A Blessing in Disguise

On the other side of the Heart Demon Clone, alarming signs kept coming, and bursts of excruciating pain erupted as its invisible body was being devoured by something!

As a result, Qiu Yan had to divide his attention between two tasks: dealing with the problem of the Heart Demon Clone on one hand, and controlling his Divine Body, which emerged from the flames, to block the way for Feng Zhen, the Child-Giving God.

Feng Zhen was stunned, his expression changed drastically, and the scarlet umbilical cords on his body flew out, sharp as knives, like a storm, threatening to completely wipe out Qiu Yan was still disguised as "Fire Sovereign"!

"What exactly is your background? A deity Domain Derivation, Fourth Grade god, you are on the same level as the Circuit City God. Why make things difficult for Lesser God like yourself?" Feng Zhen said, while simultaneously uttering words of submission.

Qiu Yan's Divine Eye reflected countless umbilical cords, dense as rain, but his expression remained unchanged. "Whether you can guess my origins or not is irrelevant. However, even if I let you go today, you'll still come looking for trouble in the future. Since that's the case, why let you go? Besides, don't try to lower my guard with your words and send out a distress signal!"

Feng Zhen Lü Liang's subordinate. He will lead troops to Nine Spirits Mountain as long as Lü Liang gives the order. Qiu Yan is also Heaven-Born Deity. After seeing the fate of the Ghost Mother, he can naturally guess his own future and knows that Feng Zhen is just using sweet words.

Moreover, while launching his attack and speaking, this Child-Giving God was also sending out a message in a mysterious way. This message contained a faint life force, like a soul rushing to be reincarnated, but Qiu Yan captured the Human Path energy within it and exposed it.

Call!

A cloud of air in mid-air ignited, enveloping the information and rapidly analyzing it.

Things have changed. Fire Sovereign is a fake. The person who came is likely Min Yuan Lesser God. He has already entered Jiannan's territory. Quickly lead troops to surround and annihilate him!

"Oh? You guessed my identity! Yet you pretended not to know!" After analyzing this Duan Xin, Qiu Yan's expression changed slightly. His figure split into flames, weaving and dodging through the rapidly flying umbilical cord.

"Your origins aren't hard to guess. Fourth Grade deity, not bound by the Heavenly Court, must be a naturally born deity who ascended on their own. There aren't many Natural-born God in Jiannan Circuit these days. Plus, you can disguise yourself as the Fire Sovereign and manipulate fire and earth. Your identity is obvious!"

Seeing that his message was blocked, Feng Zhen calmed down, gave a cold smile, and his entire Divine Body exploded!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Hundreds upon hundreds of scarlet umbilical cords shot out, densely packed in mid-air, like a blood-red cloud! This forced Qiu Yan to retreat rapidly, going back a hundred feet!

The clouds were like umbilical cords, weaving and intertwining, before finally dispersing and enveloping the forest below!

In an instant, the blood-red cloud dispersed, transforming into countless umbilical cords that fell into the Lin Zhong. Each cord seemed to possess its own consciousness, constantly changing direction and locking onto the creatures Lin Zhong —beasts, demons, and even hunters lurking in the Lin Zhong!

Whoosh!

The air currents surged and swirled, transforming into a gale that howled past, a sense of impending doom gripping the hearts of the many creatures in the Lin Zhong!

"This Child-Giving God is, after all, Fifth Grade deity, and he has some tricks up his sleeve. He's trying to escape by possessing another body! But..." Seeing the scene before him, Qiu Yan had a thought. He reached out and grabbed, and Divine Sense and power surged from his palm, roaring like a pillar, but disappeared halfway through, turning into ripples that scattered throughout the entire forest.

At the same time, a small flame separated from the furnace fire containing the talismans within his Divine Body and burned rapidly!

Boom!

This seemingly thin spark instantly unleashed an unimaginable, immense divine power.

Suppressed!

A sense of oppression pervaded the world!

"Oh no! How can there be such immense pressure!" Shock and horror were evident in each of the umbilical cords!

The panicked creatures in the Lin Zhong suddenly felt their hearts clench, and the surrounding soil shattered with a roar, rising into the air and transforming into flames!

Matter transformation, soil turned to fire!

Call!

Suddenly, the entire forest burst into flames, creating a powerful and evocative scene.

Refine! Transform! Incinerate!

In an instant, flames filled the sky, turning everything red!

The umbilical cords falling from the sky were devoured and completely refined by the raging flames before they even had a chance to hit the ground!

"Aaaaaah!!!"

A bloodcurdling scream emanated from within, echoing through the heavens and earth!

In the Sea of Fire, living creatures and trees remained unharmed, but upon hearing this voice, they couldn't help but tremble.

In the sky, Qiu Yan stretched out his hand, his five fingers clenched tightly, his palm like an abyss, drawing in the Heavenly Fire. The flames swirled, rapidly gathering like a whirlpool on the surface of water, finally condensing into a ball in his hand, within which one could vaguely see a struggling figure.

However, Qiu Yan didn't care about this at all. He turned his gaze to the Lin Zhong and looked at the still-standing Ghost Mother.

This naturally Heaven-Born Deity has a scroll of "Exhortation to Learning" printed on its head. It draws in the Force of Order from all around, transforming it into profound words that even gods cannot resist, as they are seeped into the heart.

"The power of the Sage Manuscript is even greater than I imagined. Even Fifth Grade deity would be trapped in it after being struck. This trip to the Eastern Capital for the Apricot Altar Dao Discourse will give me the opportunity to come into contact with several Confucianism schools of thought. Perhaps I can gain a deeper understanding and unravel its mysteries, which will also enrich the soul of my scholar's avatar. Hmm!"

As he pondered this, he let out a muffled groan and fell from the sky.

"Right now, we need to deal with the problem of the Heart Demon Clone."

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

The only thing filling the Heart Demon Clone's perception was "pain"!

Qiu Yan's consciousness permeated his Three Bodies. When he focused most of his attention on the Heart Demon Clone, the intense pain became clearer and more pronounced.

The battle with Feng Zhen was grand in scale, but it only lasted for three sentences before Feng Zhen turned into countless umbilical cords and was refined by the flames. It only lasted for a few breaths, but in such a short time, the Heart Demon Clone was rapidly weakening and had already lost nearly half of its power!

"Why is the Heart Demon Clone weakening so rapidly for no apparent reason? This place is pitch black and empty; what is damaging the Heart Demon Clone?"

Compared to before, the Heart Demon Clone was now being pulled by an external force, revealing a slight form. Apart from that, the surroundings were still pitch black. However, due to this change, Qiu Yan had no choice but to open his senses and focus all his attention on sensing, and he received the aura of a sage and the fluctuations of Sage power from the Soul Aperture!

These two forces, once unleashed, seemed to sink into the sea without much response, yet they created slight ripples in the surrounding area. Through this gap, this narrow opening, Qiu Yan caught a glimpse of a metaphysical realm in that instant—

Chaos, greed, devouring!

It was as if something was watching the Heart Demon Clone greedily from the side, tearing and devouring it bit by bit!

Even Qiu Yan couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine at this feeling. The ripples then dissipated, and the glimpse of the artistic conception he had captured vanished. But the next moment, the Heart Demon Clone erupted in excruciating pain and remained weak.

"That wasn't an illusion; some incomprehensible form of life is threatening my Heart Demon Clone! The clone's senses alone can't detect it! Therefore, we must move the plan forward; any delay could lead to the clone's demise!"

Realizing this, Qiu Yan stopped arguing and, with a thought, connected his mind to the several Heart Demon Fragment scattered throughout the mortal world.

Instantly, the external force pulling at the Heart Demon Clone became more pronounced, with one of them radiating Crimson Divine Sense, tugging at the Heart Demon Clone!

Since its return, the Heart Demon Clone, which had merged into the Pitch-Black Space, trembled slowly and separated from it. In the Heart Demon's perception, it gradually gained radiance and lines, giving the feeling of emerging from water.

The light slowly appeared...

However, the forced pulling caused considerable damage to the clone, making it even weaker. Because it was being pulled by its own fragments, which were scattered in various places, the Heart Demon Clone scattered as soon as it left the dark world, its consciousness hidden among the different fragments.

Moreover, the moment he left the Pitch-Black Space, Qiu Yan felt a strong sense of anger!

The rage! The chaos! It sent a shiver down his spine instinctively!

But this discovery only confirmed his suspicions even more.

"The pitch-black world contains secrets. At the level of my Heart Demon Clone, I cannot fully sense the changes within it. Judging from common sense, it must be because my cultivation level is insufficient. My Heart Demon Clone has already mastered the Feeling Aggregate among the Five Aggregates, which is the meaning of perception. Perhaps I need to master a few more to change the situation, hmm?"

As Qiu Yan pondered, a scattered inner Heart Demon found a crack and slipped into his heart.

"It's actually the Fire Sovereign!"

Qiu Yan disguised himself as "Fire Sovereign" and infiltrated the Yin-Yang Pagoda. In order to restrain the opponent in advance, he split off a Heart Demon Fragment and combined it with the fluctuations of the Domain of Law so that Fire Sovereign could find it. In order to arouse the opponent's interest, he also added the Feeling Aggregate of the Humanistic Fire Seed to it.

However, this Feeling Aggregate stemmed from Qiu Yan's own feelings and contained no mystery. It only gave others a false impression. After obtaining the Fire Sovereign, he studied it with great enthusiasm, hoping to perfect his own Fire Dao. In the end, he could not succeed. Instead, his excessive focus caused a crack in his mind, giving his Heart Demon an opportunity to take advantage.

The Heart Demon Clone split into dozens of clones, each extremely weak, yet each possessing both fortune and misfortune, making them even harder to detect. One of them seized the opportunity to enter Fire Sovereign's heart, disguising itself as the Incense Faith, waiting for its chance to strike.

"Every cloud has a silver lining. This is an opportunity. For the Heart Demon Clone to recover, it needs to constantly absorb the thoughts and ideas of living beings. The thoughts and ideas of gods manifest as Incense Faith, which are pure and unadulterated. Devouring one of them is equivalent to a hundred or a thousand of mortal thoughts. However, devouring them rashly would easily expose it. It would be better to hide among them, sense the truth and falsehood, and steal the secrets of the Fire Dao. In this way, not only will the Heart Demon Clone benefit, but the main body will also gain something."

The crisis of the Heart Demon Clone was quelled, and as a blessing in disguise, the clone escaped the Pitch-Black Space and returned to the world. This world is bizarre and ever-changing, which gives the Heart Demon room to maneuver and grow stronger through thought. When it comprehends the other elements and returns to the dark world, it may make even more discoveries.

"However, for the Heart Demon Clone to fully recover, it needs to lie dormant for a while and recuperate. The most urgent task is..."

As Qiu Yan pondered, he cleared his mind of distractions. His divine gaze shifted, landing on the Ghost Mother, and he whispered a word—

"Heaven-Born Deity..." (To be continued)