Taiping Inn

Since ancient times, Taoism has had the saying of "slaying demons and eliminating evil spirits", which also corresponds to the two secret realms of Taoism, namely the Demon Locking Tower located in Qingcheng, Tiancang Mountain, Shuzhou, and the Demon Suppression Platform located in the Great Zhenren Mansion of Yunjin Mountain, Wuzhou.

As the name suggests, the Demon Locking Tower is a nine-story tower, each floor is a cave, and the layers are connected. Many monsters are suppressed here. It is said that a nine-tailed fox is suppressed on the top floor of the Demon Locking Tower. I don’t know if it is true or false. There is no obvious difference between the so-called monsters and the mythical beasts, just like the same people, some live in the temple, some live in the rivers and lakes, and their identities are different.

However, in the past thousand years, the human race has become more and more prosperous, expanding from the Central Plains to the surrounding areas. Many of the original barbarian lands have become rich and prosperous places. The more people there are, the fewer monsters there are. Today, it is rare to see monsters, so the Demon Suppression Tower has gradually been forgotten by the world.

However, it is different from the Demon Suppression Platform, which is as famous as the Demon Locking Tower. As the name suggests, the Demon Suppression Platform is where the demons are suppressed. The so-called demons are actually people. As long as people are gone, demons will never be eliminated, so the Demon Suppression Platform is still famous and world-famous.

The core of the Demon Suppression Platform is the Demon Suppression Well, which is also a nine-layer cave heaven, but it is just the opposite of the Demon Locking Tower. The higher the Demon Locking Tower is, the stronger the restrictions are, while the Demon Suppression Well is stronger as it goes down. This cave heaven was built by the ancestor Tianshi. The deepest ninth layer of the cave heaven is enough to restrict the immortal earth immortals. If the immortal earth immortals fall into it, they can only ascend to the world and it is difficult to break the cave heaven and return to the world.

As for the one-tribulation earth immortals, there is already a possibility of breaking the cave heaven, just like Lu Wushen forced into the Five Elements Cave Heaven. If there were no Wu Yang, the one-tribulation earth immortal, and Wu Peng and other five immortal earth immortals, the cave heaven and formation alone could not resist Lu Wushen. The same is true for suppressing a calamity earthly immortal with the Demon Suppression Well Cave Heaven. Unless there is an immortal earthly immortal who is willing to stay on the Demon Suppression Platform, it is impossible to suppress a calamity earthly immortal for a long time.

The celestial immortal is the highest among the five immortals. Even if he has just entered the realm of celestial immortals, he is far superior to the other four immortals. Ghost immortals are divided into nine levels of thunder tribulation, and earthly immortals are roughly divided into four major realms: "refining essence into qi", "refining qi into spirit", "refining spirit into emptiness", and "refining emptiness into the Tao". "Refining essence" corresponds to the lower three realms, "transforming qi" corresponds to the middle three realms, "refining spirit" corresponds to the upper three realms, "returning to emptiness" corresponds to immortal earthly immortals, and "refining emptiness" corresponds to the three levels of heavenly tribulation of earthly immortals.

"He Tao" is extremely special. It corresponds to the earthly immortals becoming celestial immortals, and it is also a shortcut. It is similar to the convenient methods such as "initiation" in Buddhism. As long as you reach the "refining spirit" stage, you can combine with the Tao. However, depending on the level of cultivation, the choice of combining with the Tao is also different.

In the ordinary heavenly realm, you can only combine with the Tao with ordinary cave heavens, which is extremely restricted and limited in achievement. After reaching the realm of earthly immortals, one can choose to be in harmony with heaven and earth, and gain insight into the mysteries of the operation of heaven and earth. The innate five Tai come from this. Moreover, after reaching this realm, one will be reborn, achieve the body of earthly immortals, transcend life and death, and have the qualifications to transcend the human world, that is, ascend.

However, the harmony of heaven and earth is different from the unity of heaven and man. The unity of heaven and man is based on heaven and earth, with oneself as a servant, borrowing power from heaven and earth, so it is necessary to follow the trend of the times and not go against the trend. However, the harmony of heaven and earth is the master of heaven and earth, directly controlling the power of heaven and earth, regardless of whether it is in line with the trend or against the trend, which will naturally cause the rejection of heaven and earth, and every hundred years there will be a heavenly calamity. After ascending, leaving the human world, it is a celestial immortal. The celestial immortal goes to the boundless and mysterious realm of creation that cannot be described in words. Buddhists call it the paradise, Confucians call it the heavenly court, and Taoists call it the thirty-three heavens. No one knows what this world is like. Mortals who enter it will disappear immediately. However, the immortals can open up a world here, and what they think in their hearts is reality, which is the same as the "Yang God" of the ghost immortals, the "breaking the void" of the human immortals, and the opening of the kingdom of God by the immortals.

Only at this step can it be considered "cultivating the truth", which is what people call "cultivating the truth". After the immortals pass away, their bodies, souls, and qi are completely integrated into one, without any distinction, that is, "combination", between the real and the virtual. As long as the thoughts are still there, they are immortal. It is precisely because of this that once they ascend after losing their bodies, there is no way back. They have no foothold in the human world, just like a pool of clear water without a container, unless they cut out an incarnation outside their bodies and reincarnate as an incarnation, or show their holiness in the world with the power of incense and vows.

Of course, there are also earthly immortals who are obsessed with the human world and do not ascend, but choose to stay in the human world to face the heavenly calamity. They are also qualified to open up a small world, which is the cave heaven. Many cave heavens left by predecessors come from this. However, it is subject to the restrictions of the rules of the human world and cannot be changed at will, nor can it be created out of nothing. It must rely on external objects to exist, so many caves are built between mountains and waters with rich spiritual energy.

The size of the cave depends on the realm of cultivation. The small one is only the size of a mansion, which Li Xuan can do. The largest cave is the Kunlun Cave left by the Supreme Taoist Ancestor, which can be regarded as the best in the world. This method of opening up a cave is in the same vein as the opening up of a small world by the immortals, and can be regarded as a piece of heaven and earth. Therefore, if the cultivation of later generations is not enough to match the real heaven and earth, they can also choose to match the small cave left by the predecessors, which is a convenient method.

The patriarchs of each sect have left behind caves, such as the Ghost Kingdom Cave of the Zaoge Sect, the Nameless Cave hidden in the deep sea of ​​the Qingwei Sect, the Demon Locking Tower Cave of the Miaozhen Sect, and so on. The cave of the Zhengyi Sect is the Demon-Suppressing Well Cave left by the Patriarch Tianshi. When the Patriarch Tianshi built this cave, he was a second-tribulation earthly immortal, so his cave could not suppress the second-tribulation earthly immortals of the same realm. In the absence of an immortal earthly immortal sitting on the Demon-Suppressing Platform for a long time, it is difficult to suppress the first-tribulation earthly immortals, and he can only suppress the immortal earthly immortals.

This is the biggest difference between earthly immortals and heavenly immortals. Heavenly immortals have transcended the material world. Their spirit and soul are their bodies, and their bodies are their spirits. Their thoughts are immortal, and their bodies are immortal. They are truly different from mortals. Earthly immortals are at most half-human and half-immortal. They still have human characteristics and are still divided into body and spirit. Although the second-tribulation earthly immortals are not inferior to ordinary heavenly immortals, they do not have the various magical powers of heavenly immortals, such as traveling around the world, creating something out of nothing, and making the fake real.

However, nothing is absolute. After truly reaching the third-tribulation earthly immortal, one can also "break the void" and forcibly go to other worlds with a body comparable to the ultimate of human immortals. They are truly omnipotent in heaven and earth. However, from ancient times to the present, few people have heard of the third-tribulation earthly immortals. Even the saint of mind learning and the ancestor of heavenly masters are only the second-tribulation earthly immortals.

Before they started, Zhang Jingchen and Song Zheng had several ideas, including forcing Li Xuandu to surrender, killing Li Xuandu, and suppressing Li Xuandu in the Demon Well. If the two had not been in the same bed but had different dreams and different calculations, this idea would not be impossible to achieve. If Li Xuandu fell into the Demon Well, he would only have the option of ascending to heaven and passing away. However, he had not yet completed the transformation and achieved the body of an earthly immortal, and he could not ascend. After entering the cave, he was isolated from the outside world, and the process of merging with heaven and earth was interrupted. Whether he could achieve the body of an earthly immortal was still unknown. For Li Xuandu, it was very dangerous.

The time of an incense stick passed in a flash. The restrictions of the Demon Well were very strong, but most of them were broken by the earth master last time. Although the old heavenly master Zhang Jingxiu had completed the restrictions again, it could not be restored in a short time. It would take a certain amount of time to slowly recover, probably for several years. However, it was not a big deal for the people of Zhengyi Sect. After all, there was a demon-suppressing platform outside the demon-suppressing well, and outside the demon-suppressing platform there was the Great Immortal Mansion and the "Taishang Sanqing Dragon and Tiger Formation". No one would have thought that someone could attack the demon-suppressing well.

But because of Zhang Jingchen, the Yin-Yang Sect did it after losing the geomancer. They came to the demon-suppressing well openly and broke the prohibition of the demon-suppressing well with the formation.

The eight eight-diagram patterns surrounding the well mouth dimmed one by one, and the yin and yang qi that sealed the well mouth began to slowly disintegrate. Although this process was extremely slow, a crack had appeared at the well mouth of the demon-suppressing well, and there were wisps of purple-black qi, which continued to overflow along this crack.

After a moment, the well mouth of the demon-suppressing well had been exposed for a small part, and the originally wisps of purple-black qi suddenly became turbulent and overflowed from the well mouth.

At this time, most of Wang Tianxiao's countless clones had been strangled by Li Xuandu, and the remaining clones all returned to their original bodies. He drifted back to the side of the Demon Suppression Well and gently tapped the edge of the Demon Suppression Well.

The entire Demon Suppression Platform shook, and the restrictions of the Demon Suppression Well further collapsed, revealing most of the Demon Suppression Well. The evil spirit, yin spirit, death spirit, blood spirit, various filthy spirits, and the purple spirit used by the ancestor Tianshi to suppress the prisoners in the well mixed together in the Demon Suppression Well, rising up like a fountain, and then scattered and fell.

The Yin-Yang Sect disciples who were originally standing not far from the well mouth retreated as if they were facing a great enemy.

Wang Tianxiao was in the rolling filthy breath, and he protected his body with black and white qi, so that these filthy air could not get close to him. Then he waved his robe sleeves again, blowing away the surging purple and black air.

Then, the sound of ghosts crying in the Demon Suppression Well was heard, and the Demon Suppression Platform was surging, turning from a Taoist holy land into a desolate graveyard, with ghosts rampant and a gloomy aura. The remaining half of the Demon Suppression Well restriction was immediately broken by the ghost energy.

Then a long rainbow rushed out of the well mouth. One after another, black shadows emerged from the well mouth, like night owls and bats, circling and dancing in the sky.

More and more black shadows, with the Demon Suppression Well as the center, spread over most of the Demon Suppression Platform, and the surrounding grass and trees withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the green quickly faded, leaving the ground withered and yellow.

Many disciples of the Zhengyi Sect and the Yinyang Sect were accidentally touched by the black shadows, and their bodies quickly shriveled, their flesh and blood melted, and in a flash they turned into dry bones and mummies, which were blown by the gloomy wind and immediately turned into powder and scattered with the wind. Finally, the ground of the Demon Suppression Platform seemed to have also been emptied of moisture, and began to dry up and crack, almost completely turning into sand.

There is a record in the Daoist classics that when the drought demon descends, the land will be barren for thousands of miles. Now this kind of power has already had some of the aura of the drought demon.

Li Xuandu said softly: "Hidden old man."