“…”
The dark figure was startled and instinctively looked around, trying to figure out with whom Shui Miao was speaking.
Shui Miao turned around, directly meeting the dark figure’s gaze, and said with a faint smile, “Senior Venerable Master Tianji, there’s no need to search anymore. I’m speaking to you. I’ve actually known all along that you would wait until all the divine artifacts were forged before appearing to take the Hongyu Chessboard. I just didn’t expect you to arrive so promptly and eagerly.”
“Brilliant kid, I underestimated you!” Venerable Master Tianji stepped out from the shadows, though he did not remove the black cloth covering his face. “Since you already know, why did you continue forging the divine artifacts? Aren’t you afraid I’ll take the chessboard and then attack you?”
“Afraid? Of course I am. But I wanted to know why the great Venerable Master Tianji would do such a thing. What is your purpose in obtaining the Hongyu Chessboard? You must know how tormenting it is to be plagued by doubts all the time.” Shui Miao shrugged. “Senior, I genuinely respect you. You are the ruler of Fa City, overseeing the laws of the entire Immortal Realm. Shouldn’t you be a good person?”
“Ha ha ha…”
Venerable Master Tianji burst into laughter, then abruptly stopped. “Of course, I am a good person. Everything I do is for the Immortal Realm, for a brighter future of the Celestial Court. But you must understand, there are always things in this world that cannot be done openly and honestly. So just trust me. Not only will I not kill you, I will promote you. From now on, you will be my subordinate, and I will appoint you as the vice-ruler of Wu City.”
“Hehe…”
Shui Miao smiled faintly again. “Then I thank Venerable Master Tianji for your cultivation. However, the Hongyu Chessboard is not yet fully completed. It still needs installation and debugging to reach its optimal state. Therefore, Senior Venerable Master Tianji, you must wait a little longer.”
“No problem. I’ll guard you while you work.”
Venerable Master Tianji nodded and walked toward Shui Miao.
Shui Miao hurriedly said, “No, no need, Senior. Right now, the Nine-Eyed Demon God is leading a massive army of immortals and demons attacking us. Why don’t you go help General Ling resist the evil forces?”
“Hehe, don’t worry. I’ve already sensed it. Outside is just a minor skirmish; the Nine-Eyed Demon God hasn’t arrived yet. Just focus on adjusting the artifact.”
Venerable Master Tianji waved dismissively.
Upon hearing this, Shui Miao nodded, then suddenly shimmered and entered the small chessboard killing formation. Many newly forged supreme divine artifacts fell into their designated positions. A massive influx of spirit stones was poured in, causing the Hongyu Chessboard to emit dazzling multicolored lights, captivating Venerable Master Tianji, who stared wide-eyed, not blinking once.
In the blink of an eye, the Hongyu Chessboard was fully assembled.
“Something’s wrong!”
Suddenly, Venerable Master Tianji raised his hand. “Brother Shui Miao, why does your Hongyu Chessboard consist of thirty-six supreme divine artifacts? I remember the Hongyu Chessboard was composed of only thirty-three divine artifacts.”
“Sorry, Senior Venerable Master Tianji, I forgot to mention that I slightly modified the Hongyu Chessboard. Adding three more divine artifacts enhances its power significantly.” Shui Miao’s tone remained calm and composed, as if nothing could shake his composure.
However, Venerable Master Tianji became anxious, urgently asking, “What exactly did you change? This chessboard has been passed down since ancient times. If you recklessly alter it and ruin the formation, it would be a great loss!”
“Senior, don’t worry. Let me show you inside.”
With a thought, the Hongyu Chessboard emitted a burst of radiant light, enveloping Venerable Master Tianji within the formation.
At this moment, Shui Miao could command the power of thirty-eight divine spirit entities at the Emperor Immortal level, a force even Venerable Master Tianji could not resist.
Suddenly, waves of toxic mist rose from the ground, and blood rain fell from the sky.
“This… isn’t this the toxic mist and blood rain of the Immortal-Demon Realm? Brother Shui Miao, you actually created a formation that generates toxic mist and blood rain, and integrated it into the Hongyu Chessboard?”
Venerable Master Tianji furrowed his brow, his eyes darting.
“Of course! The modifications I made were meant to make it perfect.”
With another thought, Shui Miao dispersed the toxic mist and blood rain, and a surge of purple fortune energy enveloped Venerable Master Tianji.
“Purple fortune energy! Brilliant kid, you’re truly impressive to be able to create purple fortune energy yourself!” Venerable Master Tianji’s voice carried a hint of insincerity, feigning astonishment. “By the way, you forged three additional supreme divine artifacts. What is the third one?”
“It’s this…”
Shui Miao suddenly clenched his fist, narrowed his eyes, and an overwhelming killing intent erupted.
“Buzz!”
Suddenly, an immense shockwave surged toward Venerable Master Tianji, catching him completely off guard…
“Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng…”
Explosions erupted from Venerable Master Tianji’s body. The formations within his protective artifacts instantly collapsed, their spirit entities dissipating. Numerous protective talismans turned into useless scraps.
“Shui Miao, what are you doing?”
Damn it! In an instant, the young man had destroyed over a dozen of his supreme divine artifacts. What was he trying to do?! Panicked, Venerable Master Tianji quickly attempted to activate a secret formation he had set within the array, intending to seize the Hongyu Chessboard for himself… but to his shock, the formation he had set up failed to respond at all.
“Hehe…”
Shui Miao, hidden within the main formation, spoke calmly, “Senior, I’m not doing anything. I’m just showing you the third supreme divine artifact I forged myself. This supreme divine artifact contains ten super void-annihilation arrays. The power should be quite impressive, right?”
With another thought, Shui Miao summoned the toxic mist and blood rain to envelop Venerable Master Tianji once more.
However, the toxic mist and blood rain had no effect on Venerable Master Tianji.
Realizing something was amiss, Shui Miao quickly withdrew the toxic mist and blood rain, then directed a surge of purple fortune energy to wrap around Venerable Master Tianji.
Yet, the purple fortune energy also had no effect.
After this series of attempts, even a fool could sense the problem. Venerable Master Tianji suddenly calmed down and coldly shouted, “Shui Miao, what exactly are you trying to do? Are you testing whether I’m a demon?”
“Hehe…”
Could it be that he was wearing countless invisible protective talismans? Shui Miao chuckled faintly, then, with a thought, activated the void-annihilation arrays again while saying evasively, “Senior, how could you think that way? Your cultivation is so profound. I’m merely using this method to let you personally experience the power of these three supreme divine artifacts I forged. If I destroyed a few of your ordinary artifacts, why are you getting so angry?”
“You think I’m an idiot? You’re trying to kill me because you now control the Hongyu Chessboard?” With a thought, Venerable Master Tianji summoned a set of black battle armor to cover his body and a green sword into his hand.
“Buzz!”
Before Venerable Master Tianji even finished speaking, Shui Miao immediately activated the void-annihilation arrays.
Instantly, a cacophony of explosions erupted, and more than a dozen of Venerable Master Tianji’s supreme divine artifacts were destroyed, turning into waste.
The supreme divine artifacts he had just equipped were now all reduced to useless scraps.
He had even possessed void-annihilation array artifacts himself, but he was caught off guard and directly destroyed by Shui Miao.
He had unwittingly fallen into Shui Miao’s trap, outmaneuvered and now found himself in a passive position. He wanted to leave but hesitated, knowing staying would bring him no benefit while continuing to lose supreme divine artifacts was a costly mistake.
Now, only three supreme divine artifacts remained on his body.
One was a protective artifact, one was for concealing his form, and the last was a mysterious artifact.
If Shui Miao activated the void-annihilation arrays again, these three artifacts would be completely destroyed.
Reluctantly, Venerable Master Tianji hastily shouted, “Shui Miao, stop this! Let’s talk. I have countless life talismans; you can’t kill me. If I keep acting recklessly, the entire Celestial Court will hunt you down after I return, leaving you nowhere to hide. So, stop this nonsense. Whatever you want, just say it. If necessary, I can even appoint you as the ruler of Wu City.”
“Hehe…”
Shui Miao’s faint laughter rang out again. “Venerable Master Tianji, do you think I haven’t noticed your abnormality?”
“Abnormality? What abnormality?” Venerable Master Tianji was momentarily stunned.
After several attempts, Shui Miao had still not managed to uncover Venerable Master Tianji’s true nature.
Now, while secretly activating the void-annihilation arrays, Shui Miao used words to probe further. “Hmph! Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you know why I went to the Immortal-Demon Realm? I’ll tell you. I’ve already uncovered your true identity. You are not the real Venerable Master Tianji. You are a demon, impersonating him. You think I don’t know, but I know everything.”
“…”
This time, Venerable Master Tianji remained silent.
Silence was an admission.
Seeing Venerable Master Tianji’s silence, Shui Miao was greatly shocked. Could it really be that he was indeed a demon?
“Brilliant kid, I truly underestimated you!”
After a pause, Venerable Master Tianji suddenly turned serious and cold. He spoke coldly, “Tell me, how did you discover my suspicious activities?”
“It’s actually quite simple.”
While speaking openly, Shui Miao secretly prepared to activate the void-annihilation arrays for the third time. “Firstly, your movements are strange—silent and stealthy. This is something no artifact in the Immortal Realm could achieve. Secondly, your behavior is far too unscrupulous. As the ruler of Fa City in the Celestial Court, you showed no concern during the great war between the Immortal and Demon Realms, clearly indicating you are not truly part of the Celestial Court. Thirdly, I tested you multiple times with toxic mist and blood rain, and with purple fortune energy, but could not determine what you feared, proving your identity is indeed mysterious. Moreover, you tampered with the formation of the Hongyu Chessboard. Those mysterious arrays were truly sophisticated, leading me to suspect they were not from the Celestial Court but from the Demon Realm. Unfortunately for you, I was prepared, and now you have no chance!”
As Shui Miao’s words fell, the third wave of void-annihilation array attacks began.
“Buzz!”
“Peng!”
“Ka…”
Venerable Master Tianji’s protective artifacts and form-concealing artifacts were instantly destroyed by the void-annihilation arrays, turning into two pieces of scrap.
His final mysterious artifact was also severely damaged, with many of its formations rendered useless.
Suffering such a heavy blow, Venerable Master Tianji suddenly laughed coldly. “Kid, you’re truly impressive. No wonder you’re a freak created by the combined efforts of Laozi, Buddha, and the Nine Heavens Goddess. Your growth has exceeded our expectations in the Demon Realm. You will become a major threat to us. Fortunately, I’ve discovered you now. From now on, just wait and see how I deal with you!”
As he spoke, Venerable Master Tianji prepared to use his escape talisman to flee.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, a ten-colored lightning bolt flashed, striking Venerable Master Tianji directly. His internal energy, thoughts, spiritual power, and limbs all became numb.
“I forgot to tell you. I actually forged four additional supreme divine artifacts, not three. This one is the Ten Hells Lightning of the Thunder Division, capable of killing and imprisoning all demons.”
After saying this, Shui Miao immediately harnessed the power of all the Emperor Immortal-level spirit entities, fully activating the Dream Demon Cultivation Technique. With unprecedented terrifying spiritual power, he directly entered Venerable Master Tianji’s thoughts, controlling his mind, extracting his memories, and entering his spiritual realm to retrieve the mysterious artifact!
This artifact was called the Mirror of Substitution.
The Mirror of Substitution was a mysterious artifact jointly used by the Immortal-Demon Realm. With it, any demon could impersonate Venerable Master Tianji without being detected.
If Shui Miao hadn’t first used the void-annihilation arrays to damage half of the Mirror of Substitution, he would never have been able to deceive Venerable Master Tianji or obtain this one-of-a-kind Mirror of Substitution, one of the Three Treasures of the Demon Realm.
“What a treasure! It’s mine now!”
Every time he acquired a new treasure, it was the happiest moment for Shui Miao.
Shui Miao also obtained a vast amount of spirit stones, high-purity materials, rare supreme-grade pills, and an entire space filled with highly concentrated Emperor Qi from the fake Venerable Master Tianji’s spiritual realm.
All of these treasures were naturally taken by Shui Miao and transferred into his own spiritual planet.
Unfortunately, all the other artifacts on the fake Venerable Master Tianji were destroyed, their formations completely ruined, leaving only empty shells suitable only for recycling into materials.
Even so, Shui Miao could still forge dozens more divine artifacts from these materials.
In addition to these treasures, Shui Miao also gained access to a wealth of information from the fake Venerable Master Tianji’s memories—information that was extremely important and earth-shattering.
The fake Venerable Master Tianji was actually a Demon Emperor named Xuan Fengzi, a black python demon from the Demon Realm and the second apprentice of the Demon Emperor Wu Yazi.
The Demon Emperor Wu Yazi’s first apprentice, Xuan Chizi, was already in the Celestial Court, currently serving as the Celestial Emperor of the Celestial Court.
This shocking revelation left Shui Miao stunned.
It turned out that during the previous great war between the Immortal and Demon Realms, the Demon Realm had gained the upper hand thanks to a prodigious forger named Xuan Kong’er, leading to the Immortal Realm’s complete defeat.
The Demon Emperor Wu Yazi used the Mirror of Substitution forged by Xuan Kong’er to have his two apprentices impersonate the current Celestial Emperor and the ruler of Fa City, Venerable Master Tianji, thereby controlling the Celestial Court and orchestrating periodic divine wars to deplete the Celestial Court’s forces, ensuring it could never recover.
The truth of the Immortal-Demon Realm was concealed.
But now, Shui Miao had uncovered all the secrets and learned the terrifying truth about the Immortal-Demon Realm.
In addition, the fake Venerable Master Tianji’s memories contained an even greater secret.
The reason he was so eager to obtain the Hongyu Chessboard was not only because the prodigious forger Xuan Kong’er from the Demon Realm had disappeared, but also because the Heavenly Gate on the towering peak in the center of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains of the Immortal-Demon Realm was actually the exit to the deepest reaches of the universe, where the secret of the universe’s origin could be found.
Many planets in the universe had given rise to life, and countless powerful beings roamed the universe, seeking its mysteries, origins, and the secret to immortality.
Thus, some powerful beings discovered the Heavenly Gate of the Immortal-Demon Realm.
However, this Heavenly Gate in the Immortal-Demon Realm only opened once every ten thousand years, and only ten people could enter each time.
Thus, conflicts and battles began.
To secure one of the ten spots, all sorts of immortals and demons used every means possible to enter the Heavenly Gate.
The Demon Emperor Wu Yazi wanted to enter, and so did his two apprentices.
Therefore, the fake Venerable Master Tianji, Xuan Fengzi, thought of finding a prodigious forger to forge the Hongyu Chessboard.
However, prodigious forgers were extremely difficult to find.
Xuan Fengzi’s senior apprentice brother, Xuan Chizi, who was now the fake Celestial Emperor of the Celestial Court, captured the Supreme Forger Luo Tong and killed all the other powerful forgers!
After great effort, Xuan Fengzi finally discovered Shui Miao, but upon further investigation, he found that Shui Miao had connections with ancient deities such as Laozi, Buddha, and the Nine Heavens Goddess. Therefore, Xuan Fengzi was extremely cautious, carefully planning and skillfully guiding Shui Miao step by step into his trap to forge the Hongyu Chessboard.
However, Xuan Fengzi miscalculated and gravely underestimated Shui Miao’s intelligence.
As a result, he ended up being outmaneuvered instead!
※※※
After learning many secrets, Shui Miao’s thoughts turned. The biggest enemy now was Xuan Chizi, the senior apprentice of Wu Yazi, who was currently the fake Celestial Emperor.
The best way to deal with this fake Celestial Emperor was to forge a new Mirror of Substitution and impersonate Xuan Fengzi.
To impersonate Venerable Master Tianji, he first needed to imprison Xuan Fengzi to prevent Xuan Chizi from becoming suspicious.
After careful consideration, Shui Miao immediately activated the purple fortune energy to consume Xuan Fengzi’s essence, leaving him in a semi-conscious state.
“Boom!”
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
“Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong…”
As Shui Miao was about to begin studying how to repair the Mirror of Substitution, the deafening explosions and war drums from outside suddenly erupted. With his divine sense, Shui Miao discovered that the Nine-Eyed Demon God had truly arrived. Riding a flying giant blood python, wielding massive double hammers, he directly broke through the protective barrier of the defensive formation, enveloped in a massive surge of evil energy, leading countless immortal and demon soldiers to crush the heavenly troops and generals!
“This is a death wish, isn’t it?”
With a thought, Shui Miao immediately flashed out and stood directly in front of the numerous evil beings.
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