"Inner demon?"
When Long Chen heard this, he nearly jumped up—it was beyond his imagination.
However, after hearing the Chaos Dragon Emperor's explanation, Long Chen's understanding was completely overturned. It turned out that not only humans have heart demons, but dragons also have them.
Moreover, the stronger the dragon clan's divine power, the stronger their inner demons. Therefore, each sacred dragon clan has its own methods to counter inner demons. The most common method is to baptize the dragon clan powerhouse with the Holy Dragon Pool combined with totem blessings at birth, sealing the inner demon at its sprouting stage.
However, this method has a drawback: sealing the inner demon will affect the true body's growth, and various talents will be sealed to varying degrees, impacting future development.
Later, the dragon clan invented various divine powers to restrain the inner demon, preventing it from becoming powerful and affecting the true self, leading to demonic incursion.
Later, the dragon clan realized that using the power of the heavenly tribulation to suppress the inner demons was the best method and caused the least harm to the body.
Later, the dragon clan stopped sealing the inner demon and instead focused on the heavenly tribulation, using its power to suppress the weakened inner demon, which became the dragon clan's best method.
The Chaos Dragon Emperor was extremely proud; he never used the power of heavenly tribulations to restrain the Heart Demon, letting it grow as it wished. However, the Heart Demon was always suppressed by the Chaos Dragon Emperor and could not affect it.
The Chaos Dragon Emperor treats the inner demon as its whetstone. When there is no strong opponent, it seeks out the inner demon to confront it, thereby becoming even stronger.
But after entering immortality, it realized something was wrong—its inner demon had long been unable to resist it and even showed signs of self-destruction.
It no longer improved itself, nor did it seek to defeat the Chaos Dragon Emperor, but was always thinking of dying together with it.
At this moment, the Chaos Dragon Emperor sensed trouble. Ultimately, during the Emperor's Tribulation, he forced the heart demon into the reverse scale and sealed it away.
Later, an unpredictable event occurred. The Imperial Dao Reverse Scale, which sealed the Chaos Dragon Emperor's heart demon, broke free from the Dragon Emperor's control and flowed into the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm.
Within the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm, the heart demon was unwilling to be trapped; it constantly longed to break through the scale's blockade and regain its freedom.
From the Chaos Dragon Emperor, he learned that during the countless years this heart demon was trapped, he had actually found a way to escape.
Whenever it appeared in the world, it would use the power of heaven and earth to release the power within the dragon scales. This power was not its own strength, but the power of sealing.
According to the Chaos Dragon Emperor, if he released it again, the seal's power would be reduced to a point where it could be broken.
In fact, even if the Dragonblood Warrior hadn't deliberately lured it out, it would have appeared—just a few months earlier or later.
The Chaos Dragon Emperor deliberately had the Imperial Reverse Scale appear early, essentially to buy time for Long Chen. According to the historical patterns of the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm, the Imperial Reverse Scale always appears last.
At that time, almost all the experts of the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm would gather here. Others would have perfected all nine meridians, but Long Chen would suffer a major disadvantage in terms of realm. Moreover, facing so many enemies, Long Chen would have no chance to cultivate using the power of the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Path.
To put it plainly, all of this was within the Chaos Dragon Emperor's expectations. The Reverse Scale of the Imperial Dao attracted countless powerful beings, but the strongest-level monster experts were less than one-third of the total number of Tianmai Profound Realm cultivators. For Long Chen, this was the best opportunity.
Only then did Long Chen understand that the Chaos Dragon Emperor had put in so much effort, and everything was for him. This affection was higher than the sky and deeper than the earth. Although it hadn't told Long Chen some things, Long Chen himself had already guessed it.
"It releases the power of sealing to attract prodigies to compete. The power of the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Dao is a precious treasure for all living beings.
The power of dragon blood can help them cleanse their muscles and marrow, the power of the dragon soul can stimulate their soul power to grow again, and the will of the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Dao is the best method for tempering the Dao heart of a strongman.
Not to mention the sacred aura attached to the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Dao and the laws of the Imperial Dao. These are things that could drive countless beings mad. Even comprehending part of it is enough to easily advance to Human Emperor." The Chaos Dragon Emperor said.
"Attracting people to fight for it probably goes far beyond just weakening the seal, right?" Long Chen asked.
"That's right. When people fight for the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Way, large-scale slaughter is inevitable. When killing occurs, evil thoughts mixed with unwilling souls become its greatest tonic.
It uses the Reverse Scale of the Imperial Way as bait, inciting slaughter among all beings. Tainted bloodlines, greedy desires, twisted souls, and brutal will are all what it needs.
On one hand, weaken the seal's power; on the other, strengthen itself. This time, with the opening of the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm, it will gain enough power to break the seal.
And if you want to obtain true dragon blood power, you must defeat it. This reverse scale is different from before. Back then, I extracted almost a third of my bloodline power to seal it."
"One third?"
Long Chen's heart raced wildly. As far as he knew, the dragon clan shedding its reverse scale was like saying goodbye to the past, containing about one-eighth of their own lifeblood within their bodies.
Yet the Chaos Dragon Emperor had actually consumed one-third of his bloodline power at that time, indicating the situation was extremely serious. He had no choice but to sacrifice so much bloodline to seal the heart demon.
The Chaos Dragon Emperor said, "All the bloodline power is concentrated within the seal. However, over the years, most of the bloodline power has been absorbed by it."
"If you've absorbed most of it, wouldn't that make it easy to break the seal?"
"No, this is a trap I left behind. The more bloodline power it absorbs, the more it is bound by the seal.
After absorbing most of the bloodline power, it realized something was wrong and began to stop absorbing it. It started changing tactics, releasing sealing power to lure all beings to compete for it."
Hearing the Chaos Dragon Emperor's words, Long Chen couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. The Chaos Dragon Emperor had left so much essence blood to seal the heart demon. Nourished by the essence blood, the heart demon had become unaware of how powerful it had become.
As if seeing through Long Chen's thoughts, the Chaos Dragon Emperor spoke earnestly: "You keep claiming to be invincible among peers. You are the heart demon I shed after advancing to the Emperor Realm, and its realm is at the peak of Heavenly Saint.
Only by defeating it can you claim invincibility among your peers. Do you understand?"
Long Chen gasped. Although he was always said to be invincible among his peers, Long Chen knew this was limited to this era.
Facing the prodigies of the Chaos Era, he felt somewhat weak. Although he had defeated powerful figures from the Chaos Era such as Hou Tianwu, Xiang Tu, Xue Yingfeng, and Long Zaiye, Long Chen knew he was only slightly stronger than them.
Just entering the Heavenly Vein Profound Realm, he encountered so many terrifying monsters. Who could guarantee that the monsters among monsters wouldn't appear?
Now, he had to face the Chaos Dragon Emperor's inner demon again. Even though Long Chen was bold beyond words, he couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
"What's wrong? Scared?" The Chaos Dragon Emperor said calmly.
"Afraid?"
"Heh heh, I'm afraid if I defeat it, you'll lose face." Long Chen chuckled.
At
first, Long Chen was a bit nervous, but at the thought of facing the Chaos Dragon Emperor's inner demon, he began to feel a subtle excitement again.