Central Five Phoenixes, the endless desert, sand and stone rolling.
A demon monkey stood roaring at the heavens.
Monstrous demonic qi surged, shaking the world.
Behind the monkey, a colossal shadow loomed, holding up the sky.
Demon Sovereign?!
Everyone was stunned.
They had been crushed by the terrifying aura of the Venerable One possessing Fu Tianluo.
Yet now, an existence of such terrifying power appeared on Five Phoenixes!
“It’s the monkey from the Human List!”
“Demon Monkey King! Is that him?”
“Is this the Demon Monkey King’s might? Terrifying…”
“No, the monkey isn’t the strong one. It’s the terrifying being behind the monkey, the Demon Sovereign!”
The world erupted in commotion.
Waves of shock crashed through every heart.
Wind rose on the sea.
Waves churned.
Du Longyang and Ye Shoudao, newly advanced Yin Spirit experts, stood on the water, chilled to the bone.
They exchanged glances, horror in their eyes.
An unknown terror had emerged.
“Who is that?”
“Besides Young Master Lu, there is such a powerhouse in this world?”
“I heard Five Phoenixes has many hidden experts. Overlord inherited the Demon Lord’s legacy, demonic qi towering to the heavens. Now a Demon Sovereign appears!”
“I heard there are also unfathomable ‘immortals’ who left legacies many have received!”
Ye Shoudao said.
Du Longyang shook his head. “There are no true immortals. Even if there were, they’d just be powerful cultivators.”
“But at least we can relax now.”
With the Demon Sovereign acting, they no longer needed to fear the possessed Fu Tianluo’s explosive power.
A staff swept across the sky, shattering space.
It smashed into Fu Tianluo’s abdomen.
BOOM!
Fu Tianluo was blasted into the sea, water inverting.
The iron staff plunged in, stirring the sea into a massive vortex!
What overwhelming might!
On the sea, Du Longyang and the others felt their hearts tremble.
This staff play… was too flashy!
Just what kind of existence was this Demon Sovereign?!
Could even Young Master Lu handle him?
After stirring for a while, the Boundless Sea calmed.
Outside Five Phoenixes,
silver light flashed, stacking into the Thousand Blades Chair.
Lu returned from Demon Sovereign state to normal, seated calmly.
Beside him lay a docile lion.
With a carefree, ethereal air, he descended rapidly.
The terrifying Demon Sovereign aura from the desert vanished.
The Demon Monkey King disappeared from mortal sight.
To the world, the Demon Sovereign’s appearance had merely bought Young Master Lu time.
“Young Master Lu!”
“Young Master!”
“Brother Lu, you’re back!”
…
Du Longyang, Ye Shoudao, Empress Ni Chunqiu, and the others exhaled in relief.
Lu nodded slightly.
They looked at Lu, robes unstained by blood, faces twitching slightly.
Young Master Lu grew ever more unfathomable.
And…
Demon Lord, Demon Sovereign, mysterious immortals, and the enigmatic Young Master Lu.
They had thought Five Phoenixes was just an ordinary Mid-Tier Martial world.
Now they realized its waters ran far deeper than imagined.
The sea parted.
Fu Tianluo, eyes blazing gold, palms pressed together, walked step by step from the depths as though ascending stairs.
His abdomen bore a massive hole, blood gushing.
Yet he radiated solemn golden light, oppressive and heavy.
Lu leaned back in his Thousand Blades Chair, gazing indifferently at Fu Tianluo.
After a long moment, he sighed.
This one could no longer be a tool.
“Your ambition is too great.”
“To forge this world into a High-Tier Martial realm…”
Fu Tianluo’s golden eyes fixed on Lu, laughing with suppressed emotion.
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As a High-Tier Martial expert, the Venerable One knew many secrets.
After possessing Fu Tianluo, he instantly glimpsed the world’s hidden truth.
He never imagined anyone would be so bold.
Even High-Tier Martial experts would be shocked by Lu’s methods.
“You defy heaven. You violate the rules of the Nihility Heaven. Those who break the rules meet no good end!”
“A new High-Tier Martial world would shatter the balance!”
“The rules will not allow your success!”
“Many will not allow it either!”
The Venerable One possessing Fu Tianluo smiled.
Lu frowned.
The words struck him.
But soon his expression grew solemn.
With a thought,
the Heaven Covering Sword shot out.
BOOM!
The grand formation activated.
Terrifying array power shifted the colors of the sky.
The colossal sword made the world tremble.
Everyone stared, breathing halted.
“If the rules forbid it, I will shatter the rules.”
“If many forbid it, I will kill until they allow it.”
Lu said calmly.
He looked at Fu Tianluo seated on the sea, eyes flashing.
“High-Tier Martial is only the beginning.”
With those words,
the greatsword descended.
Fu Tianluo’s golden eyes narrowed.
Hearing Lu’s words, he laughed as though hearing the world’s greatest joke.
He mocked, he sneered.
He felt no unwillingness at his reincarnation body’s impending destruction.
He looked at Lu, body blazing with golden light, a golden lotus blooming, solemn and majestic, radiating the urge to convert.
Yet his words were anything but serene.
“Even if you succeed, what then?”
“Once this world becomes High-Tier Martial, world protection force vanishes!”
“A High-Tier Martial world without protection becomes the most exquisite prey for wanderers in the Nihility Heaven, and for many High-Tier Martial worlds.”
“Then, High-Tier Martial experts will descend like clouds. My true body will come. Great powers annihilate worlds, enslave beings!”
“Can you stop them?”
“A Mid-Tier Martial world becoming High-Tier requires vast resources and energy accumulated over eons. That is heaven’s rule!”
“Forcing it… you must plunder energy and resources. There is only so much in heaven and earth. They will not tolerate you!”
“You court death! Death!”
“The day this world becomes High-Tier Martial is the day I come to take your life!”
“Hahaha…”
Fu Tianluo’s golden eyes blazed, his laughter thundering across heaven and earth.
Du Longyang and the others paled.
Lu’s face was cold.
The Heaven Covering Sword slashed down.
Fu Tianluo’s laughter died abruptly.
BOOM!
Dazzling light rushed skyward.
The sword light seemed to cleave the heavens in two.
The Boundless Sea was split.
Fu Tianluo’s body was annihilated.
A massive chasm appeared, parting the sea like cascading waterfalls, roaring and thundering!
“If heaven forbids it, I will defy heaven.”
Lu’s calm voice echoed as he gazed at the chasm and roaring waterfalls.
The world fell silent.
Another reincarnation body of a High-Tier Martial expert, slain.
Hum…
Specks of light rippled.
Fu Tianluo’s soul rose, twisted with unwillingness.
He was too pitiful…
He hated.
Even as Lu’s tool in the ice pagoda, living in a daze, he had not hated this much.
Because in the pagoda he could live, only losing freedom.
But the Venerable One he had devoutly served had possessed him, erased his will and soul, stolen his body, destroyed his life.
How could he not hate?
His hatred became dense resentment, lingering between heaven and earth.
Lu gazed at the resentment.
A Spirit Severing soul, nearly forming a primordial spirit,
could still affect the surroundings even in death.
“No need to waste this resentment…”
Lu said.
He formed seals.
The resentment began to surge.
Nine Prisons Secret Realm.
Boundless Spirit Severing resentment poured down, terrifying aura churning.
Hum…
Cultivators outside the prison gates paled.
Even Nie Changqing and the others felt discomfort.
The intense resentment and grudge chilled their bodies!
The nine prison gates opened, devouring the resentment.
Behind them,
nine Cities of the Dead faintly appeared.
Nine majestic figures divided the resentment,
bowing slightly toward Lu.
The gates closed, the cities vanished.
Peace returned.
Lu sighed.
Fu Tianluo was a pitiful man.
He had only wanted to be a carefree tool.
But the High-Tier Buddhist expert had possessed him, ruined everything.
So…
Lu let Fu Tianluo, in his final moment, fulfill his destiny as a tool once more.
The Boundless Sea calmed.
Ye Shoudao, Du Longyang, Empress Ni Chunqiu, and Young Master Tianxu rushed over.
The Empress’s face was flushed, powerful aura brewing, she was on the verge of Yin Spirit.
“Young Master Lu.”
Ye Shoudao and the others grew ever more reverent.
They had thought entering Yin Spirit realm would close the gap with Lu.
Reality showed the gap only widened.
“You all heard his words?”
Lu looked at them.
“I will bear all the pressure. Your only duty is to grow stronger…”
Lu said calmly.
Du Longyang and Ye Shoudao flushed, speechless.
Young Master Lu… what righteousness!
“Brother Lu, must we become High-Tier Martial?”
Young Master Tianxu asked, face troubled.
The Venerable One’s dying words had shaken them.
High-Tier Martial experts descending like clouds, what catastrophe would that be?
High-Tier Martial, a realm of longing.
The Bitter Disciple had destroyed Tianyuan for it.
Du Longyang said nothing, shaking his head at Tianxu.
The Empress glared angrily.
Everything Brother Lu did was right!
Ye Shoudao’s single arm fluttered in the wind.
He had guessed something.
The fusion of Tianyuan and Five Phoenixes origins had pushed Five Phoenixes from early to top-tier Mid-Tier Martial.
That was likely Lu’s method to forge High-Tier Martial.
Ye Shoudao looked up at the three continents beyond the sky.
They seemed to be collapsing.
“Now… Young Master Lu has no choice.”
Ye Shoudao said.
His words stunned Lu, then he sighed, following his gaze upward.
“Actually, your foundations are still too shallow.”
“But someone is rushing to deliver resources. The situation… is beyond control.”
Lu lamented, face filled with difficulty and worry.
His acting was flawless.
Tianxu, Du Longyang, the Empress, and others looked up.
Their pupils shrank.
Yes.
The situation was forcing Five Phoenixes toward High-Tier Martial.
“When the sky falls, this Young Master will hold it.”
“Grow stronger quickly. You don’t have much time left.”
Lu said.
With that, he became a bolt of lightning and vanished.
The Empress’s face trembled, watching Lu disappear, heartache on her beautiful features.
“Brother Lu… suffers too much.”
“His pressure, we cannot imagine.”
She inhaled deeply.
Red robes swirling, she turned and left.
She would break through.
She would grow strong, strong enough to share that man’s burden.
Du Longyang, Ye Shoudao, and the others left in silence.
They returned to Dongyang Commandery to calm the world.
Many matters needed handling.
Afterward, they would cultivate desperately.
Five Phoenixes charging toward High-Tier Martial, the pressure was unimaginable.
The day it succeeded would bring great calamity.
Against that calamity,
all they could do was grow stronger, strong enough to ease Young Master Lu’s burden.
Above the Boundless Sea,
Zhu Long sat on the red dragon, stroking its horns, long lashes trembling over closed eyes.
Splash.
The red dragon turned, carrying Zhu Long away.
In the setting sun,
their reflections shattered across the shimmering sea.
…
In the endless void,
on a dead continent,
a withered, emaciated elder sat covered in dust, like a sealed corpse.
Suddenly,
his body trembled, dust falling away.
The elder opened his eyes.
The darkness seemed to brighten.
His eyes were deep vortices, swallowing all.
“A-Jiu is dead.”
The elder said calmly.
“The ‘Lin’ Array Word… was taken?”
His voice remained calm, but powerful emotions erupted.
Clearly, in his heart, the “Lin” word was more important than A-Jiu’s life.
“Besides my Liujia Array Sect, who can wield the Nine Array Words?”
He inhaled and exhaled.
The void trembled with each breath.
After a long moment,
he moved, raising withered, branch-like hands to form seals.
Profound fluctuations spread.
But soon his eyes dimmed again.
“The Array Word is gone. I cannot summon it.”
“Could it be a descendant with Emperor Hao’s bloodline?”
He pondered.
“Very well. I’ll give you a chance to join my Liujia Array Sect.”
His withered fingers formed seals, sending strange fluctuations into the void.
Then he closed his eyes again,
becoming once more an unmoving stone,
sitting eternally on the drifting dead continent.
…
Origin Lake, Lake Heart Island.
Gentle breeze.
Grass swayed, chrysanthemums and peach blossoms rustled.
Lu sat in his Thousand Blades Chair atop the pavilion, sipping plum wine.
His brows furrowed in thought.
Forging Five Phoenixes into a High-Tier Martial world was not as simple as he had imagined.
And the High-Tier Buddhist Venerable One’s final words had been a warning.
Once Five Phoenixes became High-Tier Martial, it would face terrifying crises.
Lu had to face this seriously.
Moreover, Five Phoenixes was too weak. No true pillar existed among its cultivators.
In this state, ascending to High-Tier Martial lacked competitiveness.
While fusing the three continents’ origins,
he needed to rapidly strengthen Five Phoenixes’ cultivators.
But Lu frowned again.
True experts could not be cultivated overnight.
They required time and battle.
Time, Lu lacked time.
But suddenly, his brow raised.
Thinking of time, he remembered the newly acquired “Lin” Array Word.
Created by an Ancient Emperor, possessing great might.
It seemed to involve time…
Perhaps he could gain inspiration from it.
With a thought,
the “Lin” Array Word appeared before him.
The instant he summoned it,
strange fluctuations spread from the rune.
