Chapter 134: The Black Heaven Stone Stele, Turning Scattered Beans into Soldiers

The information provided by the White Deer, the god of the mountain forests, was of vital importance. Baili Feihong returned to the Demon Suppression Building immediately. For an ordinary person, the only way to retrieve the Black Heaven Stele would be to tear down the building and excavate it from the foundations.

"Sir?"

Tefala looked at Baili Feihong, who had just entered the Demon Suppression Prison, with a face full of confusion. The second basement level of the building had become Tefala's private laboratory.

"It is I."

Baili Feihong stepped out from the shadows, surveying the cluttered prison. The demonic beasts caged within stared at him with fear in their eyes, as if they had caught the scent of some terrifying aura radiating from him.

"May I ask why you have come, sir?" Tefala asked, his expression wary.

He was unfamiliar with Baili Feihong. Having joined the Demon Suppression Division for nearly half a year, he had only seen the man once before.

"My purpose here does not concern you. Continue your experiments in peace."

Although Baili Feihong’s eyes were scanning his surroundings, his divine sense had begun to permeate the floor, piercing through the thick layers of soil to delve deep beneath the building.

Tefala paused for a moment before silently returning to his work. A lightbulb? No, it was a bulb imbued with special energy, capable of suppressing demonic miasma and dispelling the powers of demonic beasts. *This fellow is truly a genius,* Baili Feihong mused.

Tefala remained focused on his experiment, unaffected by Baili Feihong's presence. He was crafting a "Demon-Repelling Lamp"; once successful, any area bathed in its light would be impervious to ghosts and demons.

When Tefala turned back around, Baili Feihong had already vanished.

Baili Feihong had employed the Heavenly Dipper Divine Ability: Earth Escape. A heavy, yellow radiance enveloped his body, causing the surrounding soil to part automatically, allowing him to descend rapidly.

He expanded his divine sense, covering the entire expanse of earth beneath the building. If the Black Heaven Stele truly existed, it would have nowhere to hide.

*Could the White Deer have lied? No, if it had, I would certainly have sensed it.*

Baili Feihong pushed aside his inner restlessness and continued to sink deeper into the earth. He had heard rumors of certain secret techniques used by the Divine Craftsman and Ghost Axe Hall, and the "Dragon-Fixing Stake" was one such peculiar method. He realized that if he could not find the stele, it simply meant he had not yet found the aperture of the earth's meridians.

Descending a hundred feet, passing through an underground river, he arrived at a golden zone.

*An underground gold mine. If I were short on funds, I could use my abilities to excavate all this gold.* A thought struck him, and his expression turned to one of astonishment. *No wonder major sects and noble families possess similar Earth Escape abilities—they were developed to tap into underground mineral resources.*

No matter how powerful one's martial arts are, they require worldly power to sustain them. To build a worldly power, one needs money. For a master of earth-based divine abilities, making money was effortless. The treasures buried deep within the earth could make him unimaginably wealthy with a mere thought.

His divine sense enveloped the gold mine, his mind calculating rapidly. *Three thousand tons of gold after smelting. The wealth is staggering. If I wished, I could extract it all in an instant.*

*Within the Earthly Fiend Divine Abilities, there is one called 'Pot Heaven.' It allows for the casting of a dimension within a container—a storage ability.*

Of course, Baili Feihong was merely musing. Among the Heavenly Dipper abilities he had mastered was "Turning Stones into Gold." However, it was not permanent; with his current power, the gold would revert to stone after a few months. *When the false is taken for the true, the true itself becomes false.* Only when one truly reached the realm of permanently altering matter could one be considered a celestial being.

Descending a thousand feet, the rock became as hard as divine iron, filled with crystals in the crevices—diamonds. These diamonds were infused with metal-elemental essence and were quite precious, excellent materials for refining artifacts.

After falling ten thousand meters, the environment suddenly cleared, as if he had arrived in a different world.

"What a hidden place. A world at the heart of the earth? Or a blessed grotto?"

The shimmering light flowing through the void was formed by pure essence. The density of the essence here was visible to the naked eye. Even an ordinary person, by practicing here for a single day, could successfully condense their blood energy and become a martial master. A few days of cultivation would surely make them a true martial artist. The essence saturating the void truly astonished Baili Feihong.

Looking around, everything was shocking. Even the grass beneath his feet was lush and vibrant, pulsing with a vitality stronger than that of a century-old tree on the surface. These were no longer common weeds, but spirit herbs.

The spiritual radiance of the plants triggered Baili Feihong's caution. The more bizarre a place appeared—seeming like a fairyland—the greater the hidden dangers.

"I didn't find the Black Heaven Stele, but I found a heart-of-the-earth world akin to a blessed grotto."

His eyes sparkled. If news of this world beneath Feiyuan Island were to leak, major sects and imperial forces would swarm the place. For the common people of Feiyuan Island, that would be a catastrophe. A struggle for this world could easily lead to the destruction of the island itself.

"Roar—!"

A dragon’s roar shook the void. The shimmering light vanished, and the entire heart-of-the-earth world plunged into chaos. Black light, like a demonic sword, splashed across the void, shattering it. A hundred black chains, appearing like runes of order, materialized before him. These chains locked the void, pulling at the tectonic plates of Feiyuan Island, their ends converging into a point. But everything was swallowed by black light; he could not see what the chains were tethering.

"Divine Chains of Demon Suppression?" Baili Feihong looked surprised.

This technique had long been lost to the Demon Suppression Division; it was created by the founder and first Supreme Commander. Combined with artifact-crafting, it formed a terrifying weapon that served as the division’s ultimate treasure.

"One hundred and eight Divine Chains of Demon Suppression, combining the wonders of the Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend to form the Demon Suppression Array."

As he exhaled in awe, a smile bloomed on his face. This world had given him quite a surprise.

His senses twisted, plummeting from a fairyland into an abyss. Black light radiated, drowning the sky and leaving all things in solitude. There was no "evil" here, no chill—only the most profound, lonely darkness. The sudden sensory assault caught him off guard; his Dao heart wavered, his inner hope began to flicker, and the light was being swallowed bit by bit.

Panic and fear—the dread of the coming of the "Black Heaven"—gnawed at his heart like insects, devouring his inner world.

*BOOM!*

The darkness shattered, and his five senses returned to normal. A massive character, "SUPPRESS," condensed in his heart, shattering the Black Heaven.

"The Black Heaven Stele..."

Before entering this world, the Black Heaven Demon God had been nothing more than a name to him. Now, he finally understood what it was: absolute darkness, a world without light, where all things are silent. All living beings would exist in darkness, never to see the sun again.

He had not yet seen what the Divine Chains were suppressing, but he knew this was the Black Heaven Stele he had been seeking. He did not know its purpose, but he understood one thing: it must never be allowed to appear. If the Black Heaven spread, extinguishing hope in human hearts, people would remain in absolute darkness even under the scorching sun.

The sects and the imperial court sought to destroy the Black Heaven Cult not because the cult was backed by a demon god, but because the very existence of the Black Heaven Demon God meant bringing absolute darkness to all things. Without hope, without light, the world would perish, and humanity would be destroyed.

The essence in this heart-of-the-earth world was dropping rapidly. The runes on the Divine Chains flickered with suppression power, consuming the essence to maintain the array and keep the stele contained.

Baili Feihong finally understood. The reason it was called the "Demon Suppression Division" and not the "Demon Slaying Division" lay in that single word: *Suppress*.

"Found you at last."

"If I were not a master of divine abilities, and if I hadn't persisted with the *Six Paths of Demon Suppression*, I might have fallen into the Black Heaven’s domain and become a cultist myself."

Baili Feihong opened his divine eyes, piercing through the chains to see the object wrapped within. It was an ancient stone stele. The characters on its surface twisted constantly, releasing a bizarre power as it struggled to break the seals of the one hundred and eight chains. The void of the heart-of-the-earth world was being torn apart, the black fissures representing the crumbling of the world's fragile boundaries.

He cut his palm, and drops of bright red blood floated out. With a thought, he commanded the blood to transform into special runes. He channeled the *Six Paths of Demon Suppression*, imbuing the runes with the power of the third path. The runes came to life, transforming into terrifying phantoms that pierced the air and landed upon the Divine Chains.

The chains were revitalized. This was his vital essence. By imbuing the one hundred and eight chains with his blood-refined abilities, he reinforced the seal. The black chains began to change, sprouting vein-like patterns as their majesty surged, blooming with dazzling brilliance.

When the storm subsided, the world returned to normal, though the essence levels had dropped by seventy percent. Baili Feihong’s face was slightly pale. After reinforcing the array, he circulated the *Cauldron of All-Origin* to convert the essence within his internal cauldron into blood energy, replenishing his loss.

"If not for my whim to find the stele before the cultists could, you might truly have escaped."

He had witnessed the horror of the Black Heaven Stele. The one hundred and eight chains were the most powerful seal the division possessed. Had the stele broken free, the Black Heaven’s domain would have enslaved everyone on Feiyuan Island. If the entity were cruel enough to sacrifice the island's inhabitants to summon an avatar of the Demon God, his own life would have been in grave danger.

"The Black Heaven Stele is too dangerous. Keeping it on Feiyuan Island is like keeping a ticking bomb. I must throw it into the Devil’s Sea when I get the chance."

The Devil’s Sea was rumored to hold the phantoms of demon gods. In the human world, such figures had been absent for ten thousand years, confirming his suspicion: the will of the demon gods could not cross the Devil’s Sea. The sages of humanity had successfully suppressed them.

He shook his head and stepped out of the heart-of-the-earth world.

"Supreme Divine Ability: Great Five-Elements Demon-Suppressing Hand!"

With a casual grab, he compressed the entire heart-of-the-earth world into his grasp, reinforcing its exterior with his divine ability. To break through this, one would have to be stronger than Baili Feihong himself.

Returning to the surface, he stood before the building, silent for a long time. The Demon Suppression Building had been lost to the division for too long; even now that it was reclaimed, many of its original defenses were ineffective.

He reached into his pocket, grabbed a handful of gold, and squeezed them into beads, scattering them into the ground.

"Heavenly Dipper Divine Ability: Scattering Beans to Spawn Soldiers."

The essence of Feiyuan Island fluctuated violently. In the blink of an eye, thirty-six massive golden figures appeared before him. Baili Feihong cut his palm again, using his vital essence to evolve divine runes and injecting them into the golden figures. They shimmered, standing before him like the giant spirits of myth.

"Guard the Demon Suppression Building," he commanded.

"As you command, my master."

Two golden figures stood like statues before the entrance, while the others vanished into the surroundings, utilizing the "Size as Desired" ability.

"Thirty-six Heavenly Dipper Golden Soldiers, combined with the Heavenly Dipper Array... even if a martial giant of the Dharma Idol realm were to descend, breaking into this building would be no easy task."

With that done, Baili Feihong took a step and reappeared at the edge of the Devil’s Sea. He strode into the waters without hesitation, beginning a new round of slaughter. He would use the lives of demons to replenish the vast amount of vital essence he had spent.

What others considered a forbidden zone, a place of dread and corruption, was to him nothing more than a fountain of resources. By comparison, the essence in the human world was indeed thin.

Lu Zhiwei arrived at the building in a carriage, clutching a stack of books. The carriage stopped before the garden. No matter how the driver urged them, the horses, which possessed traces of demonic beast blood, refused to move forward, backing away in unease.

Lu Zhiwei stepped down, not blaming the driver. His gaze was fixated on the giant golden statues standing before the building. As if sensing his gaze, the statues opened their eyes slightly, their vision cutting into him like blades.

Lu Zhiwei felt his scalp tingle. He was struck with immense shock.

*"Heavenly Dipper Divine Ability: Scattering Beans to Spawn Soldiers... Has Baili Feihong reached the fourth stage of divine ability?"*

There was another thought he dared not voice: *Has Baili Feihong already become a master of the Dharma Idol realm?* He had seen this ability performed by top-tier masters in the military, but compared to these golden figures, those had been pale imitations.