xuan's eyes rippled with patterns, and he finally saw something amiss.

Whenever a Decay Beast was killed, a stream of black qi would flow from the ruined parts of the ruins, nourishing it. Absorbing this qi, the Decay Beast would become vigorous again and continue fighting.

"These Decay Beasts are formed from the decay qi in the ruins. As long as the decay qi remains, the beasts are immortal..."

He realized in his heart.

No wonder he had exhausted all means but couldn't completely destroy them. These things didn't just absorb decay qi; they were themselves condensed from decay qi. As long as this decaying aura persisted, they were eternal.

"Destroy the already broken buildings, exposing new traces in the decayed places!"

His brows raised, and sword qi rained down again.

This time, he attacked not the Decay Beasts but the already ruined buildings.

Rumble!

Stones flew, and broken walls collapsed further, revealing fresh traces beneath.

With new traces appearing, the decay qi abandoned the Decay Beasts and piled onto them to corrode. After a few sword strikes, the latter had their heads cut off and couldn't reform for a short time.

"Before long, new Decay Beasts will form again, and in greater numbers..."

Seeing his guess was correct, Zhang Xuan was horrified.

This Hollow City was indeed strange.

Destroying buildings to create new traces could temporarily disperse the decay qi, but these buildings couldn't withstand many destructions. Most importantly, as corrosion turned new traces into old ones, the decay power would grow stronger, and the number of Decay Beasts would increase.

In other words, he could escape this time by destroying buildings, but those who came later would face ever greater and stronger dangers until they couldn't bear it.

"I wonder where this decay qi comes from. It's beyond the understanding of even Ancient Sages or False Gods..."

Frowning, Zhang Xuan stopped pondering and continued forward.

After the experience with the Decay Beasts, Zhang Xuan and his clone flew cautiously, not even daring to pick herbs from the ground.

After advancing for over ten minutes, he sensed true qi surging ahead, as if someone was fighting.

Nodding to his clone, he quietly flew forward, rounded a broken wall, and saw two figures.

They were two of the four Immortal Monarch peak experts who had entered the Star-Chasing Palace.

One had lost an arm, and the other had a hideous wound on his chest, already festering and emitting a foul odor.

"I'll take you down with me!"

With furious roars, the two swung their longswords, each stabbing at the other.

Their true qi was similar, their strength evenly matched, making it hard to decide a winner.

"Why are they fighting each other?"

Zhang Xuan frowned.

He had thought he would encounter Fuchenzi or Palace Master Du, but instead these two Immortal Monarch peaks were fighting each other with such viciousness. He was utterly puzzled.

"No, they must be trapped in an illusion array..."

After watching for a while, he sensed something was wrong.

He had seen Temple Knights many times; they were basically devoid of personal emotions. Now these two were fighting fiercely, each strike aimed at vital points, unwilling to stop until death. Clearly, their minds were disturbed.

Perhaps there was an illusion array operating nearby.

He activated the Eye of Insight again and scanned the surroundings.

His brows furrowed again.

As a grandmaster of arrays, his understanding of formations had reached the pinnacle of the entire Upper Firmament. If an illusion array existed nearby, there would inevitably be spiritual energy fluctuations, creating vortices.

But under the Eye of Insight, everything was calm, with no signs of disordered energy, nor could he find any array flags or array core.

"No array flags or core means it's not an illusion array. Then what is it..."

He looked around again and soon spotted several peculiar flowers.

These flowers were scattered symmetrically around the ruins, absorbing streams of decay qi, making them appear unusually enchanting.

"These are... Heart Demon Flowers!"

Heart Demon Flowers were legendary plants that emitted a special aura, inducing heart demons. They were somewhat similar to Bloodlust Stones. Under normal circumstances, cultivators could approach them without effect, unless they attacked them, triggering a backlash.

Could it be that these two had attacked these Heart Demon Flowers, causing a collective backlash that trapped even Immortal Monarch peaks in an illusion, unable to escape?

"No, someone set a trap, and these two just stepped into it..."

After studying further, he suddenly understood.

In front of these Heart Demon Flowers, there were special energy fluctuations. Once someone entered this area, they would trigger the buried energy, ultimately attacking the Heart Demon Flowers and producing a mind-confusing aura.

These two Immortal Monarch peaks must have fallen for it and ended up like this.

"Could it be... left by Palace Master Du?"

The Temple's purpose in coming was to capture Palace Master Du. Knowing the danger here, he still insisted on coming, likely because he knew a lot about the Hollow City and wanted to use its environment to kill them.

"Never mind... If they kill each other, all the better!"

Having figured it out, Zhang Xuan relaxed. He leaped to fly over this area, avoiding these Heart Demon Flowers.

But after flying a few meters, he suddenly stopped.

"No, leaving like this would be too wasteful... Since they're going to die anyway, I might as well do a good deed!"

Focusing his mind, he flicked his finger, sending dozens of streams of immortal power flying out, landing around him.

He stamped his foot, and with a "hum" in the air, a circular wall of qi abruptly appeared, blocking the Heart Demon Flowers.

With the qi wall in place, the two fighting Immortal Monarch peaks were no longer affected, and the bloodshot red slowly faded from their eyes.

"What happened?"

"What's wrong with us..."

Regaining clarity, the two stopped fighting.

"You were controlled by Heart Demon Flowers, killing each other just now!"

As they were puzzled, Zhang Xuan, disguised as a Temple Knight, strode over.

"Heart Demon Flowers..."

Seeing that he had caught up with them, the injured two breathed a sigh of relief, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.

They had heard of this thing, known for its immense power, and never expected to fall into it.

"To prevent you from continuing to fight and harm each other, give me your swords..."

Zhang Xuan approached.

Both frowned simultaneously.

"Hurry up! If the Heart Demon Flowers attack again, you won't hold out and will really die here..."

Zhang Xuan scolded, then reached out with both hands and grabbed.

The two were already at their last gasp and couldn't resist. In the next moment, their weapons were in his palm.

"You..."

Seeing him forcibly take their swords, both frowned.

"Alright, don't overthink it. I'm doing this for your own good..."

Zhang Xuan patted their shoulders reassuringly, stored the two longswords in his storage ring, stamped his foot, and flew up.

"Alright, have fun..."

Pop!

With a sound of qi explosion, the qi wall he had just set up burst apart, and the power of the Heart Demon Flowers spread again.

"What are you doing?"

Feeling their eyes turning red again and their minds wavering, the two Temple Knights were about to go crazy.

Wasn't this guy here to save them?

Why was he letting the Heart Demon Flowers attack again?

What did 'have fun' mean? How were they supposed to have fun?

"I'll kill you..."

Before they could understand, their vision blurred, and they fell back into the illusion, eyes bloodshot, charging at each other.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Though they had no weapons, they didn't hold back, each palm strike full of force, every move aimed at killing.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Soon, both spat blood and fell to the ground, clearly beyond saving.

Even in death, they couldn't understand why this comrade of theirs had taken their weapons only to let them kill each other.

"Let's go."

Having anticipated this outcome, Zhang Xuan didn't bother with more words and continued forward.

Since they were going to die anyway, the weapons couldn't go to waste. As for the corpses... there were plenty in his storage ring; it didn't matter anymore.