Chapter 347 - 346: Corpse of the Last True Demon Emperor (3)

The temperature within the chamber seemed to fall.

"One of them invoked not only Heaven’s might, but even the Fire Retribution. In doing so, he forced the Heavens to exert a pressure that the ancient seal could not withstand without consequence. The resulting disturbance further weakened the ward, causing even more cracks to spread through its already deteriorating foundation."

Gu Cangming’s eyes shone with a dark golden light.

"The spatial restrictions began to falter. The Demon Kings found better opportunities to cross the boundary, and the balance that had endured for ten thousand years started to collapse."

He slowly pressed his palm against the coffin, and the surrounding space trembled, and the ancient markings upon his arms began to glow more brightly.

"Their actions have disturbed an equilibrium that even the Grand Ascendants struggled to establish. Whether intentionally or otherwise, he has quickened the first key to my hands."

Gu Cangming leaned forward slightly, his golden eyes fixed upon the corpse within the coffin.

"And I, Gu Cangming, do not wait for destiny."

His voice became colder.

CRACK!

A sharp sound rang through the chamber.

The surface of the Abyssal Void-Amber developed a single hairline fracture beneath his palm. The crack was so small that an ordinary cultivator might have overlooked it, yet the instant it appeared, every ancient rune upon the coffin began to tremble violently.

The formation attempted to stabilize itself.

Golden light surged through the countless inscriptions, drawing upon the remaining power stored within the artifact. For ten thousand years, the Dao Coffin had resisted the erosion of time, preserving the Demon Emperor’s foundation against the decay of the world.

But the pressure now bearing down upon it was no longer something its creator could have anticipated.

Gu Cangming had not unleashed a technique.

He had not summoned a demonic storm or drawn upon the full might of his cultivation.

He had merely allowed his intent to press against the artifact.

Yet that intent carried the weight of an existence that had survived the ancient catastrophe, one whose understanding of the demonic laws had continued to deepen throughout ten thousand years of seclusion.

The second crack appeared.

Then the third.

Within moments, countless fractures spread across the coffin, dividing the translucent amber into a web of broken lines. The ancient runes flashed desperately, but their light grew increasingly faint as the pressure continued to rise.

Gu Cangming watched without moving.

His expression did not change when the formation began to collapse. He simply withdrew his hand and took half a step backward, allowing the artifact to reach the end of its ten-thousand-year duty.

BOOM!

The Dao Coffin shattered.

A billion glittering fragments erupted into the chamber, each piece of Abyssal Void-Amber carrying a faint remnant of the laws that had once preserved the corpse. The fragments scattered through the air like a river of broken stars, only to be reduced to dust before they could reach the ground.

The instant the seal broke, the aura of the fallen Demon Emperor erupted.

The entire chamber was swallowed by an apocalyptic pressure.

Ancient demonic laws collided with the remnants of the orthodox power that had killed the emperor, creating a storm of conflicting Dao principles. The stone floor cracked, the surrounding formations disintegrated, and the space above the platform twisted into layers of unstable darkness.

Even the slightest trace of that pressure would have been enough to pulverize an ordinary Peak Void Refinement Demon Lord.

The corpse had been dead for ten thousand years, yet its remaining foundation still possessed a terrifying power that ordinary cultivators could not endure. The force radiating from it was not merely spiritual energy. It was the lingering authority of an existence that had once stood above the demonic race, an ancient will that had once commanded armies capable of challenging the strongest powers of the lower world.

The remnants of the three Grand Ascendants’ laws remained embedded within the corpse, and they reacted violently to the sudden release of the demonic foundation. Golden chains of orthodox energy appeared around the enormous body, while black flames surged through its veins.

The two forces collided.

The resulting storm threatened to annihilate everything within the chamber.

Gu Cangming did not retreat.

Instead, he opened his arms.

His black robes fluttered violently, and his silver hair whipped around his shoulders as the pressure of the fallen emperor swept toward him. The storm struck his body with enough force to shatter mountains, yet his figure remained steady in the center of the chaos.

For the first time since entering the chamber, the dark markings upon his arms began to radiate an overwhelming light.

"Your era ended in failure, Emperor."

His voice rang above the roar of the conflicting laws.

"Your ambition was defeated, your armies were destroyed, and the world you sought to conquer was divided beyond recognition. The heavens you once challenged have changed, and the enemies who brought you down have long since disappeared from there."

Gu Cangming’s golden eyes shone with an increasingly terrifying brilliance.

"But your foundation remains."

He raised his arms slightly, allowing the storm to crash against his body.

"Your flesh will become my foundation. Your blood will nourish my demonic core. The laws you spent countless years comprehending will become stepping stones for my ascent."

His expression grew colder.

"You failed to reach the end of your path. I shall walk beyond the point where you fell."

The dark markings upon his arms suddenly separated from his skin.

They expanded into the air, transforming into enormous ethereal chains that stretched across the chamber. Each chain was covered with archaic symbols, and every symbol seemed to contain a different fragment of the demonic Dao.

The chains moved with terrifying precision.

One after another, they plunged into the colossal corpse.

The instant they made contact, the storm of conflicting laws erupted with renewed fury. Golden light surged from the wounds left by the Grand Ascendants, while black demonic energy poured from the corpse’s veins.

For a brief moment, it seemed as though the fallen emperor’s body might resist the process.

Then the chains tightened.

Gu Cangming activated his supreme demonic core.

A deep resonance spread through the chamber, followed by a pulse of energy so profound that the surrounding space seemed to lose its ability to remain stable. The chains began drawing upon the corpse’s remaining foundation, extracting the ancient essence that had been preserved within its flesh for ten thousand years.

This was not ordinary consumption.

Gu Cangming was not simply absorbing spiritual energy or refining the corpse into a medicinal resource. He was integrating the foundation of a former emperor into his own existence, drawing upon the physical body, the demonic bloodline, the indestructible marrow, and the fragments of Dao laws that remained within the fallen sovereign.

It was a process that ordinary cultivators would not even dare to imagine.

The greater the cultivation of a being, the more difficult it became to absorb its foundation. Even if a cultivator possessed a suitable technique, the difference between their own Dao and that of the target could cause their cultivation to collapse. A single incompatible law could destroy the meridians, shatter the spiritual sea, and turn the attempt at advancement into a fatal mistake.

But Gu Cangming had spent ten thousand years preparing for this moment.

He knew the corpse.

He understood its foundation.

And he had waited until the Nine Heavens Ward began to weaken before making his move.

The enormous body of the Demon Emperor gradually began to dissolve.

Its flesh broke apart into streams of dark golden liquid, while the marrow within its bones transformed into brilliant droplets of demonic essence. The blood that had once flowed through its veins emerged in twisting rivers, carrying traces of the ancient emperor’s authority.

Every stream was drawn toward the ethereal chains.

Every fragment of essence was guided into Gu Cangming’s body.

His spiritual sea began to expand.

The dark golden streams poured into its depths, colliding with his existing foundation and causing waves of overwhelming energy to spread in every direction. His supreme demonic core revolved at an increasingly terrifying speed, devouring the incoming essence and transforming it into a force that his body could gradually assimilate.

The ancient markings upon his arms shone like stars in a boundless night sky.

His flesh trembled.

His bones resonated.

His meridians expanded as the power of the fallen emperor flowed through them, forcing his body to undergo a transformation that ordinary cultivation methods could never achieve.

Gu Cangming threw his head back.

His silver hair spread through the storm like a river of moonlight, while the black robes covering his body fluttered beneath the pressure of the rising energy. His expression remained composed, but the sheer force pouring into him was so immense that the chamber could no longer contain it.

The mountain above him began to crack.

Deep fissures spread through its enormous body, extending from the summit to the buried foundations. The surrounding formations collapsed one after another, unable to withstand the pressure radiating from the subterranean chamber.

Yet Gu Cangming continued absorbing the emperor’s foundation.

The barrier that had restrained him for thousands of years finally began to shake.