VGAB Chapter 54

After tossing Xiao Mo into the realm, Qi Heng focused all his attention on the development of the demon realm.

For both cultivators and demons, time didn’t hold much significance, and centuries passed in the blink of an eye. However, the changes in the demon realm over a hundred years were quite significant. Besides its enduring darkness, the demon realm had become remarkably similar to the cultivation world. Even the demons, who didn’t usually care much about their appearance, found themselves paying more attention to their grooming and appearance as they strolled through the newly clean and tidy market.

“The Demon King is truly formidable,” a young demon in the tavern remarked as he gazed at the demon crystal lamps above. “I heard that the cultivation world has sent another group of people to try and attack the demon realm, and the leader is the junior sect master of the Radiant Sun Sect.”

The Radiant Sun Sect had risen to prominence after the decline of the Tianyan Sect, becoming the top cultivation sect in the cultivation world.

“What about that person?” another demon asked, curious.

“Naturally, he was captured by the Demon King to forge demon iron,” the young demon replied with a smug grin. “I heard that this Radiant Sun Sect junior sect master has the Fire Elemental Root, so the Demon King said he could make a great blacksmith, and he can even control the heat himself.”

In a nearby blacksmith’s shop, the young man forced to hammer demon iron seethed with anger.

Did these foolish demons really think he couldn’t hear them from behind these walls?

Once he escaped, he vowed to take the lives of these mocking demons.

“Demon King, will the people from the cultivation world really hand over the Seed of the Eternal Tree for him…” The Assassin Demon Lord, speaking from the shadows, hesitated and gestured towards the young man hammering the iron. “He seems to lack intelligence and has a short temper…”

The Assassin Demon Lord clearly had a lot of disdain for the future inheritor of a sect who appeared to have such qualities. Would the sect not collapse like that other sect, the Tianyan Sect?

Qi Heng cast a cold glance, “Intelligence doesn’t matter. What matters is that he represents the number one cultivation sect, the Radiant Sun Sect. They won’t lose face, and as for the Seed of the Eternal Tree, it’s just a useless treasure to them, as it won’t germinate and is of no use to the Radiant Sun Sect.”

Once the Eternal Tree matures, its interior passage can directly connect to the Nine Heavens, reopening the path to ascension. The mature Eternal Tree is impervious to water, fire, lightning, and even the Heavenly Dao itself cannot destroy the path to ascension.

As expected, within days of capturing the individual, the sect leader of the Radiant Sun Sect agreed to the demands of the demon realm and was willing to hand over the Seed of the Eternal Tree. However, they insisted on returning the individual unharmed.

One day later, the seed was delivered into Qi Heng’s hands. After confirming its authenticity, he could proceed to plant it within the Demon Palace.

The Heavenly Dao seemed to sense a growing threat and immediately sent down thunderbolts. However, since Qi Heng had rebuilt the Demon Palace to nurture the Eternal Tree, he had prepared a little tool from his previous world for dealing with thunderstorms: a lightning rod.

Qi Heng further reinforced the lightning rod, making it capable of attracting any thunderbolts above the Demon Palace. Several thunderbolts were drawn into the lightning rod before they could penetrate the palace’s roof. The lightning’s electrical energy, mixed with the spiritual energy of lightning, was directed underground. Surprisingly, this nourished the Eternal Tree Seed, causing it to sprout prematurely.

After months of relentless thunderstorms, the Eternal Tree had grown to half the height of a person. It seemed that the Heavenly Dao had finally realized that relying solely on lightning wasn’t working, so it decided to wait until the tree grew beyond the Demon Palace’s boundaries before striking again.

Without the constant supply of lightning-based spiritual energy, the growth of the Eternal Tree slowed down considerably. The Demon Realm lacked the abundant spiritual energy of the cultivation world, so Qi Heng had to rely on a significant number of spiritual stones placed around the tree to supplement its spiritual energy.

After a few more years had passed, the Eternal Tree had finally reached its growth stage. It shot up a level almost every day, requiring an increasing amount of spiritual energy. Fortunately, people from the cultivation world never learned patience, and they frequently sent attackers to the Demon Realm, providing Qi Heng with opportunities to profit – not in wool, but in spiritual stones.

He captured the incoming cultivators and then threatened their sects to ransom them back with spiritual stones. Major sects couldn’t afford to abandon their disciples, as it would damage their reputation. If the news spread, what difference would they have from the fallen Tianyan Sect?

Soon after the Eternal Tree had grown out of the Demon Realm, the Heavenly Dao once again unleashed relentless celestial lightning to attempt to destroy it.

Qi Heng, however, wouldn’t let it have its way. He gathered nine Demon Lords who tirelessly created barriers to block the celestial lightning, working day and night to protect the tree.

“This is the last day,” as the barrier shattered, Killingspire Demon Lord, pale-faced and coughing up blood, looked up at the towering Eternal Tree. “As long as we make it through today, it won’t be able to destroy it in the future.”

“Thank you all for your hard work,” Qi Heng calmly spoke. “I kindly request all of you to stay back for now.”

Qi Heng was well aware that the Heavenly Dao would launch a final, powerful assault on this day. Thus, he had the nine Demon Lords intervene first, reserving his strength to confront the Heavenly Dao on the last day.

The nine Demon Lords, aware of their own capabilities, wasted no time and immediately flew far away from the Demon Palace.

The Heavenly Dao was currently preoccupied with preventing the Eternal Tree from reaching adulthood, so it couldn’t spare the time to deal with them.

Furthermore, all the buildings outside the Demon Palace had been equipped with lightning rods.

As the wind and clouds shifted, thunder roared above the Demon Palace. Countless demons gathered about a hundred meters away, observing the spectacle.

A massive purple lightning bolt, as thick as a python, descended accompanied by strong winds, heading directly for the Demon Palace. The observing demons gasped in astonishment.

“The Nine Heavens Divine Thunder.”

The demons who were close by felt their demonic souls trembling and quickly retreated even farther.

Qi Heng flew above the Eternal Tree, parallel to it, and gestured to create a barrier. As the tree ascended an inch, he raised the barrier by an inch.

Qi Heng had experience dealing with the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder. He released his spiritual sword once again, directing it straight at the divine thunder. Upon contact, the spiritual sword absorbed the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder into its blade.

The adult Eternal Tree was unstoppable. Perhaps sensing its might, the Heavenly Dao seemed to give up and ceased its attacks on the tree. However, one last bolt of Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, filled with the fury of the Heavenly Dao, headed straight for Qi Heng.

Once the Eternal Tree reached adulthood, it began absorbing all the surrounding spiritual and demonic energy. Qi Heng, caught off guard, was ensnared by the tree’s absorption. He managed to use his spiritual sword to block one of the divine thunders but was struck by another one in the back.

Qi Heng coughed up blood, and the Eternal Tree immediately absorbed the blood. Then, countless golden lights radiated from the tree.

The Eternal Tree had matured.

A golden pillar connected with the tree, forming a passageway to the Ninth Heaven.

Qi Heng didn’t hesitate any longer; he entered the passageway inside the Eternal Tree. The interior of the tree was filled with abundant spiritual energy. While there was still lightning and thunder inside the tree, the lightning couldn’t approach Qi Heng.

After a while, a resounding boom echoed, and a golden light shone down from above the Eternal Tree.

The gate to the heavens had opened.

After stepping into the golden light, Qi Heng allowed it to carry him slowly upward.

Above the Ninth Heaven, clouds and mist swirled around, and the heavenly gate remained, but there were no longer any celestial soldiers guarding it.

It was eerily silent, devoid of life.

A transparent figure cast a shadow in front of Qi Heng.

“The prophecy has indeed come true. Even though I’ve done everything I could, I still can’t change the outcome foretold.”

“Sword cultivator… Hah.”

The transparent figure sneered and conjured a transparent longsword in their hand. “Come on, let’s see how formidable your swordsmanship truly is.”

Qi Heng summoned his spiritual sword and, as the figure approached, he raised his sword to meet the attack.

Countless celestial palaces crumbled under the power of their swordsmanship. However, even though the Ninth Heaven became a dilapidated mess, not a single celestial being appeared.

“You still have the luxury of multitasking!” the transparent figure chuckled. “Thinking about those celestial beings, are you?”

Qi Heng dodged a dangerously close strike in silence, and the transparent figure’s sword swung wide, frustrated. “Can you feel this aura? It’s all from the remains of those celestial beings after their deaths.”

Qi Heng coldly looked at him and said, “You’ve truly gone insane, and it’s no wonder the Great Dao provided that prophecy.”

“The Great Dao… What does it matter?” The transparent figure, exasperated, discarded the illusionary sword and launched a palm strike at Qi Heng.

“Why should it still want to mess with me before its death?”

If it hadn’t escaped to the mortal realm, where it could threaten its last glimmer of hope, it wouldn’t have to worry night and day about the Great Dao seizing that opportunity to return.

The imposing pressure of the Heavenly Dao descended upon Qi Heng, who barely managed to evade most of its attacks. In response, he released the power of the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder absorbed by his spiritual sword, directing it towards the transparent figure.

It’s time for it to experience the consequences on its own.

Qi Heng didn’t have high hopes, but to his surprise, one of the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder strikes landed right on the transparent figure’s arm, causing a significant portion of it to disappear.

The surrounding spiritual energy surged, converging toward the transparent figure. Its body began to swell, transforming into a grotesque and massive creature.

Taking a step in Qi Heng’s direction, the colossal entity caused the entire sky to seem as if it were trembling.

“You’ve thoroughly provoked me. In the past, I couldn’t intervene in the mortal realm, but now, you’ve walked right into a trap—”

The colossal creature laughed menacingly, his hatred running deep. “Do you think that having the Celestial Wood is enough? Those people from the cultivation world ascending here will merely add a bit more spiritual energy to the immortal realm.”

With these words, the enormous palm of the creature came crashing down directly toward Qi Heng.

Under the pressure of the Heavenly Dao, Qi Heng found it difficult to evade and had to rely on his spiritual sword. The sword managed to block most of the attacks, but the tremendous impact still caused Qi Heng to cough up blood.

The massive creature chuckled, “The prophecy is nothing special.”

As he aimed for Qi Heng’s face with another strike, Qi Heng’s expression turned extremely cold. Instead of dodging, he raised his sword to meet the attack. The colossal creature revealed a smug smile, thinking he was about to make contact, but a sword suddenly pierced through him from behind, reaching his chest.

In front of the colossal creature, the figure that had appeared as “Qi Heng” transformed into a mass of demonic energy.

The colossal creature grasped the sword tip embedded in its chest and forcefully pulled out the spiritual sword. It then crushed the sword with its bare hand. Countless spiritual energy scattered from the creature’s wound, causing its body to shrink by a third.

Qi Heng swiftly moved away from the colossal creature. For a swordsman, their sword was akin to their life, and if he were truly the sword’s master, he might have already perished.

The colossal creature waited for a while but saw no response from Qi Heng. It couldn’t believe its eyes and exclaimed, “What’s going on? Your lifebound spiritual sword was clearly destroyed.”

Qi Heng sneered, “It’s a spiritual sword, but I am now a demon.”

At the moment of falling into darkness, his connection with the spiritual sword had already been severed.

Without further words, Qi Heng gathered a substantial amount of demonic energy in his palm and thrust it towards the colossal creature. The creature launched its own attack, and their powers clashed in mid-air.

However, the abundance of celestial energy favored the colossal creature, and Qi Heng began to feel the strain. At a critical moment, an overwhelmingly dominant sword intent arrived from above.

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