171: Chapter 171 Welcome Party from the Mystic Realm
As my hand grasped Lin Qingzhi's cool yet incredibly soft hand, stepping together towards that portal shimmering with endless golden light, seemingly leading to a new era, my heart was filled with grand ambitions for an unknown world.
The Xuan Realm!
A higher-dimensional world that only existed in legends and fantasies, filled with endless spiritual energy and opportunities!
However, just as my foot was about to step into that light screen for the last time, a thought flashed through my mind like lightning—what about my Myriad Demon Palace, which had been established for less than a day, and those 'silly' subordinates who bowed their heads to me?
Although their brains didn't seem to work very well, and they were particularly good at self-delusion.
Still, they were, after all, Mo Wen's first batch of subordinates in this desolate world! They were the 'original shares' of my future 'hegemony'!
It would be too much of a pity to just abandon them!
Without hesitation, at the last moment before stepping into the light gate, I fiercely imprinted my incomparably powerful King Rank monarch's will, which had already advanced to King Rank, through the invisible soul link of the Swarm Monarch, like the most majestic divine oracle, onto this Desolate Ruins land spanning hundreds of miles!
"All Myriad Demon Palace members, heed my command!"
"Stand by! Consolidate your territory!"
"Black Rock, guard the home! Vulture, watch the sky! Worms... keep digging, don't stop!"
"The day I return will be the day you... rule the world!"
Having done all this, with a dizzying rush of intense weightlessness, Lin Qingzhi and I completely vanished into that silent and desolate... lightless realm.
...
The next second, a surge of spiritual energy, thousands of times more concentrated and purer than when I absorbed the Ancient Desolate Dragon Lizard's demon core in the Desolate Ruins, poured wildly into every pore of mine, like the Milky Way bursting its banks!
So refreshing!
It was so damn refreshing!
I felt like a dying traveler, parched for three days and three nights in the Sahara Desert, suddenly plunging into the sweet and clear... oasis spring!
My limbs, my internal organs, every cell in my body, under the nourishment of this vast and pure spiritual energy, let out excited, greedy... cheers!
My chaos demon core, formed by the fusion of the original powers of Blue Star, the Xuan Realm, and the Desolate Ruins, was like a gluttonous beast that had been hungry for billions of years. The moment it touched this spiritual energy, it began to... wildly devour it!
In just a single breath!
I felt that my Demonic Power, which had been completely depleted in the underground temple of the Desolate Ruins due to forcibly breaking the 'Emperor-grade Grand Formation', had easily recovered by a full thirty percent!
This... this place was simply the supreme heaven that all cultivators dreamed of!
If one could cultivate here, let alone King Rank or Emperor Rank, even the legendary Emperor Realm might not be out of reach!
However, just as I was still immersed in this unparalleled comfort, like 'soaking in a hot spring', Lin Qingzhi beside me suddenly grabbed my hand!
Her hand was cold, stiff, and even trembling slightly!
"Something's wrong!" Her voice boomed in my mind through the Symbiotic Bond! That voice no longer held its previous gentleness and shyness, only an unprecedented... solemnity and... vigilance!
Almost the instant her voice fell—
"Buzz—!"
A cold, powerful, and terrifying divine sense, filled with a condescending scrutiny, descended like an invisible primeval divine mountain!
It locked onto Lin Qingzhi and me tightly!
Under the lock of that terrifying divine sense, I felt my cheering chaos demon core instantly fall silent, like a rooster whose throat had been choked!
My proud demon king body, which had just stepped into 'King Rank Third Grade', stiffened completely and uncontrollably at this moment!
I felt like a pathetic rabbit, firmly locked in the sights of a planet-destroying cannon by the most elite interstellar hunter!
I couldn't even muster a single thought of resistance!
Strong!
He was so damn strong!
The intensity of this divine sense was hundreds, even thousands of times stronger than any enemy I had encountered before, including the King Rank Ancient Desolate Dragon Lizard, and even Night Crow, who had almost killed us!
This was not an existence of the same caliber!
This was a true... dimensionality reduction strike!
Immediately after, in the misty, ethereal void before us, filled with immortal spiritual energy, space rippled visibly, like a calm lake into which stones had been thrown.
Ten figures, clad in uniform silver armor radiating a cold, murderous aura, appeared out of thin air!
Like the most elite interstellar special forces emerging from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they instantly formed a flawless... deadly battle formation!
Blocking all our escape routes!
And when my gaze fell upon the leading figure, a burly middle-aged cultivator with a stern face and eyes as sharp as an eagle's, my heart suddenly constricted!
Although I still couldn't discern his exact strength.
Just by casually standing there, the slightest, insignificant aura inadvertently emanating from him, was enough to nearly suffocate me on the spot!
It was an absolute suppression, stronger than me by countless levels of life!
"Peak King Rank..."
Lin Qingzhi's voice transmission, tinged with despair and bitterness, echoed hoarsely in my mind.
"He... is merely the Outer Sect Mountain Patrol Captain of the sect where this teleportation array is located!"
Me: "..."
I was completely numb.
I felt my worldview utterly shattered at this moment.
Peak King Rank...
An existence capable of walking sideways on Blue Star, even being called a 'god', was merely a... gatekeeper here?
What kind of hell-level...Beginner Village (Novice Village) was this?!
And what made my scalp tingle and my hands and feet turn cold was yet to come!
I saw that when Lin Qingzhi recognized the mysterious emblem on the cultivators' armor, formed by the 'sun, moon, and stars' together, full of dominance and majesty, her pretty face, which she had been trying to keep calm, instantly lost all color!
It was a fear from the deepest part of her soul!
And towering hatred!
"Xuantian... Divine Dynasty!"
She almost squeezed out these four words, one by one, through gritted teeth, as if they contained endless blood feud!
And that Peak King Rank Mountain Patrol Captain, who had been watching us with a condescending, scrutinizing, and cold gaze, for the first time showed a human-like astonishment on his usually placid face when he heard Lin Qingzhi's voice, filled with endless hatred, and felt the trace of supreme divine charm unique to the Ice Phoenix that she could not completely conceal.
Immediately, that astonishment turned into boundless... ecstasy and... greed!
"Hahahahaha—!"
He threw his head back and let out a wild laugh, filled with endless surprise and unexpected joy!
"It's truly a case of finding something without searching, and getting it without effort!"
His gaze, like two sharpest blades, scraped tightly across Lin Qingzhi's body. His eyes were like he was looking at a rare, easily obtainable... peerless treasure!
"I thought you, a remnant of the former dynasty, had long been hiding in some impoverished, spiritually barren corner, barely surviving. I never expected you to actually dare to deliver yourself to our doorstep!"
"Hahaha! Capturing you, this 'Ice Phoenix Remnant', is a huge... merit!"
His words exploded in my mind like a world-creating thunderbolt!
I instantly understood everything!
It turned out they had known all along that Lin Qingzhi was still alive!
They even knew about Blue Star, this 'lower plane' that was undergoing spiritual energy recovery!
The reason they hadn't sent true masters there all this time.
It wasn't that they couldn't find it!
It was that they simply disdained to do so!
In the eyes of these high and mighty 'gods', a 'former Empress' with a shattered soul and lost power, and a 'native plane' with depleted spiritual energy unable to even produce a King Rank, were simply not worth their trouble!
In their eyes, she was just an insignificant... fish that slipped through the net!
But now, it was different!
We had delivered ourselves to their doorstep!
We had stepped into their... territory!
We had transformed from 'trash' they disdained to search for, into a huge merit delivered right to their mouths!
In an instant, I made the most rational and correct judgment!
This wasn't a Novice Village!
This was a max-level boss spawn-camping and... wildly slaughtering!
Fight?
With what could we fight?
With our heads?!
Run!
We absolutely had to run!
This was our only... path to survival!
Without hesitation, I instantly ignited the thirty percent of chaos Demonic Power that had just recovered in my body!
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of hot essence blood, containing my demon king's origin, spurted out from my mouth!
Burning... the Demon King's Origin!
"Buzz—buzz—buzz—!"
Over a thousand Blood God Children, in various forms and radiating an eerie bloody light, surged forth like a tidal wave at this moment!
They didn't launch any attacks!
They merely transformed into a sky-obscuring... crimson mist, carrying my resolute and unyielding will, and furiously swept towards the cultivators of the Xuantian Divine Dynasty!
To confuse the enemy!
To create chaos!
To seize... that one in ten thousand second... chance to escape!
And the moment the sky-filling blood mist erupted, I grabbed Lin Qingzhi, who had already been overwhelmed by hatred and despair, and roared at her with all my strength:
"Go!!"
Then, I turned and rushed back towards the unstable, slowly closing portal behind me, which was shutting due to power interruption!
"Trying to run?!"
"Before my Xuantian Divine Dynasty, can you escape?!"
Behind me, the King Rank Peak Captain's cold laugh, full of disdain and mockery, echoed!
Immediately after, a terrifying sword intent, powerful enough to completely crush me, like a maggot clinging to bone, fiercely stabbed towards my back!
"Run, remnant. No matter which remote corner you flee to, the Xuantian Divine Dynasty's judgment will eventually descend!"
However, just a second before that sword intent was about to pierce my heart...
"Boom—!"
We crashed into the rapidly closing... portal!