Chapter 345 - 344: Corpse of the Last True Demon Emperor

Gu Cangming walked across the obsidian floor with his hands clasped behind his back, his pace unhurried and his expression indifferent. Each step echoed softly through the vast chamber, a sound that lingered far longer than it should have, as though the darkness itself were listening.

His black robes seemed to absorb the dim light surrounding him, leaving only the ancient markings upon his arms visible beneath the darkness. Those markings pulsed rhythmically, each faint flicker accompanied by a resonance that seemed to originate from the depths of a distant age.

He did not deliberately release his aura, nor did he attempt to intimidate the world around him. Nevertheless, the surrounding space bent imperceptibly with every step he took, and the laws governing the chamber seemed to grow increasingly cautious in his presence. The dust that had settled over ten thousand years drifted away from his path, unwilling to touch him.

It was as though even the ancient Dao itself remembered the name of the man walking through the darkness.

Gu Cangming.

The Eternal Calamity Demon Lord.

Throughout the history of the Hollow Beyond, countless powerful figures had risen and fallen. Some had established vast territories, others had founded powerful clans, and a few had even attempted to unite the scattered Demon Lords beneath a single banner. Their names had once resounded across the realm, inspiring fear in their enemies and reverence among their followers.

But time was merciless.

The great figures of one era eventually became nothing more than names recorded in ancient texts, while their descendants fought over whatever remnants of their former glory remained.

Gu Cangming was different.

He had witnessed the rise and fall of powers that the current Demon Lords knew only through legends. He had walked through battlefields where the laws of Heaven and Earth had collapsed, and he had survived catastrophes that had erased entire bloodlines from existence.

Even among the oldest surviving Demon Lords, his history remained a subject that few dared to discuss casually. When his name was spoken at all, it was spoken in lowered voices, and the speaker would often glance over their shoulder afterward.

There were beings who possessed power.

There were beings who possessed authority.

And then there was Gu Cangming, a figure whose very existence connected the present era to the horrors of an age that most cultivators could scarcely imagine.

He had once stood beneath an unbroken heaven.

He had witnessed the true Demon Emperor descend upon the battlefield.

And he had survived the destruction that followed.

Now, after ten thousand years of silence, he had awakened once more.

Before long, Gu Cangming arrived at the center of the enormous chamber, where a solitary object rested upon an elevated platform of black stone. The air here felt different, colder and heavier, as if time itself moved more slowly around the platform.

It was a coffin.

Yet calling it a coffin did little justice to the artifact before him.

The Dao Coffin had been carved from a single, flawless block of Abyssal Void-Amber, a material so rare that even a fragment would have been considered a priceless treasure in the current era.

Its translucent surface contained countless microscopic runes, each one intricately arranged according to principles that had long since disappeared from the cultivation world. A faint, deep glow shimmered within the amber, like light trapped at the bottom of an endless sea.

Those runes did not merely seal the object within.

They suppressed the passage of time itself, freezing the conceptual decay of the entity resting inside and preventing the remaining foundation of that existence from dispersing into the surrounding world.

Even after ten thousand years, the Dao Coffin remained intact.

It had endured the passage of ages, the collapse of ancient formations, and the gradual deterioration of the laws surrounding the Hollow Beyond. It had preserved its contents through a period in which entire civilizations had disappeared. Not a single crack marred its surface, and not a single rune had faded.

Yet as Gu Cangming approached, the runes engraved upon its surface began to tremble.

One by one, they emitted faint golden sparks.

The Abyssal Void-Amber responded to his presence as though it had encountered an existence it could neither suppress nor reject. A low hum filled the chamber, soft yet unmistakable, like a greeting exchanged between old acquaintances.

Gu Cangming stopped before the coffin and lowered his gaze.

Through the translucent amber, he could see a colossal figure suspended within. The figure’s body remained remarkably well preserved, its skin retaining a dark golden sheen, while faint traces of ancient demonic patterns covered its enormous frame. Although the corpse had been motionless for ten thousand years, an indescribable majesty still lingered within it.

Even in death, the figure possessed an aura that seemed to place it above the countless living beings who inhabited the Hollow Beyond. The pressure was subtle, yet it pressed against the chamber like a mountain resting upon a single feather.

This was no ordinary Demon Lord.

It was the corpse of the last true Demon Emperor.

For several breaths, Gu Cangming remained silent as he gazed upon the ancient remains. The golden sparks danced across his face, and the markings on his arms pulsed in time with the runes, as though the two were speaking in a language older than words. His golden eyes, flecked with dark radiance, reflected the outline of the fallen emperor, and a rare trace of emotion appeared within their depths.

It was not grief.

Nor was it reverence.

It was the recognition of a power that had once stood at the summit of the demonic race, a power whose death had changed the fate of the entire world.

Ten thousand years ago, when the heavens were whole and the earth was unbroken, the cultivation world had been far more prosperous, and the great powers of that era had commanded resources and inheritances that had long since vanished.

It was during that ancient age that the Demon Realm launched its apocalyptic crusade against the lower world.

The demonic elites crossed the boundaries between realms, bringing destruction wherever their armies passed. Countless cities were reduced to ruins, entire sects were erased from existence, and the rivers of the lower world ran red beneath the endless battles between the demonic race and the cultivators.

At the center of that catastrophe stood the last true Demon Emperor.