Vol 7 Chapter 12: The Tenth Heavenly Demon Child

In the present Immortal Realm, quite distant from Earth, within the demonic race's territory.

Accompanied by three demonic lights, dwarves standing only three to four feet tall with pairs of dark red bull horns descended before an altar.

"We pay our respects to the Grand Elder."

Three demonic cultivators—two men and one woman—bowed toward the old man atop the altar.

The Heavenly Demon Sect's Grand Elder, the demonic race's Demon Master, looked at the three and slowly spoke: "You three are the most outstanding among this generation of demon children."

"Not only do you all possess innate royal blood, but you have also successfully performed soul usurpation on ancient barbarian demons. With True Immortal cultivation, your physical strength can cross realms to challenge Immortal Lords."

"If nothing unexpected happens, the Nine Heavenly Demon Children will soon become the Ten Heavenly Demon Children. However, which of you will earn the honor of becoming the tenth child depends on your performance in the upcoming mission."

"We will definitely complete the mission," the three barbarian demon-bodied demon children declared.

"Grand Elder, are you sending us to the Lower Realm to eliminate that Lin Jing?" the female demon child asked, looking up.

"Not so," the Demon Master shook his head. "That Lin Jing carries Heaven's Mandate and controls the Holy Clan's power. If you descend to the Lower Realm, your strength will be severely suppressed, making you absolutely no match for him."

"The matter of the Lower Realm is not urgent."

"Do you know from where he obtained his Heaven's Mandate?"

"The Ancient Immortal Realm?"

"Correct. The Ancient Immortal Realm has already revived and can now sustain True Immortals. He obtained his Heaven's Mandate there, and this Ancient Immortal Realm has certain connections with our demonic race."

"Legend says our demonic race's Progenitor once battled the Heavenly Emperor of that Ancient Immortal Realm. He brought our race's Race-Suppressing Demonic Artifact, and though ultimately defeated, that Heavenly Emperor could not completely erase his existence. He could only seal his indestructible bones and our Race-Suppressing Demonic Artifact within the Ancient Immortal Realm, preventing the power within the Progenitor's bones and the artifact from reviving..."

"Your mission is to investigate where our race's Progenitor's energy bones and the Race-Suppressing Demonic Artifact he took are sealed."

"Based on the achievements of you three, we will decide which of you can become a member of the Ten Heavenly Demon Children!"

The Demon Master continued: "Of course, although this mission's difficulty doesn't compare to descending to kill Lin Jing, it's certainly not easy either. That Eastern Glorious Immortal Emperor, as someone with Ancient Immortal Realm bloodline, obtained Lin Jing's Heaven's Mandate through his schemes."

"Regarding the Ancient Immortal Realm, he understands it far better than our demonic race. While we didn't know when the Ancient Immortal Realm would revive or when Heaven's Mandate would be born, he knew everything clearly."

"So, to prevent our demonic race from entering the Ancient Immortal Realm, he will definitely set up arrangements in advance within the Ancient Immortal Realm to block us."

"But rest assured, there's only one Heaven's Mandate and only one Mandated One. The Ancient Immortal Realm's progression has now been disrupted by the Demon Lord's majesty. Your presence will be like a surprise attack—the other side... may not be able to withstand it."

"Grand Elder, I've heard that the four Immortal Realms don't directly interconnect. Only Immortal Emperors can cross between realms, while others... can only enter another Immortal Realm through the Lower Realm. This being the case, might we encounter that Mandated One?" a demon child asked.

"There's no need to worry about that either. The Demon Lord's majesty has used the Heavenly Dao's Supreme Treasure to open a passage directly from the demonic race's territory to the Ancient Immortal Realm's Earth. Through this passage, you can go directly without facing rejection from the other Ancient Immortal Realm."

"Compared to you who have an inter-realm passage, immortals from other forces in the Immortal Realm who want to go to the Ancient Immortal Realm can only take the Lower Realm route, which is much more difficult for them. They'll be treated as invaders by the Heavenly Dao rules, with low success rates. Even if they manage to make it through, the suppression they face will be much greater than yours."

"Immortals ascending to higher realms naturally face suppression—the weaker they are, the less suppression they face. But crossing realms consecutively requires enduring two rejections. Even an Immortal Lord would struggle to exert immortal-level strength, and as time passes and they act more frequently, Lower Realm and cross-realm cultivators' conditions will worsen until they're ultimately devoured to death by the Heavenly Dao."

"But if the Mandated One goes to the Ancient Immortal Realm, then the Lower Realm won't be somewhere he can casually set foot in."

The three barbarian demon-bodied demon children nodded. Though they were siblings, it seemed this Ancient Immortal Realm journey would make them competitors.

The three demon children had already begun considering what methods they would use to investigate the matter of their demonic race's Progenitor.

"Good children, in one day, this old man will send you to the Ancient Immortal Realm. I hope you won't disappoint the expectations of His Majesty and the entire demonic race. Bring back the Progenitor's bones and the Race-Suppressing Demonic Artifact... all of them."

............

Ancient Immortal Realm.

Under the Imperial Consorts' protection as Dharma Protectors, Lin Jing successfully performed soul usurpation on the Five-Colored Immortal Stone. However, soul usurpation was only the beginning—the Emperor Embryo Mother Stone still needed to recreate and nurture his new body.

Lin Jing was essentially equivalent to having usurped an unformed embryo.

Fortunately, the beings born from the Five-Colored Immortal Stone were naturally at the Immortal Realm level—innate immortals. Otherwise, he wouldn't have the time to cultivate again from the Qi Refining stage up to the True Immortal stage. He only needed time to adapt to his new physical body.

Time passed bit by bit, and the Imperial Consorts grew increasingly anxious.

They hoped Lin Jing could quickly break out of the stone.

They worried the demonic race might suddenly descend upon the Ancient Immortal Realm.

Although they retained some power, having experienced spiritual energy decline, they were already damaged and incomplete. Each time they acted brought them closer to complete dissipation.

Therefore, if they could avoid taking action, they preferred not to act personally. This was why they wanted to cultivate Lin Jing and the Heavenly Emperor Post-Frog as Tomb Guardians.

"This Emperor Embryo Mother Stone is truly brutal."

"It's said to absorb the essence of heaven and earth to nurture an immortal embryo with Immortal Emperor potential, making it one of the formidable rivals for all contemporary experts seeking to prove their path and become emperors. During the Immortal Realm's prosperous era, this wasn't really felt..."

"But this Earth, which just recovered to the Immortal Realm's most basic level, with spiritual energy that just became abundant—because of this stone... shows signs of spiritual energy decline again!"

"Who knows when it will stop? If this continues, Earth that just became capable of sustaining the Immortal Realm level will probably decline again to... being unable to sustain the Immortal Realm."

The Imperial Consorts discussed among themselves.

Speak of the devil—because the Emperor Embryo Mother Stone absorbed too much of heaven and earth's essence, Earth, which had just been restored to a certain Immortal Realm level by the demonic race using the Heavenly Dao's Supreme Treasure, declined again.

It became a place unable to accommodate the Immortal Realm level.

At the same time.

The three demon children, using the Ancient Immortal passage opened by the Demon Lord, directly arrived at Earth. But as soon as they approached, their expressions changed. Earth in its spiritually declined state was like a starving ghost that had gone hungry for countless years. Their arrival seemed to make Earth's Heavenly Dao discover some greatly nourishing substance. At an extremely rapid pace, their cultivation realms were suppressed by the Ancient Immortal Realm's Heavenly Dao, falling below the Immortal Realm level, and were still declining at a terrifying speed.

They wanted to escape Earth, but it was too late—they simply couldn't resist.

Before long, they emitted miserable wails and turned into withered, emaciated old men.