The Demon Domain.
Boom!
The great volcano erupted violently. Thick smoke filled the air, filled with the crackling of lightning. Several dozen tonnes of rock were hurled into the air, flying several hundred kilometres away. The volcanic ash scattered over the land like a snowstorm, dyeing all of the mountains a pale-white.
This was already its one hundred and twenty seventh eruption today, but no one was injured by it, as there were no demonfolk bold enough to approach this place. It was not because they feared this harsh environment, but because this was where their god dwelled.
The colossal volcano had already become the divine mountain of the demonfolk.
Looking down from extremely high above, it was possible to see countless demonfolk walking around the mountain and prostrating every three steps.
There were both men and women, young and old, varying in cultivation as well, but most of them were regular demonfolk. Some of them murmured away, some of them remained silent, while some of them danced around like they had gone mad.
Originally, they worshipped different Demon Gods, so the customs and rituals they followed were different, while the lord of the Demon domain’s customs and rituals had never been established. As such, they used the methods they were familiar with to offer up all of their devotion to the lord of the Demon domain.
Every time the volcano erupted, the people would explode in cheers, viewing it as a response.
The black mass of people were like ants, gathering around the mountain that was divine in their eyes, performing meaningless worship all day and night without stopping, even until they perished.
However, the demonfolk were very happy!
In the past, if so many demonfolk gathered together, it would definitely be filled with abuse and death, but right now, they advanced under the same faith, even helping one another like they were true siblings. They experienced warmth they had never felt before.
The warmth brought tears to the eyes of many demonfolk, weeping away and revering their god even more.
Within the flow of people, an old demonfolk prostrated but never rose again. All signs of life vanished from him. A smile still hung on his ashy face.
In the past, the surrounding demonfolk would have definitely swarmed over like hungry wolves, feasting on his flesh and fighting over his demon core.
But now, the other demonfolk only stepped over his body silently until his flesh and bones turned to earth, becoming part of the path. All that remained was a verdant demon core shimmering in the blood-red earth.
He had already offered up everything he possessed to the god. His everything now belonged to the god.
In the depths of the divine mountain, within a lake of lava, the god that the demonfolk worshipped laboured away like a regular blacksmith.
Clang—Clang—Clang—
The sound echoed off the cliff faces. Li Qingshan slammed down with his fist like a hammer, having delivered tens of thousand strikes like that already. A scarlet-black spear finally took shape.
He picked up the spear and studied it before feeling the sharp tip with his finger. Finally, he let out a satisfied smile.
Suddenly, a violent cough erupted from his chest. He covered his mouth. Blood oozed out from between his fingers.
This task had clearly caused grave damage to his health, basically falling severely ill like a mortal. If he did not possess the endless support of the Demon domain, perhaps he would have even died here.
Regular people probably struggled to imagine just what kind of weapon required a god to pay such a great price.
However, none of this affected Li Qingshan’s good mood right now. He coughed away as he admired his creation.
Because he used the underground magnetic field as his material, the spear was wrapped in the markings of lightning, but he seemed to have added some other kind of material too, something much darker.
Afterwards, Li Qingshan used the tip of his nail to engrave a name on the spear.
When he engraved the name, his face became terrifyingly twisted, filled with hatred and fury.
That expression remained until he finished carving the entire name. He planted the spear into the rock and exhaled deeply. Only after quite a while did his expression recover, except the hatred had already carved its mark into his face, no longer able to be removed anymore.
He behaved like nothing had happened. He only took a moment of rest before immediately getting on with forging a second spear.
He needed to make use of every moment and forge twelve spears as quickly as possible.
These spears only served one purpose and could only be used once. However, if he wanted to completely control the Demon domain, he needed every single one of them.
As for the fervent actions of the demonfolk, he completely ignored them. He was certain that Qian Rongzhi would handle everything properly and would not let this precious manpower go to waste.
He used the heavenly winds and earthen fire to melt another pile of earthen magnetic fields before suddenly stopping what he was doing and gazing at the sky.
The black cloud surged, without the light of day to be seen.
However, Li Qingshan saw that moon through the eyes of his mirror clone and sensed its glows. His firmly-furrowed eyebrows gradually relaxed as if he had received his mother’s comforting.
Perhaps empress Nüwa had never perished and is only in a slumber.
Li Qingshan was not certain either whether this was only a wonderful dream or a secret sign, but he did feel much better.
However, he did not engross himself in this feeling. Instead, he paid attention to how the Primordial World operated, hoping to gain some kind of inspiration from it that would allow him to further his cultivation.
A mere True Immortal would definitely stand no chance against any of the emperors. If he wanted to take a look at the sights of beyond the Nine Heavens for himself, then he needed to undergo the eighth heavenly tribulation—Merging the Void with the Dao!
Otherwise, as long as he took a single step out of the Demon domain, an emperor would immediately butcher him. Probably even the heavenly emperor would not bother to do it himself.
If he wanted to win this war, he had to free the seven Great Sages. If he could not even leave here, how was he supposed to achieve that?
However, just how difficult was Merging the Void with the Dao?
In the eyes of others, he had been advancing valiantly the entire time, becoming a True Immortal in an extremely short amount of time. However, only he knew the issues he faced. The internal difficulties he faced were almost as severe as his external problems.
He had become an immortal far too quickly and relied on just too many external factors, which would definitely lead to an unstable foundation and an imbalance of powers.
The Elder of Heavenly Tomes thought he had not chosen a distinct path yet, but he actually had chosen already. That was the Qilin Transformation of the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, which was also the primordial qilin’s path.
The reason why it seemed unpredictable, unfathomable, and vague was because he had not abandoned the other transformations of the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine and because this path was not one he had chosen proactively.
If he could choose one of the transformations among the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine to Forge his Soul back into the Void, he definitely would have chosen the Ox Demon Transformation. That was the path most compatible with him, as well as the one that had the smallest influence over the other transformations.
However, under all these coincidences, he had sniffed the entire pond of lotus flowers in the Great Thunderclap temple of Sukhāvatī first before swallowing the Black Sun Demon Heart in the Demon domain, merging with the core laws of the Qilin Paradise and immediately pushing the Qilin Transformation to its highest realm, Forging his Soul back into the Void with ease.
The Qilin Transformation was originally the transformation he was least accustomed to. The cultivation process was extremely difficult too, but now, it had become his most central transformation.
This brought on a severe loss in balance, not only suppressing the other transformations of the demonic and divine, but even disturbing his disposition too. If he remained like this, the other transformations would definitely end up regressing, only leaving behind the Qilin Transformation in the end.
The crisis of the world was already imminent. He who was born for the crisis had actually never been ready. He was like someone who had only just begun practising qi, only to provoke an entire group of Foundation Establishment cultivators, trapped in his own dwelling and unable to leave.
And the actual situation might have been even worse. The heavenly emperor was truly unfathomable.
