Chapter 409: Hope

The Demon Realm.

High in the sky, within a suspended palace of ice, Emperor Peng arrived, bringing Demon Saint Jiuyuan with him. Empress Xuanyue and Emperor Xinghe stood side-by-side, gazing coldly at Demon Saint Jiuyuan. Emperor Xinghe, in particular, looked pale with a weakening aura, his unstable energy rippling outwards and affecting even Demon Saint Jiuyuan.

“Your subordinate is incompetent; I failed to kill Meng Chuan,” Demon Saint Jiuyuan said, kneeling in immense fear. Reason told it that the three emperors would not kill it to avoid disheartening the other demon saints. But what if? It knew very well how much the emperors valued this matter.

“You, a demon saint who has cultivated for many years and possesses a Tribulation-level secret treasure, couldn’t even kill a Marquis?” Empress Xuanyue sneered.

“His own strength is no less than that of a Creation realm Venerable, and he also has a Tribulation-level secret treasure,” Demon Saint Jiuyuan quickly explained. “Moreover, his primordial spirit mystic art is incredibly powerful. It can transform into a black awl, easily penetrating and tearing my primordial spirit. My primordial spirit's origin suffered a loss of over 10%, which will likely take a century to fully recover. With my primordial spirit severely injured, my strength was greatly diminished, rendering me unable to deal with him.”

Recovering the primordial spirit’s origin is extremely difficult. While Meng Chuan possesses the ‘Primordial Spirit Star’ legacy, allowing his primordial spirit to cultivate itself with astonishing recovery abilities, even he would need two years to recover from an injury like Demon Saint Jiuyuan’s. Two years of diminished strength is very dangerous. For those without the ‘Primordial Spirit Star’ legacy, if the Demonic Awl breaks, it would take decades to recover, truly making it a forbidden technique. If one were to use 30% of their primordial spirit origin to cultivate the Demonic Awl, breaking it once would incur a tenfold higher cost.

“A black awl?” Empress Xuanyue, Emperor Xinghe, and Emperor Peng exchanged glances.

“The Demonic Awl.” Empress Xuanyue said softly, “It has been a long time since we heard of the ‘Demonic Awl’ mystic art. It seems another Godfiend in Cangyuan Realm has mastered this technique.”

The Demonic Awl mystic art was once the most famous trump card of the Cangyuan Realm Godfiends who roamed the River of Spacetime. Unlike ‘Primordial Spirit Star’, which is restricted by the rules of the River of Spacetime, has very few cultivators, and a very high threshold, the Demonic Awl mystic art is unrestricted. Most who traveled the River of Spacetime also cultivated this primordial spirit mystic art. Unfortunately, no one has been able to cultivate it to perfection or write down its original text. The entire Human Realm only possesses one copy of the original text, located in the ‘Heart Sea Palace’. It was an accidental gain by Ancestor Cangyuan back then.

This terrifying forbidden technique was conceived and perfected by a ‘Primordial Spirit Tribulation Realm mighty figure’. Junior cultivators like Meng Chuan, though they have learned to use it, only know how to apply it, not why it works. They merely follow the mystic art’s description to construct the ‘primordial spirit weapon’ and engrave the runes. As for why these rune structures are formed this way? They don’t understand. Only when they truly comprehend it will their mastery of this mystic art be comparable to its creator, allowing them to write down the original text. However, this forbidden technique, obtained by Ancestor Canghai, is the strongest mystic art apart from ‘Primordial Spirit Star’. It is suspected to have been created by a ‘Primordial Spirit Seventh Tribulation Realm’ expert, or at minimum a ‘Primordial Spirit Sixth Tribulation Realm’ expert. It is exceedingly difficult for human juniors to cultivate it to perfection.

“Even without considering his primordial spirit mystic art, his strength is sufficient to contend with top-tier Creation realm experts,” Demon Saint Jiuyuan said. “Moreover, his physical body is exceptionally strong. He once directly withstood an attack from your subordinate head-on, and his body surprisingly endured it. And his wife, Liu Qiyue, her arrows under Phoenix Nirvana also pose a great threat…”

“Alright, you may go,” Emperor Peng said, waving his hand. Demon Saint Jiuyuan's heart leaped with joy.

“As previously discussed,” Empress Xuanyue said, looking at Demon Saint Jiuyuan, “the Tribulation-level secret treasure ‘Eye of the Dark Realm’ will remain in your use until the end of your lifespan. However, should you wish to leave the Demon Realm for the outer realms… you must first return the Eye of the Dark Realm.”

“Your subordinate understands,” Demon Saint Jiuyuan replied, overjoyed, quickly adding.

“Go,” Empress Xuanyue also said.

“Your subordinate takes his leave.” Demon Saint Jiuyuan immediately flew away. Though the assassination failed and its reward was the least, Demon Saint Jiuyuan was quite satisfied.

“What a waste,” Emperor Xinghe said, shaking his head as he watched Demon Saint Jiuyuan depart.

“To ensure the demon saints willingly serve us, we must be willing to make concessions,” Emperor Peng said. “Meng Chuan’s physical body and primordial spirit are both exceptionally powerful, and his direct combat strength is comparable to top-tier Creation realm experts. Aside from somewhat unrefined techniques, he is virtually without weakness. And he even knows the Demonic Awl mystic art!”

“With an entire world separating us, we simply cannot deal with him,” Empress Xuanyue stated. “With him there, our numerical advantage among demons cannot be utilized. Our only options now are ‘world gaps’ and ‘world entrances’. As long as we send a large group of Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings into the human world through a world gap, we can regain the advantage, perhaps even completely force humanity to surrender.”

“Indeed, humanity has a total of nine Creation realm experts, most of whom are guarding super large city passes and sect strongholds, rarely daring to move,” Emperor Xinghe nodded. “Our Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings are enough to break through cities one by one and slay Marquis Godfiends one by one.”

Although the demon cultivation system is weaker than the Godfiend system, demons are vastly numerous, so their elites are exceptionally powerful. For instance, some Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings are so strong that even King Zhenwu cannot defeat them. These Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings all long to come to the human world to earn great merits and receive boons from the emperors.

“As long as we get them in, we will have the advantage,” Emperor Peng said. “However, getting them in is extremely difficult. First, we need to find ‘connection points’ within the human world, and several alternative points. This requires the ability to peer into the River of Spacetime. Second, we must breach the human world’s barrier and the world gap’s barrier in a short time to quickly enter the world gap. We absolutely must not be intercepted by human powerhouses. Third, once in the world gap, we must locate the corresponding position.” A specific location must be identified in both the Human World and the world gap, allowing the two places to connect and communicate.

Emperor Peng added, “We must also beware of human ambushes. If they lie in wait, our Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings will be wiped out the moment they enter the human world.” If dozens of Five-fold Heaven Demon Kings were to enter the human world only to immediately face Venerable Qin Wu, it would be a nightmare.

“It’s very difficult. If any single step in this entire process fails, the whole plan fails completely,” Emperor Peng stated.

“Once we reach the world gap, our strength will be superior,” Empress Xuanyue said. “I believe this plan has a fifty percent chance of success. If this also fails, then for this war, we can only place our hopes on the world entrances.” As time passes, world entrances will gradually increase. Perhaps, world entrances capable of allowing demon saints to pass through will appear.

“Perhaps world entrances that allow demon saints to pass through will never appear,” Emperor Peng said. “We cannot rely on luck. Our greatest hope still lies with the ‘world gap’.”

“Prepare well,” Emperor Xinghe said. “If we fail again, we may have to wait several centuries, or even never see the hope of success.”

Emperor Peng and Empress Xuanyue both nodded.