Chapter 441 - 416: Manifesting Divinity Before Fiends

The Beichen Sword Immortal rose up on his sword, using Sword Escape to travel eighty thousand li in a single instant.

「The Nine Celestial Demon Countries, Supreme Profound Heaven.」

An old man with a slightly hunched back, leaning on a crutch, walked along the edge of a vast, black mountain range.

Not far from these black mountains was the sacred land of the Golden Crow Race, Tang Valley—a place as brilliant as a great furnace embedded in the earth!

Raging flames burned endlessly in the very heart of Tang Valley. The blaze painted the surrounding sky in shades of deep and shallow red, like a perpetual sunset clinging to the heavens.

Gazing from a distance, one couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t just Tang Valley burning.

It was as if the entire sky was on fire.

This sublime, dazzling beauty formed a stark contrast with the black mountains that stretched for ten thousand li in every direction.

Such a wondrous spectacle was enough to make any observer sigh in awe.

The lame old man, leaning on his crutch, did indeed pause for a moment.

In the sky above, fire crows brimming with menacing Demonic Qi occasionally flew past, letting out imposing cries. They appeared to be the guards of Tang Valley, driving away any uninvited guests.

Around Tang Valley, every demon was required to have a verifiable origin. Wild demons were forbidden from approaching.

As for the Human Race, their presence was even less conceivable.

Outside Tang Valley, there was no sign of human life.

The lame old man, however, was an exception.

He walked with his crutch all the way to the entrance of Tang Valley, yet the surrounding fire crow Guards seemed blind, every one of them turning a blind eye to the living, breathing human in their midst.

The old man, leaning on his crutch, walked openly into Tang Valley.

Though it was called a "valley," Tang Valley was vast, no smaller than any State City in the Great Zhou.

In the very center stood a Fusang Tree, so tall it pierced the heavens.

Below it grew various kinds of fiery trees, their branches dotted with nests of all shapes and sizes.

The lame old man’s steps seemed slow, but he moved with incredible speed, arriving in just a few paces beneath a massive, fiery tree not far from the Fusang Tree.

At the very top of the tree’s branches rested a colossal nest. It was spherical, looking more like a small sun hanging from the treetop, radiating boundless heat.

At the same time, sounds of demonic revelry—cries and howls of feasting—emanated from within the giant nest.

And what was the occasion for this feast?

It turned out that one of the humans raised as livestock by the Golden Crow Race had unexpectedly broken through to the Divinity Transformation Stage!

The girl was young, with tender skin and a pure Dharma Body. To say nothing of how delicious her flesh and bones would be, even a single strand of her hair was sure to be rich with Spiritual Qi, enough to be fought over by Little Demons.

The demons had now gathered, clamoring for this girl who had reached Divinity Transformation.

The Great Demons, one after another, spoke in human tongues, offering fawning compliments. "Who among all the demons in the world can compare to Young Master Wen? Only Young Master Wen, at such a tender age, could cultivate a human to the Divinity Transformation Stage! The effort it must have taken to raise such a specimen is simply unimaginable!"

"It’s not just the effort! More importantly, Young Master Wen is willing to share a human of this Level with all of us at this banquet."

"Exactly! If Young Master Wen hadn’t hosted this Divinity Transformation Banquet today, how would any of us ever get to taste a human at the Divinity Transformation Stage?"

"A toast to Young Master Wen!"

"A toast!"

"A toast!"

The demons all shouted in unison.

A jumble of voices, some shrill, some booming, rose from the crowd. "For the upcoming selection of the Demon Saint Palace’s Young Emperor, I’ll be the first to nominate Young Master Wen!"

"After feasting at Young Master Wen’s Divinity Transformation Banquet today, this old demon will surely serve as his vanguard in the future!"

"Meat and wine! Come on, everyone! HAHAHA..."

Amid the shouts, dozens of Little Demons worked together to push a massive rotating platform forward.

Atop the platform sat more than a dozen great cauldrons. Raging fires burned beneath them, and steam billowed from their mouths. Being cooked inside them were living, breathing people!

Some struggled to climb out, only to be beaten back by a barrier of bloody energy at the cauldron’s rim.

Some screamed in agony, their cries serving only as fodder for the demons’ amusement.

Others wore numb expressions, as if they weren’t the ones being boiled alive.

In the center, surrounded by the cauldrons, was a bound young woman, clad in mere scraps of cloth.

The girl’s expression was cold, almost sacred, and her eyes burned with a furious hatred.

Through the firelight, pairs of slavering demonic eyes stared at her. One demon leaped to his feet and cheered, "The Divinity Transformation human! That’s her! Truly pure and untainted, brimming with spirituality!"

"Young Master Wen, how should we eat this human?"

"Stewing or boiling it will ruin the flavor. Why not just eat it raw!"

As soon as this suggestion was made, the demons immediately erupted in another cheer.

The chaotic din was peppered with cries of: "Eat her raw! Eat her raw!"

At the head of the hall, Lu Wen of the Golden Crow Race rose to his feet. He wore a large black cloak, and aside from a cluster of flame-like feathers between his brows, his entire body was in human form. At a glance, he looked no different from an ordinary human youth.

Lu Wen slowly descended from his seat of honor and walked to the rotating platform in the center of the hall.

Facing the Divinity Transformation girl in the middle of the platform, Lu Wen turned his hand over, and a pitch-black dagger appeared in his palm.

"Everyone, raise your goblets!" Lu Wen declared, brandishing the dagger. "A meal like this is best enjoyed fresh. Today, we shall begin by drinking her blood!"

Before his words had even faded, the dagger flew toward the girl on the platform like a crow’s feather.

The blade was about to strike, threatening to spill the girl’s blood on the spot. But from out of the billowing steam, a crutch suddenly appeared.

The crutch moved so fast it seemed to transcend the very concept of speed, as if it had emerged from another time and space.

The crutch tapped Lu Wen between the eyebrows. This infamous Young Master of the Golden Crow Race, a Celestial Pride originally ranked third on the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List and now ranked fourth, was—just like that, with no chance to resist—

No, he did resist for an instant.

For that one instant, his eyes widened in shock and fury. Flames erupted from his body, burning the surrounding space until it twisted and warped.

But that single moment of resistance was ultimately not enough to change his fate of being killed.

The crutch had clearly struck him between the eyebrows, yet it was as if it had struck the very jugular of his fate.

A thin line of blood pierced straight through Lu Wen’s skull!

The next moment, he fell backward, his body reverting to its true form as he collapsed.

It was a massive Golden Crow, still standing ten feet tall even with its wings folded!

Everything happened so quickly that by the time Lu Wen had reverted to his true form, the cheers from the other demons in the hall had not yet died down—

The next moment, a terrifying, world-ending aura erupted from the center of Tang Valley, rising from high atop the Fusang Tree.

A majestic, immense voice thundered in fury: "Human! You dare sneak into Tang Valley and kill a Celestial Pride of my Demon Race. You are courting death!"

As the voice rang out, a giant, fiery-red claw tore through space and appeared abruptly before the lame old man.

The old man flicked his crutch, first snatching the Divinity Transformation girl who was tied to the center of the platform.

The crutch danced through the air, its movements like the ceaseless, surging torrent of a great river.

The old man let out a booming laugh. "That’s right, I killed your Demon Race’s Celestial Pride! So, the Demon Race is allowed to sneak into the Nine Provinces, for the strong to bully the weak, for a Demon Venerable to try and assassinate a Celestial Pride of my Human Race, but we humans are not allowed to strike back?"

"What kind of logic is that?"

"Today, I’ve killed one of yours just to let you demons know that the Human Race is not defenseless! Our Celestial Prides have their own elders to protect them!"

His laughter and the swing of his crutch together blasted a massive hole into the sky above Tang Valley.

From the Fusang Tree, a shadow that blotted out the sky and sun shot forth in an instant.

Above Tang Valley, endless flames burned, seeming to merge with the heavens.

Tens of thousands of li away, the Beichen Sword Immortal gazed eastward. He suddenly saw crimson clouds burning across the heavens and Demonic Qi surging into the sky. His Escape Light immediately slowed.

When the lame old man’s voice thundered across Tang Valley, the stunned Beichen Sword Immortal couldn’t help but curse. "Son of a bitch! Who the hell is that guy? He stole my chance to make a grand entrance!"