Under the heavens, only I can help you save your father.
But I'm about to die at the hands of those hungry ghosts, if you don't save me, you'll never be able to achieve this goal.
Freedom Heaven continued its frantic temptation, with a tone of certainty and ease, as if speaking the truth.
He threw the choice to King Xiang, letting him be torn between two difficult decisions.
No matter what King Xiang chose, as long as he wavered, he would have a chance to infiltrate King Xiang's Heart Field.
King Xiang slightly lowered his eyelids. He knew the Heavenly Demon was enticing him, and he hadn't forgotten that the Heavenly Demon was a great enemy. But he also knew that the Heavenly Demon was right, as it did have the ability to help control his father's right leg and could allow him to bring it out.
It could even help him find the rest of his father.
The Heavenly Demon sensed King Xiang's struggle, and the corners of its mouth began to gradually become exaggerated.
He sensed that King Xiang's Heart Field, which was firm as a rock without a single crack, began to tremble and a fissure appeared in the trembling.
He saw it, saw that fissure grow larger and larger, revealing the Heart Field.
The Heavenly Demon had no hesitation at all, and never intended to wait for King Xiang to make any choice.
Its body silently disappeared, transforming into a wisp of dark light invisible and undetectable to the average cultivator, rushing towards that fissure.
It saw the fissure getting larger and larger; it was King Xiang's Heart Field, opening its doors wide to welcome it.
However, the next moment, it crashed into a pillar.
It looked up, but what it saw was not a pillar, but a fence.
With a thud, sound after sound appeared, fences emerged out of thin air, forming a prison trapping it inside.
Countless runes roamed the golden fences, and outside the prison, circles of Daoist Patterns rotated and soared.
The Heavenly Demon's body disappeared inside, then reappeared, turned into black mist, shattered and scattered, then reformed moments later.
It tried all methods yet couldn't break out of this prison.
King Xiang stood expressionless outside the cage, and even now, the Heavenly Demon could still clearly sense the crack in King Xiang's Heart Field, so close, yet utterly unreachable.
"Do you know the difference between humans and you Devils?"
"What?" The Heavenly Demon's brow furrowed upward, eyes filled with aggressiveness, it didn't understand.
"Even if there's weakness in our hearts, even if we're stuck between a rock and a hard place, even if we seem full of flaws to you Devils, at critical moments, we know how to choose rightly."
"In those days, my father, with unyielding determination, realized at first notice that he couldn't get rid of you, and would have rather forsaken reputation, forsaken the throne, forsaken his life, just to self-expose, stir chaos, attract the attention of the world, and bring nine fellow comrades to help, all because he refused to compromise even an inch."
"If my father knew I collaborated with a Devil like you to save him, even if he lived again, he would be better off dead."
"I, as a son, feel torn, and that's my problem. I don't have my father's decisiveness, but it doesn't mean I'm stupid."
"I started preparing this prison two thousand years ago. After its completion, I continuously refined and strengthened it for over a thousand years, all for you."
"I owed someone a favor and promised him to send a few rodents to kill for fun and anger release."
"Now, it's just perfect to use your life as a gift to send out."
The crack in King Xiang's Heart Field represented his struggle. He did want to save his father, but he understood his father wouldn't want him to collaborate with the Heavenly Demon.
Should he comply with his father's wishes, or save him first and then turn against the Heavenly Demon?
This was his own dilemma.
But remembering how his father once fought to death without compromising an inch, he fully understood.
Now, he had no retreat, no choice.
He still couldn't completely determine if fully trusting that Qing Ziyu was right or wrong.
He only knew that choosing anything else was definitely wrong.
The Heavenly Demon realized it was tricked, it howled and cursed, continued trying to entice, but to no avail.
King Xiang stood outside the cage, his gaze cold and resolute.
"You don't need to entrap me anymore. Even if my father never has a chance to return, I absolutely, absolutely will not cooperate with you in any way. I'm afraid of him dying, but even more afraid of him living a life worse than death."
The Heavenly Demon gradually quieted down, realizing that King Xiang's two-thousand-year prepared prison was beyond its current demonic form to break.
It knew it was doomed.
Because the distant forces of Evil Devils were dwindling.
Those hungry ghosts had carved not wasting food into every inch of themselves.
They swept through like a carpet, leaving no piece of devil thought unturned.
After some time, the Heavenly Demon saw, the vast army of hungry ghosts approaching from the horizon.
Yu Ziqing wielded the Hungry Ghost Sword, manifested the hungry ghost form, black fire blazed underfoot, walking towards it one step at a time.
The Heavenly Demon stood within the cage, its body began to tremble uncontrollably, fear crept in involuntarily, much like the way those humans once reacted when faced with it.
"If you kill me, it won't matter. Don't you know Devils never have a physical body, no Divine Soul, even a split piece of power is a Devil?
Killing this me here, there're many more of me. I'm truly undying."