Chapter 437 - 404: Turning Hostile and the Unknown

Chapter 437: Chapter 404: Turning Hostile and the Unknown

With another deal on the table, the True Demon appeared as pleasant as a spring breeze, his smile kind.

Nearby, Li Xiu and Xu Ning wore complicated expressions, but they inconspicuously shifted their positions to block Chu Mu’s potential escape route.

The dazed youth remained just so, standing vacantly beside the True Demon, completely still.

Chu Mu’s expression flickered, and his body tensed. Steeling himself, he spoke again, "I... have my limits. Please forgive me, Senior!"

"Are you worried for your safety, young friend?"

"I can make a Dao Heart Oath to guarantee your safety. How does that sound?"

Chu Mu fell silent. A Dao Heart Oath would certainly bind him.

But he had no idea if it would have any effect on this True Demon.

After all, the Cultivation Immortal Realm was filled with countless bizarre Secret Skills and techniques that were far beyond his comprehension.

He had once believed a Divine Soul Aura was immutable, yet he had personally refined and witnessed the effects of the Heavenly Deceit Pill with his own eyes.

It was the same with this Secret Realm. It used to have two ironclad rules: no one above the Qi Cultivation Realm could enter, and any given Cultivator could only enter once.

But now, aside from the dazed youth who was at the Qi Cultivation Realm, everyone else’s Cultivation far exceeded it. The True Demon before him was even a Nascent Soul!

In this bizarre and unpredictable Cultivation Immortal Realm, it seemed there were no absolutes.

’Even for the Dao Heart Oath that currently binds me, after extensive research, I’ve already figured out a few potential ways to break it.’

’It’s just that, with such a conceptual binding, I’ve never dared to use myself as a test subject. And testing it on other Cultivators would require a large sample size, for which I’ve never had a good opportunity.’

’The question is, if I could circumvent the oath’s restrictions, would I still obediently abide by them?’

’I don’t even think I’d be that honest. So, judging him by my own standards—especially given the massive gap in our Cultivation levels and the fact we’d be in the Demon Realm—why would this True Demon obediently abide by a Dao Heart Oath?’

’Of course, there is one other possibility: the True Demon bears me no ill will.’

’But no matter what, entering the Demon Realm would mean entrusting my very survival to this True Demon’s whims.’

’Once I’m in the Demon Realm, I’ll be truly isolated and helpless. There’s no way I’ll get as lucky as I did back at the Yun Xiao Trading House’s Deep Sea Base.’

"Please forgive me, Senior..."

Chu Mu lifted his chin to look the True Demon in the eye, his voice firm.

"Are you sure you won’t reconsider, young friend?"

The True Demon’s smile vanished, replaced by a sudden, chilling intent.

"Please forgive me, Senior!"

"If you won’t do this the easy way, you’ll do it the hard way!"

"You don’t have a choice in the matter!"

The True Demon sneered and swiped a hand, reaching straight for Chu Mu.

But Chu Mu was already prepared. He abruptly shot backward, activating a swarm of Tier Two Puppets that scattered around him like a celestial maiden tossing flowers.

Tier Two Puppets were forbidden in the Secret Realm and would be annihilated on sight, but wasn’t this a powerful way to turn the situation to his advantage?

BOOM!

The moment the Spiritual Pressure of the Tier Two Puppets manifested, a thunderclap ripped through the sky. Just as Chu Mu had expected, bolts of lightning tore through the roiling sea of fire and magma, striking downward.

The True Demon’s expression changed. Clearly wary, he hastily retracted his outstretched right hand. In a series of flickering movements, he dodged and weaved, avoiding the area where the lightning struck.

Li Xiu and Xu Ning, who had been blocking Chu Mu’s escape, also paled at the sudden lightning strikes and hastily backed away.

His path now clear, Chu Mu leaped like an arrow loosed from a bow, rocketing out of the sea of fire.

"You think you can escape?"

Just as Chu Mu thought he had made it to safety, a chilling voice echoed as if right beside his ear. A sudden gust of force struck him, and the strange sense of confinement he had felt upon first entering the sea of fire abruptly re-emerged.

The restraint felt like iron chains, bringing his skyward momentum to a screeching halt.

"Break!"

Chu Mu roared. His Sword Intent surged, wild and sharp. In an instant, the restraint shattered. Without a second thought, he tossed out several more Tier Two Puppets, provoking the Secret Realm to once again smite the area with Celestial Thunder.

As the Celestial Thunder descended anew, the suffocating sense of dread from the True Demon’s proximity seemed to weaken slightly.

Not daring to delay for even a moment, Chu Mu didn’t even have time for a backward glance. Using the Human Sword Unity Technique, he transformed into a fiery red blade, streaking across the crimson sky and covering over a thousand feet in the blink of an eye.

Behind him, Demonic Qi roiled. Though the True Demon was suppressing his power to the Qi Cultivation Realm, the strength he now displayed was far beyond what any ordinary Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivator could match.

Seeing the True Demon closing in, and after another brief struggle, Chu Mu found himself with no room left to dodge. His eyes turned cold, and with a flick of his finger, he seemed to release something invisible.

At the same time, the expression of the pursuing True Demon changed drastically.

"You wretch, how dare you!"

The True Demon roared, but under the influence of this external force, the fragile balance maintained by the Divine Shadow Pill shattered.

The remaining Medicinal Power flooded out, and the concealing effect of the Divine Shadow Pill was instantly broken. The Cultivation aura of a Nascent Soul True Demon began to leak out, almost uncontrollably.

BOOM! RUMBLE!

Lightning flashed and thunder roared across the crimson sky. In an instant, the fiery expanse was replaced by a canopy of dark clouds. The terrifying, suffocating aura of a Thunder Tribulation filled the air.

Chu Mu looked up at the sky, at the roiling thunderclouds, and swallowed nervously. At the same time, he hastily stabilized the Divine Shadow Pill in his Dantian, which he still hadn’t fully completed the Refinement of.

’Revealing Tier Two power brings down a single bolt of lightning for complete annihilation.’

’But now, a Tier Four Nascent Soul True Demon has been exposed. The result is this apocalyptic scene...’

"Did you truly believe... I would fear this Thunder Tribulation?"

At this, the True Demon became strangely calm. His eyes, as placid as an ancient well, fixed on Chu Mu, an indescribable chill swirling within their depths.

Chu Mu said nothing. He simply retreated out of the Thunder Tribulation’s range and made no other move.

’As for trying to escape again... ’

’I want to, but... Fake Pill to Golden Core, Golden Core to Nascent Soul.’

’Now that his Cultivation is fully revealed, the gap between us spans two Grand Realms. Before this True Demon, I’m no different from an ant!’

’A single thought from him would be enough to kill me.’

And right now, the True Demon’s killing intent was coiled tightly around him.

’My only hope now is that this Thunder Tribulation can create some kind of opportunity for me.’

’Otherwise, there’s no escaping this disaster.’

Chu Mu gazed up at the sky as the Thunder Tribulation churned. Bolts of lightning, the mere sight of which was enough to make him tremble, rained down.

"Gather!"

The True Demon barked. As Demonic Qi surged around him, a streak of light appeared. As the tribulation lightning fell, the light resolved into an iridescent, umbrella-shaped Magical Treasure.

The tribulation lightning fell like rain, yet the umbrella’s iridescent glow only intensified. Strands of shimmering light cascaded down, enveloping the True Demon. Even a world-destroying tribulation failed to harm him in the slightest.

As if provoked by this display, the roiling thunderclouds boomed with even greater fury. The surging lightning coalesced into massive serpents of electricity that plunged from the heavens!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As the lightning serpents struck, the True Demon’s placid expression finally broke. The shimmering, umbrella-shaped Magical Treasure seemed unable to bear their might. Its light rippled and warped, and its brilliant iridescence visibly dimmed under the relentless bombardment.

’Hm?’

Sensing that the True Demon’s Divine Thought locked onto him was wavering, Chu Mu’s heart leaped. Without a shred of hesitation, he transformed into a streak of blade light and shot away.

"Hmph!"

The True Demon’s cold snort, though a simple sound, struck Chu Mu’s ears like a clap of thunder. Blood instantly trickled from his eyes, ears, and nose. His face went deathly pale as he suffered a grievous blow!

Chu Mu chugged an entire bottle of high-grade Healing Elixirs. Forcibly suppressing the tremors wracking his body, he accelerated his Tunneling Light once more, desperate to escape the True Demon’s grasp.

But in the next instant, his streaking Tunneling Light froze mid-air. The blade light dissipated, revealing Chu Mu, who was held completely motionless as if paralyzed.

Amidst the roiling tribulation and iridescent light, the True Demon simply ignored the lightning and crossed the distance to Chu Mu’s side in an instant. With a flick of his hand, chains of Demonic Qi shot out and bound Chu Mu tightly.

Then, the True Demon took a single step that seemed to traverse space itself, once again ignoring the roaring Thunder Tribulation as he plunged back into the sea of fire.

The next moment, the Thunder Tribulation paused. The roiling lightning serpents hissed as if they had lost their target, unwilling but helpless.

Just as the tribulation lost its target and was about to dissipate, the thunderclouds in the sky began to churn once more, eventually condensing into a humanoid form.

When the thunderclouds dissipated, a figure appeared in the sky.

The man wore a Dragon-shaped Golden Crown in his bound hair and was dressed in a Gilded Dragon Embroidery Robe. His face was cold and majestic as he stood there, suspended in the sky.

Anyone who laid eyes on him could feel his piercing, innate sense of authority and power.

It was a presence that seemed to declare: ’Obey and prosper, defy and perish!’

The man’s gaze was like a torch, seeming to pierce through the sea of fire and magma to lock onto the figures who had leaped into the Spatial Rift.

The True Demon, who had maintained his placid expression, seemed to sense this gaze. He instinctively turned his head. The moment their eyes met, his calm shattered, replaced by a surge of primal fear.

But then, the True Demon seemed to recall something. The fear vanished, replaced by a look of intense anxiety and urgency.

After the group vanished into the Spatial Rift, the man in the Dragon Robe retracted his gaze. With a wave of his sleeve, time itself seemed to rewind. Scenes flashed before him: Chu Mu and the others entering the Secret Realm, Chu Mu’s various experiments, Chu Mu breaking the Sealing Demon Array, the appearance of the Earth Spirit Flame, the subsequent betrayal, the descent of the Thunder Tribulation...

Every single detail, great and small, flickered before him.

The man in the Dragon Robe frowned slightly, his gaze returning to the sea of fire and magma. After a moment, his brow smoothed, a faint smile played on his lips, and his figure slowly faded from the sky.

Meanwhile, in the great Inheritance Hall of the Immortal Dao Sect, upon the empty dais, the Celestial Trace Crystal Stone that had silently vanished years ago—the very one that had once left Chu Mu speechless with amazement—suddenly materialized.

The previously dormant Celestial Trace Crystal Stone began to emit a faint, fluorescent light as invisible waves pulsed outward from it.

Illusion and reality intertwined. The entire Inheritance Hall seemed to twist and warp. And amidst this distortion, through the illusory power of the Celestial Trace Crystal Stone, the figure of the man in the Dragon Robe who had just faded from the fiery sky began to coalesce once more...

...