The Spirit Fox, while lovely, was simply too clingy. Since Lei Dong entered the Demon Emperor's Palace, the little fox had been clinging to his side like an attached little girl. Of course, it was only because Lei Dong had deactivated the restrictive barriers that she could enter; otherwise, even if she were at the Divine Transformation level, let alone the mere Nascent Soul Middle Stage she was, forcing entry would have been impossible. Furthermore, previously, those at the Foundation Establishment stage could enter without regard to the restrictions, but ever since Lei Dong gained initial control, only the permitted were allowed inside, regardless of their level. Lei Dong had no need to use newcomers at the Foundation Establishment stage for trials or talent selection here.

Linghu Qianqian was also a guest of the Demon Emperor's Palace. When Lei Dong used his initial method of control to teleport directly to the center of the palace, the little fox noticed the Fruit of the Soul tree that once stood there was gone, and so was the dragon. She immediately covered her mouth in disappointment and asked, "Brother, did you get robbed here? Where did that big tree that bore such delicious fruit go? And where is that simple-minded big brother dragon?"

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Lei Dong glared at her irritably. "I transplanted the Soul Tree elsewhere. As for the dragon brother who used to chat with you and give you Soul Fruits—his name is Lei Long. He is now my sworn brother and is currently in seclusion in the Chaotic Exotic Space, striving to break through to the Void Refinement stage as soon as possible."

"Ah? Void Refinement stage?" Linghu Qianqian covered her small mouth in surprise, her extremely cute, watery eyes wide. "Void Refinement stage? That’s too outrageous. I don't think there are any Void Refinement cultivators in our Six Domains and Nine Continents, are there?" Linghu Qianqian had clearly not wasted her time over the years; not only had she taken human form, but she had also evidently learned a great deal about the Six Domains and Nine Continents. It was likely she had even posed as a human and spent some time mingling in the human world.

This posed a significant challenge for other demonic beasts, but illusionary arts were what Linghu Qianqian excelled at. When she was still weak, the illusions she created could be so realistic that even Lei Dong found it difficult to discern truth from falsehood. Now that she was a Mid-Stage Nascent Soul demonic fox, her mastery of illusionary arts was probably at the level of perfect proficiency. It was likely that even those of the same cultivation level would struggle to easily see through her illusions.

Of course, any demonic beast with a divine beast bloodline possessed another significant advantage: as they advanced and grew, the various inheritances hidden within their bloodline would gradually awaken. This was known as innate inheritance. Linghu Qianqian's formidable illusionary arts were clearly activated due to her exceptionally pure Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline, which had awakened some excellent innate inheritances from a very young age.

Seeing her cute and charmingly naive appearance, Lei Dong was quite fond of her. He couldn't help but reach out and stroke her head, smiling, "The Void Refinement stage is rare, but not impossible to reach. Your brother Lei Long possesses the pure bloodline of the Primordial Flying Dragon. With ample resources, advancing to the Void Refinement stage is not a major issue. As for you, although you are currently weak, your talent seems promising. You must work hard in the future and strive to also reach the Void Refinement stage someday." The Primordial Flying Dragon was also an extremely rare bloodline. Lei Dong had no idea where the Demon Emperor found it; he probably intended to cultivate it into a super-fighter as well.

"Mmm, both elder brothers are so amazing! Qianqian will definitely work hard," Linghu Qianqian nodded.

After briefly soothing her, Lei Dong became engrossed in mastering the Demon Emperor's Palace. His vast divine sense poured into the palace's control center like a tide, refining the complex core array system with his spiritual power.

Of course, only someone like Lei Dong, who had accepted the Demon Emperor's legacy and had been preliminarily recognized by the palace, granting him certain permissions, could achieve this divine sense refinement. Otherwise, if anyone else tried, even if their divine sense were infinitely stronger than Lei Dong's, even reaching the Integration stage, attempting to infiltrate and refine the core center with their divine sense would undoubtedly trigger the Demon Emperor's Palace's defensive mechanism counterattack.

How could an auxiliary palace left behind by a supreme being like the Demon Emperor be so simple? If any stray cat or dog could refine it, wouldn't that imply the Demon Emperor was incompetent?

However, Lei Dong’s estimation was correct; his current divine sense strength was indeed sufficient to refine the core center. Due to the presence of the Imperial Demonic Seed on his forehead, Lei Dong did not find the refinement strenuous. As the core center was gradually refined by him, the information hidden within it poured into Lei Dong's nascent soul in massive waves.

That information contained the means to completely control the Demon Emperor's Palace, as well as intelligence regarding the Guardian Clan. He also learned some details about the past of the mysterious sect known as the Demon Emperor Sect.

Throughout the entire Ancient Era, the Demon Emperor Sect had always been a mysterious and incredibly powerful sect. However, the sect was always low-key, rarely participating in various conflicts. Of course, the structure of the Six Domains and Nine Continents in the Ancient Era differed significantly from the present; humans were merely one race during that time, far from the powerful status they held now. Even though a Great Power level expert might occasionally emerge, they could not overthrow those supremely powerful races.

From that information, Lei Dong learned that the so-called Demon Emperor Sect was a lineage that inherited the will of the Underworld King. After the Underworld King was destroyed, they naturally operated with extreme discretion while secretly accumulating strength. This continued until the appearance of the final generation Demon Emperor. This individual truly possessed earth-shattering talent and means, gradually leading the Demon Emperor Sect to an entirely new zenith.

However, that generation of the Demon Emperor had an erratic personality and disliked being low-key. Naturally, he possessed the strength to back it up. Ultimately, after discovering a Chaos Origin Source, he drew the attention of the Three Realms' Supremes, leading to the complete annihilation of the Demon Emperor Sect, and his own utter demise. Nevertheless, from the legacy Lei Dong himself received, he also learned that the Demon Emperor did not let the Three Supremes off easily, inflicting terrifying injuries upon them.

Of course, this wasn't to say the Demon Emperor was so terrifyingly powerful that he could fight three opponents simultaneously and gravely injure all three Supremes. It was simply because the battle occurred at the very end of the Ancient Wars; the three Supremes, having fought each other to a stalemate for countless years, were already wounded due to various circumstances and were not at their peak strength.

Otherwise, no matter how formidable the Demon Emperor was, he likely could only contend against one of the Three Supremes.

In addition to dedicating most of his energy and wealth to perfecting the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda, the Demon Emperor also focused a portion of his effort on further enhancing the Demon Emperor's Palace, a treasure passed down through the Demon Emperor Sect. While the previous Demon Emperor contributed greatly, he was not the sole creator of this palace.

In fact, the planning and construction of the Demon Emperor's Palace began before the Underworld King's fall. Through generations of Demon Emperor inheritance, each successive leader poured their entire effort into building and perfecting this palace. By the time it reached the lineage of the last Demon Emperor, after immense effort, the palace was nearly complete. This was also due to the previous Demon Emperor himself being too powerful, having controlled half of the Ancient Era—tens of millions of years—by virtue of his supreme authority.

But the pitiful last Demon Emperor never had the chance to deploy this Demon Emperor's Palace, which he called his trump card, before being shamelessly ganged up on by the Three Realms' Supremes. He perished outside the domain. In the end, only a sliver of his remnant soul managed to escape back, carrying the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda. After arranging the succession method and inheritance conditions for the Pagoda, he completely vanished. What remained within the Pagoda was merely a shred of his lingering obsession, not even a true remnant soul.

Feeling the palace's wealth of information, Lei Dong marveled at its might yet felt a pang of sorrow for the utter collapse of the Demon Emperor Sect. Such a powerful sect, such a mighty Demon Emperor, utterly destroyed. He himself was currently only at the Mid-Stage of Divine Transformation, lifetimes away from the level of the last Demon Emperor.

From the complex control instructions, Lei Dong finally grasped the true purpose of the Demon Emperor's Palace. On the surface, it was a vast and magnificent auxiliary residence, symbolizing the prestige of a major power. In reality, it was a war fortress, concealing an immense space capable of housing hundreds of millions of troops and generals.

Furthermore, while the last Demon Emperor's mastery of the Laws of Time was shallow, his command over the Laws of Space was terrifyingly profound. This Demon Emperor's Palace could expand or shrink; at its largest, it could swell to a diameter of ten thousand miles, making the Sky City of the Winged God Clan seem like a mere speck. When minimized, it could be held directly in the palm of a hand and stored within a spatial storage artifact.

And this was merely its superficial capability. The Demon Emperor's Palace could also traverse the void at extreme speeds and execute spatial folding jumps to achieve ultra-long-distance instantaneous movement, completely ignoring all existing restrictions. In essence, with this palace, Lei Dong could arrive at any known location at will.

Of course, spatial folding instantaneous travel was not a trivial matter. First, a spatial node coordinate must be confirmed before a jump could be executed. Second, the farther the jump, the greater the energy consumed.

The Demon Emperor's Palace was, precisely, a massive energy sink. According to the customs of the Three Realms, Six Domains, and Nine Continents, any warship or fortress was powered by Spirit Stones. The appetite of this palace was so immense it left Lei Dong speechless. A single jump over a distance of several million miles to establish a temporary spatial tunnel required the consumption of hundreds of millions of units of spiritual energy. In other words, instantly teleporting from this desolate frontier of Zhaozhou to the Yinsha Sect would cost a hundred million Spirit Stones.

This left Lei Dong speechless. The only advantage was that, unlike a Grotto-Heaven Paradise, the Demon Emperor's Palace was not picky; it absorbed any Spirit Stone. A low-grade Spirit Stone could provide one unit of spiritual energy, but even a top-grade Spirit Stone could only supply a mere thousand units of spiritual energy. This was because it absorbed energy not based on the item's value, but purely on the actual energy it provided.

Fortunately, this meant that Lei Dong’s massive hoard of low-tier Spirit Stones finally had a worthy destination.