CHAPTER 856: CHAPTER 579: A WORLD IN THE PALM

Over the past years.

Lu Chenzhou had been secretly monitoring the Great Rift Valley all along.

Several years ago, the Blood Flood Dragon Demon Venerable had already left.

The Devouring Country Demon Venerable led a Demon Race army to garrison the rift.

It seemed the Demon Race had also discovered the ancient cultivation cave mansion, but unable to enter, they temporarily guarded the area.

...

At the Great Rift Valley.

Demon energy soared to the heavens, as three million Demon Race soldiers camped here.

There were as many as four Demon Emperors, the strongest among them not weaker than the top ten Heavenly Persons.

A big-bellied, azure-maned lion-faced demon lay on a jade bed, lazily popping one after another of human-flesh-refined spiritual elixirs into his mouth.

"Stay sharp, everyone. It’s suspected that a Human Clan expert above the Sixth Realm is hiding in this world, and he’s already killed quite a few of our brothers."

Burping, the Devouring Country Demon Venerable stroked his belly and said: "Go catch me some more people, younger ones this time, with as high a cultivation as possible."

"Demon Venerable, there aren’t many survivors left in the Kun Gu Realm now."

"Hmm? The Meat Forest isn’t finished yet?"

"Still under construction."

The so-called Meat Forest is what the Lord of Mountains’ demons build after conquering a world, establishing a Blood Food Forest according to the laws of the Stars.

Once the Meat Forest is completed, all life born in that world carries demon energy—they become demons.

These demons are either sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder, or eaten by high-level demons as food.

The greatest advantage of these demons is their rapid breeding—they can quickly regenerate.

To build the Meat Forest requires a complex sacrificial ritual, inviting the Lord of Mountains’ will to descend across worlds, devouring the native world’s will and taking its place.

Once the Meat Forest is complete, the will of the world is utterly subdued, and it becomes a paradise for the birth of demons—normal beings can never be born again.

Such is the overbearing nature of the Laws of the Stars—it imposes its own will, transforming this universe and assimilating all.

Now, the Meat Forest ritual had already begun in the Corpse Palace.

...

Using the "Hidden Essence Technique" to conceal his presence, Lu Chenzhou moved past a host of demons, walking in the shadow—utterly unnoticed.

Even the Devouring Country Demon Venerable at the entrance didn’t sense him.

He wasn’t afraid of the Devouring Country Demon Venerable.

But this place was not far from the Corpse Palace, and Lu Chenzhou didn’t want to alert the others and draw the other two middle-stage Demon Venerables here.

This was merely a spiritual embodiment—he couldn’t use the Nine Tribulation Lotus or Thirty-Six Transformations divine skills, and had less than a third of his true strength.

The Da Xia Martial Arts divine skills all required essence, qi, and spirit to be unified.

This manifestation could only perform divine abilities if he comprehended specialized spiritual divine abilities like Po Suo Heart Cultivation.

At the moment, he was still lacking in fire control.

As he delved deeper into the Great Rift Valley, streaks of sword scars appeared on the rocky walls on either side.

Each sword scar contained fierce sword intent, making him instinctively feel like he was being sliced to pieces.

Below the level of Great Grandmaster, even a touch meant instant death.

"For this sword intent to remain so powerful after thousands of years, the master of this cave must truly be an Eighth Realm expert."

Lu Chenzhou grew ever more expectant.

The deeper he went, the more terrifying the sword intent became, until its lingering might approached the standards of the Sixth Realm.

Lu Chenzhou was surrounded by golden light, blocking the sword Qi outside.

"Unless one is a Great Power Level sword cultivator, shouldn’t the sword Qi have long dissipated after countless years?"

"Or perhaps, this ancient cave isn’t that old after all?"

As he pondered, Lu Chenzhou landed on the ground.

The residual sword Qi already approached the power of the Seventh Realm.

Before him lay a road paved with countless iron swords, leading to an ancient palace.

At the gate sat two figures made entirely of translucent sword Qi, exuding the aura of middle-stage Seventh Realm.

All around, demon corpses littered the sides, with traces of a recent great battle.

"Is it these two sword men who blocked the three great Demon Venerables?"

Lu Chenzhou set foot upon the Sword Dao, and the two sword men rose—one with a giant sword manifesting in his palm, the other with twenty-four small swords rotating clockwise behind him.

A sword man uttered in a raspy voice: "Stop. Those not of the Sword Cultivator path may not enter."

"Looks like a Sword Cultivator inheritance." Lu Chenzhou felt a tinge of disappointment inside.

He didn’t stop, merely asked, "What are the conditions for entry?"

"Very simple—defeat us both in the Sword Dao, and be no older than five hundred years." one of the sword men said coldly.

"I don’t know the Sword Dao, but I’m under a hundred years old. Does that qualify me?" Lu Chenzhou pondered and asked.

The two sword men ignored him—Lu Chenzhou guessed they might be some type of Daoist Soldier, lacking true consciousness, mechanically carrying out the cave master’s commands.

Whoosh! Lu Chenzhou’s form turned to lightning, abruptly accelerating to 2500 times the speed of sound.

The sword man with the giant sword hadn’t even reacted, while the one with the spinning small swords formed a sword array to block Lu Chenzhou, but it was already too late.

Boom! Lu Chenzhou felt as if he’d crashed into some invisible barrier, his form nearly dispersing from the impact.

He was abruptly hurled out, landing far away.

An invisible sword formation barrier had risen around the palace, blocking his advance.

"Looks like forcing my way through is out of the question," Lu Chenzhou acknowledged inwardly.

"Trespassing in the Inheritance Land—courting death!" The two sword men attacked, a mighty sword Qi nearly filling the entire rift valley as it swept forward.

Lu Chenzhou’s Protective Golden Light was instantly shredded, his figure barely evading as he accelerated and retreated at once.

The two sword men didn’t pursue, only looked at him coldly.

The commotion instantly alerted the demon race above.

"Someone’s intruding on the ruins!"

The Devouring Country Demon Venerable sniffed the air, quickly locking onto a streak of lightning.

He opened his bloody maw, a tremendous suction pulling everything within several hundred miles.

As the lightning slowed for an instant, he struck out a claw—five sharp blades of light shattered the lightning, revealing a fragmented shadow of a person.

"Who knows what bug crawled in, daring to make trouble under this venerable’s very nose."

But before he could celebrate, a dreadful chill surged from behind.

A hand, eight hundred miles in diameter and blocking out the sky, descended from above—the swirling mountain ranges forming its fingerprints.

A powerful spiritual oppression crashed into his mind, leaving him momentarily unable to resist at all.

Within his spirit, a faceless figure sat in the void, billowing robes hunting in the wind.

"Great Wilderness Prison Demon Hand!"

Heaven and earth cracked like a mirror, abruptly shattering.

Before that giant hand even fell, ninety-nine percent of the three million demons had already perished in the spiritual onslaught.

The remaining Demon Kings and Great Demon Kings also soon had their divine souls extinguished.

The four Demon Emperors lasted but a moment longer before turning into pools of blood and flesh.

The Devouring Country Demon Venerable awoke from the illusion to find himself already trapped in the giant palm, invisible pressure flooding in from all sides.

His fleshly body, barely inferior to a low-grade Seventh Rank spiritual weapon, cracked like porcelain—vessels and bones exploding, blood spraying forth.

"Who are you?"

The Devouring Country Demon Venerable’s eyeballs bulged, fishlike and about to pop from their sockets.

Hadn’t everyone in the Kun Gu Realm already been slaughtered? Only a few escaped to the Xia Realm.

Only the Three Suns Immortal had such power, but even she didn’t know such profound illusion methods.

"Devouring Realm!" In a desperate moment, the Devouring Country Demon Venerable unleashed his bloodline divine ability, transforming into a thousand-zhang azure-maned giant lion.

With gaping bloody maw, he shredded at the giant hand, struggling to break free.

Since he’d already struck, Lu Chenzhou would show no mercy.

Without hesitation, he poured his spiritual power continuously into the Prison Demon Hand, blue light slowly leaking from his palm.

Blue light gathered, condensing into the phantom of a young man in blue robes.

The instant he appeared, the giant hand’s suppressive power increased by thirty percent, the lines on its surface even clearer.

Limitless stone and earth flew up, making the once-phantasmal hand denser and more corporeal, like the hand of a continental shelf.

Rivers and mountains flowed into the hand, infusing it with the endless power of heaven and earth.

The azure-maned lion whimpered as the bones in his body snapped inch by inch and burst forth from his flesh.

"Ahhh!" The Devouring Country Demon Venerable could hardly believe it—that even at Early Stage of Seventh Realm, after unleashing his divine ability, he could not break free from this formless gigantic hand.

Blue veins bulged on Lu Chenzhou’s forehead as he channeled more spiritual power, his face growing pale and his body increasingly insubstantial.

The massive hand clenched tighter, collapsing inwards—compressing the giant lion, until at last it exploded entirely.

Chunks of flesh and bone throughout the firmament compressed under the pressure, forming a kilometer-wide blood-red meat sphere.

The azure-maned lion’s great face was crushed within it, still glaring menacingly at Lu Chenzhou.

"No matter who you are, you cannot escape death."

He tried to self-destruct his soul, but the illusion interfered—the formless giant hand seized him.

Within his mind, the Martial Arts Tree swayed, instantly refining the soul suffused with thick Fourth Rank Devouring Dao Essence.

Unbeknownst to him, the Martial Arts Tree had already grown to 1.8 million zhang.

Devouring is the lower-rank of Rotation; with this, Rotation began to rise, finally advancing to Fourth Rank (30%).

A flood of jumbled memory surged into Lu Chenzhou’s mind, temporarily sealed away.

"Such power—truly worthy of a Great Power Method. At Small Success, it can so easily suppress Seventh Realm Seven-Pattern demons."

Lu Chenzhou recalled the Essays from "Lanshan’s Nine Secrets."

"Once the Great Wilderness Prison Demon Hand reaches Small Success, you comprehend the first spiritual killing move—Vast Earth—capable of channeling world power to suppress enemies.

At Great Success comes the second spiritual killing move—Heavenly Master—far mightier; it can command the power of ten minor worlds or a major world.

Upon Perfection, comes the supreme great divine skill I, Lanshan, am proud of—Universe Between Fingers.

With a single palm, one can generate a miniature world ten thousand li across, imprisoning enemies within and detonating it, annihilating all!"

The "Nine Secrets of Jialan" was a legacy of great spiritual cultivation praised even by the Heart Emperor of the Imperial Capital.

Theoretically, those who mastered all nine spells would control nine great divine skills.

But even before his fall in the divine war, Ancient Emperor Lanshan mastered only three:

Universe Between Fingers, Infinite Void, and Boundless Golden Light.

These were exactly the three spells Lu Chenzhou currently cultivated.

Of course, as to whether Lanshan mastered any of the other six during his long years after attaining Buddhahood, Lu Chenzhou did not know.

Having slain the Devouring Country, Lu Chenzhou’s spiritual embodiment now felt somewhat fatigued.

Just as he prepared to depart, a blood-red flood dragon slithered down in the distance, turning the sky scarlet in its wake.

Upon its back sat a middle-aged man with stag antlers, who gazed over coldly.

The Blood Flood Dragon’s face twisted fiercely: "I knew it—there were still human experts hiding in this world."

The Mountain Forest Demon Venerable looked at Lu Chenzhou, wary: "Didn’t expect that in just this short time, he actually killed Devouring Country!"

Suddenly, a voice echoed in Lu Chenzhou’s mind from the depths of the canyon.

"Young friend, come this way."