Chapter 64 The Aura of the Lower Realm

When a Demon Venerable strikes, it takes less than a billionth of a breath.

"Die!"

Chi Xiao shouted in his heart.

Just as the Poison Blade was about to touch Gu Heng's clothes...

Chong Batian seemed to see something, and his roaring mouth suddenly froze.

Inside Gu Heng's head, the System sounded.

[Target detected: Demon Venerable Middle Stage Cultivator "Chi Xiao" has murderous intent.]

["Passing By" mechanism triggered with highest priority.]

[Passing By all of Chi Xiao's remaining cultivation...]

[Passing By successful.]

[Current Host cultivation: Immortal Venerable Middle Stage.]

The System's voice faded.

Gu Heng felt time slow down.

A power thousands of times greater than the jump from Profound Immortal to Immortal King surged within his body.

Immortal King and Immortal Venerable—a difference of one word, but worlds apart. He felt as if ten thousand volcanoes were erupting, and he almost wanted to scream out loud.

He suppressed it.

On the surface, he didn't move an inch.

Outside.

Chi Xiao's distorted face stopped less than three inches from Gu Heng's back.

He felt something inside him... vanish.

Without his demonic essence, the Poison Blade completely disappeared.

His forward momentum faltered, and he stumbled, falling to the ground.

"My... cultivation?"

Chi Xiao lay on the ground, his whole body trembling.

His mind went blank; he tried to mobilize the demonic essence in his Qi Sea to stand up, but found it empty.

Gone. The Demon Venerable Origin he had cultivated for tens of thousands of years was gone.

Now, aside from being slightly stronger than a Mortal, he didn't have a trace of spiritual energy in his body.

He had been crippled.

Silently and soundlessly reduced to a Mortal.

He opened his mouth wide but couldn't make a sound.

At that moment.

Gu Heng slowly turned around.

He looked down at Chi Xiao, who was trembling incessantly at his feet.

A hint of confusion appeared on his face.

He looked around, then at his feet, and asked with a concerned tone:

"Uh... is the floor uneven?"

"Why are you suddenly performing such a grand gesture while just walking?"

The hall was deathly silent.

Chong Batian stood at the entrance of the hall, his mouth agape.

Lying on the ground, Chi Xiao felt his heart twitch upon hearing those words.

He looked up and saw Gu Heng's gentle eyes. The fear deep within his Soul shattered his last bit of hope.

What kind of monster was this?

Without even moving a finger, he had taken all of a Demon Venerable's cultivation. Such a method—let alone an Immortal Emperor, even an Immortal Emperor couldn't do it so cleanly.

A smile was squeezed onto Chi Xiao's pale face.

He didn't even bother to wipe the blood; he propped himself up with both hands, crawled forward half an inch like a dog, and said in a trembling voice:

"Great... Great Lord, you must be joking."

"This little demon... This little demon just felt that after your long journey, your shoulders must be sore. I saw some dust on your shoulder, and in my haste, my foot slipped, and I accidentally fell...

This little demon, this little demon actually wanted to give you a shoulder massage to relax your muscles and bones!"

As he spoke, he reached out with his magicless hands and made a couple of kneading motions in the air.

"Oh..."

Gu Heng drew out the sound and nodded seriously. "So that's how it is.

City Lord Chi Xiao is truly considerate of his subordinates and quite hospitable."

Chi Xiao felt a sense of relief, thinking he had escaped a disaster.

Gu Heng's next sentence plunged him into the abyss.

Gu Heng leaned down and looked at Chi Xiao, his tone still gentle: "Since you're here for a massage, where did your cultivation... go?"

The air in the hall instantly froze.

Chong Batian swept his Divine Sense over Chi Xiao on the floor, his dark red pupils widening.

"This... this is impossible!"

Chong Batian shouted out, his voice trembling, "Chi Xiao, you old thief, your cultivation... where is the demonic essence in your body?! How did you become a Mortal?"

Lin Qingyue and the Old Dragon King also sensed it.

An expert who just moments ago had the pressure of a Demon Venerable Middle Stage now had an aura weaker than even a Qi Refinement Stage Cultivator.

Upon hearing Chong Batian's shout, Chi Xiao's last psychological defense collapsed.

He slumped on the ground, looking at his hands. They were losing their luster; his tens of thousands of years of Lifespan were backfiring, and his body was aging rapidly.

He suddenly looked up at the calm Gu Heng.

He understood it all now.

The previous drop in Realm, the storage ring that vanished into thin air, and now this withered Dantian.

"It's you! You did this!"

"What kind of sorcery did you use?! You monster! Give me back my cultivation!"

Gu Heng straightened up, dusted off his sleeves, and nodded. "Indeed, I have taken it."

"If you hadn't harbored murderous intent just now and had answered my questions honestly, perhaps I would have been in a good mood and only taken your storage ring, sparing your life and letting you continue as the local tyrant of Chiyan City."

"What a pity..."

"You insisted on walking the path to death. Since you wanted my life, I'll take this cultivation for good."

Chi Xiao's screams echoed through the hall.

Gu Heng stopped looking at him.

He turned his head toward Chong Batian at the entrance.

He didn't speak, only gesturing toward Chi Xiao on the floor with his eyes.

Chong Batian shuddered. He understood.

The Lord didn't want to get his hands dirty and wanted to borrow his blade.

Without hesitation.

A fierce light flared in Chong Batian's eyes as his Demon Venerable Late Stage cultivation erupted.

He stepped forward like a bolt of black lightning, arriving before Chi Xiao.

"Chi Xiao, you old thief, for daring to harbor murderous intent against the Lord, your death cannot atone for your crime!"

Chong Batian roared, his palm wrapped in dark gold Devilish Qi as he struck Chi Xiao.

"No! Chong Batian, you lapdog..."

"Thud."

A muffled sound echoed in the hall.

The master of Chiyan City, a Demon Venerable of his generation, was dead.

The scent of blood filled the hall.

Chong Batian withdrew his hand and looked at the corpse on the floor, his chest heaving.

This old rival, who had fought him for thousands of years and always had the upper hand, had become a corpse in less than half an hour.

But there was no wild joy of revenge in his heart.

Instead, a sense of loss and unreality washed over him.

Just like that?

Thousands of years of fighting and countless schemes, in the end, it was all decided by a single look from this Lord.

Chong Batian turned around and looked at the calm young man in white standing not far away.

Fear welled up from the depths of his Soul.

Silently crippling a Demon Venerable.

In a single encounter, Chi Xiao had fallen from the heavens into the mud. What level of power was this?

Could it be that his Profound Immortal cultivation in the Blood-Vein Mine, and even being forced to flee by the Immortal Emperor's Sword Intent, was all an act?

"It's definitely an act. He's playing a grand game of chess."

Chong Batian roared in his heart.

To be able to erase a Demon Venerable's cultivation so nonchalantly—let alone an Immortal King or Immortal Emperor—even those Quasi-Immortal Emperors in secluded meditation couldn't do it.

What on earth is this Lord planning?

Chong Batian didn't dare think further. The more you know, the faster you die; that was an iron rule in the Demon Domain.

All he could do now was cling tightly to this powerful figure and be the most loyal dog.

Chong Batian took a deep breath and knelt on one knee. "The Lord's Divine Might is supreme! Such a traitor deserves nothing less than death!"

"However..."

He looked up at the dim sky outside the hall, his expression grave.

"While I was outside removing the traces of the Cross-Domain Array, I discovered that the coordinates of the array's core have been locked by a Divine Sense."

"They are calculating our position. They're very fast, and I can't wipe it out."

Before he could finish...

"Rumble—"

The ground of the entire Chiyan City began to shake.

A terrifying aura, coming from several domains away yet still suffocating, was pushing toward Chiyan City.

Emperor Li's wrath.

But what made Chong Batian even more desperate was that within this Demon Emperor's aura, there was another sharp Sword Intent.

"The aura of a Human Race Immortal Emperor?"

Chong Batian cried out, "It's that Old Fogey Jiang Wuji! Is he following Emperor Li's aura?"

"How is this possible? The Immortal and Demon Races are irreconcilable enemies. How could Emperor Li allow a Human Race Immortal Emperor to be so insolent in his territory, even... traveling alongside his aura?"

There was only one explanation.

To capture this Lord and obtain the heaven-reaching tower, that tyrannical Demon Emperor and the Human Race's Immortal Emperor had reached a temporary truce and joined forces.

A true dead end...

Hunted by two Emperors joined together; no matter how strange the Lord's methods were, he couldn't possibly withstand them head-on.

The eerie atmosphere was suffocating.

Gu Heng merely lifted his eyelids.

He listened to the noise outside and looked at the panicked Chong Batian, his tone calm.

"And?" Gu Heng said.

"And?"

Those two words fell into Chong Batian's ears. He looked at Gu Heng's unruffled face and was momentarily speechless.

What did he mean by "And"?

Outside, a Demon Emperor and an Immortal Emperor are joining forces to kill us! A lineup that could level half the Demon Domain is worth only two indifferent words in your eyes?

Chong Batian was sweating profusely with anxiety.

"Lord! We can't stay here!"

Chong Batian said urgently, pointing to the dim domain outside Chiyan City. "Chiyan City is at the border of the three races. Now that the powerhouses of the Demon and Human Races have been alerted, if we continue deeper into the Demon Domain, we'll be walking into a trap."

"I boldly suggest... how about we go to the Yao Race?"

As Chong Batian spoke, his gaze flickered toward the Old Dragon King shrinking at the base of a pillar.

"The Yao Race's domain is adjacent to here. Those old guys in the Yao Race have always been xenophobic. No matter how arrogant Emperor Li and that Immortal Emperor are, they wouldn't dare easily lead an army into the heart of the Yao Race.

And..."

Chong Batian narrowed his eyes, observing the Old Dragon King's golden scales and unique horns. "I see that this Little Loach... no, this Dragon Clan Senior's Bloodline is very pure, as if he has connections with some old fellows deep within the Yao Race.

If he leads the way, we might be able to find a place to hide in the Yao Race."

The Old Dragon King froze.

He wanted to say he was just a poor dragon who had been locked up for thousands of years and didn't know any Yao Race powerhouses at all, but then he met Gu Heng's sweeping gaze.

"The Yao Race?"

Gu Heng let out a chuckle.

His cultivation had now reached the Immortal Venerable Middle Stage through Passing By.

It might be a bit taxing to go head-to-head with an Immortal Emperor, but using the heaven-reaching tower to force a draw or even retreat wouldn't be difficult.

So he wasn't panicked.

"There's no rush to decide where to go."

Gu Heng slowly withdrew his gaze and turned to Lin Qingyue, who hadn't spoken.

"Lin Qingyue."

Gu Heng suddenly spoke, his tone teasing, "Weren't you just longing to increase your cultivation?"

Lin Qingyue frowned, confusion flashing in her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

With a great enemy at the door and the domain about to be shattered, this man is asking her if she wants to Cultivate? Is he tired of living, or is he mocking her?

"Exactly what it sounds like."

The corners of Gu Heng's lips curled up. He raised his right hand.

"Hum—"

In the Void Realm,

A golden light lit up from his palm.

A Glazed Tower floated in his hand.

Law runes swirled around the tower's body. With just a hint of its aura, the space in the hall, which had been turbulent due to the approaching Demon Emperor, grew still.

"Since refining this thing, I've been chased around and haven't had a chance to look inside."

"Since there are two free bodyguards on their way, why don't we go inside to take shelter for a bit and... see what kind of fortune lies within this tower?"

The three people in the hall were all stunned.

Enter the heaven-reaching tower?

And leave the pursuing Demon Emperor and Immortal Emperor outside to act as bodyguards?

Only the man before them would dare to have such a thought.

Before they could react, Gu Heng had already made a decision.

He turned to the still-dazed Chong Batian and instructed,

"Chong Batian, I'll leave the situation outside to you. Stay here outside the hall and act as a Protector.

If those two old fogies arrive, tell them that I am in secluded meditation inside the tower and they should wait in line outside."

"Ah? Me... Protector? Tell them to wait in line outside!?"

"Will that really work?"

Chong Batian was dumbfounded.

Asking him, a Demon Venerable, to block a Demon Emperor and an Immortal Emperor? How was that any different from sending him to his death?

Gu Heng didn't give him a chance to refuse.

With a thought.

A suction force enveloped Gu Heng, Lin Qingyue, and the Old Dragon King.

"Whoosh."

A flash of golden light.

The three of them disappeared from the hall.

In the Void Realm,

The palm-sized heaven-reaching tower also vanished, leaving no trace of spatial fluctuation.

In the empty hall, only Chi Xiao's corpse and the bewildered Chong Batian remained.

"Gulp."

Chong Batian swallowed hard. Listening to the sounds outside getting closer, as if the sky were being torn apart, he wanted to cry.

"Lord... you're way too bold."

He looked at the empty space and sighed heavily.

"Sigh... I don't know if I made the right choice."

He walked to the hall entrance, looking at the rolling demonic clouds at the horizon and the blue Sword Qi tearing through the sky, and gritted his teeth.

"At this point, retreating is death, and advancing is death. Since I'm on this ship, it seems I can only bet my life on the Lord's methods."

Chong Batian's Devilish Qi surged as he stood at the hall entrance like a guardian deity.

Inside the heaven-reaching tower.

The space had changed.

Gu Heng stood amidst a starry sky.

Giant nebulae slowly rotated around him; the spatial Laws and time flow here were different from the outside world.

As the one who refined the heaven-reaching tower, he could clearly feel that it was divided into many layers, each containing different trials and opportunities.

His figure flickered continuously in the starry sky, appearing and disappearing at various spatial nodes.

He saw the remains of an Ancient Battlefield and some sealed ancient beasts, but he saw no people.

"Strange..."

Gu Heng's figure returned to Lin Qingyue and the Old Dragon King, his brow furrowed.

He remembered his previous perception—those prodigies had disappeared after entering the heaven-reaching tower.

"Qingyue."

Gu Heng turned to Lin Qingyue, who was surveying the surroundings. "I remember when the heaven-reaching tower trials opened, didn't you enter with Su Youwei?"

"Where are the prodigies who entered with you? Why is this tower so empty, without even a single Soul?"

Lin Qingyue fell into thought and nodded. "That is true. When the heaven-reaching tower opened, we were randomly teleported to different places for trials."

"I originally planned to find an Opportunity in this tower and then seek out those Sect prodigies who had grudges against me in the outside world to kill them all here, ending the trouble once and for all."

"However..."

Her brow furrowed as if remembering something strange. "To my surprise, after I finished receiving my Legacy and Cultivating, and came out of seclusion to seek revenge, I found... that the auras of those prodigies had all vanished into thin air."

"And even stranger... the moment they disappeared, an aura of the... Lower Realm surged from deep within the heaven-reaching tower."

"Lower Realm?"

Gu Heng was startled and instinctively asked,

"Which Lower Realm?"

Lin Qingyue didn't answer directly.

She slowly turned around in the vast, quiet starry sky, the starlight reflected in her eyes.

"You think..."

SheSlightly raise your chin，Ask in a soft voice，

"Which other Lower Realm could it be?"