Archfiend

“But Junior might die during the Holy War,” Xu Yangyi said in a low voice.

“It’s no bother, I’m going to die soon anyways. Why be scared about the Holy War?” Antonio chuckled, “I promise to save your life. I will take you away from here.”

Xu Yangyi still didn’t answer at once. “Your Majesty Grand Duke, you’re really doing all this to continue the fate of the Elves? A Sacred Spirit itself is maintaining the woodland. Even if there’s only one left, no one else would dare to act rashly.”

Antonio’s gaze was somewhat distant. “I believe you probably know what a Human Pillar is.”

“Human Pillars serve as the Elves’s origin and source of strength, and harbor incomparably rich and profound things.

“Why does a Sacred Spirit appear? Where does one come from? Each Sacred Spirit has their own legends. Greece’s legends, Northern Europe’s legends, China’s legends… Do the Sacred Spirits exist in the same world as those legends?” His gaze was fiery as he looked out the window and into the sky. “As a cultivator and as part of the oldest living race in the world, you cannot comprehend the idea of inheritance and the self. You are still too young.”

“The inheritance of knowledge originates from within and the secrets of cultivation… These things are simply hard for me to grasp alone… But because of their existence, I firmly believe that in this world… legends are perhaps not just legends!”

Of course they weren’t!

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath. He didn’t speak of the extremely important information which Wukong had ultimately left behind. An immortal’s fall at the Thirteen Ming Tombs. Instead, he hesitated, “Quetzalcoatl?”

“That’s right!” The black energy covering Antonio sharply increased by a fraction. “Quetzalcoatl! The oldest god to exist! If His Highness the 2,000-year-old Malorne exists, then the feathered serpent god definitely does as well! The timeless Quetzalcoatl… certainly knows many of those ancient records as well!”

“Inevitably there are some species, some people, who serve as witnesses to history. In this restless age, a majority of people are unwilling to act, but it doesn’t matter. I can…” His gaze faintly rippled with the great vicissitudes of mulberry fields to azure seas. “Inevitably, there are some who yearn for the unknown and knowledge in their hearts. This is a cultivator’s root. If this is forgotten, not even with greater strength will you be worthy of remembrance.”

Xu Yangyi was a little absent-minded.

He couldn’t help but say that he hadn’t expected this answer. In this cultivation world, where strength was respected, there was actually such a person. Yet once Xu Yangyi carefully thought about Antonio’s words, he came to a realization.

Who wasn’t like this?

This desire for knowledge was inherent and indestructible. Some people pursued martial hegemony throughout the world, but the elf king in front of him sought to leave his name behind for all eternity. Those among the former were remembered by name, and those among the later were remembered for their species and minds.

Who was better and who was worse?

No one could know.

“Do you accept my explanation?” Antonio asked Xu Yangyi as he smiled and looked at the demon slayer.

“Each person has their own way to reflect their worth.” A good few seconds later, Xu Yangyi earnestly nodded. “Although I don’t understand Your Majesty’s explanation very well right now, I acknowledge it.”

“In that case let’s start.” Antonio inhaled deeply and softly waved his hand. The elegant box quietly opened.

Inside there was only a pen and a bottle of black ink.

“At the highest peak of the Alps, there is a Sacred Spirit.” Antonio twirled the brush and sighed ruefully. “It awakens once in 300 years and then sleeps for another 300. This is a feather it shed 600 years ago. It has no name, but it is known as ‘The White Dragon’.”

“Its feather in addition to a SSS-rank treasure of a gem drilled from a meteor produced the most profound treasure that took a grand master a decade to create. On this area of less than a gram, over ten thousand runes are filled in. This is its nib.”

Xu Yangyi wryly laughed in silence.

The origin of a single pen was so great. The favor owed was enormous.

“This is the sap from the World Tree.” Antonio only explained the bottle of black ink with a brief remark. However, this remark was already enough to measure it.

In the entire world, the World Tree only existed in the Elven Woodland of Nature’s Dream. The Well of the Moon Good had one sapling.

But as for its effect?

None.

Yet perhaps it could be said that all its effects weren’t true in a sense of reality. It had long since been deified. In ten thousand years, it only few one meter, and in the Elven domain it had grown so tall. In the present, it did not grow, but it was a sacred entity that all elves pledged their to defend.

Antonio snapped his fingers, and a burst of white light suddenly flashed. The seal was split open by a thread. An extremely pure spiritual force loudly spread from the box. In this instant, Xu Yangyi seemed to see that arrogant pure-white figure in the Alps. He couldn’t hold back the cold shivers that ran up and down his form.

The gap in realms was too great… This monster was perhaps infinitely close to Nascent Soul, or perhaps… already Nascent Soul!

Golden light brushed over Xu Yangyi, and his clothes vanished without a trace.

“Hmph, every day you sure know how to tell other people what to do, but you still don’t know how to give a few little benefits!” The box voiced its disagreement, but it sincerely allowed the brush to moisten in the ink. In the air it drifted.

“This might be a little painful. I think you can take it, however.” A deep smile was revealed on Antonio’s handsome and busy face. Afterwards, his finger tapped out, and the quill pen flew over like lightning. An incomparably pure and holy white light exploded in Xu Yangyi’s dantian.

Rumble! In a flash, an intense pain spread in Xu Yangyi’s body. He couldn’t clearly describe what he was feeling, but it was like there was a shell in his dantian. Antonio’s tap punched a hole in this shell, and something seemed to be on the verge of vigorously growing out from the hole!

But following this hole’s creation, this something immediately responded like it was one and the same as him!

China, Nanzhou City.

Xu Yangyi was none the wiser that in present-day Nanzhou, Daomaster Ancientpine’s Skyraiser Palace was perpetually stationed in the sky. The ground was a pitch-black expanse, and a great deal of the black soil seemed to foam up like soap. There wasn’t the faintest chance at survival. But… this blackness was creeping through all of Longsu Province at a snail’s pace.

In the air, on giant flying magik treasures, numerous cultivation researchers were paying attention to the great plant below.

It seemed to be a death’s door, but in reality all of its life force was locked within, awaiting the moment when that man would return in glory.

After all, he was it.

And yet… all the researchers coldly gasped in this moment. This plant which hadn’t moved in decades was actually trembling a little!

A branch and a leaf silently furled out. Cracking noises resonated through the entire space.

“Movement?! It moved?!”

“It’s been dormant for decades! The Wolfbane actually moved?!”

“It is about to wake up? Hurry and report to Vice Chairman Zhang!”

“I can’t believe it… this thing’s a living fossil!”

The entirety of this did not reach the West. At the same time, Antonio had continuously drawn a dot on each of Xu Yangyi’s shoulders and his arms.

Wherever the brush fell, fingertip-sized azure flowers appeared on Xu Yangyi’s body. Following each flower’s bloom, he gradually felt something recovering in him.

Azure lines crept out from the flowers and intersected between the strange space of the Devil Mark. Right now, Xu Yangyi appeared like a vengeful devil of hell. At the same time, he tightly gritted his teeth, his body trembling. With great difficulty, he endured the pain of his body tearing apart.

As for Antonio, with each fall of his quill, another wrinkle appeared on his face. After four strokes, even he, who was at the False Soul realm, was already panting for air.

“The design of an azure flower. The Sacred Spirit within you is a plant? This is quite rare… Originally, there were three plants that were Sacred Spirits in the Elven domain, but all of them died in the first devouring between Sacred Spirits that occurs every century…” Antonio inhaled and exhaled heavily, and raised his hand again. “Plant Sacred Spirits are weak, but as long as you don’t encounter other Sacred Spirits there won’t be any danger to your life. The most important quill stroke is next. This one will activate all the lines.”

“Any Sacred Spirit, as long as it once existed in the body, is bound to leave marks. These marks are its present for the Human Pillar, so that the Human Pillar doesn’t die during maturation. Sacred Spirits are hard to find, and carriers are hard to find as well. These presents ordinarily wouldn’t trigger, but only we Elves, who have interacted with Sacred Spirits for a thousand years, can grasp the key to this cave of secret treasure!”

“These presents are known as ‘God’s Grace’. You must remember, any Sacred Spirit has its own most unique gift. There may perhaps be nothing else in God’s Grace, but there is sure to be an extremely practical Elysial Bestowment for the body! You need to figure this out for on your own.”

Xu Yangyi clenched his teeth and nodded.

Although he was in pain, it wasn’t any worse than when he’d forged his left arm back then.

The tip of the white quill pen gathered faint black light and pierced straight at his heart like lightning.

CRAAAAAACK!!!!!! A greenish-blue lotus blossoming on his chest, Xu Yangyi immediately heard a distinct noise in his body. It was as if the world was suddenly collapsing, and the originally crack-covered ‘shell’ shattered apart!

Simultaneously within him… an incomparably majestic power that he’d never felt rumbled and erupted!

This power had come so fiercely that Xu Yangyi reared his head back screamed. A vast expanse of azure light jetted out from his seven apertures!

BOOM!!! A sonorous noise rang out, and a painting of hell revealed itself before Antonio.

Swish swish… Rendered despondent, the Elf King gazed at the phantasm of an enormous plant in front of him. At ten-odd meters tall, this was merely the remnant shadow of a Sacred Spirit. It wasn’t large, but…

He studied his hand in shock.

He… was trembling?

He, who was at the False Soul boundary, was actually trembling?

“This… is impossible.” He continued to look at his hand in shock. Afterwards, he discovered that he wasn’t just shaking! His palm was soaked in cold sweat!

No… not just his palm, but sweat graced his forehead as well!

Fear.

Fear he’d never experienced before.

Fear he hadn’t even felt from the Whitedeer King Malorne!

This wasn’t a question of realms… but rather one of levels. Against a high-level hunter, a sleeping tiger couldn’t approach, let alone a sheep!

“What are you doing?!” A furious voice rang out from the box, and the artifact-spirit shouted, “I felt an incomparably terrible power! What the heck are you… huh?!”

All of a sudden, two eyes grew from the box. Likewise, one could picture that it was gritting its teeth as it stared dumbly at the heavily perspiring Xu Yangyi. “This… How is this possible?! How could there be such a thing in this kid’s body?!”

“It’s a monster! A monster!!! Antonio! Kill him! Don’t hesitate! This kid is hiding a disastrous entity inside him! Right fucking now, I have my doubts that he’s a master spirit-technician! How could a normal person have something like this hidden in them?!”

A pale hand silenced the box’s clamor. In a split second, Antonio seemed to grow older by decades. He was trembling, wanting to approach Xu Yangyi, but he discovered that his legs were weak. Unexpectedly, he was kneeling on the ground beyond his control.

And so, he submitted.

Casting his limbs to the floor and with his forehead pressed down, he fully submitted to this higher being.

“This is horrible… No wonder, no wonder he was able to kill His Highness Malorne’s divine avatar… Even if he came to the Woodland of Nature’s Dream, His Highness Malorne wouldn’t be able to kill him unless he exterminated Mr. X’s body. As for devouring… there’s not a chance!”

“I find it hard to believe… Aren’t plants the weakest Sacred Spirits? How could something this horrible appear?! This thing… is basically just like Satan! It’s brimming with killing intent! All kinds of ominous auras… even in the deepest layer of hell, such a horrible plant couldn’t exist!”

“What in the world is it?! This high Marquis is actually able to support its weight… I feel as if it’s murdered an angel before!”