358: Become a demon!

Xiao Shi suddenly realized he had been under a significant misconception.

He had assumed the Holy Land would be like the previous checkpoints, filled with dangers.

It wasn't just Xiao Shi who thought this.

Everyone believed it would be this way.

However, the true situation within the Holy Land was not so.

"If I'm not mistaken..."

"This descending black lightning is a gift from this special area!"

"A gift that allows a Martial Demon to break through to the Saint Realm!"

"It's just that..."

"To obtain this gift, one must be able to withstand the changes in body structure brought about by this gift."

"If one cannot withstand it, they will die immediately."

"But if one can withstand it... they can achieve a transformation!"

Under Xiao Shi's perception,

He could clearly feel the significant changes occurring in his Demonic Body Clone after it absorbed this black lightning.

At the same time,

The Demonic Body Clones of everyone else around them also entered the Holy Land one after another.

However, after these Demonic Body Clones entered the Holy Land, Xiao Shi did not see the other Demonic Body Clones within the line of sight of his Demonic Body Clone.

These people's Demonic Body Clones simply did not appear in the ancient arena within the Holy Land.

"Could it be that every Demonic Body Clone that enters the Holy Land appears in a separate, independent area?"

Xiao Shi had a guess in his heart.

However, others could not, like him, have the perspective of their Demonic Body Clone to see its situation in the Holy Land, and thus could not infer his guess from their expressions.

At this moment, although the Demonic Body Clone, which had already absorbed the entire black lightning bolt, had undergone significant changes in aura and various other aspects, it was still far from reaching the Saint Realm.

Just then,

Boom!!

The second black lightning bolt roared down.

Like the previous lightning bolt, it instantly struck the Demonic Body Clone's body.

This black lightning bolt was thicker than the previous one, and the black arcs of electricity it formed after striking the Demonic Body Clone's body were also more abundant, densely flowing and swirling over the Demonic Body Clone's surface.

At the same time, Xiao Shi clearly perceived that

The damage to the Demonic Body Clone's body structure this time was also more severe than before.

Even with the Demonic Body Clone's strength, it faced a huge crisis at this moment.

"The situation is not good..."

Xiao Shi's heart tightened.

He could feel that the Demonic Body Clone's soul and consciousness were blurring at this moment, appearing to be unable to withstand it and on the verge of dissipating.

The first black lightning bolt, the Demonic Body Clone could fully withstand, but the second black lightning bolt completely surpassed the first black lightning bolt in all aspects.

It directly exceeded the Demonic Body Clone's endurance limit.

If this continued... the Demonic Body Clone would be at risk of death!

Xiao Shi's mind raced.

He constantly pondered countermeasures.

The more troublesome aspect was that the damage to the body structure caused by these black lightning bolts was difficult to resolve, even with the many items the Demonic Body Clone currently possessed.

After all, before this, Xiao Shi had never encountered this kind of damage to body structure.

Just as he was feeling anxious about this,

Buzz!

The black beads encircling the Demonic Body Clone's neck suddenly glowed brightly.

One of the black beads directly transformed into a dark black speck of light.

It merged into the center of the Demonic Body Clone's brow.

In an instant,

As this black bead merged, the Demonic Body Clone's body, which was on the verge of collapse, instantly stabilized.

This made Xiao Shi's eyes light up.

Before this,

He had a premonition that these black beads would play a crucial role in the upcoming Holy Land.

As expected!

The stabilizing effect possessed by these black beads

Directly stabilized the Demonic Body Clone's collapsing body.

His previous action of sacrificing exclusive items to form these black beads was correct!

Although those exclusive items all had good uses,

Their utility here in the Holy Land was not comparable to these black beads.

After all, none of those exclusive items could resolve the crisis the Demonic Body Clone faced when struck by lightning.

"If the function of the black beads is to stabilize..."

"Then does that mean my Demonic Body Clone can withstand at least nine lightning strikes?"

Although Xiao Shi did not know how many lightning bolts would fall in this Holy Land,

From the current situation, it seemed that

Without these black beads for stabilization, his Demonic Body Clone could only withstand one black lightning bolt at most.

If he could, through these black beads, withstand an additional nine lightning bolts... perhaps there would be a chance to successfully obtain the creation within this Holy Land.

Initially, Xiao Shi thought this Holy Land would require everyone to compete with each other.

But now it seemed... if every Demonic Body Clone entering the Holy Land was in this situation, then what they were competing on was who could withstand the most lightning strikes.

Now, as the Demonic Body Clone absorbed the second lightning bolt,

After sensing the specific changes in the Demonic Body Clone, Xiao Shi gained a greater understanding of these black lightning bolts.

"This special area is inherently different from other areas, so the method of refinement here is also different from general areas."

"This special area does not require the refinement of earth veins like conventional areas..."

"Instead, it uses this method of lightning to inject a certain power into the Demonic Body Clone's body, thereby changing the Demonic Body Clone's structure."

"This seems... to be asking us to use the Demonic Body Clone as a weapon, or rather a tool, to control this special area!"

"As long as the Demonic Body Clone withstands all the lightning strikes, it is equivalent to completing the refinement of this special area. At that time, one only needs to recall the Demonic Body Clone into the body and merge with oneself, then one can... control this special area and ascend to the Saint Realm in one fell swoop!!"

Xiao Shi completely understood in his heart.

He had to admit,

This method of control was indeed completely different from the control methods of ordinary areas.

It was unprecedented on the current Tianwu Continent.

The biggest key point was whether the Demonic Body Clone could withstand the impact of these lightning bolts.

If it couldn't withstand them... everything would be in vain.

For a time,

Lightning bolts continuously roared down in the Holy Land, one after another.

Each lightning bolt was far stronger than the previous one.

Fortunately, Xiao Shi's Demonic Body Clone, relying on the beads around his neck, could perfectly resist the impact of these lightning bolts.

However, each descending lightning bolt consumed one of the beads around his neck.

When the Demonic Body Clone had been continuously struck by six black lightning bolts,

Xiao Shi discovered that... among the few people competing for the Holy Land,

One of the Martial Demons from the Three Great Domains suddenly changed his expression drastically.

Pfft!

A mouthful of fresh blood directly spurted from his mouth.

His aura instantly declined.

Clearly... this person's Demonic Body Clone had died!

His main body suffered a huge blow as a result.

Although the Martial Demon Realm only had two stages,

There were three different levels of strength.

The weakest Martial Demon Realm was a Martial Demon whose Demonic Body Clone had died.

Such a Martial Demon... was only slightly stronger than a Martial Soul Realm practitioner.

This situation was a devastating blow to any Martial Demon!

Xiao Shi was not surprised by this.

Given the strength of his Demonic Body Clone, it could only withstand one lightning bolt in the Holy Land. These people's Demonic Body Clones surely couldn't even withstand one lightning bolt.

They could only rely on the black beads around their Demonic Body Clones' necks to resist.

But before this,

They had not sacrificed exclusive items, so they only had one or two black beads in total.

Naturally, it was impossible for them to withstand too many lightning strikes.

Soon,

Another person among them experienced the same situation; with the death of his Demonic Body Clone, his strength and aura plummeted wildly!

The Demonic Body Clones of the remaining two, however, escaped from the Holy Land in a sorry state.

They wisely chose to withdraw.

They did not stubbornly endure.

These two Demonic Body Clones were extremely disheveled.

They were all injured.

Through their injuries, Xiao Shi was completely certain that the situation these Demonic Body Clones encountered in the Holy Land was exactly the same as what his Demonic Body Clone encountered.

The injuries of these Demonic Body Clones were also due to internal structural damage.

However, they withdrew in time.

Thus avoiding death.

For a time,

Except for Xiao Shi's Demonic Body Clone,

Everyone else's Demonic Body Clones either died in the Holy Land or escaped from it.

Everyone except Xiao Shi failed.

Although they were unwilling, they could do nothing.

No one had expected... that the Holy Land would be in such a state!

At this moment, Xiao Shi's Demonic Body Clone had already suffered nine consecutive lightning strikes.

The black beads around his neck were also depleted, with only the last one remaining.

After continuously absorbing so many black lightning bolts,

The Demonic Body Clone had undergone earth-shattering changes compared to its initial state.

Its entire body became even larger, completely dark and profound, as if cast from black iron.

Every piece of flesh and blood on its body, down to every drop of blood, had undergone an indescribably immense enhancement.

The Demonic Body Clone's physical body was originally that of an Evil Energy User ranked third on the Ten Evils Ranking.

Now, after continuously absorbing nine lightning bolts,

The change in body structure caused the entire Evil Energy User's body to undergo an anomaly.

Under this anomaly, not only did its flesh, bones, etc., change,

At the same time, the Demonic Body Clone's murderous intent and demonic energy were also rapidly increasing.

This caused waves of black demonic energy to constantly surge and spread from his body.

The demonic energy emanating from him was no longer weaker than the demonic energy filling the entrance to the Holy Land.

As a result, the Demonic Body Clone's black pupils also seemed to burn with a layer of black demonic flames.

Emotions such as coldness, bloodlust, indifference, tyranny, and chaos were now amplified to the extreme in the Demonic Body Clone.

If the Holy Land wasn't an empty expanse with nothing in it,

The Demonic Body Clone would surely have started a massacre of any life present around it!

Even Xiao Shi, who witnessed this scene through the Demonic Body Clone's perspective,

Was startled by it.

Originally, his Demonic Body Clone was extremely terrifying in terms of murderous intent.

It had merely been under his suppression.

But the current Demonic Body Clone gave Xiao Shi a strong feeling that he might not be able to suppress it.

More importantly... with continuous enhancement, the Demonic Body Clone was constantly transforming in the direction of a demon!

Xiao Shi knew that

For them, these righteous cultivators, above the Martial Demon Realm was the Saint Realm.

But for demonic cultivators,

Above the Martial Demon Realm was not becoming a Saint, but becoming a demon!

The current Demonic Body Clone showed signs of becoming a demon!

This was unprecedented on the current Tianwu Continent.

Although the collapse of the Great Wu Dynasty's imperial power led to a situation of warlordism across the entire Tianwu Continent, no matter what, the current Tianwu Continent was still dominated by righteous cultivators.

Therefore, whether in the Great Wu Dynasty, the Three Great Domains, or even various territories, it was impossible for demons to appear.

All demonic cultivators were supervised by these powerful individuals.

They were restricted to the Martial Demon Realm.

It was impossible for demons to be born.

This was just like how there were no non-human Saints on the Tianwu Continent today.

The current Tianwu Continent only had righteous Saints; beyond that, there were no other Saints.

Under normal circumstances,

Xiao Shi's Demonic Body Clone would not have had the chance to become a demon.

However, the uniqueness of this area... allowed the Demonic Body Clone, after absorbing many lightning bolts, to continuously transform in the direction of a demon.

Not only that,

When the tenth lightning bolt struck down, and with the stabilization of the last black bead, the Demonic Body Clone completely absorbed this lightning bolt,

Xiao Shi suddenly noticed... that from the Demonic Body Clone's body, many mysterious wills were constantly awakening and reviving.

And as these wills awakened and revived,

The many demonic energies surging from the Demonic Body Clone's body directly transformed into ferocious black faces. These faces were either roaring, screaming, laughing maniacally, or wailing... on each face, Xiao Shi felt a different will.

For a time,

It was like a chaotic dance of demons, with demonic energy raging to the sky!

At the same time, even more wills were continuously reviving from the Demonic Body Clone's body.

Among them were some incredibly powerful wills.

After reviving,

They seemed to want to contend with the Demonic Body Clone for control of this body.

But they were suppressed by the Demonic Body Clone.

At this moment, the Demonic Body Clone was already permeated and filled with endless demonic energy.

All around were various roars.

It was like a Demon King surrounded by a host of demons.

Every movement exuded a powerful and domineering aura.

Through his connection with the Demonic Body Clone, Xiao Shi could clearly feel the terror and power of the Demonic Body Clone at this moment.

At this moment, the Demonic Body Clone was infinitely close to becoming a demon!

But it was still one step away from its ultimate transformation into a demon.

Just then,

Another black lightning bolt fell from the sky.

This was already the eleventh lightning bolt.

However, the black beads around the Demonic Body Clone's neck were all depleted; he could no longer rely on the black beads to stabilize his body and absorb these black lightning bolts.

Yet, there was not a trace of fear on the Demonic Body Clone's face.

He could even raise his head and gaze at this black lightning bolt as it struck down.

Before this,

Given the striking speed of these black lightning bolts,

Neither the Demonic Body Clone nor Xiao Shi could react in time.

However, with the transformation of his body and the ascent of his strength, this descending black lightning bolt had become very slow in the Demonic Body Clone's eyes.

He could not only look directly at the descending black lightning bolt but even, before it fell, raise his hand and grasp the black lightning bolt.

The black lightning bolt that previously brought life-or-death crisis to the Demonic Body Clone was now easily held in his hand and rapidly absorbed.

And with continuous absorption,

The faces surrounding the Demonic Body Clone all let out roars.

Moreover, an earth-shattering aura fluctuation erupted from the Demonic Body Clone's body.

After absorbing this black lightning bolt, he became a demon in one fell swoop!