Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

The Evil Spirit Du Wei was in freefall.

It was being pulled deep beneath the surface of Massas City.

Darkness engulfed the surroundings.

Once, when Alex had helped it investigate Massas City, he had mentioned that the foundations of the entire city had been hollowed out last century.

Indeed, it was so.

Yet the Evil Spirit Du Wei was not panicked; it observed coldly from the sidelines.

Even now, when it could only exert a third of its power, it feared no danger.

So-called conspiracies and schemes were mere jokes in the face of absolute power.

Moreover, its wisdom was sufficient to deal with everything.

"Let me see which Demon God has pulled me into the depths," the Evil Spirit Du Wei said, its pupils constricting as it sought the source that had dragged it down, plummeting even faster.

It felt as though it was nearing hell.

But it felt exceedingly comfortable.

It was always meant to stand in darkness, looking indifferently upon the world it loathed.

Soon...

Below the pitch-black abyss, a trace of strangeness appeared.

As if sensing the presence of the Evil Spirit Du Wei, flames began to ignite.

The deep underground was lit up.

Clustered flames sat atop lanterns made of stone.

In the eyes of the Evil Spirit Du Wei,

it saw a massive altar.

Spanning over two hundred meters in diameter, with six steps leading in six different directions, the stairs, too, were built of stone and stretched into the darkness.

Behind the altar, looming statues appeared indistinctly, and though most of the statue was concealed in shadow, the part that was visible bore a stone mask for a face.

The mask had empty areas for eyes.

Inside them, a profound black mist swirled, as if hiding something within.

Yet even so,

the statue emanated an air of solemnity.

When the Evil Spirit Du Wei appeared above the altar, the pulling force disappeared completely.

It looked impassively at the statue.

Because it discovered something very peculiar.

The mask on the face of the statue bore patterns similar to that of the ocean, as well as other designs such as pointers, the Golden Scales, eyes, and so on...

These patterns densely covered the entirety of the mask.

They appeared identical to the symbols recorded on the stele that it had seen within the inner parts of the Wittebach family's back mountain.

All were manifestations of Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods.

The entire statue captured all of its attention.

"Mask Maker,"

the Evil Spirit Du Wei said with an unusual tone, for it had seen a statue of the Mask Maker the last time it was in that tomb, assimilating the Golden Scales, and had shattered that statue with a wave of its hand.

And now, beneath the ground of Massas City, it had encountered this figure's statue again.

What's more important is,

the Evil Spirit Du Wei took out its own mask and observed the ocean pattern on it, a representation of the concept of the Demon God it had assimilated.

The ocean pattern was located just below the right eye of the mask.

"I left spaces for the other Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods on the mask, a thought I had while assimilating that Demon God."

"My opponents were never those mortals, oddities, Demon Spirits, or Calamities, but the Demon Gods themselves."

"But why does your statue resemble me so closely?"

"Are we doing the same thing?"

The Evil Spirit Du Wei didn't understand; it put on its mask and then waved its hand toward the statue.

The darkness faded away.

The entire statue was exposed before it.

The next second.

The Evil Spirit Du Wei was stunned.

"How is this possible..."

In front of it, the statue of the Mask Maker wore black Priest's attire, identical to what it had once worn, from the figure to the hairstyle, without any difference.

Slightly overgrown broken hair covered the upper edge of the mask.

The statue's right hand supported its chin, seated upon the colossal throne, gazing into some unknown direction.

"This is…"

"This is… This is actually me?"

Evil Spirit Du Wei's right hand clenched tightly, his fingertips quivering lightly.

If the Mask Maker and the path it had taken were the same, it wouldn't have any reaction because it didn't feel inferior to anyone else.

The same path.

Since it had thought of it, it would continue to walk down that path until all of the Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods of Solomon were dead.

But now.

What it saw was that the Mask Maker was identical to it.

Unlike the duke and Du Wei.

The two even had the signature seated posture exactly the same.

Evil Spirit Du Wei was utterly certain that this was itself.

But logically speaking, this situation was completely impossible.

Evil Spirit Du Wei was born in modern times, while the Mask Maker had already existed during the emergence of the Vanity Sect and was suspected to have lived for thousands of years.

The most recent appearance was five hundred years ago when it made a pact with the Wittebach family.

Beyond that, there was no trace of it.

"I do not acknowledge this!"

The tone of Evil Spirit Du Wei was extremely cold; if the Mask Maker was indeed it, then its existence would be completely negated.

If it acknowledged this.

Then it would no longer be Evil Spirit Du Wei but a derivative of the Mask Maker.

"This world is making me increasingly nauseous."

"The duke, the Mask Maker."

"What laughable nonsense. I am Du Wei, who are they? The same as me? The me of the past?"

"Utterly foolish."

"My strength has never come from the so-called me of the past."

"I think this way because I am exactly this kind of person."

"Therefore, I do not need a so-called past to fill my existence."

Evil Spirit Du Wei was unwilling to acknowledge it and it was impossible for it to do so.

Even if everything it saw and heard was true, it denied everything and would only act according to its own thoughts.

Anything it disagreed with was false.

What it recognized was only itself.

That is—Du Wei.

At this moment, Evil Spirit Du Wei no longer paid attention to the statue; it bowed its head and looked towards the altar below.

The reason it had been dragged down underground.

One was due to being pulled by a power of equal level, and the other was due to the presence of a Demon God underground.

The other party was targeting it.

It was also eying the other party.

The vacancies left on the mask couldn't be filled in the short term.

Just more Demon Gods were needed.

"Let's see where you're actually hiding."

Evil Spirit Du Wei's gaze swept around, but when it saw the center of the altar, it discovered a pale woman's arm…

It was a left hand.

And on the ring finger of the left hand, there was also a ring.

The entire left hand looked like it had been forcibly torn off, with an extremely gruesome break, even revealing the white bone stubs.

The left hand was placed at the center of the altar.

Supported by a square column rising from the ground.

On the ground, there seemed to be some inscriptions.

Evil Spirit Du Wei frowned and instantly appeared in front of the column.

Then, it saw inscriptions on the ground of the altar.

[I have never been the savior, nor a saint, nor a hero. I have lived through these long ages alone, I have tried to change, but I found that everything returns to the origin.]

[I suffer because I know that all this should be so.]

[I have no past, and likewise, no future.]

[But aside from that, I do not wish for Minette to die, at least not in this manner, at the hands of those Demon Gods.]