Before anyone could turn back, a flash of crimson light split, and a chillingly sharp blood-red sword qi erupted from the core of Locke's domain world, hurtling toward Ye Chen.

A cold glint flashed in Ye Chen’s eyes, his internal blood instantly boiling. “Sky Beast!”

A devastating surge of power welled up from within him, an unmatched aura spreading outwards, causing even the two Divine Attendant guards to slightly narrow their pupils.

Two black horns jutted from Ye Chen’s brow. Clenching his fists, his figure moved abruptly, taking a thunderous stride that seamlessly merged his body with the space itself as he rushed toward the entrance of the Demon God Palace.

Just then, the crimson sword qi flashed past, whistling forward with fierce energy, carving black fissures across the surrounding space in its path.

As the red light approached, it forcibly tore apart the domain worlds woven together by the surrounding numerous God Realm powerhouses. This caused the expressions of all the dark creatures to fill with alarm; they quickly evaded, then unleashed their respective combat secret arts, joining forces to suppress the blood-red sword qi.

Boom!

Under the compressive spatial force exerted by the combined efforts of the group, the tiny streak of sword qi slowed its advance. Mysterious Law energies glowed upon its blade, like threads of rainbow silk radiating infinite power, tearing through space as they clashed head-on with the spatial power wielded by the seven or eight united God Realm experts, resulting in a massive explosion.

A violent shockwave expanded outward from the sword qi’s center, akin to a nuclear blast, staggering back the surrounding seven or eight God Realm powerhouses. Each felt their vital energy churn painfully within them.

“A single fragmented sword qi is this terrifyingly strong!”

“What weapon is this?”

“That girl’s power is too frightening!”

As these seven or eight God Realm experts reeled in shock, an annoyed voice echoed from within the red light high in the sky: “You fools! You dare obstruct this Princess! And you let that cunning bastard slip away again, hmph!”

While these seven or eight God Realm experts were countering the sword qi that was originally aimed at Ye Chen, Ye Chen’s figure moved instantly. Seizing the instability of the surrounding domain worlds as the sword qi arrived, he teleported directly into the magnificent Demon God Palace.

The moment he entered the Demon God Palace, Ye Chen felt as if he had stepped into another world. His body seemed gently stroked by water waves. Only when the blinding light before him softened did he clearly perceive his surroundings.

It was a metallic corridor, its walls naturally emitting a light that illuminated the space as brightly as day.

Ye Chen frowned, glancing at the surrounding walls. Clutching the Heaven Mending Divine Sword, his expression was wary and grave. He carefully watched the floor beneath his feet, tentatively taking a step forward. Ahead, the passage curved around a corner.

Ye Chen’s hand gripped the Heaven Mending Divine Sword tightly. In this unfamiliar place, if he carelessly triggered any mechanism, resisting it would likely prove difficult, considering this was the fortress of a Divine Emperor-level powerhouse, whose mechanisms would be exceedingly potent.

After taking only a few steps, a sudden whistling sound erupted from the corner ahead. Four figures burst around the bend and, upon seeing Ye Chen cautiously navigating the corridor, froze momentarily, then their eyes widened in disbelief. “Humans!!”

Spotting a human in the central district of the Dark Great World was as shocking as seeing an alien on Earth during peacetime.

A cold light flashed in Ye Chen’s eyes. A sweep of his gaze revealed that the leader of the four was a robust man, muscular, covered in thorny protrusions, with two small snake heads atop his brow twitching like curved antennae, flicking out serpentine tongues.

Behind this imposing man were three oddly shaped figures, each emanating fluctuations of Pseudo-Divine power.

Swish!

Ye Chen barely paused to think before his figure shot forward. The Heaven Mending Divine Sword swept out with blinding speed, augmented by the still-active Sky Beast Superman Mode, moving as fast as lightning. In an instant, he was before them. Within their startled, contracting pupils, the Heaven Mending Divine Sword passed by them like a beam of light.

Thump thump thump thump!

The heads of all four bodies exploded, their cores struck before they could even react to self-destruct.

Ye Chen swiftly activated his Rune Space, retrieving four Black Snail Bugs, and commanded them to possess the four corpses. Not long after, the Snail Bugs integrated into the bodies. These previously inert, headless corpses slowly began to move their hands, the flesh around their necks churning as new heads slowly regenerated.

“Boss, greetings,” the four said in unison, bowing respectfully.

Ye Chen nodded slightly. “Did you find anything useful in their memories?”

The robust man shook his head. “Reporting, Boss, nothing useful was found. These four also just arrived and are completely ignorant of the interior. This Demon God Palace belonged to Wanren Xiong countless eons ago; little lore remains. Those who know anything are of the same power level, and such experts are always restricted by the Palace. Once one enters, the Palace’s intelligent system initiates an elimination protocol!”

Ye Chen nodded slowly. “Give me the tribal chieftain’s token, and you lead the way.”

The robust man bowed and flipped his palm. From the skin of his palm, a blood-red jade, exquisitely carved with secret runes and made of a unique material that seemed condensed from fresh blood, slowly seeped out.

He respectfully handed this blood-red jade to Ye Chen, then turned and took the lead.

Ye Chen accepted the jade, feeling its touch was warm, smooth, and delicate, yet carrying a faint, violent aura of malice. He focused his gaze and suddenly realized the malevolence within the jade was incredibly familiar.

A flash of intuition struck him. He drew the Slaughter Battle Blade. The blood-red blade thrummed with intense murderous intent, matching the aura of the blood-red jade perfectly.

The moment Ye Chen drew the Slaughter Battle Blade, the blood-red jade trembled slightly, emitting a dense aura of blood energy. It seemed to awaken from inertness. The blood-red essence drifting from it was guided by a mysterious magnetic field, enveloping the Slaughter Battle Blade.

The entire Slaughter Battle Blade hummed, and blood energy flowed across its edge, absorbing and compressing the enveloping crimson malice. The aura emanating from the blade grew significantly richer.

As the essence bled away from the blood-red jade, the red glow on the Slaughter Battle Blade intensified. When the jade was completely consumed, the blade’s body contracted like a heart, emitting rhythmic thumps. Then, the blade flashed, its hilt becoming more ancient in appearance, like a ravenous beast radiating a dense, tyrannical aura.

Ye Chen sensed it and was shocked to discover that the Slaughter Battle Blade had advanced from an Initial-Tier Pseudo-God weapon to the Mid-Tier of the Pseudo-God realm!

“The token of this tribal chieftain holds such concentrated malice? And it’s exactly the same as the malice in the Slaughter Battle Blade. If I could absorb a few more tokens, perhaps even breaking through to a Divine Artifact wouldn't be impossible for the blade.”

“However…”

“Each blood-red jade is equivalent to 25 God Points!”

Thinking of this, Ye Chen felt a pang of heartache. Twenty-five God Points could allow him two insights into the Heavenly Dao Stele, which was incredibly useful for advancing his mental state.

At this point, the robust man and the others had already taken the lead, proceeding cautiously through the dark, silent corridor. Ye Chen noticed that after entering this Demon God Palace, his Sky Beast Superman abilities had been significantly reduced. His spatial sensing range had shrunk from the original 10,000 kilometers down to merely 1,000 meters—a suppression factor of ten thousand times!

He attempted to activate his imitation Universe Disc and immediately discovered that this domain artifact was completely nullified here; it couldn't manifest any domain world power.

Ye Chen forced a wry smile, rallied his spirits, and moved forward into the darkness ahead.

Not long after.

“Hmm?” Ye Chen’s ears twitched as he heard several sounds of objects breaking the air not far behind him. He frowned, musing briefly in his mind, then quickly signaled the robust man and the others, diverting into a side passage. There were many small branching paths in this corridor, resembling a maze.

After Ye Chen and his group entered the side passage, several figures rushed past the area shortly after, speeding straight ahead.

Only after these figures had passed did Ye Chen lead the robust man and the others back the way they came. He peered ahead, contemplating for a moment. He stored the robust man and his crew into the Rune Space, summoning Kabba to accompany him. With the latter’s True Void God strength, dealing with an ordinary peak Pseudo-God expert would be much easier.

Although Ye Chen’s secret art amplification could reach 8 million times the amplitude, enough to kill a peak Pseudo-God, this required him to be utilizing the 1000x amplitude of the Blood God Mode.

In the virtual world, he could burn his lifespan limit countless times, but using it recklessly in reality would ultimately lead to his life ending. While he possessed the Longevity Grass to extend his life, having consumed it once, the effect on Ye Chen would be greatly diminished if he took it again, rendering it nearly useless.

“Is this the Demon God Palace?” Kabba asked, looking around in astonishment.

Ye Chen nodded. “Go straight ahead, lead the way.”

Kabba pouted but said nothing more, taking the lead and surging forward. Following the passage to its end, they soon arrived before a massive, pitch-black iron gate. Beyond this gate lay a city resembling a beautiful fairyland, with dazzling lights, angels soaring in the sky, and ultra-futuristic cars speeding along the roads, along with high-tech products like hover yachts.

Ye Chen paused to consider, glancing around. He realized this must be the destination; those figures he saw earlier had most likely entered here. He thought for a moment and stepped through with Kabba.

The moment he entered, Ye Chen felt a strange sensation, as if stepping across a threshold into another world.

Whoosh!

A flash of light blinded him, immediately followed by a bone-chilling, piercing wind blowing directly into his face. Ye Chen forced his eyes open and was instantly astonished to find that the vision before him was not a beautiful fairyland city at all. Far from beautiful, it was a dilapidated, ruined city in a wasteland. The city streets were identical to what he had seen before, but they were now choked with wreckage from smashed cars. The sky was murky gray, void of angels, and the ground along the roadside was littered with corpses, some so decomposed they were covered in maggots.