The Great Thousand World was vast and boundless, home to countless clans and connected to innumerable Lower Planes. As the highest-order world in the universe, it was the center of the entire cosmos.
Peerless prodigies from countless Lower Planes would eventually arrive in this world after breaking through their shackles. These powerhouses, each possessed of dazzling talent, would surely continue writing new legends at the center of the universe.
Yet even the immensely powerful Great Thousand World had an enemy: the Outer Realm Evil Clan.
Fifty thousand years ago, the Heavenly Evil God had led the Outer Realm Evil Clan in an invasion of the Great Thousand World. Countless powerhouses on both sides had fallen in that battle, and the Great Thousand World had even lost half its territory.
Had the Immortal Emperor not emerged, a peerless powerhouse who had reached the Half-Step Ruler realm and forcibly sealed the Heavenly Evil God at the cost of his own life, the Great Thousand World would likely have ceased to exist long ago.
With the Heavenly Evil God sealed, the Outer Realm Evil Clan, fighting away from its home ground, had been driven out by the cultivators of the Great Thousand World. The lands it had conquered, however, had been polluted by demonic energy and had already become its territory.
From then on, the Great Thousand World and the Outer Realm Evil Clan had waged war for tens of thousands of years.
According to the prediction left by the Immortal Emperor, the Great Thousand Demon Transformation Array that sealed the Heavenly Evil God needed to be activated once every thousand years. After seven times seven activations-forty-nine in all-the Heavenly Evil God would perish forever.
The next activation would be the final, forty-ninth one. The Great Thousand World had to ensure that the Heavenly Evil God was destroyed without mishap, while the Outer Realm Evil Clan sought to rescue its "Evil God."
This final activation would also bring the fiercest struggle between the two sides. To that end, the Outer Realm Evil Clan would stop at nothing to ensure that the Heavenly Evil God broke free of his seal without fail.
In a spacious, brightly lit room, rows of bookshelves crisscrossed one another, laden with all manner of timeworn books and lending the room a distinctly scholarly air. At that moment, a small figure was quietly leafing through a book, and silence filled the room.
The book was large, fully half the child's size. Its cover bore no title, yet he read with rapt interest, as though it contained some rare literary treasure.
He wore an ordinary white robe and was small and thin, looking no more than five or six years old. He sat alone, reading the book before him, calm and at ease.
Banks of mist flowed and drifted around him. Countless milky-white currents surged toward his body, scrambling to enter, but when they touched the child's skin, they were kept outside as though blocked by some barrier.
"Is there anything you don't understand?" An elderly man slowly approached with his hands clasped behind his back. He was tall and imposing, his gray hair meticulously combed. Though crystalline, it had lost its natural luster, and a twilight weariness lingered in his clear eyes.
With the old man's cultivation, even if he could not live forever, surviving for ten thousand years should have been effortless. At his realm, he should long since have been able to retain his youth. Yet his eyes were filled with bleak desolation, as though he had lost all hope for the future.
Only when he saw the small figure before him did a glimmer of light appear!
The child, absorbed in his reading, turned his head. His face was delicate, his dark, shining eyes like two black gemstones. Looking at the old man whose face bore so many marks of time, he gave a heartfelt smile. "Grandpa, you're here!"
At his grandson's smile, the old man's gaze softened at once. Yet his heart was filled with bitterness.
He slowly sat down beside the boy and looked at the book in his hands. It was a chronicle of the Great Thousand World and the Outer Realm Evil Clan-or, rather, a history of their wars.
As he looked at its accounts of battles between the Outer Realm Evil Clan, the Heavenly Sovereigns of the Great Thousand World, and the Heavenly Demon Emperors, not a flicker of emotion stirred in his eyes.
He reached out and gently rested his hand on the little head before him. His palm was somewhat frightening, for a sinister eye lay within it. He gazed quietly into his grandson's eyes, as though trying to etch him into his memory forever, and spoke softly.
"Yun'er, in a few days, Grandpa will send you somewhere. It won't be as painful there as it is here."
"Where? Out to slaughter my own clansmen? Into a beast's jaws? Or... dragged off for breeding?" The boy looked up, the smile vanishing from his face as a ripple passed through his dark, shining eyes.
He had been in this world for six years. Heaven had given him the chance to reign supreme and become a founding ancestor, but it had also given him a tragic background.
In this life, his name was Jiang Yun, and he was a member of the Evil Spirit Clan-the very clan the Outer Realm Evil Clan had bred from the bloodlines of the Great Thousand World and its own people.
His clan possessed terrifying strength, with a Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereign and dozens of Heavenly Sovereigns holding the fort. Even in the Great Thousand World, it would have been a superpower on par with the Five Great Ancient Clans. Moreover, the Evil Spirit Clan could cultivate both evil energy and spiritual energy, combining the strengths of both sides. Its combat prowess was fearsome.
Yet here in the Outer Realm, their lives were anything but easy!
Did the Evil Spirit Clan not know how cruel the Outer Realm Evil Clan was? Did they not know to resist?
But the Outer Realm Evil Clan had thirty-two great clans, each with at least one Heavenly Demon Emperor. In their eyes, the Evil Spirit Clan's strength was nowhere near enough.
The Evil Spirit Clan had only its patriarch, Jiang Ya, who was at the early Saint Grade. Even setting aside the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor, who could be called the strongest beneath the Heavenly Evil God and the Immortal Emperor, any one or two of the Thirty-Two Great Clans could wipe out the Evil Spirit Clan.
Their clan was destined to be despised by both worlds. With their clansmen's lives held over them as a threat, the clan's Heavenly Sovereigns dared not act rashly. They could only pin their hopes on the Heavenly Evil God, hoping that once he emerged, he would acknowledge their contributions and free them from their current lives.
Bred by the Outer Realm Evil Clan as a surprise force to destroy the Great Thousand Demon Transformation Array, the Evil Spirit Clan endured the cruelest training and spent their entire lives fighting and killing.
Only his special bloodline allowed Jiang Yun to sit here peacefully and read. Otherwise, he would already have been wielding a saber and fighting demonic beasts.
Seeing that fleeting ripple in Jiang Yun's eyes, Jiang Hong felt a stab of pain. Jiang Yun had never seen his parents since birth. According to Jiang Hong, they had died in a conflict shortly after Jiang Yun was born.
Jiang Yun had been destined to be extraordinary from birth, for he lacked the Evil Spirit Clan's most conspicuous trait: the Evil Eye in the palm. His birth had stunned the entire Evil Spirit Clan, and his bloodline had been hailed as the most perfect of all.
His talent had also lived up to expectations. Born with nine divine veins, the greatest talent in the world, he had given the clan's Heavenly Sovereigns a glimpse of hope. His appearance had even drawn the attention of the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor.
That day, Jiang Yun had seen one of the powerhouses at the very pinnacle of this world: the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor.
The man had none of the red face, fangs, or overflowing evil aura spoken of in legends. Instead, he possessed a compassionate gentleness, as though he pitied all living things. His eyes, in particular, could leave anyone who met them unable to muster hostility, even stirring an urge to worship him.
The moment the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor saw Jiang Yun, the wheels of his fate had begun to turn. After leaving behind a wisp of Saint Heavenly Demon Flame, the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor had departed, leaving everyone utterly bewildered.
Jiang Yun, however, had some inkling of what it meant. His grandfather was not the only reason he had neither cultivated nor fought all these years. The Saint Heavenly Demon Flame within him was another important reason.
Over the years, because of his talent, the demonic energy and spiritual energy of the Outer Realm had constantly tried to burrow uncontrollably into his body, yet he had always kept them outside. Now, it seemed that the Saint Heavenly Demon Emperor had intended this all along.
After hearing Jiang Hong's cryptic words today, Jiang Yun already had a suspicion.
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