Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

“The Corpse Devil Demon Forest? What’s that?” asked Liu Ruyan. She had never heard this name before.

“You don’t know where you come from?” asked Ling Xi curiously.

Liu Ruyan shook her head. “I was just a seed back then. By the time I started to have memories, I had been tossed into the Spirit World. I grew up there, so I don’t know anything else.”

Liu Ruyan’s gaze grew icy. This had always been a sore point for her. She had been abandoned in a foreign world, so she had no emotions for it.

In her life, the only one she viewed as family was Chu Yao. She rarely spoke and was rather secluded.

“Did you grow up in an old battlefield with the bones of countless lifeforms buried in the ground?” asked Ling Xi.

Liu Ruyan started and then nodded. The Spirit World had its Ancient Battlefield with countless corpses just as Ling Xi said.

“Then you are a lifeform from the Corpse Devil Demon Forest. You need to absorb the qi of corpses to grow up faster. Have you been stuck at a bottleneck recently? You’ve been unable to undergo your next metamorphosis, correct?” asked Ling Xi.

“Yes. Could it be…” Liu Ruyan thought of something.

“Long Chen, this person is very dangerous. If she cultivates here, she will absorb the qi of corpse devils that has accumulated for countless years. She will then undergo a transformation and become impossible to control.” Ling Xi sent a message to Long Chen. Her tone was rather grave.

Long Chen was also started. It seemed that Liu Ruyan’s origins were very terrifying. Even Ling Xi was warning him.

“There is no need to control her. I trust her,” responded Long Chen.

Ling Xi seemed to want to say more, but she decided to swallow those words.

“Senior Ling Xi, can you tell me where the Corpse Devil Demon Forest is? If there’s a chance, I’d like to go take a look,” said Liu Ruyan.

Chu Yao held Liu Ruyan’s hand and nodded. She could sense her emotions. Liu Ruyan never spoke to others, but she had opened her heart to Chu Yao, so no secrets could be kept from her.

Before encountering Chu Yao, Liu Ruyan had been filled with hatred for the world. She didn’t know who her parents were or why they would cast her aside.

In her memories, she vaguely knew that she had a father and mother. It seemed that when she was weak, they had bullied her.

Upon growing stronger, she wanted revenge. In the Spirit World, she had always been alone, and she didn’t even know how long that period had been.

Later, she had been imprisoned by Long Chen, and Long Chen had given her to Chu Yao. It was Chu Yao who had changed her because she could sense the goodness in Chu Yao’s soul. From that moment, she had decided to follow Chu Yao for a lifetime.

It could be said that only Chu Yao knew Liu Ruyan’s secrets, and she had kept those secrets from everyone else, including Long Chen.

Liu Ruyan was afraid of being alone, but she was also stubborn and proud. She never allowed herself to show it. Perhaps it was due to this that she rarely interacted with others.

Chu Yao knew that Liu Ruyan had a desire to find her parents. But as for whether it was longing for family or for vengeance, Chu Yao didn’t know.

Liu Ruyan instantly grew excited upon learning that she came from the Corpse Devil Demon Forest. Long Chen held her hand to help her stay calm.

“The Corpse Devil Demon Forest is not in any one world. They go wherever they want to in order to cultivate. They break the walls between worlds and go wherever they please. They are vicious existences that are bloodthirsty and violent. They are the essence of corpses, devils, and demons. To tell the truth, as a fellow wood element lifeform, I don’t like them. In my principles, they misinterpret the true essence of life, so I don’t like them. I’m sorry, I don’t say this to anger you. I just feel like you want to know my true thoughts,” said Ling Xi apologetically.

For someone as polite as Ling Xi to say that she didn’t like them, perhaps that could be understood as being enemies.

That was also why Ling Xi would send Long Chen a message as a warning.

“Many thanks, senior.” Liu Ruyan then bowed deeply toward Ling Xi. Ling Xi’s distaste for the Corpse Devil Demon Forest didn’t affect her, as she had no sense of belonging toward them anyway. She just wanted to know where she came from.

After that, Chu Yao and Liu Ruyan continued stretching into the void. The closer they got to the wall of the world, the stronger the energies of the Heavenly Daos grew.

Finally, the wooden stakes around Chu Yao wrapped into a cocoon around her. It seemed to be absorbing some kind of energy.

Liu Ruyan also wrapped herself into a cocoon, but hers was black. The runes on top of it were like vicious centipedes, and the aura it exuded was hair-raising.

“This is…” Meng Qi and the others were startled to see this. Liu Ruyan’s aura instantly became far more sinister than before.

“The Star Field Divine World is filled with Death Qi from that battle, and this Death Qi does not dissipate due to the existence of the River of Darkness. She can absorb that qi to strengthen herself rapidly,” explained Ling Xi.

“Ling Xi, don’t worry. No one is completely good or completely bad. Even the most wicked person has a good side. As long as their good side is turned toward us, they are friends. In any case, I myself am not some good person. If someone treats me badly, I treat them the same way. Right or wrong can only take a step back when it comes to keeping our lives. I want to keep living.” Long Chen shrugged nonchalantly.

Ling Xi nodded. “I trust the vision of the nine star heir. Perhaps only a nine star heir can suppress such evil.”

Just then, the cocoon around Liu Ruyan grew bigger, stretching out even further. Eight legs grew from it, piercing into the void like a giant spider.

The void rumbled and Black Qi swirled over, even affecting the mother tree’s leaves. Black spots appeared on them, and they began to wither and fall.

Long Chen’s jaw dropped. Ling Xi said, “She has absorbed enough core energy for her breakthrough and was only lacking this qi. Now, she has a chance to undergo her transformation and soar instantly. After this transformation, she will start awakening the inheritance of the Undying Willow. At that time, at the very least, she will not be weaker than anyone in the battle just now.”

Not weaker than anyone in the battle? In other words, she would be just as strong as Long Chen?

“That’s a good thing. The stronger she gets, the happier we’ll be. Hehe, cooling off under the protection of a giant tree is a good thing. It seems like I’ll have to be nicer to Liu Ruyan in the future,” said Long Chen with a mischievous laugh.

“Ruyan hates you. You’d best be careful not to get put in your place,” snickered Tang Wan-er.

They all knew that Liu Ruyan still disliked Long Chen for being able to suppress her back then. She even liked interjecting a few words that could cause him some trouble. In that aspect, she was a petty person.

After laughing, Tang Wan-er also started cultivating. To avoid affecting Liu Ruyan, she went to a rather distant place. Wind blades whirled around her as she began to interact with the barrier of the world.

As Ling Xi said, this wall contained all kinds of energy, so Tang Wan-er quickly found the wind element laws that she needed. She began to comprehend, corroborate, and absorb them.

Tang Wan-er’s manifestation appeared behind her. She was rather smart, as she could use her manifestation to quickly sense the wind laws.

Ye Zhiqiu also went over. As soon as she went up, ice covered her entire body, and even the void around her was frozen. It became impossible to see anything but ice around her.

Ye Zhiqiu’s ice energy was truly frightening. Even the mother tree had to distance itself from her, making Ling Xi stare in shock.

As Meng Qi went up, her Spiritual Strength’s ripples spread, covering the top of the crown in a dream-like color. Everything became indistinguishable between reality and illusion.

“The Spiritual Strength here…” Meng Qi originally hadn’t had much hope since she was a soul cultivator. But she found her manifestation activated on its own to envelop the entire tree crown.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself. She has formed a resonance with the Star Field Divine World’s soul. You really are blessed. To be able to form a resonance with the world’s soul, your future accomplishments are limitless,” said Ling Xi. She was extremely shocked at just how terrifying every single person here was.

“Mingyu, you should… huh? Where did she go?” Long Chen suddenly realized that Dong Mingyu, who had just been beside him the last time he had checked, was gone.

“She was the first to merge into the world’s barrier. Even before I gave the introduction, she had started. Now, I don’t even know where she went. Her aura-concealing techniques are truly marvelous,” said Ling Xi. Dong Mingyu had been the first to sense how special this place was. Perhaps being an assassin made her extremely sensitive to her surroundings.

“Ling Xi, can everyone else also come up here?” asked Long Chen excitedly. Such a good place had to be shared.

“Of course. It’s no problem.”

“Haha, that fellow Zifeng’s Sword Dao is definitely going to progress.” The first one that Long Chen thought of was Yue Zifeng with his limitless potential.

“For him, coming up here is meaningless,” said Ling Xi.

“What?”