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Chapter 489: Refining the Realm Heart
🕑 Added 2024-07-26 13:00:14 +0000 UTCThe two demon kings’ apathetic gaze left Ye Chen and stared outside of the realm’s boundary. In their eyes, Ye Chen’s fate had no recourse. Since he dared to trespass into a realmlord’s territory, he should just die obediently. Their concern was Ba Shifang floating outside the realm's boundary.
They had detected Ba Shifang as soon as he appeared. For a human to appear so deep behind the front lines of the Demon Clan, naturally meant something had gone wrong. Their companion had led a squad of demon lords to intercept, but none of them thought it would lead to his death.
Before they had a chance to act, Ba Shifang had already killed their fellow demon king and the many demon lords. More frightening was the attack Ba Shifang unleashed. The demon realmlord didn’t know how many times the immortal monarch could use the spell—less than three, in his opinion—but if Ba Shifang launched it on the realm, the foundation would become shaky.
Once the foundation became shaky, then the realmlord’s control of the realm would falter. It might even cause a backlash and injure the realmlord. What’s more, as the realmlord, he had a duty to the life inside the realm. If the life in the realm died, he would suffer a portion of the Karmic Sin. The demon realmlord mobilized the power of the realm to stabilize the realm boundary to its limit and limit the amount of outsiders from entering.
He had already sent a message to the Demon Clan. As long as he held on for a short time, the reinforcements will arrive and encircle the attackers. Ba Shifang will be buried here forever.
***
Ba Shifang frowned. The fact that this high-rank realm had a realmlord was not in the information transmitted by Donghai Longzi. He didn’t doubt Donghai Longzi’s allegiance and came up with various reasons why he didn’t know this realm had an owner.
He frowned. The appearance of a realmlord severely decreased the chances of the mission’s success.
“No other choice,” Ba Shifang said. He raised his hand and the Five Planet Pearl.
With a flip of his palm, the Five Planet Pearl fell toward the high-rank realm. Just like Ba Shifang’s previous spell, the Five Planet Pearl grew. However, unlike the previous spell, it became more translucent as it grew. When it reached its max size, it enveloped the entire high-rank realm and appeared like a transparent gauze.
“I’ve interfered with the realmlord’s connection with the realm. Go and attack now. He can still suppress your power, but not as much as before. Form the war formations outside before entering to make sure he doesn’t disrupt the formation once inside,” Ba Shifang said. “Use your numbers and deal with them quickly.”
The immortal monarchs and true immortals obeyed. The monarchs from the Immortal Court used half as many true immortals to form their war formations, but the war formations created by the Numinous Sword Sect had a stronger aura.
In the end, ten emperor-level formations entered the high-rank realm. Ten monarch-level formations, all formed by the cultivators from the Immortal Court, also entered the high-rank realm.
***
Ye Chen felt the suppression of the realm weaken. He immediately dodged, narrowly avoiding the demon lords’ attacks. Although he had mastered the Law of Time, he hadn’t used it to form a new body. Meaning that true immortals could still injure him, even if they hadn’t mastered a worldly law. In addition, he could only affect the surrounding space with his Law of Time because of the suppression of the realm.
The time around him accelerated, allowing him to dodge the attacks by the slimmest of margins. He persisted for a few seconds, and the pressure immediately lessened. He, along with the demons, looked up to see the many war formations enter.
The most common of the bunch were humanoids holding treasure swords. It was the Ten Thousand Sword War Formation of the Numinous Sword Sect. They waved their swords and sword lights flashed. The demons released tragic cries and suffered under the indiscriminate attacks.
The demon realmlord wanted to mobilize the realm’s power to strengthen his allies and weaken his enemies, but he discovered an external force interfering. In the end, he could only increase the demon lords’ power to the point that they reached the half-monarch level, while his demon king companion gained the power of a half-emperor. Only the realmlord could reach the emperor-level.
However, it couldn’t fully balance the discrepancy between the two sides. The human’s war formations could still exert eighty to ninety percent of their full power.
Ye Chen didn’t let up. He immediately unleashed several sword lights. His power had reached the bottom of the monarch level, but it was still more than enough to slay half-kings. His sword light struck faster than the war formations and each strike pierced a fatal weak point.
“Not enough,” Ye Chen muttered. His left hand tightened the grip on his sword, and the urgency almost spilled out of his eyes. His right sleeve fluttered in the wind, denoting the missing hand.
Originally, he wasn’t in such a rush, but Ye Chen discovered something horrifying on the way to the high-rank realm. His right arm had shortened. The stump used to reach the wrist, but the length had decreased, and the wrist disappeared. In other words, the disintegration effect had not disappeared, and it remained.
The problem was that he couldn’t sense the foreign attack at all. Wasn’t it said that demons focused on brute strength and material attacks? Why did this demon have such an insidious soul attack?
Ye Chen wanted to kill the three demon marks and gain enough points for an emperor-rank soul recovery pill and hopefully cure the problem once and for all. However, now that the realmlord revealed himself, it was impossible. Since that was the case, he can only accumulate as many merits as possible and quickly apply for the next mission.
The battle ended in less than thirty minutes. The demons did their best to resist, but it was hopeless.
The humans simply overwhelmed the demons too much. Their greatest advantage was practically nullified. Among the two demon kings, the realmlord fell first. Once he died, it was simply a massacre.
“Good job, everyone,” Ba Shifang announced with a clap of his hand. “Although there were some unexpected accidents, we successfully completed the first half of the mission. Now that we know this realm has a realm heart, as long as someone refines it and becomes the realmlord, coupled with the Five Planet Pearl, we can seal it off against the demons. Who is willing to become the realmlord?”
Ye Chen fell into deep thought. A baleful aura coated him. Out of all the participants, he had killed the most, even if he hadn’t engaged with the two demon kings.
He glanced at his stub. Becoming a realmlord allowed the cultivator to have countless benefits. The realm would feed energy back to the realmlord and strengthen him. It also allowed the realmlord to have a near endless amount of power within, but for most cultivators, the greatest benefits were the clearer perception of the worldly laws.
Becoming a realmlord would most likely allow Ye Chen to expel the foreign power damaging his soul, and it would aid him in the comprehension of the Law of Space. Why not?
Of course, the process of refining the realm heart is not without its dangers. One must have sufficient willpower to not be assimilated by the realm heart. Once assimilated, the cultivator will dissolve into essence and become nutrients for the realm. Not even the soul would be spared. Compared to refining a realm artifact, the danger was a hundred times greater.
However, Ye Chen had the confidence. “I’ll do it.”
All the monarchs and true immortals looked at Ye Chen, who spoke up first.
“Are you sure?” Ba Shifang asked. Compared to the other monarchs, he hoped for Ye Chen to refine the realm heart, not because he admired the latter’s talent, but because he wanted him to die. Ye Chen had already mastered the Law of Time, but he hadn’t become a monarch yet because of his ambitions. And since he was young, it was better for him to die in the cradle before he became a bigger threat.
“I’m afraid it’s not appropriate,” a monarch from the Immortal Court said.
“What’s not appropriate?” a sword monarch countered. Although he was mad that Ye Chen spoke before him, he didn’t want the Immortal Court to pick up on this benefit. “Immortal Lord Ye has already mastered a complete law. His performance is also high, rivaling ours.”
The monarchs from the two forces prepared to argue, but Ba Shifang stopped them. “Enough, we are tight on time. Let Immortal Lord Ye refine the realm heart first. If he fails, you can argue again. It’s best to do it before the reinforcements arrive.”
The monarchs weren’t willing, but they still obeyed Ba Shifang’s arrangement. A few of them released a sigh of relief. Becoming a realm lord in the middle of the Demon Clan’s territory was a high-risk position, hence their hesitation moments ago.
Ye Chen paid no heed. The location of the realm heart was quickly discovered, and he entered the core of the realm. Not every realm could condense a realm heart. No one knows the condition to condense a realm heart, but the general consensus was that neither the Primordial Realm nor the Numinous Realm had a realm heart.
He stared at the realm heart, which appeared like a glowing blue sphere. Upon closer inspection, Ye Chen could see the tiny strands of light that formed the sphere. He didn’t take long to ready his heart and plunged his left hand into the glowing sphere.
Pain burst in his head. It was as if an explosion had gone off. The pain wasn’t a deliberate attack from the realm heart, but a side effect of Ye Chen receiving much more information than he could process. He could feel the steps of all life in the realm. The gentle wind caressing the feathers of birds. The sturdiness of stones that aged for thousands of years.
The heartlessness of the sea, drowning all those unworthy. The unending wrath of volcanoes, bursting and raging at uneven intervals. Ye Chen felt himself merge with the realm. His mind became preoccupied by the vastness of the realm, and his sense of self slowly grew dim. It was as if Ye Chen had become the realm. Compared to the endless history of a realm, what was one Ye Chen? His lifespan couldn’t even compare to a grain of sand in the realm's history.
Ye Chen resisted the assimilation. However, the realm’s information continued to flow through his brain without end, eroding his willpower. His eyes grew dull, and his aura changed, becoming more and more similar to the realm heart.
***
Ba Shifang observed the process with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
“You seem very pleased?”
He turned and smiled at Hu Landie. “Of course. A potential threat is going to be eliminated because of his own actions without me needing to do anything. How can I not be happy? I like watching fools biting off more than they can chew.”
“Why don’t you help with your realm artifact?” Hu Landie asked back, using her immortal sense. “It’s much safer this way, much less of a chance for him to make a comeback.”
“If I take action and the monarchs from the Numinous Sword Sect detect it, it will jeopardize the alliance. It’s not worth it,” Ba Shifang said. “Do you have any ideas?”
“I did, but you didn’t ask me beforehand, so it’s too late,” Hu Landie said.
Ba Shifang shook his head in disappointment. “Oh well. It doesn’t matter. It looks like he will fail soon and die.”
Just as he said that, Ba Shifang noticed that something in Ye Chen’s right arm burst out. It was a black light containing a powerful destructive aura. It caused Ye Chen’s eyes, who were slowly losing his sense of self, to regain part of their clarity.
“If I find out who helped Ye Chen…” Ba Shifang said through gritted teeth.
