Chapter 132: The Name of the Demon Venerable

Five years passed in the blink of an eye.

Among the myriad cultivators of the Heavenly Abyss Sea, the legends surrounding Grand Ancestor Jiuyou had not dimmed in the slightest. Instead, they snowballed, spreading across the four seas and eight wastes to become the supreme topic of daily discussion.

This was especially true when the denizens of the Abyssal Sea learned that Grand Ancestor Jiuyou had returned to the Demonic Path Alliance, becoming its second Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator. The news shocked the world. Cultivators stared in disbelief or lay awake all night, while others flat-out refused to believe it, declaring the news a hoax.

It wasn't until the month after Jiuyou met with Gu Xuanzhou that the Demonic Path Alliance formally announced it to the entire Heavenly Abyss Sea: they would be hosting the grandest, most spectacular Grand Demon Exaltation Ceremony in nearly a century!

When the order went out, not a single Demonic Path faction in the Heavenly Abyss Sea dared to defy it or skip the event.

Major and minor Demonic Path sects, rogue cultivator overlords, and unorthodox factions all turned out in full force, swarming toward Endless Island.

The rules of the world had always been cruel, and the cultivation world even more so—might makes right! To miss this ceremony was to openly defy Endless Island's authority and scorn Jiuyou, the newly crowned Demonic Path titan.

After that, hoping to gain a foothold in the Heavenly Abyss Sea's Demonic Path, preserve a sect's inheritance, or cultivate in peace would be pure delusion!

Old friends and new acquaintances gathered in a throng at the ceremony.

Blood Sea True Person, Yin Bone Old Demon, Mo Tiancheng... familiar faces appeared before Jiuyou one by one. A hundred years had rushed by; these old demons who had once dominated their respective corners of the sea now had frost at their temples and aging dao bodies, their cultivation stagnant as they wasted away in their original realms.

When they personally saw this dying old man—who had been stuck at the Nascent Soul Early Stage for hundreds of years with his lifespan nearly exhausted—now reverting to his youth, breaking through to the Nascent Soul Late Stage, and suppressing all four directions, the shock and complex emotions in their hearts were indescribable.

More than a few swallowed hard.

Jiuyou merely stood there calmly, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. He exerted no deliberate pressure and displayed no intentional bluster, yet every one of the hundreds of Demonic Path cultivators present lowered their heads slightly without exception.

Not out of fear, but out of reverence for a Grand Cultivator—a submission from the bottom of their hearts.

During a lull in the ceremony, Jiuyou happened to hear news of old acquaintances.

He learned that his old friends, Blood Vine and Blood Withered the Old Monk... had passed away one after another, swallowed by the river of time.

He remained silent for a moment and said nothing more. The path of immortality was simply like this. Limited lifespans, fickle fortunes, old friends withering away while new figures rose to the top—these were simply the cultivation world's eternal iron laws. There was no need for sighs or sentiment.

The ceremony lasted three days and three nights.

Almost every cultivator in the entire Heavenly Abyss Sea—whether present in person, watching from afar, or hearing the tales from others—witnessed this moment:

The Heavenly Abyss Sea had welcomed its fourth Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator.

For those three days, countless Demonic Path cultivators gathered together, shouting Jiuyou's name at the top of their lungs. Some screamed until their voices gave out, some had tears brimming in their eyes, and some proclaimed the title "Demon Venerable" on the spot to show their reverence.

From then on, the name "Demon Venerable Nine Nether" truly resounded across the entire Heavenly Abyss Sea.

That day, the Demonic Path boiled over.

Innumerable Demonic Path cultivators worshipped him fanatically. Quite a few minor market towns, rogue cultivator forces, and even unorthodox sects like the Evil Soul Path changed their names one after another, adopting "Soul-Ghost" as their appellation to express their reverence for Demon Venerable Nine Nether.

Meanwhile, the Righteous Path Alliance fell into a dead silence. With the Demonic Path gaining a second Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator, the Righteous Path would inevitably suffer unprecedented suppression in the future. Some faces turned ashen, some sighed, and even more secretly calculated whether they should curry favor with the Demonic Path in advance.

The news reached the Lingchuan Continent, leaving every major power equally stunned. The top-tier cultivators, especially, felt their hearts grow heavy.

Though Lingchuan claimed to have four Nascent Soul Late Stage combatants, the Ink Dragon and Brush Phoenix of the Southern Heaven Alliance were merely a pair of Middle Nascent Soul Stage spouses who, by joining forces and using a secret technique, could temporarily match late-stage power.

When it came down to it, there was still a gap in true strength.

Yet the Heavenly Abyss Sea now had four Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivators.

And one of them had killed his way to the top.

Demon Venerable Nine Nether—thoroughly deserving.

...

Abyssal Spirit Island, Abyss Spirit City.

Five years on, the city hadn't changed much, yet it was even more prosperous than before.

Lanterns and streamers hung everywhere, spiritual lights intertwined, and a hubbub of voices rose from the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. Hawkers' cries and bargaining voices rose and fell in the market towns; multicolored spiritual lights wove back and forth above the city.

This city, having risen on the back of the ancient Cross-Domain Teleportation Array, had now become the core hub connecting the Heavenly Abyss Sea and the Lingchuan Continent. Its prosperity was unrivaled among the near-sea islands.

But deep within this bustling, clamorous city, there was a remote, hidden spot.

Spiritual energy was dense here, tucked away in the depths of Abyssal Spirit Mountain far from the market din—a superb, secluded cultivation dao field. Restrictions and arrays covered the surroundings, leaving outsiders without a way in.

In the center of the dao field, a blue-robed figure sat quietly in meditation.

Jiuyou's long hair hung loose, his face tranquil. Before him floated a sphere of deep blue light, its spiritual radiance flowing and flickering unpredictably.

Within the light sphere, a sinuous, slender figure could vaguely be seen swimming—shaped like a flood dragon, its entire body a dark blue. It was precisely the Heaven Flood Dragon King's Essence Soul. Wisps of cyan light flowed from Jiuyou's body like trickling streams, coiling upward and slowly merging into the light sphere.

As these streams of light poured in, the blue sphere grew increasingly condensed, and the flood dragon phantom inside became more active, as if about to break out of its shell at any moment.

In the distance, a streak of rosy light approached from afar, landing soundlessly outside the dao field. Close behind came hurried footsteps. A middle-aged Daoist clutching a jade tablet hurried over, finally stopping silently before a curtain of light, not daring to step a single pace inside.

Jiuyou slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air. He raised a hand, drawing the light sphere into his sleeve, then waved casually; the defensive barrier enveloping the entire dao field slowly dissipated.

Only then did the Daoist carefully enter. With his face full of reverence, he came before Jiuyou and respectfully presented the jade tablet with both hands.

"Reporting to Elder Jiuyou. This is the exclusive jade tablet for the Ancient Teleportation Array that you requested. Tomorrow is the day the grand array restarts for cross-domain teleportation; holding this token will grant you unimpeded passage."

Jiuyou nodded slightly, drew the jade tablet into his hand with a lift of his palm, and gave a soft, "Mm."

"You may withdraw."

"This subordinate takes his leave."

The Daoist bowed and retreated, his figure soon vanishing beyond the restrictions.

Jiuyou toyed with the jade tablet in his hand, casually tucked it into his storage pouch, and turned his gaze back to the deep blue light sphere in his sleeve.

The Heaven Flood Dragon King's Essence Soul had once been polluted by the blood mist, leaving its soul power considerably weaker than the two he had obtained earlier. To be safe, he hadn't rushed to refine it. Instead, he had spent years hunting demon beasts in the Outer Sea, capturing enough souls to refine them one by one and fuse them into the essence soul.

After five years of nurturing, the essence soul had recovered more than half its strength. He estimated it would take no more than a few years for it to fully manifest a Tier 10 Demon King's pressure once again.

Besides that, he had also sorted through quite a few items over the past years. After exterminating four sects, the storage pouches of those Nascent Soul cultivators had all fallen into his hands. Rare materials, various spirit pills, middle-grade and high-grade spirit stones... they piled up like mountains. Just taking inventory had taken him several days.

Jiuyou silently tallied it up in his mind—to say his current net worth ranked first among the combined forces of the Heavenly Abyss Sea and Lingchuan would be no exaggeration.

Among the loot, he had also discovered several extremely yin-attributed spirit medicines of excellent quality.

After ripening them with the Little Green Bottle, he fed them all to the Soul-Eating Insects. Following decades of meticulous cultivation, the swarm had nearly metamorphosed; the vast majority had completed their mutation. Their bodies were a dark purple, with dense golden patterns covering their carapaces and eyes as pitch-black as ink.

Under his command now, these spirit insects were enough to fight a Middle Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

The Insect King was even more ferocious; when it perched on his shoulder, its mere aura was enough to make one's heart palpitate.

During these years, he had also refined three nascent souls at the Nascent Soul Early Stage. Had he not feared the backlash of rushing the process, he would have completely refined and absorbed those two at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage long ago.

Throughout the process, he incidentally refined the baleful aura he had accumulated from his killings, converting it all for his own use.

By now, these trivial matters were more or less finished.

But there was still one important matter that required his personal attention.

At a thought from Jiuyou, a strand of white-gold fierce flame roared out from his body, slowly revolving around him. The Golden Sun True Flame danced, its surging heat waves casting his youthful face in alternating light and shadow.

He raised his hand, his five fingers slowly closing to firmly grip the ceaselessly pulsing Golden Sun True Flame.

...