444 Birth of a Mental Demon

"Thanks for the help, it must have been quite hard to hold back the demonic rat given your current cultivation realm…"

Before Xuan Hao could think any further about Yi Min's current cultivation realm, the person in question suddenly appeared in front of him with a thankful expression on her face. The giant body of the demonic rat already gone, as Yi Min had stored it away in her interspatial ring shortly after its death.

"It was not a problem at all…" Seeing Yi Min thanking him, Xuan Hao could not help himself from smiling a bit wryly. After all, she had in some way forced him to offend whatever faction was behind General Guan…

Refusing Yi Min and just letting her deal with the problem by herself?

Xuan Hao didn't even think about this from the start. After all, if he did something like that, it was highly likely that he would end up offended Yi Min in the process… In the end, it didn't matter if he chose to help or not, as he would make enemies with one of the two sides no matter what.

All he could do now, was hope that he had chosen the correct side. Maybe, if he was lucky, General Guan would not even know that he had sided with Yi Min and in turn help him avoid having to join in on whatever power struggle General Guan and Yi Min were a part of…

At the very least. From the fact that General Guan had run away, Xuan hao felt like he had chosen the correct side. Other than that, he never personally acted against General Guan and just spectated from the side. Only leaving the safety of the barrier to make sure the demonic rat didn't devour the two weaker Domain Lords and powerup.

Wait… Weaker Domain Lords-

Having suddenly remembered something, Xuan Hao quickly turned to look over towards the elder Domain Lord still standing completely motionless a short distance away from the barrier.

At this point, the demonic aura around him seemed to have reached its peak as it had completely fused together with the elderly Domain Lord.

"Hm? A mental demon?"

Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly turn around to look somewhere outside the barrier, Yi Min soon did the same. Instantly spotting the elderly Domain Lord currently in the process of developing a mental demon.

"What happened to him that caused him to start developing a mental demon?"

Feeling a bit confused upon witnessing someone developing a mental demon all of a sudden, Yi Min turned back towards Xuan Hao as she asked this with a curious expression on her face. Not showing the slightest care for the elderly Domain Lord outside.

After all, she still remembered that he was together with General Guan and Zi Hui before she had left to deal with the demonic cultivator.

No matter how merciful she was, there was no way she would willingly help out an enemy.

Not to mention, there was no way to help someone deal with a mental demon. All one could do at that point was hope the other party successfully managed to wake up from their dazed state and destroy the growing mental demon before it was too late…

<br/>And… Looking at how the elderly Domain Lord showed no signs of struggle, Yi Min did not expect for him to successfully wake up…

"From what I managed to pick up, it seems like one of the two people who escaped while leaving him behind was his senior brother…"

Hearing her question, Xuan Hao remained focused on observing the changes taking place with the elderly Domain Lord, while answering.

Observing someone develop a mental demon could still be considered important to the current Xuan Hao. After all, if he ever encountered a mental demon himself in the future, he would need to understand how to deal with it and observing was a far better learning experience compared to reading about!

After the whole mental demon thing, Xuan Hao planned to return to the alchemy competition and check out the quest from the system!

Yes, even if he was not the one who killed the demonic rat, it still seemed like the system considered it to be enough for the quest to be completed!

"I see."

Yi Min seemed to have understood his intention of observing the process of someone devolving a mental demon and did not directly kill the elderly Domain Lord like she had first intended upon realizing the fact that one of her enemies were still around.

In the end, it did not really matter much to her, as the other party was way weaker than her. Even if managed to recover and tried to run away, Yi Min was confident that she could catch him!

"Ah-!"

Following the fact that both Xuan Hao and Yi Min watched from the side without doing anything, the elderly Domain Lord suddenly let out a loud scream before a change took place.

The domain around him seemed to completely disappear as his cultivation began rapidly decreasing. Going from the lower end of the Domain Lord Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm and all the way down to the Qi Condensation Realm before his entire cultivation base had completely disappeared!

In just a few seconds, a Domain Lord capable of destroying an entire kingdom single-handily had lost all of his strength and turned into an ordinary mortal within only a few second!

Knowing that the mental demon would directly devour one's cultivation base was one thing, seeing it happen first-hand was another!

Even Xuan Hao who had already known what would happen was shocked upon witnessing the elderly man's cultivation completely disappear!

Hundreds of years, if not thousands of years of cultivation. Gone, just like that!

Whoosh!

Before Xuan Hao managed to recover from the shock he had felt after witnessing what had happened to the now elderly man without any cultivation, the weak soul of the elderly man flew out before hovering mid-air, while the now elderly body collapsed dead on the ground beneath it.

At this point, the soul itself was already on the brink of collapse, but Xuan Hao could clearly feel that something deep inside of it was forcefully keeping the soul from dispersing.

Looking closer with his divine sense, Xuan Hao quickly discovered that a new life was taking shape inside the fragile soul. Not only that, but the life form taking shape inside the fragile soul was currently merging together with the elderly man's former cultivation base and darkness domain!

Because of this, the cultivation base of the new life form hidden away inside the fragile soul quickly increased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

First Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm…

Third Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm…

Core Formation Realm…

This continued for a few minutes before finally coming to a stop at the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, while not the same realm as what the elderly man had been in the past, it was still extremely terrifying to consider that the life form had just been born a few minutes ago and had already reached the Domain Lord Realm!

After all, the Domain Lord Realm was a realm that many people pursed for their entire lives, yet failed to take a final step and ended up perishing in the endless river of time…

But for such growth to happen, the mental demon also had to pay a certain price…

The price in this case, was that a mental demon could only grow stronger by devouring others cultivation and domain…

At least, that was what Xuan Hao had read about mental demons in the Domain Lord Realm.

As for mental demons above the Domain Lord Realm? Xuan Hao had never heard about them before and had no idea if they were the same.

The main reason for this, was also that most would band together to destroy a mental demon whenever one appeared. Even demonic cultivators who were considered demons by most, would put their differences aside and deal with a mental demon if one appeared inside their territories!

In a sense, a mental demon could be considered the enemy of all living things, as it solely existed to devour others and turn them into its own strength…

Knowing all of this, Xuan Hao turned towards the fragile soul slowly breaking apart mid-air, as the mental demon of the elderly man was born!

Whoosh~

However, before Xuan Hao managed to get a full grasp of its appearance, Yi Min decided to act. Instantly killing the newly born mental demon before it managed to take its first step in the outside world…

"…"

Could you at least let me see what it looked like before killing it!?

Not daring to say these words out loud as he begrudgingly looked over towards Yi Min, who seemingly did not feel his gaze.

"Now that we have finished dealing with the troublemakers, let's get back to the alchemy competition again. You should be quite eager to find out how your disciple is doing, no?"

"Sure…"

Not knowing what to say, Xuan Hao just rolled his eyes at her before making his way back towards the alchemy competition. To be honest, he was quite curious how Qing Yi was doing…