Chapter 127: The Demon God's Severed Head

Death was spreading.

A white shadow streaked past, and wherever it went, this silent and dangerous sea was plunged into a moment of catastrophe.

The demon-monster mountain fish were powerful—more powerful than ordinary demons. However, long-term ease had made them sluggish. More and more of them tried to flee, attempting to leave these waters, but their massive bodies, while seemingly formidable, were ultimately cumbersome. They could not escape the slaughter of Baili Feihong.

Skill points fluctuated constantly. When he first stepped into the Devil’s Sea, he had five hundred and fifty thousand points; now, the number was steadily rising. Slaying a single demon-monster mountain fish yielded one hundred and eighty skill points.

The deep sea, which should have been like a star-studded night sky, saw its "lanterns" extinguished one by one until it became as pitch-black as ink. He could not see his own hand in front of his face.

Nine thousand two hundred and sixty-eight.

He glanced at the Book of Skills.

Host: Baili Feihong
Martial Dao Realm: Origin Embryo Cauldron
Body Refining Realm: Twelfth Blood Refining (4,960,000 / 5,000,000)
Talent: Divine Eye (Half-Eye Level, cannot be cultivated)
Skill Points: 2,231,292 (Can upgrade, synthesize, or deduce skills)
Technique: All-Things Origin Cauldron [Second Layer (Peak)]
Divine Ability 1: Kunpeng Evasion: Supreme Divine Ability, First Layer: Mastering the Nine Heavens Wing-Beat (999,865 / 1,000,000 EXP)
Divine Ability 2: Blood Suppressing Mountains and Rivers (Fourth Stage, 320/1,600 EXP)
Divine Ability 3: Life-Taking Hand [First Stage, 9,269/10,000]
Martial Arts: Six Paths Extremity [First Extremity Blade, First Stage (90/200 skill points)], [Second Extremity Fist, First Stage, 3/200], [Third Extremity Palm, First Stage, 1/200], [Fourth Extremity Sword, First Stage, 1/200], [Fifth Extremity Sound, First Stage, 1/200], [Sixth Extremity God, First Stage, 1/200].

The Six Paths Extremity had all been promoted to divine abilities.

The essence of life consumed this time had been converted into the Origin Cauldron Mother Qi. He had already converted thirty percent of the accumulated Mother Qi into blood energy, bringing the Twelfth Blood Refining to the brink of completion. More importantly, the Origin Cauldron Mother Qi within his body had pushed his acupoints to their limit.

Divine light was gestating. Each acupoint was brewing a special power. The radiance of divinity blooming from them began to make the phantom of the Origin Cauldron solidify.

"Burn all scriptures to forge the Origin Cauldron."

An epiphany flooded his heart. He grew stronger through slaughter and found enlightenment in his path through that strength. As long as he cultivated the All-Things Origin Cauldron well, other martial paths, arts, and divine abilities were merely trifles. The All-Things Origin Cauldron was his true foundation.

"The divine ability Life-Taking Hand is enough."

That was his true innate divine ability. Plunder, refine, return to origin. These three merged into one; to him, the martial path was merely a long process of cultivation.

Looking back, wreckage floated on the surface. The bodies of the mountain fish, resembling small hills, drifted upward. Their corpses were withered, permeated with the aura of death, and they slowly dissolved into the greater environment of the Devil’s Sea.

The dark clouds in the sky began to churn violently. Grim, ghostly figures, bearing sinister and evil auras, descended upon the area to harvest the death energy from the floating corpses.

*Woooo...*

The shrill, wailing cries of ghosts merged into a chilling chorus that made one’s skin crawl. Baili Feihong frowned slightly. The gloomy sky made him deeply uncomfortable. There was a heavy, oppressive feeling, as if an indescribable, terrifying entity were about to descend upon this region. This was a feeling he had never experienced before.

Baili Feihong sank back into the depths, pushing his "White Dragon in the Waves" technique to its limit. His body completely merged with the seawater, darting thousands of miles in a single leap, possessing the true essence of an evasion technique. Without realizing it, he had integrated the philosophy of the "Free and Easy Wandering" into his movement.

The Kunpeng was the absolute master of both the deep-sea eyes and the sky. Having grasped the Kunpeng Evasion from "Free and Easy Wandering" and mastered this supreme divine ability, he naturally held an unmatched advantage in the water.

He did not know how far he had fled, but only when the ominous feeling in his heart vanished did he let out a sigh of relief.

"I only just entered the Devil’s Sea and already encountered such a mysterious and terrifying existence. No wonder it is called the 'forbidden land of forbidden lands.' For years, the sects have never stopped exploring it, yet so many have died."

If not for the existence of the Devil’s Sea, the Guliang Imperial Family could not have withstood the constant stream of experts cultivated by the sects for hundreds of years. Possessing longevity the imperial family lacked, and with the number of Divine Ability Lords, Dharma Form masters, and even Martial Saints accumulating steadily, the favorable situation the Guliang dynasty had once built was now facing collapse.

He leaped out of the water, looking back at the moon. Purple-black lightning brought a scene of destruction to the world. Terrifying dark thunder shattered the void itself. Compared to such power, the Kui Water Divine Thunder released by Xue Ming was mere child's play.

A single glance was enough to stir an inexplicable sense of dread in his heart. The purple-black divine thunder condensed into a face that filled the entire firmament. It crossed the eons, spanned time and space, and cast its gaze down.

"You insolent thing. You killed the fish in my pond before they were even fully grown."

The soul-wave shook the entire Devil’s Sea. The terrifying entity was furious, scouring the heavens and earth for the culprit who had ravaged its pond.

"A Demon God's consciousness?"

Baili Feihong’s mouth opened, but he swallowed the words, not daring to speak them aloud.

"The essence of life was plundered; the method is somewhat like that old ghost 'Devourer,' but not quite. When the Devourer eats, he leaves nothing behind. A God of the Underworld? No, the traces left by the Underworld God carry a foul stench."

The Demon God's face shifted from anger to a flicker of interest, studying the method used to plunder the fish in its pond. The vibrating majesty was like divine pressure, weighing heavily on his heart.

Baili Feihong dared not linger. He dove back into the sea and began to distance himself. He realized that this ocean was shrouded in mysterious power; once inside, it could isolate one from certain inspirations, divine senses, and even tracking techniques. The Devil’s Sea was the best barrier. The commotion he had caused would have been undetectable even to a Demon God, had the lingering aura of death not leaked out and alerted him.

"The Devil’s Sea harbors traces of Gods and Demons."

"Weren't the Gods and Demons already wiped out?"

"Is the disappearance of the Human Immortals related to the Devil’s Sea?"

Baili Feihong’s thoughts raced. In a trance, he felt as if he had uncovered a massive secret. According to ancient texts, the land occupied by humans was less than one percent of the world, perhaps even less. Humans had existed for so long without ever fully exploring the world. Perhaps there were other continents with humans, isolated by the Devil’s Sea, yet to be discovered.

But today, seeing the projection of a Demon God, his heart churned. The surviving Martial Saints of humanity were truly not considered high-level powerhouses in the eyes of a Demon God. Perhaps only the blood of a Human Immortal could wound a Demon God. But a Divine Ability Lord like Baili Feihong had already caught a glimpse of the essence of heaven and earth. He could grasp the phenomena of laws—what was known as divine abilities. Compared to the Demon Gods of myth and legend, humanity was far too fragile.

"Is the Devil’s Sea protecting humanity?"

A thought struck him. It was the existence of the Devil’s Sea that isolated humanity from the world of the Demon Gods, allowing the traces of the Demon Gods to vanish from where humans lived.

For some reason, Baili Feihong felt no excitement at discovering this great secret. Instead, he felt a chilling coldness and fear. Animals in a zoo, locked in cages—it prevented them from harming humans, but conversely, it also protected the animals from being hunted by hunters.

"Who created this situation?"

Did it form naturally? Impossible. Just how powerful were the sages who fought for supremacy against the Demon Gods? He had no answer; compared to the broader martial cultivation world, Baili Feihong was still just a novice.

"Forget it. Having plundered so much life essence from the mountain fish and converted it into Origin Cauldron Mother Qi, it is just enough for me to step into the Divine Ability Realm."

Condensing a divine ability seed required a massive amount of energy, and he had already stored enough. The function of the three hundred and sixty-five acupoints was not just to act as bridges; they functioned like a dantian. And the dantian had the capacity to plant divine ability seeds.

He took out the Demon-Fixing Compass again and began to search for monsters. He preferred monsters with flesh and blood. Slaying them achieved three things at once. Killing demons and ghosts only provided skill points.

The Demon-Fixing Compass spun wildly, but its needle pointed directly behind him.

"Don't do this. That is a Demon God. Even if it’s just a projection, wanting to kill me is as easy as crushing an ant," Baili Feihong said helplessly.

The needle of the Demon-Fixing Compass was pointing right at the location of the Demon God's projection. But with his current ability, he couldn't harm the Demon God in the slightest. If he could cultivate to the Eighteenth Blood Refining, perhaps he could contend with the projection.

The Eighteenth Blood Refining was a threshold. In fact, many Dharma Form masters who reached the Martial Saint realm only had twelve or thirteen levels of blood refining; the power of their blood was only transformed into "Saint Blood" after they became saints and received the blessing of heaven and earth. People often compared blood refiners to Martial Saints by measuring them against the thirty levels of blood refining or Saint Blood. But a Martial Saint already grasped the true meaning of the laws and was a terrifying entity capable of mobilizing the power of those laws. Using the power of heaven and earth to suppress a self-cultivating blood refiner was easy.

Eighteenth Blood Refining was a standard. Often, great figures who reached the Dharma Form realm would go back to cultivate their physical bodies, raising them to the same strength as their Dharma Form before merging spirit and flesh.

"After Martial Saint comes Human Immortal, and after Human Immortal, comes the Demon God. There are also levels among Demon Gods. Rumor has it that the Fara Empire calls Human Immortals 'demigods.' Are Human Immortals and demigods just equivalent to 'half-step Demon Gods'?"

After deep contemplation, he realized the knowledge he possessed could not solve his problems. Baili Feihong could only give up.

The Demon-Fixing Compass seemed to sense his intent and spun again. This time, the direction pointed deeper into the Devil’s Sea. Baili Feihong was somewhat hesitant. He wanted to continue accumulating skill points and Mother Qi; only when breaking through could he cultivate more divine abilities. There were one hundred and eight Heavenly and Earthly divine abilities, and another twenty recorded in the "Six Paths Demon-Suppressing Scripture" (including Blood Suppressing Mountains and Rivers). If he added Kunpeng Evasion and Life-Taking Hand, that was a total of one hundred and thirty divine abilities.

"Once I enter the Divine Ability Realm, my realm will rise, and cultivating divine abilities will become much simpler. The skill points consumed will be reduced accordingly. Otherwise, if it costs tens of thousands of points to cultivate one, my 2.2 million points won't be enough."

The peak of the Divine Ability Realm was cultivating a divine ability to the third stage. It was not the case that the more divine abilities one had, the better. Many focused on one, turning one path into a road to the heavens; even among Martial Saints, they were extremely powerful. Hence, the birth of "Extreme Martial Arts." Some extreme arts were in no way inferior to supreme divine abilities. After all, only when a martial art reached its absolute limit could it be called an "Extreme Path."

Whether it was the first stage of body refining or the second stage of the Origin Embryo, both were paving the way for entering the Divine Ability Realm. Once a divine ability was formed, if one specialized in one and cultivated it to the fourth stage, they could deeply touch the laws of heaven and earth and condense a Dharma Form.

Clearly, this was not Baili Feihong’s path. He had already laid a solid foundation, and seeing that a skyscraper was about to be built, he wouldn't just build a thatched hut on a foundation meant for a thousand floors.

"I’ve already encountered a Demon God's phantom, so what else is there to fear? At worst, I’ll just use the Kunpeng Evasion to escape the Devil’s Sea."

Having made his decision, Baili Feihong no longer hesitated. As long as he had enough skill points, no difficulty was a problem. He would just add points. Why complicate simple things?

He dove back into the deep sea and swam in the direction indicated by the compass. He encountered many monsters along the way, but Baili Feihong did not act. If he slaughtered them and the ghosts of the Devil’s Sea appeared again, wouldn't he be pointing the Demon God’s phantom right at himself, revealing the guy who ruined its fish pond?

He traveled thousands of miles deeper, knowing only that his heart had beaten tens of thousands of times. Converted to time, it was about twenty to thirty hours. The only time he stopped was to surface for air.

"The power of the Devil’s Sea has grown stronger. It’s at least twice as intense as the area where I first entered."

From the concentration of energy, he knew he was getting further and further away from Feiyuan Island. Fortunately, Baili Feihong’s soul was powerful, and his divine sense had recorded every route he had taken. The needle of the Demon-Fixing Compass continued to point straight ahead. He ignored the small fry along the way.

"I’ll explore the Devil’s Sea first, and kill my way back on the return trip."

He pushed forward for another five hundred miles. The needle finally stopped spinning.

Starlight sprinkled onto a massive island in front of him. A terrifying pressure radiated from the island. It was strikingly similar to the majesty released by the Demon God’s phantom.

The island that appeared before Baili Feihong was abnormally large, shaped remarkably like a skull. The part above the eyes emerged from the water, and just the top of the skull was hundreds of feet high. It didn't just look like a skull—this Skeleton Island *was* the skull of a Demon God. Only its head had been cast into this sea; its body was nowhere to be seen. Over the eons, through the erosion of time and the growth of vegetation, this Demon God’s skull had transformed into an island.

"Demon-Fixing Compass, you really have a sense of humor," Baili Feihong said with a bitter smile.

He had avoided the Demon God's phantom, yet this artifact had pointed him directly toward an island formed from the remains of a Demon God. Having come so far, if he turned back now, he would be at a total loss.