The Daoist waved his hand and retrieved the small banner from the smoke; at that point, thunder had already started sounding outside the cave, prompting him to rush out quickly.

Upon exiting the cave, he saw a small rhinoceros shimmering with silver light, manipulating a pair of Thunder Sound Cones, dueling with his two disciples. He recognized it as a treasure born from the Taiyin Essence and was instantly overjoyed. Just as a smile began to spread across his face, Lin Han appeared, followed by Shi Sheng.

Lin Han didn't understand why the rhinoceros had lured him here and even attacked others, but he knew there must be a reason. He was about to clarify things when the Daoist, guilty of theft, made the first move; he struck with a hook and a sword, and a handful of Fiery Flame Flying Needles!

It turned out this place was the Heavenly Gate Palace atop Wulong Peak of Ailao Mountain, and the Daoist was named Lin Rui, nicknamed the Divine Monarch of Heavenly Gate.

He had long known that Zheng Dianxian lived near Yuan River and was aware of the formidable Bodhisattva, so he dared not venture there, fearing he'd bring misfortune upon himself.

Later, when Shi Feiyang drove away Zheng Dianxian and caused such a commotion while retrieving treasures, Lin Rui also lurked nearby. He originally wanted to take advantage of the situation to pick up some spoils but, seeing the battles from several parties shaking the heavens and earth, he was too terrified to approach and silently retreated.

However, when he saw the Bitter Bamboo Temple had ten-thousand-year-old flesh ganoderma, he coveted it greatly and, after much plotting, came up with a plan to have his servant, a white deer, disguise itself as harmless and sneak into the temple, then take the opportunity to steal the flesh ganoderma while unwatched.

He thought this plan was foolproof, letting the white deer discreetly swallow the ganoderma and seal it in the banner before acting nonchalantly and finding an opportunity to leave quietly... He hadn't expected the deer, having never done such a thing before, to panic and only think of fleeing, inadvertently leading everyone to its own doorstep.

Lin Rui was furious to the point of death, wishing he could tear the deer apart with his own hands.

That day, having seen Lin Han and Shi Sheng fiercely battling many Barbarian Monks at a bridge in the Western regions, he knew their prowess; thus, he went all out from the start, releasing the Soul Punishment Sword and the Atu Hook first, followed by his most lethal Blood Flame Needle.

While refining these needles, he first raised the poisonous bees from the Southern Border, then captured a large number of poisonous snakes, forcing them to devour each other like Gu Refining. The remaining snakes were then magically forced to interbreed. The saliva essence produced was collected and used to water and nurture a type of poisonous grass called Happy Grass, also known as Male and Female Flowers.

The flowers of this grass, formed into male and female pairs, resembled male and female genitalia so accurately that they could mate on their own, becoming more beautiful and vivid as the weather grew hotter.

After the male and female flowers mated, they would slightly tremble and then rapidly decay, emitting a foul-smelling, pungent sweat.

Before the flowers had matured and mated, Lin Rui used magic to drive fist-sized poisonous bees onto them.

The bees were deadly venomous, killing instantly upon stinging, and only these flowers could cure their poison, though the flowers themselves were also highly toxic.

Lin Rui magically made the bees insert their mouths into the crevice where the flowers met, sucking the deadliest essence of the male and female flowers into their mouths, causing the flowers to decay and rot immediately after, leaving the bees close to death.

Before the bees died, Lin Rui harvested their stingers, using Evil Skills to painstakingly refine them. Though called needles, they were actually bee stingers, and being hit by one caused immediate and intense numbing and death from a manically itchy ecstasy.

These needles, the Treasure of the Cave of Lin Rui, were in limited quantity and seldom used; he released them all at once now, turning into a haze of colorful and flaming smoke, within which millions of red light needles enveloped both Lin Han and Shi Sheng.

Shi Sheng, recognizing the danger, immediately wanted to release the Detachment Bell to protect both himself and Lin Han.

"There's no need for defense, I'll break it!" Lin Han summoned the Xuan Guang Ruler, and immediately, boundless rings of light appeared in the air.

Lin Han closed his eyes, relying not on sight but on the Divine Energy's perception, his left hand forming seals. In an instant, his Primordial Spirit locked onto each light needle, producing an equal number of light rings in response.

But this technique required meticulous precision, a feat not achievable by ordinary Independent Immortals without reaching an extremely high realm through Dual Cultivation of Life and Nature.

Each halo corresponded to a Flying Needle, the size of a needlehead, encased within an even smaller Flying Needle, locked at the center of the halo.

Lin Rui exhaled True Qi, attempting to make the Flying Needle penetrate the halo, but it was firmly locked in place, suspended in mid-air without even a tremor.

As Lin Han began casting, thousands of halos simultaneously constricted, issuing a "snap snap" sound, and the light needles burst into strands of red smoke that dispersed with the wind.

Lin Han retracted the Xuan Guang Ruler, and all the crimson Evil Smoke vanished in the air, all the Blood Flame Needles that Lin Rui had spent years refining were gone!

Seeing this, the Demon Path practitioner's heart bled. He frantically urged his Flying Sword and Flying Hook, releasing nine Blood Shadows that transformed into nine Demons in the air and dove at the two men.

He had an old connection with Tie Shu, the chief disciple of Jiu Panpo, the Sect Hierarch of the Red Body Sect, and had learned many Demon Path Great Techniques from her, including parts of the "Nine Heavens Secret Demon Mysterious Scripture." Sensing imminent doom, he desperately pleaded with Tie Shu and borrowed these nine Demons.

The Demons that Jiu Panpo cultivated were named Heavenly Demons but were actually not summoned from the Upper Realm; instead, they were refined from the Primordial Spirit Souls of Cultivators.

Jiu Panpo's great-grandmaster was the Old Demon of Iron City Mountain, who practiced the "Heavenly Secret Demon Mysterious Scripture." The Old Demon of Iron City Mountain and the former Palace Master of Stone God Palace, who presided over the "Blood God Scripture," were brothers, both having a daughter, and their daughters' relationships with Deng Yin of the Blood God Sect were complicated.

The daughter of the Stone God Palace Master was relatively mild, but the Red Flower Princess, daughter of the Old Demon from Iron City Mountain, was fierce and had on several occasions seduced Deng Yin, capturing him and forcing him into marriage.

Deng Yin was originally married to Shen Wugou, and together they cultivated the Nine Heavens Mysterious Scripture. However, after meeting the daughter of the Stone God Palace Master, bound by the ties of a past life, they fell deeply in love. The woman swore to the Divine Demons; almost trapping herself in a desperate situation, she became a gorgeous corpse, and the man, in his devotion, went to all lengths to resurrect her.

Amidst this, the Red Flower Princess intruded, partly coercing, partly tempting, compounded by guilt towards Shen Wugou and fear of his mentor...ultimately he practiced Demon Skills and mingled with the Red Flower Princess, thoroughly falling into infamy as the notorious Blood God Child!

Jiu Panpo even called Master Changmei "uncle" due to this complicated relationship.

Master Changmei once pursued Deng Yin everywhere, preventing him from causing harm, and Jiu Panpo had helped him too, for which Master Changmei repeatedly warned her.

Jiu Panpo then restrained herself considerably, choosing to refine Demons only from the most vicious and wicked Demon Humans and refrained from releasing Demons to cause harm. Besides the original Demons, she ceased creating new ones.

To prepare for the imminent apocalypse, she refined the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon, which required two women to jointly refine, and they must be virgins.

Initially, Jiu Panpo started refining it with her sister, Bodhisattva, but halfway through, Bodhisattva eloped with a man. Jiu Panpo then co-refined with her chief disciple, Tie Shu.

The jointly refined Demons were usually kept by Jiu Panpo, and Tie Shu, not needing them, secretly refined nine more Demons, treasuring them dearly and fearing discovery and punishment by Jiu Panpo. Conveniently, Lin Rui came to borrow them, and Tie Shu taught him the Demon Refining Technique and let him continue refining the Demons.

Unbound by the rules of the Red Body Sect, Lin Rui often used living humans to sacrifice for the Demons, feeding the captured humans' Essence Blood and Souls to the Demons. Within just half a year, he had nurtured the nine Demons to glow red and exhibit extraordinary divine traits. During this period, Tie Shu visited several times, highly praising Lin Rui and even imparting him several spells from the "Nine Heavens Secret Demon Mysterious Scripture."

These nine Demons weren't truly his, and unlike how they behaved in front of Tie Shu, they were not easily controlled, presenting many risks of backlash. Lin Rui, driven to desperation, was compelled to release them for the first time to confront his enemies.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.