Chapter 1704: Devil Seed
When the representatives of the three strongest star realms positively pounced at the chance to become Yun Che's lapdog, when tears of gratitude literally started pouring down some of their faces, it was no longer a matter of willingness, but of qualification.
"Your Magnificence!"
A respectful but resounding cry cut through the air. A group of people entered the Soul Sealing Sacred Region before kneeling solemnly beneath Yun Che's feet.
The leader of the group was none other than Tian Guhu himself.
He was accompanied by almost a hundred young profound practitioners, every one of them a famous Divine Sovereign in their own right.
It was because they were all on the Northern Region Heavenly Sovereign Ranking! Every last one of them was here, unless the dead were counted as well.
Meanwhile, the higher realm kings were shocked to see Tian Guhu.
That was because he was brimming with the power of a Divine Master... no! It wasn't just that! His terrifying aura marked him as a late Stage Divine Master, a profound practitioner who was comparable to the Witches, the Yama Devils and the Moon Eaters!
A wide-eyed Imperial Heaven Elder could barely squeeze out his exclamation of shock. "Guhu, your... your power..."
"Nineteenth Uncle, my new power was granted by the Devil Master himself," Tian Guhu replied politely.
Tian Muyi had been keeping Tian Guhu's jump from level seven Divine Sovereign to level eight Divine Master a secret for obvious reasons. Even in the Imperial Heaven Realm itself, only a handful of people were made aware of his transformation.
Therefore, when Tian Guhu made his appearance and announced the reason behind his transformation, they were shocked to say the least.
Tian Guhu looked up and said, "We, the representatives of the younger generation of the Northern Divine Sovereign, are called 'Heavenly Sovereigns'. However, we have never lived up to our titles. We wish to repay the land that gave birth to us, but our people were too busy fighting each other for their own profit to ever come under a worthy cause. As a result of internal strife, there was never a place we could devote our energy and ambitions to."
"The darkness is the cage, and the devil people are the prisoners. That is how the rest of the world views the Northern Divine Region. However, the true cage that kept us in has never been the darkness that fuels us; the three Divine Regions who have hated us since the beginning of time, are! We have never done anything wrong against them, and yet they hated us and wanted nothing more than to eradicate us to the last, just because we are born with dark bodies and cultivate darkness profound energy! As a result, we couldn't even cross the boundaries of our world without fearing for our lives!"
"Worse, more and more people have given up on hope and surrendered themselves to their cage completely. Not only have they lost their flames of anger and rebellion, they even turned their fangs toward their own kind."
Tian Guhu sounded both sad and furious. Every word he said struck a chord in the souls who had been oppressed since ancient times.
"But now, the Devil Emperor has blessed us with the Devil Master, and his power is beyond anything that has ever been recorded in the history of the Northern Divine Region. He has given us a new lease on life and a boon that will last for eternity."
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Tears were even starting to well in his eyes. "The time to change the fate of the Northern Divine Region is now! The Devil Master will guide us to a whole new era!"
He bowed his head deeply and cried out in a tearful but passionate voice. "We ask that the Devil Master leads us beyond this damnable cage and change our eternal fates once and for all! Our body as the sword and our blood as the guide, we swear to pave the path to freedom even if we have to die a million times to achieve our cause!"
Every Heavenly Sovereign brought with him bowed their heads as well.
Tian Guhu's reputation among the younger generation of the Northern Divine Region truly was second to none.
His heartfelt plea went straight into the core of every profound practitioner, especially the younger generation.
Staring down at Tian Guhu from above, Yun Che said, "Your ambition does match your namesake, 'Lonely Swan'. It is definitely true that the Northern Divine Region is a sorrowful cage that has entrapped the profound practitioners of the dark for millions of years."
"However, as you said earlier, a civil war like never before is tearing the Northern Divine Region apart, and we are less united than even a sheet of loose sand."
"Not only are we not united as one, our strength is nowhere near the level of the Eastern, Western and Southern Divine Regions. With that in mind, how can we possibly break through the cage that entraps us all?"
Yun Che's cold, unfeeling words cooled everyone's blood like a pail of icy water... and no one was denying because they knew it to be the truth.
Tian Guhu froze in confusion. He didn't know what to say.
Yun Che continued. "I am the Devil Master. To me, the stability of the Northern Divine Region comes first before anything."
"Therefore, all the fates and grudges of the past before today have nothing to do with me."
Yun Che slowly extended his hand with his palm facing downward. A flash of black light caused everyone's vision to blur for a second. It was as if he had the entire Northern Divine Region in his palm at that moment.
"We will not break the cage by force before all civil wars have been quelled, and all the realms have been restored to stability. A thoughtless rebellion driven by nothing but a surge of passion will only result in a waste of lives and new enemies we did not ask for."
"However..." Yun Che's tone abruptly dropped several degrees lower, and the black gleam in his eyes shone like a pair of pitch black abysses that would devour everything. "I can stomach a civil war, but not an invasion from a foreign power!"
"For now, we will be assuming a non-aggressive stance toward all our enemies. But if someone dares to bring the fight to us..."
BOOM!
Yun Che crushed the dark light in his hands, and the resulting explosion felt like it had taken place in everyone's hearts. As his voice grew darker and darker, he said, "Heed my oath, people of the Northern Divine Region. Be it the Eastern, Western, or Southern Divine Region, I will make anyone who dares to attack us pay a hundred times over for their transgression!"
The heat that just died down in their blood due to cold, chilling reality started boiling several times greater than before.
There was no Northern Region profound practitioner who didn't hate, fear and feel powerless toward the three Divine Regions since time immemorial. Even the profound practitioners of the three king realms didn't dare to step out of their cage without careful preparation.
No one with unparalleled power had ever made such a ruthless, irrevocable statement regarding the three Divine Regions until today.
Tian Guhu shivered. He was an intelligent man, so he immediately realized what was going on and declared, "Your words are most enlightening, Devil Master. As you command, we shall bring peace and order back to the Northern Divine Region. However... if the three Divine Regions dares to bring their oppression to us, then the men of the Northern Region will answer the call to arms and pave the path to retribution! We will not back down no matter what!"
"That's right!" Yan Tianxiao said solemnly, "The Northern Divine Region has been oppressed for far too long already. We fear no oppression now that the Devil Master is with us!"
"Besides..." Yan Tianxiao extended his hand and brought his light devouring powers to existence. "Thanks to the Devil Master, our powers are nothing like they were before. We can now unleash our full power even after we leave the Northern Divine Region."
"Therefore, we no longer have anything to fear even if the three Divine Regions try to eradicate us once more. Give us the order, and every man in the Northern Region with blood still beating in their heart will bare our fangs at our enemies until death takes us all!"
The words injected life into every body and every soul who heard this.
For a time, the Soul Stealing Sacred Region, no, the entire Northern Divine Region was drowned by endless cheer.
Starting this moment, they no longer felt humbled before the three Divine Regions. Their fear was replaced by boiling hot passion, and it was as if their enemies were no longer scary as long as they had the Devil Master.
Yun Che hadn't gone with Tian Guhu's idea and stroked the hatred of the people past the point of no return. Instead, he went the opposite direction and declared that he would wipe the slate clean and assume a non-aggression principle... However, anyone who dared to challenge them will also be met with merciless retaliation.
He didn't stroke the flames of hatred and impulse, but he did bury a seed of fire in the hearts of every Northern Divine Region profound practitioner.
The build up would be slow and steady, but when they were ignited by a source they didn't expect, the resulting fire of the devils might just be enough to devour the heavens itself.
As the first ever Devil Master in the history of the Northern Divine Region, his coronation should only have resulted in countless accusations, suspicions, fears, anxieties, and unpredictable chaos.
Instead, what actually took place was a level of worshipping and reverence like never before.
The coronation ceremony lasted seven days in total. What followed afterward was the queen's coronation.
The empress of the Devil Master was none other than Chi Wuyao, the Devil Queen of the Soul Stealing Realm herself. Officially, her responsibility was to support the Devil Master in foreign matters.
At the same time, a rather special rumor started breaking out across the Western Divine Region.
Eternal Heaven God Realm.
Zhou Xuzi had gone into secluded cultivation ever since Zhou Qingchen's passing. He always turned down any request to meet him even when the messenger was from another king realm.
Everyone in the Eternal Heaven Realm was aware that he was mourning the death of his son. No one, not even Honorable Tai Yu, the one person who knew everything had dared to disturb him.
But not today. When Honorable Tai Yu entered Zhou Xuzi's dwelling to speak with him urgently, the latter looked up and asked,
"What is it?"
The man looked like he had aged several thousand years even though it had only been several months since he went into secluded cultivation. His eyes and words all carried a weight that seemed heavy enough to suffocate a person where they stood.
Honorable Tai Yu walked toward him and said in a low voice, "Rumors about you entering the Northern Divine Region have been spreading as of late."
"... !" Zhou Xuzi's gaze immediately grew focused. "Where did it come from?"
"It started at a lower star realm to the north of the Western Divine Region. It is situated closely to the Northern Divine Region and the Eastern Divine Region," Honorable Tai Yu said seriously. "The rumor started not long after you entered the Northern Divine Region, and..."
"And what?" Zhou Xuzi pressed when he caught the hesitation in Honorable Tai Yu's features.
Honorable Tai Yu let out a small sigh before continuing, "There have also been rumors that Qingchen has died in the Northern Divine Region, and not because he suffered a backfire while attempting to break through a bottleneck... adding that to the rumors that Qingchen had been in 'secluded cultivation' during that time, there were even people deducing that he might've transformed into a devil person prior to his death."
Bang!
Energy whipped across Zhou Xuzi's hair, and the profound jade beneath his feet shattered into pieces. His entire body was shaking with fury.
"How... did the rumor come to be?" Zhou Xuzi forced himself to calm down.
"We don't know," Honorable Tai Yu said. "I was watching the borders at the time, and I'm very sure that no one sneaked up on us during that time. But... after Qingchen was killed, you flew into a rage and attacked the Devil Queen, causing quite a bit of disturbance. It's practically impossible to have concealed it."
"You didn't hold back, so... it was likely that the disturbance had alerted a nearby star realm."
Zhou Xuzi closed his eyes and started shaking even harder.
"Moreover, many people noticed that your aura was distorted, and your blood was running in reverse when you returned. No one truly believed that Qingchen died because of a cultivation backfire either, so there has already been a lot of outlandish rumors before this. If someone noticed the aftermath of that battle at the borders of the Northern Region, it made sense that some people would connect the dots and arrive at that theory."
"But so far, the spread of the rumor was pretty small, so there is nothing to worry about. We can quell it by force if need be," Honorable Tai Yu said.
"No." But Zhou Xuzi shook his head. "That would only prove to the world that we have something to hide, and that Qingchen was a devil person. He is already gone, we cannot possibly allow him to bear that kind of shame in his grave."
"Just ignore it like any other rumor, and it will dissipate on its own."
Honorable Tai Yu nodded. He was of the same mind as his god emperor.
In fact, things did go exactly as they thought it would go.
The "rumor" had been spread in a lower star realm at the Western Divine Region, so the credibility of that rumor was next to nothing. Besides that, it was spreading at an unusually slow speed.
The only thing that they hadn't expected was how far the rumor had reached. It had even spread to the ears of the people of the Eastern Divine Region and the Southern Divine Region... probably because it was connected to the Eternal Heaven God Emperor himself and the recently deceased Eternal Heaven Crown Prince.
The "rumors" eventually died down to almost nothing. Almost no one brought it up again, and not many people actually believed it had any credibility whatsoever.
But another seed was buried without anyone noticing.