Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)

The Heaven Venerate was pierced by a branch, and his body mysteriously vanished. His clothing and sword simply fell to the earth, leaving Long Chen standing in stunned silence. He was struggling to grasp the surreal scene unfolding before him.

Long Chen had never encountered a more formidable existence than a Heaven Venerate. The collective might of all those who had crossed his path paled in comparison to the power wielded by such an expert. And yet, in a matter of moments, one had been effortlessly eliminated just like that, leaving everyone present in a state of disbelief.

They could only stare at the tree in horror. The scene before them was too terrifying.

“Don’t move. I’ll go take a look at it.” Long Chen walked toward the altar.

When he reached the altar, he found that the ground beneath his feet was bone. In other words, the heart of the altar truly was a skull.

Long Chen then arrived beneath the tree. As he touched its scale-like bark, his expression suddenly changed and he shouted, “How brazen! You dare to not reveal yourself before this lord?!”

Guo Ran and the others were dumbfounded. What was their boss doing? Was he shouting at a tree?

However, the tree didn’t respond, not reacting at all. So, Long Chen furiously swung his hand.

The next moment, black soil flew out, covering the roots of the tree. This was the black soil of the primal chaos space.

Buzz.

To their surprise, black qi suddenly rose out of the tree and blocked the soil. After that, a panicked voice rang out.

“Great Nether Emperor son, forgive me! Please take back your punishment!”

Within the black qi, a strange elder appeared, draped in black robes. His stature was small and withered, yet an exquisite sapling could be seen sprouting from the crown of his head. At this moment, that sapling’s leaves quivered, looking as if there were countless eyes on it.

This elder hastily kowtowed toward Long Chen reverently, causing Guo Ran and the others’ jaws to drop. They didn’t know what they were seeing. Why would such a terrifying existence be kowtowing toward Long Chen?

With a sweeping gesture, Long Chen commanded the black soil to retract, drawing it back into the depths of the primal chaos space. He had long since noticed that there was something off with the tree. So, it was actually a powerful tree demon.

Upon their descent, the tree had unmistakably sensed their presence, but it directly ignored them after that. Even so, Long Chen still sensed its divine sense the moment it swept over them.

At that moment, Long Chen knew that this tree demon was the guard of this place, and he also noted the diagram of the hell flower on the altar below. Due to these factors, he could guess its identity.

However, as for why this tree demon would see them and then ignore them, he had no idea. That was why he took this risk, and it worked. He managed to scare the tree demon.

Based on Long Chen’s thinking, the fiend eye was connected to the Nether Emperor. In that case, since Long Chen had absorbed the Nether Emperor’s mark, the fiend eye wouldn’t make things hard on him. That was why he dared to be so brazen.

“This little elder was ignorant. Seeing you come with humans, I didn’t dare to rashly greet you. Please forgive me,” said the elder fearfully.

“What nonsense. Do you think that this lord would believe such lies? How could you not recognize my aura? Why is it that the others immediately come greet me when I arrive, but you alone have the guts to ignore me? You even killed a Heaven Venerate in front of me? Are you trying to scare me off?” demanded Long Chen.

“I would not dare!”

Seeing Long Chen chide the elder and the elder not daring to retort, Guo Ran and the others were dumbfounded. Their boss was too badass, wasn’t he? That was an existence that could slay Heaven Venerates! Just what was happening with this world?

“This lord wishes to know how long you have been here,” said Long Chen coldly.

“This lowly elder has been here for eighty-seven million years. During this time, I have always been carrying out my work dutifully,” answered the elder respectfully.

Long Chen nodded. “Then amongst the guards, you’re actually quite young.”

Long Chen actually had no idea. He was just trying to see what information he could dredge up.

“Yes, yes! This lowly elder truly has not been working for the great Nether Emperor for long! Compared to my seniors in the other fiend eyes, I am a junior. However, I will definitely work hard to not betray the Nether Emperor’s expectations!”

As expected. No wonder he didn’t even mention the Ghost Sovereign’s mark. It seemed that he was unable to sense it. Otherwise, he would be questioning Long Chen.

Even if he didn’t ask directly, he would be suspicious and ask a few roundabout questions. Since that was the case, it seemed that this tree demon’s power was inferior to the fiend eye that Long Chen had previously encountered.

“This lord has been ordered by the Nether Emperor to inspect the sixteen fiend eyes in this region. I will judge just how much you have contributed,” said Long Chen arrogantly, his hands clasped behind him.

In any case, his Nether Emperor mark was clearly sensed by this tree demon. With this status, he could spout nonsense without care.

“Sixteen fiend eyes? This section of the heavenly river only has thirteen, right?” The tree demon elder was startled.

Ah, Long Chen had gone too far. He should have gone with a lower number. However, just who was Long Chen? His face was astoundingly thick, so he didn’t even twitch. “Did you think that the Darklight Heaven and the Violet Flame Heaven had no fiend eyes between them? Did you think that this lord was just bragging?”

“This lowly elder would not dare! Since you have come to inspect the situation, please take a look,” said the elder, finally rising from his kowtow.

At this moment, the altar beneath Long Chen’s feet split open. Only then did Long Chen realize that there was such an enormous space down below.

Standing here, Long Chen could see the interior of the space. Countless chains extended inside, intricately linking to the core where a giant crystal resided.

To his surprise, it was a cubic crystal stretching over thirty miles in length with an enormous amount of energy flowing within it.

Moreover, this crystal contained such pure life energy, which could only form when countless lives were merged into one.

Long Chen understood that the life energy of all the skeletons had been extracted and injected into this crystal. In an instant, the purpose of the fiend eyes became clear to him. The Nether Emperor had been slain by the Nine Star Master and was still in the midst of a nirvanic rebirth. Therefore, this entire thing must be related to the revival of the Nether Emperor, leaving him feeling shocked and enraged.

How many fiend eyes were set up within the nine heavens and ten lands? Just how many members of the human race were they killing?

“This crystal’s life energy is astonishing. Perhaps it really does have the ability to revive a dead person. However, as a member of the human race, how can I use the lives of my people to heal myself? I’ll need to think of a way to destroy it.” Long Chen made his resolve.

“Don’t destroy it. That would be too wasteful.” Suddenly, the dragon expert’s voice rang out in his mind.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” asked Long Chen.

“Take it and feed it to the Earth Cauldron. It can help the cauldron recover,” said the dragon expert. “However, if you want to take it, you’ll need to think of a way to deal with that tree demon first. That fellow won’t be so easy to provoke. With your current power, you definitely aren’t a match for it. Sometimes, when you don’t have power, using wits is your only option.”

Long Chen’s gaze suddenly turned to the tree demon, causing that elder’s expression to change subtly. Seeing Long Chen’s gaze, the elder had a bad feeling.