387: Chapter 387 First, show some restraint; Heavenly Palace?

Chu Sheng stared at the figure behind the stone pillar and narrowed his eyes.

That figure shrank into the shadows, as if wanting to hide himself inside a crack in the stone, but the stone pillar was only that thick, so no matter how much he shrank, half of his shoulder was still exposed outside.

Chu Sheng watched for a couple of breaths, confirmed the figure's aura, and then spoke.

"You old scoundrel, you actually left behind a remnant thought?"

The figure behind the stone pillar stiffened for a moment.

A moment later, as if knowing he could no longer hide, he slowly moved out from behind the stone pillar.

Greed's remnant thought.

That figure was even fainter than the remnant thought of Greed he had seen in the simulator, resembling an old piece of clothing that had been repeatedly starched and washed many times, its edges already beginning to blur.

He wore an oversized robe whose original color could not be seen, and his face loomed vaguely in the dim light of the Reverse Demon Tower.

Vaguely, one could still recognize a bit of that crafty silhouette Greed had in life, only much older.

"Hello Fellow Daoist, cough cough, your coming truly brings light to my humble dwelling."

Greed's remnant thought spoke, his voice sounding as if it came from far away, "May I ask if Fellow Daoist needs any help?"

His tone carried a sense of detachment, as if evaluating a matter that had nothing to do with himself.

Chu Sheng looked at him without answering, simply waiting for him to continue.

Seeing that Chu Sheng did not attack, Greed's remnant thought moved half a step forward.

As if confirming he was not in immediate danger of being eliminated, he then spoke, his tone dropping a few fractions lower than before.

"Fellow Daoist, you certainly didn't come for the things in this tiny patch of land."

"If you let me off, I have a secret to tell you. It's not those stale, worn-out old matters, but something about the Heavenly Demon Ancestor."

Chu Sheng did not answer immediately, just watching him as if judging whether he was playing tricks again.

He had just swallowed clean the residual Devilish Qi of Greed and Gluttony on the eighth floor, never expecting that this old fellow had actually left behind a backup plan.

"Matters concerning the Heavenly Demon Ancestor?"

Chu Sheng repeated, his tone revealing neither belief nor disbelief.

Greed's remnant thought nodded.

"Before the Heavenly Demon Ancestor disappeared, he once mentioned a place. The Heavenly Palace. That is not a legend; it truly exists. It's just that too few people know about it, and most of those who knew are already dead."

"Furthermore, the Heavenly Demon Ancestor laid out many schemes under his command."

"If you spare me, I can tell you everything about the Heavenly Palace."

His voice carried a trace of urgency, as if he feared Chu Sheng would attack before he finished speaking.

Chu Sheng was silent for a moment, then he opened the simulator and spent two hundred simulation points to start a small simulation.

[Simulation Event: Spare Greed's remnant thought. Simulation begins—]

[Chu Sheng withdrew his hand and released his suppression on him.]

[Seeing that Chu Sheng had withdrawn the suppression, Greed's remnant thought visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped back half a step, like a taut string finally relaxing.]

[Then he began to recount that matter concerning the Heavenly Palace.]

[From the conversation location to the conversation partner and then to the conversation content, every single detail was described as if seen with his own eyes, even mimicking the tone quite convincingly.]

[As Chu Sheng listened, he suddenly felt something was amiss.]

[Those details were far too neat, neat in the way someone without real memories would piece together purely through imagination.]

[Just as he realized this, Greed's remnant thought seemed to sense the change in his gaze and abruptly shut his mouth.]

["Do you believe what you just said?"]

[Greed's remnant thought turned and ran, his speed not at all like what a remnant thought should have, resembling a beast instinctively fleeing after its disguise was seen through.]

[Chu Sheng did not chase, because that remnant thought had already begun to dissipate after running more than ten zhang, as if the power maintaining his final wispy form was no longer enough to support his continued existence.]

[Simulation ended.]

Chu Sheng turned off the simulation panel, his gaze falling back onto Greed's remnant thought, his tone carrying the calm of one who had verified the facts.

"Most of what you said just now was temporarily made up by you, right? You only heard the Heavenly Demon Ancestor mention the name of the Heavenly Palace once a long time ago, and everything else was pieced together on the spot."

The smile on Greed's remnant thought froze, as if someone had exposed him to his face.

The last shred of fig leaf torn away, he opened his mouth wanting to say something, but Chu Sheng no longer gave him the chance.

Chu Sheng raised his hand, and the Devilish Qi of infatuation surged from his palm, landing precisely on Greed's remnant thought.

Facing the Devilish Qi of infatuation, that remnant thought had no power to resist at all, like a patch of ashes blown apart by the wind, rapidly disintegrating and melting away.

In the end, it turned into a wisp of extremely faint black smoke, disappearing into the air within the tower.

At the instant the remnant thought dissipated, the Reverse Demon Tower trembled as a whole, as if it had finally cast off its final layer of shackles.

Chu Sheng sat cross-legged, driving Heavenly Venerable Duobao, and began to refine the entire Reverse Demon Tower.

The Restrictions inside the tower lit up layer by layer and extinguished layer by layer, those residual array patterns emerging one by one in his Divine Sense and being carved with new marks one by one.

His spiritual power continuously extended and permeated along the veins of the tower body, bringing the structure of the entire tower into his own control.

This process lasted for a long time. The Devilish Qi inside the tower churned and whirled continuously during the refinement process, resembling a giant beast being tamed, slowly adjusting the rhythm of its breathing.

Yu Rumeng stood not far away, watching this scene, her heart surging with emotions even more complex than the Devilish Qi outside the Reverse Demon Tower.

When she first encountered Chu Sheng, she thought he was a deeply hidden old Devil King, so deep that even a Devil King like her who had struggled in the Devil Domain for many years could not see through him.

Later, after spending some time with him, she began to feel that he might be a strong contender for the Devil Sovereign, at least a figure capable of stirring up the winds and clouds of the Devil Domain.

But now, watching that giant tower which had entrenched itself for thousands of years shrinking inch by inch, she realized that all her previous guesses were still far too conservative.

Under Chu Sheng's refinement, the Reverse Demon Tower slowly shrank, its tower body dozens of miles high contracting at a speed visible to the naked eye, resembling an old tree being pressed back into a seed's form.

Those dilapidated marks on the surface of the tower body gradually blurred during the shrinking process, resembling wrinkles being re-pressed and compacted.

A moment later, that Reverse Demon Tower that once spanned dozens of miles and stood tall in the Devil Domain for thousands of years...

...transformed into a palm-sized small black tower, quietly lying in Chu Sheng's palm.

On the surface of the small tower were still some fine cracks, as if repeatedly impacted by something.

But the overall structure remained intact, like an old item, although somewhat worn on the surface, still sturdy overall.

Chu Sheng stood up, grasped that small tower, and walked toward the outside of the tower.

When walking outside the tower, he also pulled Yu Rumeng out, then turned back to take a glance at the foundation that was slowly collapsing, without saying anything more.

In the distance, several powerful auras were already approaching this direction, as if quite a few Devil Kings had sensed the unusual movement of the Reverse Demon Tower and were rushing over here.

Chu Sheng glanced at those directions, quickly weighing it in his heart.

He currently had two choices.

Whether to stay and claim supremacy, or to retreat first.

Staying in the Devil Domain to claim supremacy could indeed quickly command the majority of forces.

After all, the Reverse Demon Tower had been taken away by him, and the Devilish Qi of Greed and Gluttony had also been absorbed by him; these alone were enough to make many people not dare to act rashly.

But the disadvantages were also very obvious. Once he claimed supremacy, he would become the target of public criticism, which completely contradicted his philosophy of low-profile development all along.

Furthermore, the overall strength of the Devil Domain was actually somewhat weak right now. The mess left behind after the disappearance of the Heavenly Demon Ancestor had caused the Demon Race to be repeatedly suppressed by the Five Regions.

Existences above the Divine Ability realm had basically been swept through a round.

Nowadays, the Devil Sovereigns of the Devil Domain were becoming more and more watery; just reaching Tongxuan was enough to claim supremacy.

The Western Domain's Demon Sovereign had already touched the threshold of the third stage of the Divine Ability realm, and the Central Domain was still crouching with a bunch of old schemers who had lived God knows how many years, while Arrogance had not yet officially made a move.

Taking over would probably mean mess after mess.

After thinking about it, Chu Sheng decided not to claim supremacy for now and retreat first.

He stuffed the shrunk Reverse Demon Tower into his Storage Pouch, and then waved at Yu Rumeng: "Let's go."

Yu Rumeng hesitated for a moment, but still followed behind.

The auras approaching this side from the distance were getting closer and closer, but Chu Sheng had already led Yu Rumeng to turn around and dash in the opposite direction, quickly vanishing beneath the dark red sky of the Devil Domain.