As Qi Ping drew closer to the path where the Saint-grade demons were traveling, the sense of unease in his heart grew increasingly intense.
'What on earth are they doing?'
Though a sliver of worry tugged at his mind, it was overshadowed by his grim determination and surging killing intent. Regardless of the circumstances, he could not retreat. If he fell back now, the probability of winning this war would dwindle to a vanishing point.
Fortunately, a stroke of serendipitous luck soon manifested!
Suddenly, pitch-black tentacles erupted from Qi Ping's hand, surging toward the heavens! The Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Blade in his grasp vanished, transforming into those hundreds of thousands of macabre, writhing tendrils.
As these tentacles pierced the sky, a series of terrifying suction forces erupted. Wisps of a demonic calamity-nature—something Qi Ping had never seen before—were forcibly torn from the surrounding disasters and pulled into the tendrils, serving as nourishment.
"It is actually separating and devouring the demonic energy within the natural disasters!?"
Qi Ping was momentarily stunned by the scene before him. Those were natural disasters of heaven and earth, phenomena so lethal that even Unity stage cultivators risked perishing within them. Yet, the Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Blade was devouring their very essence.
'Is this the true power of a True Demon Realm cultivator's Dao-fruit when augmented by the laws of the Great Dao?'
Even Qi Ping had to admit that he would have faced immense difficulty attempting such a feat, yet the blade accomplished it with ease. The scale of this extraction was so massive that it drew in high-density calamity energy from dozens of miles around.
Though the Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Blade was currently in the process of breaking through to the Consummate Unity rank, its display remained utterly harrowing. After devouring such a vast and potent demonic calamity-nature, the original pitch-black tentacles suddenly manifested various shifting colors representing different disasters. Its aura surged violently to a new level.
This continued for a long while before the tentacles, now stained with the hues of multiple calamities, began their final metamorphosis. When the transformation was complete, they reverted to their original form—but they were no longer a single blade. Instead, they were countless fragments of the Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Blade.
The fragments rained down toward Qi Ping, converging in his hand to reform into a multi-colored demonic blade. Immediately, a wave of information flooded his mind.
"Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Intent? Is this the ability born from your reach for perfection?"
As he felt the power that could seemingly open the heavens and split the earth, Qi Ping witnessed the true form of the Heaven-Cleaving Demonic Blade. Compared to its current state, the previous blade had been like an infant.
What now radiated from the blade was the pinnacle of sharpness and explosive force—a terrifying power capable of annihilating all things. Even Qi Ping, the weapon's master, felt a surge of trepidation. This realization filled him with extraordinary joy. The power displayed by the blade after its transformation was staggering.
If he were to face that humanoid Saint-grade demon or the Consummate Saint-Ape again, the battle would not have ended in such a grueling struggle.
Moreover, this was not the most terrifying aspect of the blade. Its truly fearsome qualities lay in its new abilities: Fragmentation and Devouring.
Fragmentation: Upon breaking through an enemy's defense, the blade could instantly split into countless shards that burrowed into the foe's body to wreak internal havoc.
Devouring: It could consume a massive amount of essence in a short period, possessing a particularly specialized efficiency when consuming demonic flesh.
Only by combining the power of "Heaven-Cleaving" with Fragmentation and Devouring could the blade be used to its full potential!
"And it seems this is only your beginning!"
Qi Ping looked at the blade, a cold, ruthless smile flashing in his eyes. He had originally assumed that reaching Consummate Unity would bring the blade to a plateau, but sensing the even more vigorous devouring intent within it, he realized the blade had only just become a true "foundational vessel." Its path of growth had only truly begun.
'The combination of the True Demon Realm essence and the laws of the Primordial Battlefield has created a power more horrific than I imagined.'
'Furthermore, once Daoist Bai's Dao-fruit fused with the blade, it truly broke free from the shackles of cultivation levels, unleashing the true terror of the True Demon Realm.'
At this moment, Qi Ping truly understood how terrifying a True Demon practitioner could be.
Because the battle with the Saint-Ape had consumed so much time, Qi Ping encountered no other demons for a while. However, this did not bring him relief; instead, it made him increasingly tense. He even began to burn his blood essence to accelerate his pace, trusting in his recovery abilities to offset the cost.
As time passed, the unease in his heart deepened. He pushed his speed further, even when his energy consumption began to outpace his recovery rate.
'What are these Saint-grade demons doing? What power is driving so many of them to gather together?'
'This situation likely has nothing to do with the disaster-stricken battlefield itself. It must be the demons' own doing.'
'But since they are all Saint-grade demons, an ordinary demon shouldn't have such authority over the others.'
'To achieve this, it must be either the appearance of a demon with Imperial Bloodline—an existence that might not appear once in an era—or it is the secret that no one has ever unraveled... the Demon Nest!'
Thinking of this, the dread in Qi Ping's heart intensified. Whatever the reason and whatever their goal, he had to stop them. He worked on a simple principle: if the enemy wanted to do something, he had to destroy it. And as long as he didn't encounter a demon specializing in time, space, or particularly bizarre abilities, he was confident in his ability to escape.
Besides, this was merely an avatar. Although he had poured vast resources and energy into it, making it nearly indistinguishable from his main body, countless Star-Sea citizens were perishing at every moment. This was no time to be stingy. If they won, the resources of an avatar meant nothing. If they lost, having a few more avatars would be pointless.
After traversing a vast distance, Qi Ping finally located the gathering site using his sharp spiritual intuition. The purpose and the scene of the gathering finally came into his view.
"Is this... devouring and fusion?"
Before him were sixteen Saint-grade demons! These sixteen creatures were fused together in a bizarre state, their bodies covered in a black membrane resembling dragon scales.
But that was not the most horrific part. The aura currently erupting from them was so potent that it forcibly repelled all the calamity-energy in the area. No matter what form of disaster energy attempted to draw near, it was stopped several yards away.
Most chilling of all, Qi Ping sensed a terrifying Power of Years radiating from them—a bizarre, bone-chilling force he had never understood, yet which made his soul tremble with a single glance.