Rise of the Demon God

Long Chen had broken through to the Divine Saint Emperor Realm, which meant that even in the Immortal World, he was one of the higher echelon cultivators now. 

He was the strongest of the strong, all without having to cultivate for millions of years. He wasn't even thirty years old now. 

While Long Chen disappeared from the mountain where he broke through, the four envoys stood back disappointed. 

It was only after a long time that they finally moved and went to the mountain. 

"What are we going to answer his Majesty? He will kill us if he knows we lost him," The Second Envoy said, frowning. 

"Even I don't know. I guess we can only tell him the truth. It's not like we can keep it a secret while we find that man in secret?" The Third Envoy muttered.

He glanced at the device which was in his hand which they used to trace Long Chen's aura. 

"Moreover, it's not like we can find him again ourselves. Now that he broke through to the higher realms, he has shed his old aura. His new aura will be completely different.  We can't track him with the aura we had," he further said, disappointed. 

"I agree. We can't find him, but what can we even do? We already sent one of us to tell the Emperor that the rumor was true and that there was someone from the Heavenly Demon Race that we were after. We can't even tell him that the rumor was wrong," the first envoy said, frowning.

"How about we tell His Majesty that by the time we got here, he was long gone. Just tell him that he sent us late. If we were sent sooner, we might be able to catch him? Or we can tell him that we killed Long Chen and his body disappeared?" The Second Envoy suggested. 

"You mean lie to him?" The first envoy asked. 

"We might be killed if we tell him the truth. Come on; you'll be in a mess too if we all told the truth since he'll know that you lost his artifact to a thief in the Immortal World, which was why we were delayed. So it's better if we make up a story. As long as we're careful, we will survive," the Second Envoy explained. 

...

A portal opened in the middle of a forest in the Immortal World. A man stepped out of the portal and instantly dropped to his knees as he felt like he was dying. 

He kept vomiting as his face turned pale. 

"Now that all that rush is gone, I truly feel the consequences of my action," Long Chen said before he vomited again. 

"Come on; it could've been much worse. Take a life healing pill and give your body rest. Also, start meditating. Some of the sickness is because you absorbed much more energy than your body could get in a thousand years. You've crossed the threshold, and that's why you feel sick. You'll be fine," Xun answered Long Chen as she appeared behind him again. 

Long Chen brought out another life healing pill and swallowed it but soon, he vomited again, letting the pill out.

"I don't think I can swallow anything. I'll let the natural process take place,"  Long Chen said as he sighed. 

It was only after thirty minutes when his body finally felt calm. He dragged his body away from all the vomit and sat with the support of a tree. 

His pale face made him seem like he had just returned from death. 

"Feeling better?" Xun asked him, sitting nearby.

"Hah, yeah," Long Chen muttered. "Half an hour of misery for thousands of years of cultivation? I'll call it a worthy exchange, I think."

"Not so fast. Your sickness was only a minor part of that breakthrough. But as you may know, your breakthroughs were more than even I expected. After having so many breakthroughs, do you know your core? Just glance inside for a moment," Xun told Long Chen. 

"Huh?" Frowning, Long Chen glanced at his Red Core inside his Martial Space. 

As he noticed the red core, he was amazed to see that it was many times bigger. Not only that but there were also a few cracks around it. 

"What's that?" He asked Xun.

"After so many breakthroughs, your cultivation is unstable. Fortunately, you have that red core and your special bloodline, which managed to keep things in place. If it were a normal core, it would have been destroyed long ago," Xun told Long Chen.

"Fortunately, you're special. So it's only minor. All you need is to meditate and stabilize your sudden cultivation boost. It might take a few months, but it'll be healed," she further said.

"Ah, did you know my core would hold on?" Long Chen asked Xun, concerned. Did he really do all that while risking his cultivation?

"I had an idea, but I didn't know how worse it was going to be. Surprisingly, it's only minor. You're pretty lucky," Xun answered. 

"Ah, may I ask why you didn't tell me when I was absorbing all that energy?" Long Chen asked.

"How would I have known that you were going to invite a Second Tribulation with your breakthroughs? Until then, it was fine. But by the time the second Tribulation came, I realized that there was a risk, but I couldn't do anything. You know why?" Xun asked Long Chen.

"Why?" Long Chen inquired. 

"Because the Second Tribulation was much worse. Without the sword time, you would have been a thousand times dead already. So even if you know, you couldn't do anything. It wasn't as if you could put the sword down to stop absorbing."

"And you can't control the sword enough either to stop that absorption while holding it. We don't even know everything about this sword. So even if I had told you, nothing would have changed. The only thing that would have changed is your confidence."

"If you knew you had such a risk, you might have caved under pressure. Anyway, why are we even talking about this? Nothing happened," Xun answered Long Chen. 

"Anyway, you should start meditating to stabilize your cultivation, or this change would become permanent," she further said.

Long Chen didn't waste any time. He didn't want a cracked red core to become permanent, or a random breakthrough in the future could destroy it. He needed to stabilize his cultivation before moving."

Long Chen took a proper position as he started trying to stabilize his cultivation. 

He didn't know that the forest he was inside was the personal hunting ground of a Clan in the Immortal World, and some people were entering the forest now.