Prime Originator

"I see… You don't want it. I guess I'll find another lovely lady to give these to," Leon teased while withdrawing the items. 

However, Aria quickly hoarded them back while pouting, "You're bullying me! Hmph, I dare you to find another lady!" 

"That's what you said; don't you forget it," Leon grinned without backing down.

"You…! Hmph!" Aria snorted. 

Seeing how Leon acted, she no longer felt bad about taking all the Tier-6 and Tier-7 artifacts he offered. 

Meanwhile, the One-Eyed Venerable Shaman glanced at the Tier-6 artifacts in Aria's arms before he softly muttered with envy, "If this old man can receive this many precious artifacts, this old man wouldn't mind being bullied like this…" 

Alas, everyone overheard him before they started giving him weird looks. 

Sensing the odd stares, the One-Eyed Venerable Shaman glances up at them before he suddenly realizes what he just said.

His words were very ambiguous and easy to give people the wrong idea.

"W-wait, this old man didn't mean it that way…" the One-Eyed Venerable Shaman tried to explain, but he struggled to convince everyone.

Alas, he dug this grave himself and jumped into it. 

"Ahem, anyway," Leon cleared his throat with a cough before changing the topic.

"Senior One-Eye is a Half-step Battle King now, but you shouldn't stop here. Since there's nothing urgent, Senior One-Eye should take this chance to push all the way to the Battle King Realm."

"Since Young Master Leonhardt said so, this old man will follow your wish," the One-Eyed Venerable Shaman nodded. 

Shortly after, Leon went to inform the Sky Sword Tribe, Western Blackriver Tribe, Ember Lion Tribe, and Cold Gale Tribe of the Dark Fae Clan and laid down some ground rules to avoid internal conflict. 

Then, he had Saresha and the rest of her clansmen stand guard on the central forest's perimeters before he headed over to the mountain of demon corpses. 

"Is this all of them?" Leon asks. 

"Mm," Aria responded with a nod before adding, "I'm not sure if I missed any, but this was all I can find in the area." 

There were at least 300 Greater Demons in the corpse mountain; considering each Greater Demon possesses roughly six different origin blood, that adds up to 1800 origin blood. 

There are bound to be quite a few unique types of origin blood Leon had yet to absorb among them.

Furthermore, two Arch Demons are included on top of that, namely, the Two-Headed Cyclops Arch Demon and the Evil Eye Arch Demon. 

"This is good; I should be able to advance the Everlasting Blood Mantra a fair bit with this many demon corpses. Thank you, Aria." 

Leon held Aria's soft hands and gazed at her before asking, "How's your cultivation going? Any bottlenecks?"

"Not for the time being. This secret realm's environment isn't suitable for comprehending the Ice and Lightning Law, but there's much for me to learn from the Tier-7 Divine Sword's sword aura. I feel that I am close to forming my own Sword Intent."

Aria replied without looking at Leon, still feeling grumpy about the previous matter, but at the same time, she enjoyed the intimate attention she was receiving.

"Oh?" Leon softly exclaimed with astonishment while not minding her little tantrum. 

"That's great. Once your Sword Intent is formed, you'll be able to exert even more power with the Tier-7 Divine Sword." 

"Mm, I also think so," Aria nodded in agreement.

"Aria, you should also focus on your cultivation while the situation isn't urgent," Leon stated before mentioning, "We might have repelled the demons, but there's no telling when more powerful demons come." 

"Mm, I'll listen to you." Aria complied obediently. 

Everyone is improving by leaps and bounds, but the demons are improving just as much—if not even greater than humans.

No, the latter was more likely to be true. 

Unlike any other place on the Dark Abyss Continent, the secret realm provided the best environment for the demons to grow with its overflowing dark energy. 

After Aria found a spot in the ashen trees to cultivate, Leon collected all the demon blood from the mountain of demon corpses before shifting his focus on studying the two Arch Demons' bodies.

"These two Arch Demons had powerful physiques—no, all the Greater Demons also had strong physiques, a clear result of Body Cultivation; yet they also have energy cores like Energy Cultivators…"

Leon furrowed his brows in thought while wondering whether the Arch Demons also had Arch Demon-level demon cores in their bodies.

As he suspected, after opening up the Arch Demons' bodies, he found the Arch Demon-level demon cores.

"The demon's cultivation method, this is something I don't quite understand. How can demons have energy cores when they have strong physiques? They have to be dual cultivating energy and body to have both—No, wait."

While pondering on the matter as he extracts demon cores from the demon corpses, he suddenly discovered the location of the demon cores varied from demon to demon. 

"What is this? Most demon cores are located in the demons' glabellas, but there are some located in their stomachs, chests, and hearts?" he muttered with doubt. 

After musing for a short while, his eyes suddenly flickers. 

'I understand now; these demon core locations are the locations of the Eight Hidden Gates! The demons open their Eight Hidden Gates prematurely, giving them early boosts in physical strength at the cost of their latent potential!'

In the Godfiend Body Forging Method, the Body Tempering and Body Transformation Realm must be complete before opening the Eight Hidden Gates, but the demons did not seem to abide by this rule.

"Humans don't have the same regenerative abilities and study bodies like demons; they need to build up their foundation before they attempt the opening of the Eight Hidden Gates… If they try to adopt the demons' method…" 

Death was likely their outcome. 

The opening of the Eight Hidden Gates was a dangerous task that humans could not achieve with their fragile bodies. 

Their eight hidden gate locations would simply rupture from the tremendous stress of energy flow placed on them.