Chapter 349 - 348: Quasi Demon Emperor (2)

Gu Cangming voice was soft, almost conversational, yet the words seemed to linger in the air long after he had spoken them.

"Across the entirety of the Hollow Beyond and the Nine Provinces, there is not a single entity capable of standing before me."

He raised his gaze toward the distant horizon.

"I could march into the Nine Province today and grind the Five Emperors into bloody dust with a single thought."

There was no anger in his voice, nor did he appear particularly excited by the prospect. He spoke as though he were discussing an ordinary matter, something so insignificant that it barely deserved his attention.

The Five Emperors are among the strongest cultivators of the Nine Provinces.

They commanded immense territories, controlled countless cultivation resources, and possessed the authority to summon the greatest experts of the lower world. Their combined strength had preserved the balance of the Nine Provinces for generations, and even the most powerful Demon Lords treated their existence with caution.

But to Gu Cangming, they were no longer worthy of concern.

Their cultivation might have reached the limits of their era, and their authority might have been sufficient to command the entire Nine Province, but the gap between them and a Quasi Demon Emperor was now too great to ignore.

If Gu Cangming truly wished to kill them, he would not need to lead an army across the boundary.

He would not need to devise a complicated strategy or spend years weakening their defenses.

His own cultivation was enough.

The thought, however, failed to satisfy him.

His smile gradually faded as he looked toward the distant sky, where the corrosive purple clouds of the Hollow Beyond had begun to gather once more.

"But to what end?"

The question drifted through the air.

Gu Cangming shook his head, and a trace of disdain appeared upon his flawless features.

"To conquer a fractured realm? To claim a world burdened with broken Dao laws and anemic spiritual veins?"

He raised one hand, allowing a faint stream of black energy to revolve around his fingers.

"The Nine Provinces may have once been the center of an extraordinary cultivation civilization, but that era has long since passed. Its spiritual veins have weakened, its ancient inheritances have disappeared, and its strongest cultivators spend their lives competing over the remnants of a world that has already begun to decline."

His golden eyes narrowed.

"Capturing that pathetic remnant would be a victory hollower than the abyss in which we reside."

He slowly closed his hand, causing the black energy to disappear.

"I, Gu Cangming, do not conquer mud."

The words carried a cold finality.

For ten thousand years, the Hollow Beyond had been regarded as a prison by those who remembered the ancient war. Its demons fought among themselves for territory and resources, while the strongest among them dreamed of breaking through the Nine Heavens Ward and claiming the lower world.

They regarded the Nine Provinces as a prize.

To them, that fractured world represented freedom, fertile cultivation grounds, and an opportunity to reclaim the glory their ancestors had lost.

Gu Cangming considered such ambitions beneath him.

The Nine Provinces were not the destination he sought.

They were merely a stepping stone.

He lifted his head higher, looking beyond the corrosive clouds, beyond the distant boundaries of the Hollow Beyond, and toward a place that lay far above the world he had spent ten thousand years enduring.

The Imperial Domain.

A realm where the ancient powers had gathered after the catastrophe, carrying with them the pure Dao, supreme spiritual veins, and the inheritances that had once belonged to the whole world.

It was the place where the descendants of the ancient cultivators had established their strongest foundations.

It was the place from which the powers had sealed the gates and abandoned the rest to their fate.

And it was the place Gu Cangming intended to conquer.

"They fled to the Imperial Domain," he declared, his voice carrying a growing intensity. "They took the pure Dao, they took the supreme spiritual veins, and they locked the gates behind them."

The dark light surrounding his body brightened.

"They believed that sealing the boundary would allow them to preserve their authority forever. They believed that the Demon Realm would gradually weaken until its inhabitants became nothing more than remnants of a defeated race."

A cold smile returned to his lips.

"How foolish."

The space behind him trembled, forming countless faint ripples that spread across the sky. The pressure surrounding his body continued to rise, and the distant clouds began to revolve around his position.

"They have enjoyed ten thousand years of peace while we have endured ten thousand years of decay. They have inherited the fruits of the ancient world while we have been forced to fight over the scraps left behind."

His golden eyes burned with an ambition that had survived the passage of ages.

"That ends now."

Gu Cangming spread his arms slightly, and the black light surrounding his body expanded.

"If I am to rule, I shall rule from the apex. I have no interest in becoming the strongest creature within a broken world, nor will I waste my life fighting over a handful of dying spiritual veins."

His voice suddenly became powerful enough to shake the surrounding space.

"My goal is the Imperial Domain!"

The words spread through the Hollow Beyond like a proclamation from an ancient sovereign.

"I, Gu Cangming, shall tear down their golden gates and take the true heavens for the Demon Race!"

For a brief moment, the entire region seemed to tremble in response.

Then Gu Cangming released his aura.

It began as a subtle change in the surrounding atmosphere, a faint pressure that spread outward from his body. Within the next instant, that pressure transformed into an overwhelming force that swept across the horizon like a cosmic tsunami.

The Quasi Demon Emperor’s aura expanded without restraint.

It crossed mountain ranges, swallowed vast wastelands, and passed over countless demonic territories. The corrosive storms that had plagued the Hollow Beyond for thousands of years were flattened beneath its advance, while the spiritual energy scattered throughout the realm was forced to settle.

The pressure did not distinguish between the weak and the strong.

It did not care whether a creature possessed an ancient bloodline or had cultivated for countless years.

Everything beneath the heavens was forced to acknowledge the existence of the being who had just ascended.

From the deepest acid oceans to the highest bone-spire cities, the Hollow Beyond fell into an unnatural silence.

The endless wars that had consumed the demonic race suddenly stopped.

Armies that had been fighting over territory froze in place, their weapons slipping from their hands as the overwhelming pressure descended upon them. Demonic beasts fled into their lairs, while enormous creatures that had ruled entire mountain ranges lowered their heads and trembled.

The skies themselves seemed to bow.

Across the vast territories of the Hollow Beyond, countless Demon Lords felt their cultivation suppressed by an authority that stood above their own. Their spiritual seas trembled, their demonic cores slowed, and the laws they had spent thousands of years comprehending became difficult to summon.

In their palaces, Sha Wujue and Bai Sha experienced the same terrifying sensation.

The two Demon Lords had ruled their respective territories through strength and bloodshed. Their names carried weight throughout the Hollow Beyond, and their cultivation had allowed them to stand among the strongest beings of the current era.

Yet when Gu Cangming’s aura reached them, both of them collapsed to their knees.

Their Demon Lord cultivation was suppressed so thoroughly that even attempting to stand became an impossible task. The spiritual energy within their bodies seemed to have been frozen, and their demonic cores trembled beneath the pressure.

Sha Wujue’s expression changed dramatically.

He had experienced the auras of many powerful Demon Lords throughout his life, including those whose cultivation stood at the peak of the current realm. He had also heard ancient accounts of the beings who had participated in the Great War, figures whose power had once shaken the foundations of the lower world.

But this aura was different.

It carried a depth that ordinary Demon Lords could not possess, along with a majesty that seemed to originate from an age when the laws of the world had been far more complete.

Sha Wujue raised his head with difficulty, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"Impossible..."

***

A/N: How have you been enjoying the Chapters lately? Any complaints, comments them and I will immediately address them.

And how do you see Gu Cangming as a character? I took heavy inspiration from An Lan from Perfect World.