Chapter 1198: Dugu Ao’s Favor

After Xiao Chen finished speaking, he headed for the depths of the dragon grave once again, ignoring Dugu Ao’s astonishment. After two hours, the two arrived back where the enormous black skeleton was chained.

Xiao Chen looked at the three headless bodies on the ground and then the Distant Ancient Divine Weapons in his hand. This was a matter that truly made one sigh endlessly.

Desire would always be the greatest enemy of cultivators.

If not for the trial of desire in Ancient Desolate Tower, Xiao Chen would probably be among these headless bodies on the ground.

Xiao Chen looked at Dugu Ao, who followed along, and asked, “How did you resist the temptation of the Distant Ancient Divine Weapons?”

No matter what, Dugu Ao did not seem like the kind of person that could resist the temptation of a Distant Ancient Divine Weapon.

Smiling abashedly, Dugu Ao replied, “I can’t approach those stone pillars. Those stone pillars have a strong suppressive and sealing effect on cultivators who cultivate Demonic Qi. Although I do not cultivate Demonic Qi, I have half the bloodline of Blood Demons. That is something unavoidable.”

Now, Xiao Chen understood. At the same time, this information confirmed his decision to reset the Distant Ancient Divine Weapons.

The seal of this place definitely locked in some incredible figure. This involved many secrets.

The Dark Church and the Deep Abyss Demonic World, Xiao Chen could only delve into and understand these secrets after he became truly strong.

After Xiao Chen stabbed the three Distant Ancient Divine Weapons back into the pillars, he gave the situation some more thought, then used more force to push even the sword handles into the pillars.

This way, no one would be able to see the swords’ handles from the outside. Even if someone accidentally found this place, without any clear gains, they would not casually mess around with the seal.

Then, Xiao Chen leaped to another stone pillar that still had dragon bones tied to it. Using some force, he also pushed the sword handle in.

“Ah!”

A miserable shriek came from inside the stone pillar just then. Xiao Chen smiled faintly. It looked like his idea was effective.

He continued leaping to the other stone pillars and pushing in the exposed sword handles. After that, he jumped down and used a palm strike to collapse the cave.

Rocks fell, completely burying the seal in this place.

Then, as Xiao Chen and Dugu Ao left, Xiao Chen threw a palm strike with every step, completely covering up the burial ground.

After the two exited the dragon grave, Xiao Chen sent out a few more palm strikes and blocked up the entrance.

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In the vast Dragon Grave Sea, Xiao Chen and Dugu Ao felt very fatigued as they looked at the calm seawaters from above.

The adventure in the Eight Star dragon grave finally came to an end. They thought back to when they first entered. The team had been grand and made up of many people. However, only Xiao Chen and Dugu Ao emerged.

Even the strong Wu Ke and Yang Kai, as well as the experienced straw-caped old man, all ended up dying in this place.

Aside from the treasures Xiao Chen gained, this adventure taught Xiao Chen about the viciousness of the human heart in making choices in the face of desire as well as the inferiority of his own strength.

This realization inspired Xiao Chen even more to rush to the Human-Demon Sea to obtain the Thunder Emperor’s inheritance.

Dugu Ao withdrew his gaze and said his goodbyes while performing a cupped-fist salute. Before he left, he said, “Although I am domineering and haughty, I will definitely repay that favor. There are many white-eyed wolves in the world, but I, Dugu Ao, am definitely not one of them. We will meet again in the future!”

Xiao Chen sent off Dugu Ao with his eyes, watching him leave. He did not know that within a few years, Dugu Ao would really manage to repay this favor. Furthermore, he would do so in an extremely moving and tragic way.

However, this was a matter of the future. It would certainly not occur to the current Xiao Chen.

As for Dugu Ao’s favor, Xiao Chen glossed over it with a smile. With his strength, he simply could not think of anything he would need Dugu Ao’s help with.

Xiao Chen saved Dugu Ao twice only because of his principles. He would have done the same had Dugu Ao been someone else.

If Xiao Chen was sure to lose his life by saving the other party, he would rationally choose to watch from the side and not blindly mess around.

As Xiao Chen looked back at the calm sea, he thought about the people that had headed to the dragon grave with him. Then, he shook his head. After sighing, he brought out the flood dragon war chariot and headed for the Human-Demon Sea.

He sat cross-legged in the war chariot and started to deal with his wounds properly.

If not for those final eighteen strands of sword Qi, Xiao Chen would not have found it difficult to escape the Eight Star dragon grave unharmed.

However, these gashes did not matter, either. As long as he had sufficient time, no matter how severely injured, his physical body could recover within a short period.

Half a day later, Xiao Chen opened his eyes. The wounds on his back were already mostly healed.

The defense of the third layer of the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art’s Azure Dragon Battle Armor far surpassed his expectations. Furthermore, this was with his having reached only Small Perfection in the Azure Dragon Body Nourishing Art’s third layer.

Xiao Chen estimated that after materializing the Azure Dragon Battle Armor, his defense should now be able to match Mo Ran’s iron body. Furthermore, it lacked the weakness that Mo Ran’s had.

His was significantly stronger.

Iron Demons were known as the Demon Race with the strongest defense among the Demon Races in the Deep Abyss Demonic World. The natural advantage of the composition of their bodies together with some Cultivation Techniques allowed their defense to far exceed the other Demon Races’.

However, with the flesh and blood of the human race, Xiao Chen could rival the iron bodies of the Iron Demon. If he appeared in the Astral Battlefield, he would definitely stir up a storm.

Inside the war chariot, Xiao Chen counted the gains from the dragon grave once again. There were several thousands of Essence Stones, over a hundred Dragon Blood Flowers, many peak King Grade Secret Treasures, and the True Dragon bones.

With such huge gains, this trip to the Eight Star dragon grave was worth it.

However, his questions about the Eight Star dragon grave would be hard to dispel quickly. What kind of existence was the mysterious Dark Church? To think that such an organization already existed millions of years ago!

This was simply shocking. Even the Sky Dome Realm was no stranger to the Demon Races of the Deep Abyss Demonic World. There were all sorts of detailed records of the high-ranked Demons and the eighteen Demon Monarchs. Such information was readily available.

Only information about this Dark Church was extremely rare.

Never mind, there is no point thinking about this when I won’t be able to figure anything out. Right now, my strength is insufficient. Now is not the time to think about this.

The most important thing right now is to rush to the Human-Demon Sea and obtain the Thunder Emperor’s inheritance.

After thinking this, Xiao Chen started recalling the information that Ao Jiao gave him about the Human-Demon Sea.

If the oceanic world where large numbers of cultivators resided were known as places with rich resources and bustling islands, the Human-Demon Sea was an outlier.

The Spiritual Energy there was very thin, and resources were sparse. However, the number of cultivators there was no less than in the Heavenly Starry Ocean.

The reason was none other than the people living there being Demon mixed-bloods.

The more perfectly evolved Demon mixed-bloods with purer bloodlines looked no different from humans. There were also those with insufficient Demon bloodline purity who did not evolve perfectly. Such mixed-bloods might have hair, scales, or horns.

Most Demon mixed-bloods cultivated Demonic Qi and had brutal natures.

Although there were still various factions and clans, they did not go by human conventions and morals. They did as they pleased, cold-blooded and cruel.

According to what Ao Jiao said, Thunder Emperor Sang Mu’s inheritance was on Scorching Flame Island, in the northern section of the Human-Demon Sea. It was handed to a good Demon mixed-blood friend of Sang Mu to guard.

The Thunder Emperor once saved this human-Demon Martial Emperor. Naturally, this human-Demon Martial Emperor did not shirk the Thunder Emperor’s dying request.

The human-Demon Martial Emperor would help the Thunder Emperor take care of the inheritance while he waited for Ao Jiao to bring the inheritor over.

Back then, that human-Demon Martial Emperor was already a Greater Heavenly Martial Emperor. Now that five thousand years had passed, this human-Demon Martial Emperor should already be a Sovereign Martial Emperor.

Xiao Chen was not very sure about the specifics of how a Martial Emperor cultivated and progressed. This was just a casual guess, but he should not be off by much.

“Ao Jiao, how well do you know this human-Demon Martial Emperor Su He? It has already been five thousand years. It is really hard to believe that a Greater Heavenly Martial Emperor would be able to endure such loneliness.”

The Human-Demon Sea was already before Xiao Chen. However, he felt somewhat nervous. Five thousand years was a long time. He feared that he would not be able to meet this Su He on this trip.

If that was the case, without the key from this Martial Emperor, Xiao Chen would not be able to reach the Thunder Emperor’s inheritance.

However, Ao Jiao felt extremely confident. She smiled and replied, Don’t worry. I’ve met this human-Demon Martial Emperor before. Furthermore, you should believe in the Thunder Emperor’s judgment. There will not be a problem.

With Ao Jiao’s definitive answer, Xiao Chen calmed down somewhat.

Half a day later, he finally stepped into the sea region of the Human-Demon Sea. He put away the flood dragon war chariot and landed on the surface of the sea in a low-profile manner.

“What dense Demonic Qi!”

Xiao Chen frowned slightly. The instant he set foot on the sea, he felt the abundant Demonic Qi in the air. However, the Spiritual Energy was pitifully sparse.

The Human-Demon Sea indeed lived up to its name. Suddenly, Xiao Chen thought of how Dugu Ao managed to cultivate to where he was using Spiritual Energy under such circumstances. He was truly a genius.

Xiao Chen casually landed on an island and rested for one night before rushing on to Scorching Flame Island in the northern section of the Human-Demon Sea.

In the northern section of the Human-Demon Sea, Scorching Flame Island was an average-sized island, about similar in size to Xiao Chen’s conferred land, Heavenly Star Island. Su He was the only Martial Emperor on the island.

The Su Clan was also the strongest faction on this Scorching Flame Island, managing the island’s largest city, Scorching Flame City.

This was information from five thousand years ago. Even though five thousand years had passed, there should not be many changes. After all, there was a Greater Heavenly Martial Emperor there. He should be more than enough to lord over an average-sized island.

When Xiao Chen arrived at Scorching Flame Island, he headed straight for Scorching Flame City. He moved as fast as lightning, flying all the way.

“Who is it? How dare you barge into Scorching Flame City!”

Just as Xiao Chen was about to reach Scorching Flame City, two old men with hostile expressions flew out from the city and blocked Xiao Chen’s way.

The two old men were Great Perfection quasi-Emperors. They should be from the faction ruling the city, which probably detected Xiao Chen’s strength and did not know what was going on, so it sent two Great Perfection quasi-Emperor experts to check.

This was rather normal. Any big faction would react like that when a strange expert suddenly appeared in their territory, moving around like lightning.

If the faction ruling the city did not even have this basic awareness, they would be close to annihilation.

Xiao Chen did not find the reaction strange. He smiled and said, “The two of you, please do not misunderstand. I do not have any malicious intent. I have a question, are the both of you Su Clan members?”

“So, it is a friend of the Su Clan. I was wondering how you could be so arrogant, to not even give any notice when coming to Scorching Flame City, moving about so fearlessly like that.”

This response sounded strange to Xiao Chen. Why does the tone not seem right? What happened here? Is the Su Clan no longer the overlord of Scorching Flame City?

“This place does not welcome you. Scram. Return to where you came from.”

The cultivators of the Human-Demon Sea were mostly hot-tempered. They could fall out with just one disagreement. The two old men immediately attacked, each sending out a killing move with overwhelming Demonic Qi at Xiao Chen.

“You overestimate yourselves!”