Chapter 126: Seizing a Thread of Vitality

The Man in Black looked at him, his eyes shifting as he sighed. “I hope that, just as Lady Nuwa said, the utmost sincerity can move even stone and metal.”

The Demon King awkwardly wiped away his tears and clasped his hands. “Brother, could you do me a favor?”

A sharp glint flashed through the Man in Black’s eyes before he smiled. “You want me to make a trip to Kunlun, don’t you?”

“Indeed, you understand me best, Brother.” The Demon King became solemn. “Miss Feng was only at the peak of the Golden Core stage before. I have no idea whether she has formed her Nascent Soul yet. Her cultivation is at a crucial point, and the thing she fears most is disturbance. But my cultivation is too shallow; I have the will, but not the ability. After thinking it over, the only choice is to go to Kunlun and ask Lady Nuwa for an immortal talisman. However, I’m worried that flat-feathered red bird will cause trouble again while I’m gone. So I can only trouble you to make the journey in my place.”

As Feng Ke’er’s destined guardian beast, he was determined to obtain that position. Thus, he sincerely hoped that Feng Ke’er’s cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds. The higher her cultivation, the greater her chances of enduring the tribulation lightning on the day of her ascension.

The Man in Black looked enlightened. “No problem. I was planning to go to Kunlun anyway, to gather a spiritual herb at the foot of the mountain.”

After seeing the Man in Black off, the Demon King busied himself as well. First, he summoned the three altar masters and divided all of Joy Valley’s administrative affairs among them. Then he carefully inspected the protective formation outside the valley and all the layers of restrictions within it. Finally, he reinforced the protective restrictions around the floating courtyard.

By the time he finished, ten days had passed.

During that period, six more small-scale “earthquakes” occurred in the floating courtyard. Three days separated the first and second. From the second through the fourth, the interval between each occurrence became two and a half days. After the fourth, the “earthquakes” stabilized at around noon every day. Moreover, unlike before, none of these six disturbances grew stronger than the last. Each was more or less the same.

The Demon King pondered over it for a long time but could not fathom the mystery behind it. In the end, he stopped worrying about it and devoted himself wholeheartedly to protecting Feng Ke’er.

Two more days passed before an alarm came from the Message Grove. The red-robed youth had recovered from his injuries and was flying toward Joy Valley. He would arrive in no more than five hours.

The Demon King inwardly groaned. Kunlun Mountain was Lady Nuwa’s sacred dwelling place, and naturally his intelligence network could not reach it. Thus, seven days earlier, when the Man in Black entered Kunlun Mountain, it had been as though a kite’s string had been cut—there had been no news of him at all. From Kunlun to Joy Valley, even at the Man in Black’s fastest speed, the journey would take at least three days.

That flat-feathered red bird would arrive in five hours. How could he possibly keep him occupied for three days?

Gazing sorrowfully into the distance, the Demon King clenched his fists in frustration. He had cultivated for more than thirty thousand years and passed through countless obstacles and calamities. But he had no idea whether he could survive this one.

When all was said and done, was any of this truly worth it? Recalling the Man in Black’s earlier words, he found himself bewildered for a moment.

Yet soon another voice rang out in his heart.

“Hu San, what is the purpose of your cultivation? Is it not to cast off your lowly status one day and fight for a life of freedom? If you do not rely on Feng Ke’er, you will either fail to withstand the tribulation lightning or be reduced to a slave beast, forever denied the chance to rise again. Rather than live like that, you might as well fight one magnificent battle! At least, from beginning to end, your fate will remain in your own hands!”

That was right. He would fight. Perhaps, through sheer effort, he could seize a thread of life!

The Demon King gritted his teeth, and his gaze gradually hardened.

Just then, the Man in Black returned.

The Demon King was filled with suspicion. Only moments earlier, the Message Grove had reported that they had been unable to locate him.

“Were you getting anxious?” The Man in Black pointed at his chest, spread his mouth in a smug grin, and said, “Lady Nuwa praised me for my loyalty and bestowed an Aura-Concealing Talisman upon me. Ha-ha! Your Message Grove couldn’t find me after that, could it?” As he spoke, he raised his right hand, which had remained clenched into a fist. “And I have not failed in my mission. I brought back Lady Nuwa’s immortal talisman.”

The Demon King was overjoyed and stared eagerly at the Man in Black’s fist.

The Man in Black opened his right hand. A flash of golden light appeared in his palm. Apart from a single character meaning “Begone,” there was nothing else.

What kind of immortal talisman was this?

The Demon King stood there, dumbfounded.

The Man in Black raised a brow and explained, “Lady Nuwa said that a mere flat-feathered beast is not worthy of any talisman. As long as this character is stamped around your little courtyard, that beast will not dare take even half a step inside!”

The Demon King’s thoughts turned several times. After hesitating briefly, he finally voiced the question troubling him. “He is a member of the Phoenix Clan! Lady Nuwa has insulted him so openly. Is she not afraid of offending the Phoenix Clan?”

The Man in Black merely smiled mysteriously and leaned close to whisper in his ear. “I heard that Lady Nuwa was originally a Venerable One of the Divine Realm. She fell out with those above, and only then did she leave the Divine Realm and choose Kunlun as her home.”

So that was how it was.

The Demon King’s thoughts raced, and he hurriedly asked, “Could it be that the passage was sealed because—”

The Man in Black’s expression changed at once. He hastily covered the Demon King’s mouth with his left hand and hissed in a lowered voice, “Are you trying to get yourself killed? What nonsense are you talking about?”

The Demon King understood immediately and shuddered violently.

If the rumor that Lady Nuwa had rebelled was true, then the reason the passage had inexplicably been sealed was obvious. The victims of the passage’s closure were all the cultivators of the lower realms. Once such news spread, who would continue to submit to Lady Nuwa? The lower realms would descend into chaos.

With Lady Nuwa’s divine abilities, how could she fail to discover the source of that chaos? And when she did, who knew how she would kill him?

Besides, Lady Nuwa had never looked down on him for being a demon beast. She had always treated him with great care. How could he recklessly spout nonsense and cause trouble for her?

He pulled free of the Man in Black’s hand and bowed deeply from the waist. “Thank you, Brother.”

The Man in Black understood what he was thanking him for. His entire body relaxed, and he waved his hand with a comfortable smile. “I told you, it was merely something along the way. There is no need to be so courteous, younger brother. Time is of the essence. I’ll make an imprint of the character Lady Nuwa bestowed.”

“I’ll trouble you, then.” The Demon King summoned his flying boat and extended a hand in invitation. “Please.”

The Man in Black leapt onto the flying boat. With his right hand, he formed a spell; with his left palm, he struck out repeatedly in rapid succession.

After several dozen breaths, another layer of restrictions had been added around the floating courtyard. This restriction was extremely simple: a huge golden character meaning “Begone.”

Once he had finished, the Man in Black asked for the ten illusion formations. Grinning, he said, “Until we meet again,” then flew away.

An hour later, the red-robed youth arrived in a murderous fury. Yet the moment he approached the floating courtyard, the golden character appeared.

The red-robed youth hesitated in midair for a while before unwillingly declaring, “Wretched beast, unless you can hide in this courtyard for the rest of your life!”

He stamped his foot, ground his teeth, and departed in a rage.

The Demon King wiped away a chill sweat and became even more convinced that Lady Nuwa truly was a Venerable One who had rebelled against the Divine Realm. Otherwise, how could a member of the Phoenix Clan, a race of the Divine Realm, give up merely because of a single character meaning “Begone” from Lady Nuwa?

After all, apart from being in her own handwriting, that character contained not the slightest trace of magical power.

Feng Ke’er had naturally seen the entire scene clearly from within the spatial sphere.

Could this be the sacred halo of a transmigrated heroine? Had she actually won Lady Nuwa’s favor?

She shrugged and lowered her head once more, continuing to weave the spatial sphere.

After fifteen spatial spheres exploded in succession, Feng Ke’er advanced again—to the second layer of the Nascent Soul stage.

Having learned from her previous experience, she immediately darted out of the spatial sphere at the instant of advancement. Her entire body flattened itself against the ground of the mustard-seed space, every part of her entering a state of maximum alert.

Within the spatial sphere, five-colored auspicious light burst forth as expected.

Boom!

After striking the walls of the spatial sphere, it rebounded and spread outward, then rebounded again and spread once more. This repeated more than ten times before finally stopping.

Each time the light struck the sphere, the sphere doubled in size.

Fortunately, her spiritual sea was large enough.

Once everything had settled, Feng Ke’er returned to the spatial sphere.

The moment she looked around, she could not help drawing in breath after breath.

Good heavens! The milky-white mist was still there, but the purplish-brown region had expanded nearly a hundredfold. Above her head, a blue-violet sky shaped like a rounded dome had appeared. Points of golden light flickered among the restrictions above, like stars scattered across the heavens.

It was beautiful.

Then she calculated the flow of time within the spatial sphere, and delight filled her heart.

The flow of time had accelerated tenfold!

One day outside was now ten years within the sphere.

However, after reading Pangu’s cultivation journals, it was as though someone had poured a basin of cold water over her head. All her joy vanished.

According to the records in the journals, after receiving the Lotus Maiden’s inheritance, Great God Pangu had also produced five-colored auspicious light when he advanced. The light spread outward, and the surrounding primordial energy died the moment it came into contact with it.

Whether by luck or misfortune, Pangu had chosen a place where the primordial energy was thin when he advanced. Thus, unlike Feng Ke’er in the Sea of Barriers, he had been unable to advance repeatedly.

After stabilizing his realm, Pangu released his divine sense and discovered that many new beings, identical in appearance to him, had suddenly appeared within the Chaos Space.

After carefully examining them, Pangu discovered that these new beings were not actually the same as he was. In truth, they were beasts, much like demon beasts.

At first, he thought the demon race had advanced again. But after studying them closely, he found that the two groups were different.

Although crystalline objects resembling demon cores existed within their skulls, those objects were completely different from the fragments of the Primordial Chaos Green Lotus. Moreover, both in physical form and magical power, these creatures far surpassed demon beasts.

After capturing one for examination, Pangu finally understood what had happened.

Without the “purification” of the Primordial Chaos Green Lotus, the primordial energy throughout the Chaos Space had begun to evolve as a whole. Because their innate qualities differed, the extent of their evolution varied as well.

The five-colored auspicious light that burst forth when Pangu advanced had killed all the primordial energy nearby. Yet for certain distant wisps of energy, it had been a great opportunity.

After the five-colored auspicious light vanished, it left behind tiny particles within the space. These particles not only accelerated the evolution of the primordial energy but also enabled it, like the demon race, to transform energy into physical form.

The new members were even more formidable than the demon race. They could assume human form directly.

It was truly wondrous.

Pangu named them “divine beasts.” Inspired by them, he devoted himself to capturing the auspicious-light particles remaining around him. Before long, he reached a conclusion: the auspicious-light particles could strengthen the Nascent Soul.

No wonder that after being struck by the five-colored auspicious light, her great Nascent Soul had split into a thousand parts, yet she had ultimately escaped with nothing more than a false alarm!

Heavens, this was a tremendous opportunity!

Feng Ke’er regretted it bitterly and hurriedly followed the method Pangu had provided, attempting to capture the remaining auspicious-light particles within the spatial sphere.

The result proved that her luck was far worse than Pangu’s.

The spatial sphere was not the Chaos Space. That blasted thing had absorbed the five-colored auspicious light so completely that not even a scrap remained!

Opportunities had to be sought amid danger. One had to snatch a thread of life from within a crisis!

Remembering the Sect Master’s warning, she clenched her fist.

Next time! Next time, she absolutely would not dodge or hide!

To be continued.