Chapter 1 Autumn Haze, Fierce Winds

A flash of light crossed the cloud layer.

An azure-gold divine bird rode the gale, soaring over the clouds, the golden sun on its chest radiating a brilliant light, like a wick shining in crystal.

Although it had only been in the mortal realm for a little over a month, the image of the Zhuzhou had already been analyzed and clarified by numerous scholars and cultivators. Everyone said that the Zhuzhou was a divine bird born from the sun, and the crystal on its chest was like a candle illuminating the darkness, illuminating the Nine Abyss in daylight, being its core.

However, if anyone had seen the Zhuzhou recently, they would have noticed that although the sun crystal on its chest was no longer as bright as it used to be, it had a hint of the smooth and moist feeling of the five elements rotating.

It had lost some of its fierce and violent aura, but gained a bit of harmony and peace.

Teng Snake was this observer.

"As expected of a true dragon, even imitating a phoenix, it imitates it convincingly!"

Above the sky, in a wisp of cloud, the crimson shadow of the snake soul was using its Heavenly Demon-level divine soul to observe the shadow of the divine bird in the distant other end.

Having abandoned all its power and entered the Tianyuan Realm shrouded by the Zhuxing Tiandao, Teng Snake had no power at this moment, but this natal escape light, which contained its divine soul, was extremely swift and concealed, free and at ease, and could communicate with people at will, bewitching their hearts.

In this respect, they were more like 'Heavenly Demons' than the many demon gods of the Nine Abyss.

Teng Snake observed the true dragon offspring in its heart, the future master of the Heavenly Demons, and couldn't help but praise: "This heaven and earth's five colors and five elements are already close to perfection. If it is paired with the five virtues of the human heart, then even a true phoenix would only be on par with him!"

True Dragon.

Phoenix.

Among the many extraordinary creatures, the most supreme beings.

However, contrary to what ordinary people imagine, there are actually no 'naturally born five-virtue phoenixes' or 'naturally born immortal true dragons' in the world.

Even at the beginning of the world's creation, when the pure and turbid separated and gave birth to dragons and phoenixes, the initial Pishi Phoenix and the Primal True Dragon also spent a long time gradually perfecting their power in the primordial chaos, and then achieved the great power to create the world.

In later generations, there were many phoenixes that did not inherit the pure air of heaven and earth, at most they were just branch phoenixes with a single virtue and color, such as the Xuanming Ice Phoenix, the Changsheng Qing Phoenix, and the Tai Bai Jin Phoenix.

But it was very difficult to gather the five virtues. If one wanted to integrate the great divine powers into one, turning them into the five-virtue divine light, it would be even more difficult.

As for the true dragon, the various elements needed were not that many.

The true core ability of the true dragon was actually the ability to constantly 'transform' and constantly 'adapt' to new environments.

It could adapt to any environment. Even in the vacuum of space, there were star giant dragons that devoured etheric spiritual energy and roamed.

The so-called true dragon has nine transformations, the dragon form has nine similarities, and the dragon gives birth to nine sons. These transformations, imitations, and derivations were all the true core of the true dragon's path.

And Zhuzhou...

Perfectly met this condition!

Has feathers? No problem!

Has wings? A piece of cake.

Has claws? Who said dragons don't have claws?

As for horns, noses, eyes, scales, teeth... did true dragons not have these?

The true dragon was originally a hodgepodge, both a deer and an ox, could be like a horse, or like a worm and a fish.

Ginseng was fine, sea cucumber was fine, and worm ginseng was even more acceptable—after all, even cats and shrimp could do it, let alone lizards.

Dragons were originally strange and varied. If there was a dragon that was exactly the same as another dragon, it meant that it was just a small dragon that had not walked its own path. Only a chaotic, unique, nine-transformation, nine-similar true dragon was the real dragon.

And Zhuzhou's appearance just proved that he was the divine dragon that best fit the true dragon's path! Moreover, he was also a powerful true dragon that fully combined the inheritance of the five-virtue phoenix, an equally powerful top-level extraordinary creature system!

——Wonderful!

If Teng Snake had a body at this time, it would really want to twist its body and cheer.

And, a trace of unspeakable heartache.

The three Heavenly Demon divisions, Kun Demons, Lin Demons, and Mao Demons, were all entrenched in the void, located in the empty and silent sea between the 'Gui Xu Sun River' and the 'Tianyuan Realm', firmly blocked from the outside by the Xiantian Divine Realm and the Zhuxing Tiandao.

The demons were powerful, they could feed on light, and use meteorites and void dust as nourishment, but compared to the immortal gods who had a world as their foundation, they naturally could not compare, especially in the era when the Heavenly Emperor was in power, the three Heavenly Demon divisions could only hide in the corners of the void sea, freezing themselves in Xuan Bing to conceal their aura.

It was only three thousand years ago, when the Great Freely Heavenly Demon Lord fought the Heavenly Emperor in Gui Xu, and both the Xiantian and the Nine Abyss lost their leaders, and the Zhuxing Tiandao also stopped operating, that the three Heavenly Demon divisions moved out at the same time, invading the mortal realm and the Xiantian.

If the Third Heavenly Emperor, Tai Hao, had not been born out of nowhere, perhaps the Xiantian would have been turned into scorched earth by the Heavenly Demons, who had accumulated millions of years of anger.

"Unfortunately, we Heavenly Demons are all of perverse nature, born to doubt each other and fight each other, so that the goals of our battles are different and we cannot gather our full strength."

Thinking like this, many past memories emerged in the Heavenly Demon's soul.

——We are all demons, why should we believe your words?

——What Teng Snake says is right? I, Ba Xia, am not convinced!

——Everyone, calm down, let me say something fair...

——You are worthy of being fair?! ——Why am I not worthy?!

Every time Teng Snake thought of this, it was always extremely heartbroken: "If the three Heavenly Demon divisions had worked together in the past, perhaps before that Tai Hao was born, let alone destroying the Xiantian, we could at least have torn apart the Zhuxing Tiandao, so that we could freely travel back and forth to the Tianyuan Realm and try to awaken the Primal True Dragon!"

Shaking its head, Teng Snake stopped thinking about those memories that made its blood rush and its soul swell as soon as it recalled them.

It fixed its eyes and looked into the distance, towards Zhuzhou.

And at this moment, the Heavenly Demon discovered that on Zhuzhou's back, a little girl suddenly appeared, seemingly reporting something to Zhuzhou.

"Your Majesty——my cultivation has broken through! But, how should I cultivate the next step of the Wheel-Turning Immortal Technique?"

"You can ask the Wisdom Tree about this. I've already told it the subsequent cultivation methods... Oh, Sarah, did you sign a contract with the Wisdom Tree? How come it has a part of its spirit residing on you?"

Such voices could be faintly heard.

"Huh?"

Startled in its heart, Teng Snake looked carefully and discovered something that surprised it: "This little girl... is actually a Kun race?!"

The obvious exoskeleton and aura undoubtedly proved that the other party was indeed a Kun race! Moreover, it was the kind with a very pure bloodline!

Without a doubt.

This further proved that Zhuzhou was a true dragon——otherwise, what kind of divine bird would look for a Kun race to be its subordinate clan? Was it idle and had nothing to do but eat one?

"If we were to follow the closeness of bloodlines, a true dragon should look for subordinate clans from our Lin race."

"However, this Kun Demon should be a remnant left behind when we invaded the mortal realm back then, right?"

Thinking like this, Teng Snake's divine soul couldn't help but get a little closer.

It wanted to observe Zhuzhou and the aura of the Kun Demon on him more carefully, analyzing the relevant information.

However, just as the red divine soul light was flying quietly.

Suddenly, on the Zhuzhou in the form of a divine bird, the Kun race little girl turned her head in confusion.

"Strange?"

She muttered to herself, but in her eyes, there was a brilliance belonging to the Wisdom Tree surging: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Tree Tree says it sensed strange spiritual power fluctuations over there!"

"Although I don't know what it is, someone must be spying on us over there!"

The girl's tone was extremely certain.

By using the power of wood qi, and the newly signed contract, the Divine Tree, which had settled in the personal space and could not go out, relied on its spirit to possess its friend's body, using the other party's eyes to observe the world.

To this, a somewhat helpless voice came from the divine bird.

"Hey, Sarah, and Wisdom Tree, don't say it out loud."

His flying posture suddenly stopped: "I was still thinking about whether I could lure out more guys with ulterior motives——but after such a long time, there's only one, it seems there should only be one."

After saying that, Su Zhou turned his head.

A pair of pupils rotating with gears locked onto the area where Teng Snake's divine soul was located.

"Ah?"

At first, Teng Snake had not thought that it had been discovered——after all, in its current form, even immortal gods could not detect it, and even a true dragon, in theory, could not possibly discover it.

But Su Zhou was not using his eyes to discover it——the power of the Seal of Reincarnation made him extremely sensitive to all dead souls. Although Teng Snake's body had not died, it was indeed a soul body now, how could it not be discovered by him?

Teng Snake wanted to run, but being locked on by Su Zhou's Eye of Reincarnation, its divine soul suddenly shook, as if it had returned to hundreds of lifetimes ago... and by the time it reacted, it had already been caught in Su Zhou's hand.

"Interesting, this aura... are you a demon race? Those extraterrestrial demons that invaded the mortal realm and the Xiantian?"

The incomparably huge divine bird continued to fly in the sky above the clouds, but his divine thoughts flashed, transmitting information to Teng Snake, who was restrained in his claws: "Tell me, why have you, who should have retreated back to the extraterrestrial void, suddenly appeared in the mortal world again? And what is your reason for following me?"

Su Zhou's tone was extremely serious, even carrying a hint of chilling murderous aura——he was not joking, after all, he knew very well how many casualties the extraterrestrial Kun Demons caused in the Tianyuan mortal realm back then.

Although in theory, the extraterrestrial Kun Demons invaded the mortal world only to destroy the plans of the immortal gods and heavenly demons. The reason why they killed people was essentially to eliminate the 'tools' of the gods and demons... In the eyes of these heavenly demons and gods, humans were nothing more than self-reproducing tools. Killing them was not even considered killing, just smashing, looting, and burning.

But Su Zhou did not care about the logic of the monsters. As long as this red divine soul did not give a proper explanation, he would definitely not show mercy.

Then... the youth was dumbfounded to discover that Teng Snake's reaction was not as he had imagined, being fearful or resisting to the end.

Even... even...

Even very cooperative.

"Ahhh, it's a true dragon, the aura of a true dragon!"

In Su Zhou's claws, the snake-shaped Heavenly Demon soul approached Su Zhou's body, it twisted its body excitedly, seemingly wanting to rub against the restraints of the magic circle, cheering: "Sure enough, it's a true dragon!"

"This, this is the taste of 'Undying Blood'!"

Saying so, Teng Snake seemed to want to continue to approach, to perceive Su Zhou's aura as much as possible.

Then it was thrown into the personal space by the youth, whose whole body had goosebumps.

"... What the hell?"

Shaking the feathers around his body, Su Zhou, feeling a chill, blinked his eyes, and even Sarah on his back tilted her head, with a confused expression of 'What is it saying?': "Yala, I really still can't understand the thinking of you long race... Moreover, Undying Blood?"

"Do the Heavenly Demons also know about 'Undying Blood'?"

"No, I can't understand it either. Rather, I never intended to understand it." The snake spirit immediately retorted. After clicking its tongue, it seriously replied: "As for Undying Blood, essentially, like the Seal of Reincarnation, it is the highest level of gift among my clan, a proof close to being my agent."

"In this primordial world born from the entanglement of my power and the power of perfection, it is not strange that the 'All-Wonderful Origin Creation Chaos True Dragon', as one of my derivatives in the realms, can give birth to Undying Blood."

"So here, 'Undying Blood' should be a proof of some special identity."

This was not strange either. Su Zhou nodded, feeling that it should be like this.

The Heavenly Demons were derivatives of the Primal True Dragon's power, excluded from the world. These powerful beings had more or less a trace of the True Dragon's aura in their bodies, so they would naturally be sensitive to the top-level bloodline of Yala's dependents, such as Undying Blood——even if Su Zhou turned into the form of a divine bird, he still had the aura of Undying Blood.

Thinking of this, the youth couldn't help but become curious: "The Seal of Reincarnation, Undying Blood, are respectively the highest gifts of the Lonely Lord and Yala."

"Then what is the gift of perfection?"

"... As far as I know, there are several kinds. For example, I actually have 'World-Bearing Scales' and 'Chronal Horns', and the Lonely Lord also has 'Nether River Blood' and 'Undying Soul'."

After pondering for a while, Yala slowly said: "But even in the primordial world, this level of supreme prototype may not all appear at once."

"So, based on the various situations currently known, I guess that in this primordial world, the divine gift belonging to the Phoenix should not be 'Flawless Feather' or 'Prajna Mark'."

"But 'Nirvana Tear'."

——Nirvana Tear?

Hearing this word, Su Zhou couldn't help but be stunned.

Blood, pupils, horns, souls, scales, marks... these things were all very easy to understand, they were nothing more than representations of some extremely high-level extraordinary organs or inheritances, as direct power derivatives of great beings.

Just like Yala's Sacred Geometry, if cultivated to the highest level, it would inevitably derive an inheritance related to it.

But, what exactly was this Nirvana Tear...?

To this, in the soul space, the snake spirit under the Wisdom Tree spirit gave a meaningful smile.

"Don't understand? But in fact, you've clearly seen it, haven't you?"

It said so, its tone calm: "The last tear that the Awakened One leaves for all beings in the world before awakening to Nirvana... is the Nirvana Tear."

"The Bitter Sea Era, can save oneself, but cannot save all beings——therefore, unwilling to awaken to this, rises up and vows, 'If all beings are not saved, I will not achieve the Dao'."

"Su Zhou, haven't you already seen it?"