Chapter 1828 (Raw 1829): Vastness of the Heart
Xiao Chen showed a joyful expression as he held the seven Sword Monarch Grass.
A vast sword intent burst out of his hand, making his clothes and hair flutter endlessly.
As he clutched the Sword Monarch Grass, he felt a chill from the sword intent leaking out, which was merely an insignificant fraction of the vast sword intent that they contained.
“What strength! If this Sword Monarch Grass completely unleashes all its sword intent, it might even be able to instant-kill an experienced late-stage Star Venerate,” Xiao Chen muttered to himself.
Whether it could severely injure a Holy Venerate was another matter, though. Since he had not fought a Holy Venerate before, he could not make an accurate judgment.
However, Xiao Chen had seen Yan Zhe make a move once and had a rough idea in his heart.
If he caught the opponent off guard and the other party did not understand the situation, the Sword Monarch Grass could undoubtedly injure a Holy Venerate.
It was just a question of how severe the injury would be.
However, Xiao Chen could not directly use these Sword Monarch Grass. He had to refine them first. At the very least, he could not let them continue leaking sword intent.
The wastage was heart-wrenching.
Xiao Chen raised his head and opened his Heavenly Eye, then looked around. After a while, he found a secluded place. He gently pushed off with his feet and flew over.
When he arrived at the spot, he laid a simple defensive formation before using the Heavenly Flame to refine the Sword Monarch Grass.
Xiao Chen happened to be somewhat injured as well, so he took this opportunity to recuperate. This was excellent.
Three days later, he finished refining the Sword Monarch Grass.
The half-meter-long Sword Monarch Grass ended up the size of a palm. They looked plain and simple like ordinary grass. However, their hardness was different. They were like fine, miniature swords.
Xiao Chen infused his Soul Energy into the Sword Monarch Grass, and after familiarizing himself with them, he could control them as he pleased.
With a thought, the seven Sword Monarch Grass layered over each other and turned into a bright light flitting around him.
With another thought, the seven Sword Monarch Grass immediately separated, dancing to his whim.
“Return!”
Xiao Chen opened his hand, and the Sword Monarch Grass hid in his sleeve. This was convenient and hidden.
Due to the three days’ delay, Xiao Chen’s advance had slowed a little. However, he did not mind.
Even if one were fast, without sufficient trump cards and strength, one would just be sending themselves to death.
Even if one were fast, no matter how fast one was, could one be faster than Yan Zhe and Senior Chai? When thinking of those two, Xiao Chen felt some anger and some helplessness.
However, he had a vague suspicion that those two would come looking for him sooner or later since the Scarlet Blood War Banner was as useful as firewood in their hands.
There would not be any effect at all. If the inheritance at the end required the Scarlet Blood War Banner, then the two would need to look for Xiao Chen.
“This is…”
Xiao Chen, who was rushing on his way, suddenly discovered a gigantic handprint on the ground in front.
It covered a large area, the size of a city.
Countless shattered corpses and bones lay in the handprint. Many people were currently searching those corpses and bones.
Several of them gained a profit, feeling extremely amazed.
“They were experts of the Myriad Holy Temple. Their entire army died, killed by one palm strike!”
“How scary! Who exactly was it? To think that with just one palm strike, he managed to destroy so many experts of the Myriad Holy Temple.”
“According to rumor, the Myriad Holy Temple fell in one night. Now that I see this today, I have no choice but to believe it.”
When Xiao Chen heard the discussions of the cultivators in the handprint, he felt surprised as well.
Something soon occurred to him: it must have been the attack of the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s lingering will. Perhaps the Myriad Holy Temple had found this forbidden land by coincidence.
After that, they mobilized their entire sect and attacked the place. Unfortunately, they did not have the Scarlet Blood War Banner and could not obtain the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s acknowledgment.
The Myriad Holy Temple forced its way in and ran into various contingency plans that the Scarlet Blood Pirate King had laid, which destroyed their entire group.
As for the current group, the road so far had been difficult, but that was just due to the preexisting, harsh environment. It was not the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s intentional actions. Otherwise, they all would have died.
When Xiao Chen used the Scarlet Blood War Banner to open up this forbidden land, it caused the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s lingering will to withdraw.
After all, the Scarlet Blood Pirate King wanted to pass on his treasures and not kill every cultivator that came here.
Xiao Chen crossed the handprint and continued on his way. Then, he saw more corpses.
These people all died in special environments, injured by sword Qi. They had been too careless.
Seven days later, Xiao Chen finally reached the foot of the mountain where demonic clouds churned.
He felt a huge pressure coming from where the demonic clouds churned at the peak.
Various mysterious phenomena materialized—vast armies, flood dragons, flaming phoenixes, centipedes, ox heads, and many others. Just seeing them made one tremble in fear.
It looked like this obstacle was much stronger than the demonic cloud at the cave entrance.
This time, Xiao Chen could not charge across unharmed just by relying on speed.
The Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s tests came one after another. Without corresponding strength, one would not be qualified to obtain the treasure that he left behind.
If one died, that was it. One could not blame anyone.
Xiao Chen took a deep breath, then drove the opposing Veritable Essence Energies in his 9-Star Primal Core before charging forward without hesitation.
“Boom!”
The first thing that charged over was a beast with ox horns, materialized by the demonic clouds. It roared, and a black demonic flame burned at its hooves.
That beast charged at Xiao Chen with brute force. It was very strong, not much weaker than Si Shengjie.
Yin and Yang of the world, everlasting primal chaos!
Nine stars sparkled in Xiao Chen’s Primal Core as the two pools of Veritable Essence Energies circulated wildly. An invisible but firm and unbreakable Taiji force field appeared in his surroundings.
When he punched, the Taiji force field that mixed Demonic Qi Veritable Essence Energy and Spiritual Energy Veritable Essence Energy exploded.
Xiao Chen crushed this beast with ox horns with one blow.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
Xiao Chen walked briskly, his punches like the wind. His movements did not stop at all as he charged up the mountain.
The mountain road was littered with corpses everywhere he passed. They were all cultivators who had died while trying to charge through the demonic clouds.
There were also other cultivators progressing toward the summit of the mountain, persisting bitterly.
“Damn it! Who is that youth? He is very strong!”
“He is really fast. Even the true inheritors of the three great Demonic Dao sects are not that strong.”
“To think that he is only a Venerate. Dang! I really can’t understand this!”
Seeing Xiao Chen overtake them so quickly, the cultivators who were struggling forward were extremely shocked.
Since when was a Primal Core Venerate much stronger than Star Venerates?
When Xiao Chen reached the waist of the mountain, he brought out the Saber Dao’s Great Dao Energy. His fist light started flickering with dazzling saber light.
Two-thirds of the way up, he activated the Thunder Great Dao. Aside from the resplendent saber light, his body started flickering with dazzling electric light.
In the last one hundred meters, he activated half of his Azure Dragon bloodline and started to drive his Vital Qi.
Just like that, Xiao Chen grew increasingly ferocious. As he trampled on countless corpses and bones, he never stopped, overtaking the many cultivators persisting bitterly.
Then, he entered the demonic clouds.
“Clang!”
The moment Xiao Chen entered the demonic clouds, he drew his Tyrant Saber and started a relentless massacre.
He fought various mutated beasts for three days in the demonic clouds.
When Xiao Chen sheathed his saber, his white robes were still clean as he passed through the demonic clouds and stood up proudly.
The scene that appeared before him was very shocking.
This vast space had a sky of unknown heights and an abyss of unknown depths. It was like the Starry Heavens, unimaginably vast.
There was a common adage that, for however vast one’s heart was, the world was vaster.
Now that Xiao Chen was inside of the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s heart, he finally got to see what this adage truly meant.
The heart was very vast, to the point of boundlessness.
It was really hard to imagine that this vast space was just a small part of the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s physical body.
After the days of intense battle, Xiao Chen felt extremely moved when he saw this scene.
It was like the legendary Scarlet Blood Pirate King was announcing: Even though I’m dead, you are all as insignificant as ants in my heart, unable to do anything.
“Even if I do not obtain anything, it is already worth it to be able to see such a sight,” Xiao Chen said, feeling fully convinced as he stood at the edge of a cliff. He did not feel any sense of defeat or helplessness.
This vast space before Xiao Chen was not empty. There were tens of thousands of monoliths in the middle.
When Xiao Chen looked over, he saw treasure lights shining up from the many stone pillars. A strong Spiritual Energy spread out as well.
Of course, this would be accompanied by endless killing and all sorts of intense battles.
It looked like these stone pillars were treasure pillars. The Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s treasure had to be hidden on these pillars.
The cultivators who arrived earlier were already standing on the stone pillars and had started killing each other.
Xiao Chen looked into the distance and saw a clump of flames burning on the centermost stone pillar, illuminating the surroundings. The sky above was filled with starlight flickering brightly.
A Faux God Flame!
Xiao Chen immediately figured out what that flame was.
He carefully soared into the air, flying towards the closest stone pillar.
“Boom!”
The moment he pushed off the ground, he felt like he had gotten struck by thunder, like an invisible mountain range had landed on his back.
That was the will that the Scarlet Blood Pirate King left behind. The boundless might and pressure were the Faux God Might.
Divine Dragon War Body! Great Dao Energy!
Xiao Chen grunted and endured the pressure, letting out a long breath after he managed to land on the stone pillar after much difficulty.
That was dangerous. If I had not been careful and had gone too far, I definitely would have fallen. At this height and with the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s Faux God Might, there would be no way to recover from that. My body would have been crushed.
“Whoosh!”
Shortly after Xiao Chen landed on the stone pillar, a light flashed in the center of the stone pillar. Then, a pile of Spirit Jades appeared on the platform, with an inherited Dao Tool on top of the Spirit Jades, giving off a dazzling light.
“An inherited Dao Tool!”
Before Xiao Chen could move, many figures flew over. These were Demonic Dao experts, who had managed to barge in.
These people were strong. However, when they leaped up, several of them were still caught off guard, and the Faux God Might ruthlessly thrust them into the abyss. Their blood-curdling screams echoed in this empty world, sounding very scary.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
Finally, five people landed on the stone pillar that Xiao Chen was on, then hurriedly launched themselves towards that inherited Dao Tool.
However, when those people flew over, a killing intent soared into the sky, and sword lights from the inherited Dao Tool pierced through their bodies, killing them without them realizing what happened.
Xiao Chen had long expected this outcome. A glistening, golden Taiji Yinyang Flame Diagram blocked all of the sword lights for him.
There was a restriction on the inherited Dao Tool. Naturally, the Scarlet Blood Pirate King had left restrictions on his treasures.
This restriction was simple and tyrannical, nothing fancy at all. It was just a strand of the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s sword Qi.