Volume One: The Devil's Nature Never Changes
Arc: The Strategic Sect War
Everyone stood frozen in shock—even the Sect Masters—at Scarlet King's actions.
The Mistress of the Thousand Flowers Sect immediately screamed:
"You bastard! I'll kill you!!!"
Da Fu, Tian Lang, and the First Elder of the Heaven-Grasping Sect immediately intervened, standing in front of the Mistress of the Thousand Flowers Sect.
Each of them spoke, with Tian Lang being the first.
"There is no law forbidding killing, and the boy did nothing wrong."
He thought to himself:
(Hah. I heard this boy helped some of my forces infiltrate the Food Sect. Perhaps he wants to become an ally.)
(I'll save him this time.)
Da Fu spoke next.
"He is a member of our sect. We cannot allow you to kill him without a clear law prohibiting what he did. Only then would we allow you to exact revenge on him."
"And we don't want the alliance falling apart either."
He thought with a faint smile:
(Hah. This boy gets himself into trouble every single time. He's reckless.)
(If he hadn't killed him, we would have needed to fear his intelligence. But he's reckless, so there's no need to fear him.)
(We only need to restrain him.)
(And he's still useful. He's Liu Zai Hang's disciple. If he dies, Liu might flee.)
Zhao Tian Yi spoke while stroking his beard.
"Mistress of the Thousand Flowers Sect, this boy was someone precious to my daughter before she died."
"Because of that, I cannot allow someone she cared about to die."
He thought:
(This boy is still useful. I can't let him die.)
(The plan stumbled slightly, but it is still proceeding the way he designed it.)
Scarlet King laughed madly inside.
(Haha… Hahahaha! Everything is going exactly as planned.)
(Now I'll become the greatest player, while everyone else remains trapped between my fangs, waiting for me to bite down and devour them!)
No expression appeared on Scarlet King's face.
He simply said:
"I'm injured. I'm going to heal."
He turned around, sat beside Lin Yuan, and began cultivating to heal himself.
But that was not the real reason.
Ever since he had obtained the dragon scale, Scarlet King had sensed a disturbance inside it.
Now, that disturbance had become far stronger after he began using Primordial Chaos Energy.
He entered the space within the dragon scale to see what was inside and what was causing the disturbance.
Every scale possessed by a dragon—of which there could be billions, and sometimes even trillions—was itself a universe suspended upon the dragon's body, following the same hierarchical structure of superiority found within the Dimensions.
And all of that existed upon the body of a single dragon.
As for an Ancestral Dragon Scale, it stood far above an ordinary dragon scale.
Upon entering, Scarlet King saw nothing except a portion of the Source Wall.
He was genuinely surprised.
(The Source Wall? From what I know, this wall is responsible for supplying energy to all the Heavenly Territories belonging to the Heavenly Spirits.)
Beside the Source Wall, he noticed several towering pillars.
There were six of them.
Each pillar bore an engraving depicting one of six creatures:
A Qilin.
A Dragon.
A Phoenix.
A Nine-Tailed Fox.
A Kunpeng.
And a Taotie.
Each pillar was engraved in a different color.
This genuinely surprised Scarlet King.
"These are beasts sealed inside the scale, and they rely on the Source Wall to remain here."
"Without the Source Wall's energy, they would die from energy depletion."
Scarlet King immediately looked toward the Source Wall and began pouring a tremendous amount of Primordial Chaos Energy into it.
The amount of energy being supplied to the Heavenly Spirits instantly surged.
The engravings activated.
Manifestations of each creature emerged from their respective pillars.
The moment they looked at one another, they nearly began fighting, as each assumed the others had invaded their territory.
But when they moved—
they passed straight through one another like mirages.
That surprised them.
Scarlet King's voice then echoed throughout the space.
"What the hell are six Heavenly Beasts doing inside an Ancestral Dragon Scale in my body!?"
The golden dragon, whose enormous body was coiled around itself, looked toward him.
"What is a lowly human at the Beginning of Path Realm doing here?"
Scarlet King replied coldly:
"The question you should be asking is: what are you doing inside the Ancestral Dragon Scale that is inside my body?"
The dragon froze in shock.
Then its aura erupted.
"You bastard! You refined the core Ancestral Dragon Scale!!"
It opened its mouth and attempted to unleash a sphere of energy.
But the attack passed directly through Scarlet King's body.
Scarlet King calmly said:
"We are all mirages right now."
"I'm here through a spiritual incarnation, while all of you are merely manifestations of the engravings."
"You possess no power here."
"But I do."
"So I have an offer for you."
"Give me your power, and I'll help you get out of here."
The dragon fell silent.
Then the white nine-tailed fox—or rather, the fox woman—spoke.
"Hohoho~ A little boy trying to strike a deal with some of the strongest lords of the bloodlines."
The Taotie spoke next.
"Boy, I can sense the energy of the Heaven-Devouring Battle Law around you. Are you Kuang Shi Ming's inheritor?"
Scarlet King replied:
"His inheritor?"
"That bastard stole my technique and claimed it as his own."
The phoenix, covered in crimson feathers tipped with golden radiance, spoke.
"Before anything else, let us introduce ourselves."
"After all, we all wish to leave this place now."
"I am Linuo Feng Qi, one of the elders of the Phoenix Clan and the sixth-ranked member of the Phoenix Nest."
Scarlet King continued:
"Scarlet King."
"The Rebirth Devil."
Everyone froze.
Their mouths opened in shock.
The Qilin in particular erupted with aura.
"The Rebirth Devil!? Hah! Then we're natural enemies!"
But the Kunpeng stopped him.
"Brother Qilin, don't be impulsive."
"There are no eternal enemies."
"There are only interests."
"Right now, either we cooperate and escape, or we remain imprisoned here until the Source Wall runs out of energy and we die from energy depletion."
The Qilin began introducing himself.
"Xing Lin, seventh son of the leader of the Qilin Clan."
The Taotie followed.
"Tao Wu Yan. I am considered the eleventh-ranked member of the Heavenly Taotie Clan."
Then came the dragon.
"Long Tian Yue, representative of the entire Dragon Clan."
Then the fox woman.
"Jiu Ling Yue, the greatest mistress of illusion and temptation within the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan~"
Finally, the Kunpeng.
"Kun Tian Yi, one of the leaders of the three primary branches of the Peng Clan."
Long Tian Yue asked:
"How long have we been trapped here?"
Scarlet King replied:
"Six billion years."
Everyone was violently shocked.
Their expressions changed immediately.
Jiu Ling Yue asked:
"How do you know?"
"And what happened to our clans?"
Scarlet King folded his arms across his chest.
"Nothing happened."
"I know because news of your disappearances spread."
"A few lives ago, I was in the Tenth Dimension, and I heard about all of you vanishing."
"Calculating the time that has passed gives us six billion years, eleven million years, six hundred and sixty-six thousand years, and so on."
"Nothing happened to your clans beyond a slight decline caused by the disappearance of several of their strongest members."
Kun Tian Yi asked directly:
"Boy—"
He stopped himself.
"I mean… Rebirth Devil. What do you want in exchange for getting us out of here?"
Scarlet King shook his head.
"Call me Scarlet King."
"As for getting you out, I need essence from each of your clans' Sacred Lakes so I can construct a formation here capable of rebuilding your bodies."
"After that, you'll be able to leave."
"And to accelerate the process, I'll engrave something onto these pillars that will allow you to share a portion of your strength with me."
"That way, I'll be able to draw upon your power whenever my cultivation level rises."
Each clan possessed six sacred things known collectively as the Sacred Clan Treasures:
The Sacred Lake.
The Sacred River.
The Sacred Weapon.
The Sacred Child.
The Sacred Land.
The Sacred Ancestors.
Scarlet King needed only a tiny amount of water from each clan's Sacred Lake.
Everyone immediately objected.
"Impossible!"
"If our deaths are the price for you taking even a portion of the Sacred Lake, then we would rather die!"
Scarlet King fell silent.
Then he narrowed his eyes slightly and thought for a moment.
"A bunch of idiots."
"I only need one milliliter from each lake to construct the formation."
"And secondly—"
"What use is the lake if there are no powerful members left to protect it?"