Chapter 276: Emperor

Meng Chuan felt a pang of regret as he looked at the items left behind by the deceased Bear Demon King. Ninety-nine percent of them had been destroyed by his Fiend-Slaying Aura, leaving very little intact.

"Even though these two great hammers are shattered into dozens of pieces, demon king weapons are usually melted down at Yuanchu Mountain to reclaim their materials. Their shattered state makes no difference for recycling." Meng Chuan waved his hand, collecting all the hammer fragments into his Grotto-heaven spiritual bead. He then looked at another spot nearby. The demon king's spatial bag had been frozen into oblivion, and nearly all the items inside were destroyed, with only a tiny fraction remaining.

There were a few red and purple remnants, their composition unknown.

"Hmm? There's one complete item here." Among the debris, Meng Chuan found the only undamaged object. With a gesture, it flew out of the remnants and landed in his palm.

It was a palm-sized black bear statue, depicting a bear standing calmly. Meng Chuan felt a moment of trance as he looked at it, vaguely perceiving a colossal bear, tens of thousands of feet tall, dominating the world. It seemed like the master of heaven and earth, walking peacefully across the land, each step shaking the ground with devastating power.

"What is this?" Meng Chuan wondered. "For it to survive my Fiend-Slaying Aura completely intact, it must be extraordinary. I'll ask my master about it when I return to Yuanchu Mountain."

Meng Chuan then returned to the demon kings' lair. Under his Thunder-Magnetic Domain, the three heavily wounded Third-level Demon Kings naturally couldn't escape and were killed from a distance by his Dark Star True Qi. "The Thunder-Magnetic Domain naturally generates lightning. Although its power is somewhat weaker, and even ordinary Third-level Demon Kings who do menial tasks can often survive a direct hit, at least it doesn't destroy the spoils of war."

After collecting all the demon kings' bodies and loot, Meng Chuan still felt a bit regretful about ninety-nine percent of the Bear Demon King's spoils being destroyed.

That evening, Meng Chuan swooped directly towards Yuanchu Mountain. He handed over the demon king bodies and spoils he had acquired over the past few days. Such trivial matters were now handled by the Yuanchu Mountain Lord.

Meanwhile, inside a pavilion at the Grotto-Heaven Tower, Venerable Qin Wu was discussing with the illusory projection of Venerable Luo Tang.

"This coordination is acceptable," Venerable Luo Tang's projection said, looking at the scrolls. "But it could still be fine-tuned."

Venerable Qin Wu suddenly looked up, gazing into the distance. "What's wrong?" Venerable Luo Tang's projection asked. "Meng Chuan is here," Venerable Qin Wu replied. "He's probably delivering demon king bodies and other spoils."

Venerable Luo Tang frowned slightly. "Qin Wu, have you decided how to utilize Meng Chuan's strength during the final battle?" "I'm still hesitating," Venerable Qin Wu admitted, frowning. Venerable Luo Tang's projection added, "His speed is undeniable; he's even faster than me. But if his strength isn't sufficient, a rescue mission wouldn't be a rescue, but a suicide."

"Follow me," Venerable Qin Wu said, standing up. "Where are we going?" Venerable Luo Tang's projection asked, puzzled. "To verify his strength," Venerable Qin Wu explained. "Only by knowing my disciple's detailed capabilities can I assign him a suitable task in the upcoming final battle."

Inside a grotto-heaven at Yuanchu Mountain, Meng Chuan released large quantities of demon king bodies and spoils in batches. The Yuanchu Mountain Lord, watching the pile of demon king bodies grow, couldn't help but exclaim, "Junior Brother Meng, it's always satisfying to see you bring out so many demon king bodies. In the past year, all the other demon slayers at Yuanchu Mountain combined haven't killed as many demon kings as you alone." "In the last half month, I've killed 1,235 ordinary demon kings," Meng Chuan said with a smile, as he threw out the last demon king body. "Demon kings are cunning and increasingly difficult to kill on the surface. I conduct extensive searches underground, no matter how clever they are. Unless they move far from land areas, I'll find them one by one. Sometimes, a simple method is the best method."

"This simple method... currently, among human demon slayers, only you and King Bai Yu can employ it," Venerable Qin Wu's voice echoed. Meng Chuan and the Yuanchu Mountain Lord turned their heads, bowing respectfully. At that moment, Venerable Qin Wu and the illusory projection of Venerable Luo Tang walked over side by side.

"Well slain!" Venerable Qin Wu remarked, looking at the large pile of demon king bodies. "However, demon kings are very cunning. King Bai Yu has been killing them in the Black Sand Dynasty for ten years, causing many demon kings to flee towards our side and to the Grand Yue Dynasty. If you continue killing like this, Meng Chuan... I fear more demon kings will flee one after another, making it increasingly difficult to kill them later on." "The world is only so big," Meng Chuan responded. "Where can they hide? At worst, we'll search every corner of the entire world."

"Good," Venerable Qin Wu said, nodding with a smile.

"Mountain Lord," Meng Chuan said, turning to the Yuanchu Mountain Lord. "There are still spoils to hand over. In the past half month, I also killed a Fourth-level Grand Demon King." "A Fourth-level?" The Yuanchu Mountain Lord's eyes lit up. "What about the corpse remains?" He knew that the Demon Slaying Blade could absorb blood energy, but Fourth-level Grand Demon Kings usually left some remnants behind.

"I unleashed my Fiend-Slaying Aura, completely freezing the demon king's body and shattering it into oblivion," Meng Chuan said helplessly. "Not even a speck of dust remained! Even its spatial bag was completely pulverized and vanished. However, some remnants of its weapons and other items survived." As he spoke, he waved his hand. Nearby appeared numerous fragments of two great hammers, along with some residual matter. Since these remnants survived the Fiend-Slaying Aura, they must be extraordinary.

"Both these great hammers were frozen and shattered?" Venerable Qin Wu walked over, examining the hammer fragments closely, unable to hide his surprise. "After refining the True Origin Fiend-Slaying Aura, your Fiend-Slaying Aura is indeed formidable." "A very powerful Fiend-Slaying Aura," Venerable Luo Tang's projection also nodded in praise.

"After the Bear Demon King died, the only item that remained completely intact under the Fiend-Slaying Aura was this," Meng Chuan said, flipping his hand and revealing the bear statue. Venerable Qin Wu and Venerable Luo Tang's eyes subtly brightened upon seeing it.

"It's a treasure, worth thirty million merit points," Venerable Qin Wu stated. "Master, what is this?" Meng Chuan asked, puzzled. "It's a demon race legacy," Venerable Qin Wu explained. "One of the legacies left behind by a bear demon who reached the 'Emperor' level."

"Emperor? An Emperor above a Demon Saint?" Meng Chuan's eyes lit up. Of course, he knew what an Emperor was. For example, the human Emperor closest to the current era was the 'Black Sand Emperor,' who almost completely unified the world.

"The demon world is much larger than ours, and their number of powerful individuals is greater," Venerable Qin Wu said. "Therefore, they've produced many more Emperors. In this current era, the demon race already has three Emperors. Throughout the long history of the demon race, more than a thousand Emperors have emerged. So, there are many similar legacies. This statue is merely one technique from an Emperor's legacy, intended for their subordinates."

Meng Chuan nodded.

"This technique is more suited for the demon race, greatly aiding their physical cultivation," Venerable Qin Wu continued. "Our human bodies are entirely different from those of demons, so its benefit to us is much less. However, it's still a legacy left by an Emperor, so even if it's only for reference, thirty million merit points is well worth it." "The Bear Demon Emperor?" Meng Chuan understood. Was the formidable bear demon, tens of thousands of feet tall, that he vaguely saw while looking at the statue, an Emperor?

"Our human race has produced far fewer Emperors," Venerable Qin Wu said, shaking his head. "The last Emperor to emerge was the Black Sand Emperor. In that same era, there was also an extraordinary grandmaster, the Yin-Yang Elder. Although the Yin-Yang Elder was a Creation Venerable, his cultivation realm had reached the Emperor level. His self-created 'Two Realms Divine Body' ultimate technique is one of the twelve supreme divine demon bodies in human history." "In terms of contribution to the human race alone, the Yin-Yang Elder's contribution surpassed even that of the Black Sand Emperor." "It was also due to internal division and the Yin-Yang Elder's machinations that the Black Sand Emperor ultimately died," Venerable Qin Wu lamented. "If they had been completely united, that era might have achieved complete unification."

Meng Chuan nodded. There were only twelve types of supreme divine demon bodies in the human race. The Dragon God Body and Phoenix God Body were still bloodline divine bodies, meaning, strictly speaking, humans had only created ten supreme divine demon bodies themselves. Every creator was brilliant and remarkable, their talents ranking among the foremost in human history.

"If an Emperor could emerge in our era, we could completely end this war," Venerable Luo Tang's projection said, shaking her head. "But it's too difficult. On average, an Emperor appears only once every hundred thousand years in human history. This is just an average; sometimes, two or three brilliant figures coexist in the same period, while other times, no Emperor appears for hundreds of thousands of years."