23: When you think you are the final boss

Another two years passed in a flash.

This year, Qin Wangchuan was nine years old.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for him to descend to the Lower Realm.

——————

Upper Thousand Provinces, Xuanming Realm.

Outside the Heaven-Linking Pagoda.

A major event was unfolding at this very moment.

Skull Demon Lord, in order to refine the “Myriad Soul Banner,” had slaughtered eighty-eight Cultivator cities in this Realm, turning billions of living beings into vengeful Souls.

This provoked seventy-two powerful experts, including the Zixiao Sect, Xuanjian Gate, and Qinglian Holy Land, to join forces in a siege, vowing to eliminate the Devil Head and uphold the Righteous Path.

Skull Demon Lord was no match and attempted to escape to another Realm through the Heaven-Linking Pagoda.

However, everyone had already been ambushing him there for a long time.

A great battle was on the verge of breaking out.

“Devil Head! Today is your day of death!” the Sect Master of Zixiao Sect roared, as a hundred-zhang Lightning Dragon formed from Nine Heavens Divine Lightning crashed down.

Skull Demon Lord sneered, and with a flick of his Myriad Soul Banner, he actually swallowed the Lightning Dragon whole: “Is that all you’ve got?”

Seeing this, seven Sword Cultivators from Xuanjian Gate immediately formed the Big Dipper Sword Formation, and seven Natal Flying Swords transformed into streaks of light, slashing towards him.

The Demonic Lord neither dodged nor avoided, allowing the sword edges to pierce his body, but from the wounds, countless vengeful spirits surged out, instantly polluting the Flying Swords and causing them to fall to the ground.

“How is this possible?!” The Sword Cultivators were aghast.

The three Grand Elders of Qinglian Holy Land exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and unleashed their Sect’s ultimate treasure, the “World-Purifying Green Lotus.”

Sacred light shone for a thousand li, attempting to purify the Devilish Qi.

“Futile!” Skull Demon Lord opened his mouth and spewed out his Natal Demonic Blood; the Green Lotus was instantly dyed red, and billions of vengeful Souls clung to it, corrupting this Saint-Grade Sacred Artifact, a Legacy of ten thousand years, into scrap metal!

“You thought you ambushed me?”

“But in reality, all of this was my plan!”

“Otherwise, how could I have gathered all of you in this place?”

“It’s time to end this.” The Demonic Lord formed a hand seal, and the grand formation, prepared long ago, activated at this moment!

The Myriad Soul Banner surged, and the sky-obscuring resentful Qi formed a massive vortex.

The Magic Treasures of the seventy-two powerful experts exploded one after another, their Primordial Spirits forcibly torn from their bodies and swallowed by the banner amidst their horrific screams.

As the last Cultivator’s body crashed to the ground, Skull Demon Lord stepped on the shattered head of the Zixiao Sect Master, and the vengeful Souls on the Myriad Soul Banner let out a triumphant shriek.

“No… impossible…” The Zixiao Sect Master’s fragmented Primordial Spirit struggled within the banner, “My Zixiao Sect… a Legacy of thirty thousand years… how could it…”

Skull Demon Lord grinned menacingly and formed a hand seal: “Thirty thousand years? After today, the Zixiao Sect will just be a lightning pattern on my banner!”

“Devil Head!” The Sword Soul of Xuanjian Gate’s Grand Elder let out a final clang, “My Xuanjian Gate Disciples… will surely avenge us…”

“Avenge?” The Old Devil crushed the Sword Soul with one hand, sneering: “Don’t rush, once this Lord refines all of you from Xuanjian Gate, upper and lower, you can reunite in the banner.”

The last Grand Elder of Qinglian Holy Land’s pure Qi was about to dissipate, yet he still shouted sharply: “Old Devil! Do you know that my Qinglian Ancestral Master has already Ascended to the Heavens! Once he…”

“What does his Ascension have to do with you?” The Old Devil opened his mouth and inhaled, swallowing that wisp of pure Qi into his belly, then sneered: “Do you think bringing up an Ascended Ancestral Master can scare this Lord?”

“He doesn’t need to come; I will go find him myself in the future!”

The battlefield suddenly fell silent.

Only the Myriad Soul Banner fluttered, and the seventy-two newly acquired Saint Souls roamed on the banner, each twisted face frozen in the despair and unwillingness of their last moments before falling.

Skull Demon Lord took a deep breath, the rich smell of blood and Soul Power making him close his eyes in intoxication: “Now this is more like it.”

He laughed wildly at the sky: “Hahahaha! What Righteous Path Sects! What acting on behalf of Heaven! You fools, do you really think numbers can win?”

Skull Demon Lord stood on seventy-two corpses, his Myriad Soul Banner fluttering, and billions of vengeful Souls on the banner wailed mournfully.

“This Lord’s Dao is proven through slaughter, and today I finally become a Great Emperor!”

He raised his hand and, from a distance, seized the last surviving female Cultivator of the Zixiao Sect.

The female Cultivator’s white robe was soaked in blood, her black hair disheveled, yet it could not hide her exquisitely beautiful and ethereal face.

A cinnabar mark on her brow shimmered, the symbol of a direct Disciple of the Zixiao Sect.

“You besieged this Lord for seven days, did you ever consider that you were coming to your deaths?”

Though her face was pale, the woman defiantly held her head high: “Devil Head… my Revered Master… will surely…”

Before she could finish, black Qi surged into her palm.

“I told you, if you’re going to call for someone, call for someone closer.”

“You’re already dead, so what’s the point of revenge?”

Her delicate body trembled violently, her jade-like skin shriveled and withered at a visible rate, and her autumn-water-like eyes rapidly dimmed.

In her last horrific scream, her Divine Soul was forcibly torn out, transforming into a white light that merged into the Myriad Soul Banner.

The Old Devil licked his lips, looking at the female corpse, now just a shriveled husk in his hand, and sneered: “A Fairy of the Zixiao Sect? Just another lost Soul on my banner.”

“Twenty-six thousand years of arduous cultivation, slaughtering countless Sects, today I finally become invincible in this Realm!” Skull Demon Lord laughed wildly at the sky, the Myriad Soul Banner’s blood light surged, dyeing the entire sky dark red, “Once this Lord refines these seventy-two Saint Souls, it will be time to Ascend to the Ten Directions Immortal Court!”

He looked down at the battlefield below, where rivers of blood flowed; those once renowned Righteous Path powerful experts had now become his stepping stones to advancement.

“Righteous and evil? Good and bad? This world only recognizes strength!”

The powerful ones were dead, and some juniors hid in the distance, thinking they were well-hidden.

Just as he was about to pursue and annihilate those who had slipped through, suddenly—

“Hmm?”

Skull Demon Lord’s body stiffened, and the blood-red light in his eyes surged. He felt the Demonic Qi within him surge wildly, and the billions of vengeful Souls in the Myriad Soul Banner shrieked in unison, actively feeding him pure Soul Power.

“This is… a Breakthrough?!”

The world suddenly changed color, and rolling demonic clouds gathered from all directions.

The Spiritual Qi within a ten-thousand-li radius frantically poured into his body, and every inch of his flesh and blood was undergoing astonishing transformation.

“Hahahaha! Heaven helps me!” The Old Devil laughed with wild joy, “Today, this Lord shall prove his Dao and become Emperor!”

“No… I am the Emperor!”

He suddenly spread his arms, and the Myriad Soul Banner surged, transforming into a blood-red sky curtain that covered the heavens.

The seventy-two newly acquired Saint Souls struggled painfully within the banner, being forcibly refined into the purest Origin Power.

“With billions of living beings as sacrifice, with seventy-two Saint Souls as the guide—”

Skull Demon Lord’s body was engulfed in monstrous demonic flames, and his aura continuously soared.

The Void Realm began to twist and crack, and dark Emperor runes appeared on his body.

The Lightning Tribulation was gathering above his head; as long as he endured ninety-nine bolts of Lightning Tribulation, he could become Emperor.

For ordinary people, the Lightning Tribulation was terrifying, but in Skull Demon Lord’s eyes, it was incredibly simple.

He didn’t need to resist it directly; he could just use the Souls in the Myriad Soul Banner to bear it for him.

This was an unconventional path to proving his Dao as Emperor; though certainly not as powerful as other Great Emperors, it had the advantage of being stable.

Skull Demon Lord had already begun to celebrate prematurely.

“Today, this Lord—proves his Dao as Emperor!”

As he spoke, he looked towards the distant sky, his gaze seemingly piercing through the clouds, through the Realm barrier, and seeing another world.

“This Realm is too small; it is unworthy of this Emperor!”

“With my Great Emperor cultivation, even in the Heavens above, I shall have a place!”

With that, he formed a hand seal, and the Myriad Soul Banner surged, growing to a thousand zhang in size, preparing to face the tribulation.

However, at this very moment—

“Boom—!”

The Heaven-Linking Pagoda suddenly began to operate.

Someone had arrived in this world!

“Encountering this Emperor, you can only say your luck is bad; die for me!”

Skull Demon Lord struck out with a palm, filled with murderous intent.

The next moment.

Nine Heaven-Rending Hounds trampled through the Void Realm, each step causing the stars of the heavens to tremble. Their bodies were covered in Chaos Profound Armor, and when their six wings spread, they stirred up world-ending gale winds, with scorching flames flickering in their blood-moon-like beast eyes.

The carriage was entirely composed of black and gold, with profound black as the base and gilded patterns, and the body of the carriage was naturally inscribed with Dao patterns.

Most striking were the gold-on-black “Qin” characters on both sides of the carriage compartment; each stroke seemed to contain the supreme Dao Rhyme that suppressed all heavens, and merely looking at it made one’s Divine Soul tremble.

A glazed palace lantern hung high on the roof of the carriage, and the Primordial Bells suspended from its four corners lightly chimed.

Each time the bell rang, a million li of space-time solidified.

A hundred black Profound Armor Divine Generals stood solemnly on either side, like ancient, everlasting divine statues.

Their auras were completely restrained; had one not seen them with their own eyes, one would not have detected their existence in the slightest.

When Divine Sense probed them, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, leaving no trace.

Compared to the ostentatious display of outward aura, these people in front of him undoubtedly had a despair-inducing difference in strength from himself!

By the time Skull Demon Lord realized this, it was already too late to withdraw his hand.

His demonic palm, capable of instantly killing a Heaven Saint-Grade expert, wrapped in monstrous Devilish Qi, had already heavily slammed towards the carriage.

However, this world-destroying strike mysteriously stagnated after flying a hundred zhang, as if it had hit an invisible barrier.

The Devilish Qi began to dissipate, and the bloody hand gradually melted, disintegrating naturally like ice meeting a scorching sun.

The entire process was utterly silent, yet it made Skull Demon Lord’s hair stand on end.

“This… how is this possible…”

His pupils contracted violently, and only one thought screamed frantically in his mind:

“Escape!”

“Run! !”