Another two years passed in the blink of an eye.
This year, Qin Wangchuan was nine years old.
In the twinkling of an eye, the day he was to descend to the Lower Realm had arrived.
Upper Thousand Provinces, Xuanming Realm.
Outer layer of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
At this moment, a major event was unfolding.
To refine the "Banner of Ten Thousand Souls," Devil Lord Kugu had slaughtered eighty-eight cultivator cities in this realm, turning hundreds of millions of living beings into wronged souls.
This provoked seventy-two Great Powers from the Zixiao Sect, Xuanjian Sect, Green Lotus Holy Land, and other factions to join forces and besiege him, vowing to eliminate evil and defend the Dao.
Unable to prevail, Devil Lord Kugu sought to escape to another world through the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
However, everyone had long been lying in ambush here.
A great battle was on the verge of erupting.
"Devil! Today is the day you die!" the Zixiao Sect Master roared, as Nine Heavens Divine Thunder transformed into a hundred-zhang Thunder Dragon and crashed down.
Devil Lord Kugu sneered. With a sweep of the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls, he forcibly swallowed the Thunder Dragon whole. "That's all you've got?"
Seeing this, the seven Sword Cultivators of the Xuanjian Sect immediately formed the Big Dipper Sword Formation. Their seven bonded flying swords became streaks of light, whirling toward him in a lethal storm.
The Devil Lord neither dodged nor evaded, allowing the sword edges to pierce his body. Yet countless resentful spirits surged from his wounds, instantly contaminating the flying swords and sending them crashing to the ground.
"How is this possible?!" The Sword Cultivators turned pale with horror.
The three Supreme Elders of the Green Lotus Holy Land exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and brought out their sect's supreme treasure—the "World-Purifying Green Lotus."
Holy radiance shone across a thousand miles, seeking to purify the demonic qi.
"Futile!" Devil Lord Kugu spat out his bonded Devil Blood. The green lotus was instantly dyed crimson, as hundreds of millions of wronged souls clung to it. This sacred artifact passed down for ten thousand years was actually corroded into scrap iron!
"You think you ambushed me?"
"But in truth, all of this was part of my plan!"
"Otherwise, how could I have gathered all of you in one place?"
"It's time to end this." The Devil Lord formed seals with both hands, activating the grand formation he had prepared long ago!
The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls swelled in the wind, its grievance qi Covering the Sky and Sun as it formed a massive vortex.
The Magic Treasures of the seventy-two Great Powers exploded one after another. Their Primordial Spirits were forcibly ripped from their bodies and swallowed by the banner amid shrill screams.
When the final cultivator's body crashed to the ground, Devil Lord Kugu stepped on the shattered skull of the Zixiao Sect Master. The wronged souls on the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls let out shrieks of victory.
"No... impossible..." The Zixiao Sect Master's broken Primordial Spirit struggled within the banner. "My Zixiao Sect... has endured for thirty thousand years... how could it..."
Kugu Old Devil formed a hand seal with a vicious grin. "Thirty thousand years? After today, the Zixiao Sect will be nothing more than a thunder mark upon my banner!"
"Devil!" The Sword Soul of the First Elder of the Xuanjian Sect released one final ringing cry. "The disciples of my Xuanjian Sect... will surely avenge us..."
"Avenge you?" Old Devil crushed the Sword Soul in one grip and sneered. "Don't be in such a hurry. Once I refine every last one of your Xuanjian Sect members, you can reunite within the banner."
The pure qi of the last Supreme Elder of the Green Lotus Holy Land was about to dissipate, yet he still shouted sternly, "Old Devil! Do you know that our Green Lotus Ancestor ascended to Heaven Above Heaven long ago? When he—"
"What does his ascension have to do with you?" Old Devil opened his mouth and inhaled, swallowing that wisp of pure qi. With a savage grin, he said, "You think bringing up some ascended ancestor can frighten me?"
"There is no need for him to come. One day, I will seek him out myself!"
The battlefield suddenly fell Deathly Stillness.
Only the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls snapped in the wind. The newly gathered seventy-two Saint Souls drifted across its surface, every twisted face frozen in the final moment of despair and unwillingness before death.
Kugu Old Devil took a deep breath. The thick stench of blood and soul power made him narrow his eyes in intoxication. "Now this is more like it."
He threw back his head and laughed wildly. "Hahaha! What righteous sects? What acting on Heaven's behalf? You fools really think more people means you can win?"
Devil Lord Kugu stood atop seventy-two corpses, the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls snapping in his hand while hundreds of millions of wronged souls wailed miserably across its surface.
"I have proven the Dao through slaughter. Today, I shall finally become a Great Emperor!"
He reached out, and the last surviving female cultivator of the Zixiao Sect was dragged through the air toward him.
Her white robes had already been soaked through with blood, and her dark hair was in disarray, yet none of it could conceal her peerless and graceful beauty.
A vermilion mark shimmered between her brows—the symbol of a direct disciple of the Zixiao Sect.
"You besieged me for seven days. Did you ever consider that you had merely come here to die?"
Though the woman's face was deathly pale, she stubbornly raised her head. "Devil... my master... will definitely..."
Before she could finish, black qi surged from his palm and poured into her body.
"I told you already—if you're calling for help, call someone nearby."
"You're already dead. Even if they avenge you, what use would that be?"
Her delicate body trembled violently. Her jade-like skin shriveled and withered at a visible speed, while her autumn-water eyes rapidly dimmed.
With one final shriek of agony, her Divine Soul was forcibly torn free, becoming a streak of white light that vanished into the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.
Old Devil licked his lips. Looking at the female corpse in his hand, now reduced to nothing but a shriveled husk, he sneered. "A fairy of the Zixiao Sect? Nothing more than a dead soul upon my banner."
"Twenty-six thousand years of bitter cultivation, the slaughter of countless sects—today, I have finally become invincible in this realm!" Devil Lord Kugu threw back his head and laughed. The blood light of the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls surged skyward, dyeing the entire sky dark red. "Once I refine these seventy-two Saint Souls, it will be time for me to ascend to the Ten Directions Immortal Court!"
He lowered his head to overlook the battlefield beneath him, where blood flowed like a river. Those righteous Great Powers who had once enjoyed immense prestige had now all become stepping stones for his advancement.
"Righteousness and evil? Good and wicked? This world has always recognized only the fist!"
The great ones were dead. Some juniors hid in the distance, thinking they had concealed themselves well.
Just as he was about to hunt down those fish that had slipped through the net and wipe them out completely, suddenly—
"Hm?"
Kugu Old Devil's figure halted, and the blood light in his eyes surged. He felt the Demonic Essence within his body churn madly, while the hundreds of millions of wronged souls in the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls shrieked in unison, actively feeding pure soul power back to him.
"This is... a breakthrough?!"
The heavens and earth abruptly changed color as rolling demonic clouds gathered from all directions.
The spiritual qi within ten thousand miles poured madly into his body, and every inch of his flesh underwent an astonishing transformation.
"Hahaha! Heaven is helping me!" Old Devil laughed ecstatically. "Today, I shall prove the Dao and become a Great Emperor!"
"No... not a Great Emperor."
"This Emperor!"
He abruptly spread his arms. The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls swelled in the wind, transforming into a blood-colored canopy Covering the Sky and Sun.
The seventy-two newly acquired Saint Souls struggled in agony within the banner, forcibly refined into the purest Origin Power.
"With hundreds of millions of living beings as sacrifice, and seventy-two Saint Souls as the guide—"
Demonic flames soared around Kugu Old Devil, and his aura climbed steadily higher.
The void began to twist and shatter, while black Emperor Marks emerged across his body.
Thunder Tribulation gathered above his head. So long as he endured ninety-nine bolts of Thunder Tribulation, he could become a Great Emperor.
Though the Thunder Tribulation was terrifying to ordinary people, in Kugu Old Devil's eyes it was incomparably simple.
There was no need to withstand it himself. He only had to use the souls within the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls to bear it in his place.
This was an alternative path to becoming a Great Emperor. Though he would certainly not be as powerful as other Great Emperors, it was stable and reliable.
Kugu Old Devil had already begun celebrating in advance.
"Today, I shall—become a Great Emperor!"
As he spoke, he looked toward the distant sky. His gaze seemed to pierce through the clouds and the World Barrier, seeing another world beyond.
"This realm is too small. It is unworthy of this Emperor!"
"With my cultivation as a Great Emperor, even in Heaven Above Heaven, I shall have a place of my own!"
With that, he formed hand seals. The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls swelled in the wind, expanding to a thousand zhang as he began preparing to face the tribulation.
However, at that very moment—
"Boom—!"
The Heaven-Reaching Tower suddenly began operating.
Someone had arrived in this world!
"To encounter this Emperor, all I can say is that your luck is poor. Die for me!"
Kugu Old Devil sent out a palm strike, brimming with Killing Intent.
The next moment.
The Nine-Headed Heaven-Rending Hou shattered the void as it arrived. Every step it took made the stars of the heavens tremble. Their bodies were covered in chaotic black armor; when their six wings spread, they whipped up world-destroying Gale Winds, while heaven-burning flames danced within their blood-moon beast eyes.
The Imperial Chariot was formed entirely from black and gold. Deep black served as its base, flowing gold as its patterns, while Great Dao inscriptions were naturally engraved upon its frame.
Most eye-catching were the black "Qin" characters against gold on both sides of the carriage. Every stroke seemed to contain supreme Dao Rhyme capable of suppressing the heavens. A single direct glance was enough to make one's Divine Soul tremble.
A Glazed Palace Lantern hung high from the chariot roof, while Primordial Bells suspended from its four corners trembled softly.
With every ring of the bells, space and time across a million miles froze.
A hundred Divine Generals in black armor stood solemnly on either side, like ancient statues that had endured since time immemorial.
Their auras were completely restrained. Had one not seen them with one's own eyes, one would not have sensed even the slightest trace of their existence.
When Divine Sense probed toward them, it was like a clay ox entering the sea—vanishing without a trace.
Compared to the empty posturing of those who flaunted their auras, these people before him undoubtedly possessed a strength gap so despairing that it was beyond measure!
By the time Kugu Old Devil realized this, it was already too late to withdraw his attack.
His demonic palm, enough to instantly kill a Heavenly Saint expert and carrying boundless demonic qi, had already smashed viciously toward the Imperial Chariot.
Yet this world-destroying blow strangely came to a halt after flying a hundred zhang, as though it had collided with an invisible barrier.
The demonic qi began to disperse, and the blood-colored hand gradually dissolved, naturally collapsing like ice and snow beneath the blazing sun.
Not a single sound arose throughout the process, yet every hair on Kugu Old Devil's body stood on end.
"This... this is impossible..."
His pupils contracted violently. Only one thought remained in his mind, screaming madly:
"Run!"
"Run, now!!"
Before you continue