Chapter 1744: Ancient Arch-devil
"Void Spirits, or Spirits of Chaos, were born in the Dark Abyss," Zhao Shanling continued to explain to Dong Li and the others in the dark land. "The Dark Abyss is also known by many names. The so-called Blood Realms, which are the origins of all species in this starry river, are only a part of it."
The fact that Nie Tian, the Divine Flame, Grand Monarch Heaven Devil, and Pei Qiqi had vanished and entered the Dark Abyss one after another put only one thought in everyone's minds: they needed to enter the Dark Abyss themselves.
As the Devil race's most mysterious Grand Monarch Lurking Devil, who had witnessed almost their entire history, Zhao Shanling hadn't made them his enemies as they had expected him to after he had awakened his memories from his previous lives.
On the contrary, he explained the secrets of the Dark Abyss, the Void Spirits, and the so-called paragon seeds to them with great patience.
WHOOSH!
The Tree of Life, which had become unimaginably vast, plummeted towards the place where Zhao Shanling and the others were with an unstoppable momentum after defeating the giant human being.
It looked magnificent and exuded exuberant greenness, with numerous rivers of green energy surrounding it like gorgeous ribbons.
Most of the human experts with inferior cultivation bases that had attacked it had been killed.
Even without the Ancientspirits to protect it, it was now an unmatched force in the dark land.
Staring at the colossal tree, Zhao Shanling's pupils shrank as he said, "The Tree of Life has come to its third generation. Who knows how many beings with prospects of becoming paragons it has strangled?
"Because of its existence, the Spirit World hasn't witnessed the birth of a single paragon. Many eras have passed, but it lives on.
"This doesn't agree with the Dao of the Heavens. The fact that the energy of heaven and earth in the Spirit World has been flowing into the Dark Abyss is a sign.
"That indicates that its time is coming to an end."
Everyone suddenly sensed a fighting spirit in Zhao Shanling as he said these words.
The Tree of Life was clearly the target of his soaring fighting spirit.
The expressions of Feng Beiluo, the Thunder Devil, and the others flickered as they saw the Void Mirror in Zhao Shanling's hand suddenly light up. "You... You want to fight it?" Feng Beiluo exclaimed.
According to Ji Cang, it was the Tree of Life that had instructed Qin Yao, their leader, to create Nie Tian.
If that was true, then it must have a profound connection with Nie Tian and Qin Yao.
If Zhao Shanling wanted to fight it now, didn't that mean he stood on their opposite side?
Zhao Shanling took a deep breath and a gruesome smile appeared on his face. "Only one being is needed to resonate with the origin of life in that endless blood sea in the Dark Abyss. There's only going to be one paragon. It's either it or Nie Tian."
With these words, He turned to look Feng Beiluo and the Thunder Devil in the eye. "Which do you want it to be?"
"How can we trust you?" the Thunder Devil asked.
Dong Li also fixed him with a suspicious look.
"I don't need you to trust me," Zhao Shanling said casually and started walking in the air towards the descending Tree of Life. "You don't have to do anything. In fact, other than the Azure Heaven Divine Emperor, none of you can do much."
BOOM!
Billions of rays of spatial light suddenly burst forth and gathered into a beam of blinding light. It shot skywards with a momentum even greater and fiercer than that of Yin Xingtian's Heavenbreaker.
At the same time, the rich, rolling Devil Qi in the sky poured down like waterfalls, and fused into Zhao Shanling.
In the blink of an eye, he morphed into a gigantic ancient devil god that viewed suns and moons as mud pellets, and the starry river as his bathtub.
To everyone's astonishment, he turned into a gigantic devil that was even more magnificent and formidable than Grand Monarch Heaven Devil, and with an aura even more torrential.
He had blackish-violet skin and two giant bent horns growing out of his forehead. His pupils, one black, the other purple, emanated terrifying light like two suns of different colors.
The moment he laid his eyes on the colossal Tree of Life, which was descending with an unstoppable momentum, it came to an abrupt stop in the air.
Everyone could tell that the Tree of Life treated the gigantic devil with solemnity, as if it had finally seen a worthy opponent.
CRACK! CRACK!
Countless purple lightning bolts emerged and started slithering all over the sinister devil god Zhao Shanling had transformed into, as if this form of his contained the Devils' boundless territory.
However, the aura he released didn't contain even the slightest flesh aura.
Rather, it was a mixture of devil power, spiritual power, and spatial power.
It appeared that this form of his was still human by nature. It appeared that this sinister gigantic devil was... his dharma idol!
Zhao Shanling's dharma idol was an enormous devil!
How rare this was!
"Why do I have a feeling that this enormous devil Zhao Shanling has transformed into has a lot in common with that giant human being?" Dong Li asked with a charming frown. "Zhao Shanling appears to be practicing the Devils' secret magics with his human body! And he's well-versed in spatial power! What a freak!"
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
As the Tree of Life's innumerable branches and leaves swayed violently, a voice echoed in everyone's souls. "It's you again, Ancient Arch-devil. I knew that you wouldn't just give up. Generation after generation, you live on in the form of Devils, Netherspirits, dragons, and Ancientbeasts.
"Who would have thought that in the end, you found that humans were your favorite, and revived yourself repeatedly in human bodies."
As the Tree of Life released distinct soul fluctuations, it continued to grow larger and larger, so much so that it even started to have the magnificence of its first generation, which could easily pierce through realms with its branches.
The Thunder Devil was dumbstruck for a brief moment before saying, "I can't believe the Tree of Life can actually communicate with us now."
Then, he saw countless branches of the Tree of Life filling his view as they stretched wildly towards Zhao Shanling's enormous devil-like dharma idol.
"You killed Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit," Zhao Shanling said in a soft voice. "And I died at your hands several times as well. You've strangled more lives that had the potential to become paragons than I can count. Many of them were even your creations. But you were just afraid that they'd take your fortune and cause you to wither and die, right?"
The Tree of Life didn't respond with words.
The response it gave was for the countless, sky-filling branches to burst forth with blindingly bright green divine light.
The green light shone upon the Ancient Arch-devil Zhao Shanling had transformed into like a cage that was used to bind deities.
Within seconds, the Ancient Arch-devil's skin became shriveled as his bulging muscles shrank, as if they were losing their moisture.
It appeared that even Zhao Shanling's life potential was being drained from this Ancient Arch-devil form.
If Nie Tian were here, he would be able to tell at first glance that the Tree of Life was using Life Erosion, the bloodline talent he had awakened when his bloodline had entered the seventh grade.
It was hard to believe how mighty this bloodline talent was when the Tree of Life used it.
Not only the Ancient Arch-devil, but every being that was looking at the Tree of Life at this point, human or outsider, was struck by a terrifying feeling that they were losing their life force, or having their lifespans shortened.