But he didn't care. He had already thoroughly studied these seals. He knew the weaknesses of every array pattern and the gaps in every chain of runes by heart after tens of thousands of years of deduction.
He walked slowly, each step steady, but his heart was racing.
Tens of thousands of years.
He finally arrived here.
The eighteenth level, the deepest part of the Divine Prison, is devoid of phosphorescent light, the faint glow of array patterns, and even the darkness seems solidified.
He stopped in front of an ancient stone prison.
The stone prison was not large, but its walls were engraved with extremely ancient sealing patterns. He recognized those patterns; they were the suppression seals personally carved by the first builder of the Divine Prison.
But these marks have long since faded over tens of thousands of years.
He reached out and placed his palm against the stone wall, feeling the pulse of the seal. It was still beating, but growing weaker and weaker. Give him a little more time, and he would be able to break it completely.
A slow smile crept onto his lips. But just then, a cold voice came from behind him.
"Commander Pei, why are you here?"
He turned his head sharply, and at the end of the corridor, a dim phosphorescent light suddenly lit up, illuminating a hunched figure.
An old prison guard, with gray hair, deep wrinkles, and a slightly hunched back, wore a faded old robe and had a bunch of keys hanging from his waist.
He stood a few steps away, his cloudy old eyes watching him quietly.
Pei Xuandu (Demon Heaven God) was initially startled, then scoffed disdainfully.
An old jailer, whose cultivation level was only at the Sixth Realm, was probably one of the lowest-ranking people in the Divine Prison Bureau.
He countered, "Who sent you to the eighteenth floor?"
The old jailer looked at him, his voice hoarse. "The Divine Prison Bureau has a law that if a report is delayed, the first priority is to prevent prisoners from escaping, or to prevent others from helping prisoners escape. Commander."
He paused, then said, "You, the new president, really have no legitimate reason to come here."
He suddenly smiled, a very faint smile, "However, if it weren't for you, sir, I really wouldn't have been so lucky to get here."
A cold glint flashed in Pei Xuandu's eyes. How dare an old jailer at the Sixth Realm speak to him like that?
He raised his hand, and the power of the laws condensed in his palm.
With his cultivation at the Tenth Realm fully unleashed, he could crush this old man into dust.
He didn't want to waste time; escape was just around the corner. He'd kill this troublesome old man and continue breaking the seal.
He sneered and slammed his palm down.
The moment the newly appointed president slammed his hand down, he was still inwardly mocking him.
This old jailer does have some tricks up his sleeve, managing to follow him undetected. He probably knows some secret passages or something, but so what? The difference between the Sixth Realm and Tenth Realm cultivator is immense.
That old jailer is incredibly stupid.
If he were in that situation, he would simply ignore it and keep to himself. Neither side is someone he can afford to offend; one wrong move and he could lose his life.
At the very least, inform the Divine Prison Bureau immediately.
But that old bastard didn't do that; he came running to his death right away.
That's incredibly stupid.
But halfway through his palm strike, he suddenly saw a smile on the old man's face.
The smile was faint, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, and his cloudy old eyes revealed an indescribable coldness.
He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, a chill that shot from his tailbone all the way to the back of his head, as if something had gripped his soul.
He instinctively tried to stop, but it was too late.
The old man spoke up, "You're about to die, and you still don't know what's going on? You're incredibly stupid."
Pei Xuandu's pupils suddenly contracted. He opened his mouth, wanting to unleash the power of the laws to crush this old man, but the Demon Heaven Illusion Transformation Laws within his body seemed to be suppressed by something, and he couldn't mobilize even a trace of it.
He then realized that the aura emanating from the hunched old jailer in front of him was not at the Sixth Realm at all. That aura was so vast that it made his soul tremble, and it was as deep as standing on the edge of an unfathomable abyss.
He's seen it before!
He'd seen that aura before!
Deep within the eighteenth level, on his own physical body!
Eleventh Realms!
This old jailer is at the Eleventh Realm.
Chen Du looked at the horrified expression on his face and slowly raised his hand.
Within his palm, the Devouring Annihilation Burial Heaven Law silently unfolded.
The Black Qi surrounding the new president was too thick, as thick as a dark sea, churning within his assimilated body.
That was the demonic energy accumulated by the Demon Heaven God over tens of thousands of years, the lingering aura that dissipated when he eroded the minds of others, and it was the most valuable thing on this puppet.
Even if we can't kill him, just extracting this Black Qi will be enough for him to feast on.
With a flick of his palm, the power of the laws surged into Pei Xuandu's limbs and bones like a tidal wave.
Pei Xuandu let out a shrill scream, his body felt as if it were being gripped by an invisible hand, and Black Qi gushed out from his seven orifices, as dark as ink and as thick as smoke, which was completely devoured by Chen Du's power of law.
The Black Qi surged, condensed, and settled in Chen Du's palm, eventually transforming into a heavy mass.
Pei Xuandu's body slumped to the ground, his eyes wide open, his breath gone.
Chen Du withdrew his hand and glanced down at the limp corpse.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, Black Qi surged in like a tide, dense, heavy, and carrying the decaying aura of tens of thousands of years, more than ever before.
When the demonic avatar separated from Pei Xuandu's body, it was almost half broken.
Chen Du's Devouring Annihilation Burial Heaven Law crushed most of its form, but its core was condensed from the Lower First-Level Law "Demonic Heaven Transformation", and it naturally possessed a resilience that transcended common sense.
The instant Pei Xuandu's body completely lost its life force, his clone transformed into a very faint wisp of dark red mist, which drifted out from the seven orifices of the corpse.
It has no form, no substance, only a remnant of a wisp of thought, yet it still retains a portion of the consciousness of the Demon Heaven God's original form.
It had only one thought: escape!
The dark red mist clung to the stone wall and moved rapidly, traversing the suppressive power of the Divine Prison.
Outsiders could hardly move an inch under this suppressive force, but the Demon Heaven Illusion Transformation Laws itself was a law of erosion and infiltration. It could silently integrate into any environment, including the gaps in the array of the Divine Prison.
It seeped outwards little by little along the cracks in the stone wall, the edges of the array patterns, and the shadows of the rune chains.
It dared not take the right path, nor pass by any place with phosphorescent light.
It was just a wisp of mist, a thought with almost no weight, yet within it surged an overwhelming shock and fear.
How could that be!
How is that possible!
It roared inwardly as it fled.
How could there possibly be such a terrifyingly powerful being in the Divine Prison! It has been suppressed on the eighteenth level for tens of thousands of years, and its understanding of this Divine Prison far surpasses that of anyone else.
It knew how strong the guardians of each level were, knew every expert in the Divine Prison Bureau, and knew every line of defense in this prison.
But it never knew that the hunched old jailer on the first to third floors was actually a monster of the Eleventh Realm.
It stayed there for tens of thousands of years without ever discovering it.
It had always thought that the strongest in the Divine Prison was only at the Peak Stage the Tenth Realm, but the old man's aura was clearly at the same level as its own.