Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Within Hell's Gate.

Terrible things were still happening.

Evil Spirit Du Wei entered here, the powers that had become his, such as the marking ability with the pointer pattern, the copying ability of the Golden Scales, and curses, among others.

The powers whose owners had not died were all stripped away.

Thus, they became five Demon God illusions.

What remained was only the power of Evil Spirit Du Wei itself, and the Demon God it had assimilated.

For the first time.

Evil Spirit Du Wei had its power stolen.

It had fallen into the Demon God's scheme.

As long as the false became true, everything that happened inside Hell's Gate would extend to the past timeline, thereby replacing the actual history.

Depicting time is exceedingly difficult.

No text can intuitively make one feel the changes on the timeline, or, to put it differently, the beats.

But in a sense.

What Evil Spirit Du Wei was doing now was blocking, stuck in this false past, blocking the five Demon God illusions, with no escape for anyone.

And there was no possibility of escape.

If the illusion didn't become reality, if the false didn't replace the real, it was completely impossible for the Demon God's power to transmit to the past.

At the very least, with Evil Spirit Du Wei blocking here, no one could pass.

In this world enshrouded by dark mist.

The voice of Evil Spirit Du Wei still echoed.

Every sentence carried a strong suggestive meaning.

This was psychological suggestion.

If it were any other being taking such action, it could only be courting death.

But for it.

Everything became different.

"You are demons of hell, and I am hell itself."

"Your powers once belonged to me."

"Struggling is meaningless."

"Those powers that should have been mine, those concepts that should have been mine, will all merge with me as time advances."

"You should feel lucky."

"Regardless of the past or future, in this moment, at this point in time, I am hell, and you will become part of me."

"You will be with me."

"I am hell."

As the last sentence fell.

The mist that had covered the world inside Hell's Gate rapidly constricted.

Where the mist receded, the ground was parched and cracked.

The green vegetation withered yellow, the beasts reduced to dry bones.

The tranquil surface of the lake outside Lake Island turned gloomy and cold.

Plop...

Blood was dripping...

The flesh around Evil Spirit Du Wei's right eye was a blur.

It covered the eye with the Right Hand and, when it let go, the eye already bore a demonic intent, as if it were an abyss capable of swallowing everything.

Tick tock...

The hands were turning.

The back of its Right Hand, when it let go, bore the pattern of a mask, carrying the hands representing hours, minutes, and seconds.

There was also the Golden Scales.

And the mark like a ring returned to its ring finger.

The Demon God powers that tried to transmit to the past were forcibly taken by Evil Spirit Du Wei.

Rip...

As if an invisible voice was resounding.

Conceptually speaking.

Evil Spirit Du Wei had torn off a part of these five Demon Gods' concepts and brutally implanted them into itself.

Sooner or later.

When it faced the true owners, it would be an opposition that not even death could separate.

But.

Evil Spirit Du Wei didn't care at all.

All the black mist dissipated.

It walked out.

Looking down, lying on the ground was the ragged, long-dead remains of Annabelle.

It was a doll.

Evil Spirit Du Wei stepped on the doll's body and moved further away.

The one scheming against it was a Demon God, not just one, but within those were all of Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods.

As for why the battleground was in the past, and not the present.

It was actually very simple.

Because Evil Spirit Du Wei said, its strength comes from its future self being strong, its future is its past.

To kill it in the "now."

It was conceptually impossible.

Only by weakening and suppressing it in the past, could there be a chance for Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods to win.

Of course.

The hand inside the Antique Clock also participated.

It seemed to always harbor good intentions towards Du Wei.

And Evil Spirit Du Wei was very clear about that.

That was Minette.

In another way, she warned it of unknown dangers, but during this process, the actions of Evil Spirit Du Wei and his completely undisguised indifferent attitude plunged Minette into despair.

It was almost like saying, "You are not her anymore..."

...

Profound, distant.

A man with a mask walked in the darkness.

There was no end in sight.

There was no turning back.

"It's time to go back,"

In the darkness, the man's voice rang out, complex in tone.

It...

No, now it's him.

After Du Wei became Evil Spirit Du Wei, he had ruined two Hell's Gates.

He realized something.

Even if at the very beginning he hadn't received that Ms. Aisha who came for psychological counseling, hadn't encountered the black shadow, and had led a simple yet fulfilling life, he would still have ended up on this road of no return.

As fate propelled him, he too propelled fate.

An ending already determined.

Even if the process changed, the course of the ending could not be altered.

At that moment.

Light suddenly flickered in the darkness.

In a trance.

Du Wei saw a hazy illusion.

It was the Lake Island.

The sun set in the west.

Inside that square-shaped building.

Minette held a long sword in one hand and covered her mouth with the other as she wept before a painting on the wall, becoming a mess of tears.

In that painting.

The image of a man with a mask was becoming blurry and indistinct.

"Why... why did you kill me?"

Minette's voice was filled with sorrow, and she seemed to have all her strength drawn from her, collapsing to the ground, not bothering about the long sword that fell beside her.

At that instant.

Boom...

The Lake Island trembled uncontrollably.

The ground cracked open with a huge fissure.

Water surged skyward, and the hands of those antique clocks were all moving, coming together and creating a massive noise.

Crash...

All the antique clocks were shattered.

Only one was left.

And then, the hands overlapped, some concept fused within, taking the Antique Clock away with it.

Minette's ring finger on her left hand burned fiercely.

She groaned in pain as a ring's mark formed on her finger.

"What's happening?"

Before Minette could comprehend,

the building collapsed with a roar.

Everything was tumbling into the fissure.

Minette only felt a sense of weightlessness, then she widened her eyes because at the very bottom, she saw a coffin with a man covered in blood and wearing a mask seated on top of it.

"Du Wei..."

The man looked at her with complicated eyes, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he collapsed onto the coffin and slowly closed his eyes.

Minette crashed into the depths, plunging into the cold lake waters.

She struggled desperately to approach the coffin, but stones occasionally fell from above.

This place had already collapsed.

No one would survive.

Minette lunged onto the coffin, grabbing his hand, crying out helplessly, "Du Wei, don't leave, you tell me what's happening, even if you lied to me it's okay, I don't want you to die."

Suddenly.

She felt his chest was still heaving.

But then with a crash,

a stone fell down.

Minette barely dodged, but her shoulder was struck, bleeding profusely.

"I won't let you die..."

Saying this, Minette clenched her teeth, opened the coffin, and pushed his body inside.

But the coffin's space was too small, only spacious enough for one person.