Wait a minute, where is my master?

The Demon Realm Origin muttered to itself before suddenly looking up.

It turned its gaze toward the golden spiritual power barrier in front of it.

Its eyes filled with confidence.

The ragged palm clenched tightly, its figure flashed, and in an instant, it appeared just a foot away from the spiritual power barrier.

Then, the Demon Realm Origin lifted its arm, which nearly burst from the dark cyan mist, carefully as if dealing with some fragile porcelain, and swung it slowly.

Its previous two attacks had been costly, issuing full force the moment it touched the barrier with a fingertip.

And the result was, naturally, that it was injured by the rebound force considerably.

So this time,

Having learned a lesson from its two previous failures, the Demon Realm Origin decided to try a gentler method of attack.

It planned to break through by concentrating its force, determined to punch a hole through the golden spiritual power barrier!

The seemingly powerless punch of the Demon Realm Origin materialized a dense dark cyan mist upon touching the surface of the barrier. This mist twisted into a mass, spinning rapidly around the arm like a drill made of mist.

"Hum!"

A slight vibrating sound emanated from the surface of the spiritual power barrier.

Seeing that its attack seemed to be effective, its heart filled with joy, and it confidently controlled the Annihilation Mist to spin even more fiercely.

At the same time, the Demon Realm Origin's arm pressed inch by inch towards the barrier.

But the good times didn't last long.

After a dozen or so breaths of time,

The Demon Realm Origin found that this golden spiritual power barrier...

Didn't seem to break just by vibrating!

The humming vibration didn't stop, but not a single sign of fracture on the barrier, not to mention any wear and tear, could be seen.

On the other hand, the dark cyan mist channeled into the Demon Realm Origin's arm had already diminished by almost half.

"Could it be that I was wrong?

"Or is the power of annihilation still not enough..."

It paused the movement of its hand, somewhat puzzled, to prevent further fruitless consumption. Meanwhile, it raised its eyes and stared at the golden spiritual power barrier that had stopped vibrating, pondering.

"I have delayed for so long before that now there isn't much time left. If I am caught by those Human Race cultivators, my fate will surely be bleak, better to give it my all right now.

"After all, as long as I can return to the Nine Provinces, even if I fall into a temporary sleep for a while, it would be worth it. What's more, according to the arrangements I made back then, Little Yin and the others should have developed the Divine Sect well in the shadows.

"By the time I break through this barrier and reach inside the Nine Provinces Realm, even if I can only maintain a few moments of clarity, I should be able to let them know that I have returned."

After understanding the stakes, a decisive look flashed in the eyes of the Demon Realm Origin.

It first silently channeled the remaining bit of dark cyan energy entirely into its arm, then lifted its palm and gently pressed it against its brow.

The next moment, a deep and inky black mist, so dark that one felt they could fall into it just by looking, was drawn out from its brow.

The moment this profound black mist left the body, the Demon Realm Origin staggered.

He steadied his mind with force and then directed the black mist into the high-speed spinning mist drill.

Afterward, the drill, originally interwoven with dark cyan, turned deep black as if dyed with ink in an instant.

Seeing this change, the resolve in the Demon Realm Origin's eyes intensified even more.

He lifted his arm and once again charged towards the golden spiritual power barrier.

...

....

The essence of that deep, dark energy was actually a fragment of the Demon Lord's Divine Soul.

A thousand years ago, during the great war in the Immortal Realm, the Demon Lord and the Ancestor of the Kunlun Immortal Palace fought with such ferocity that the heavens shattered and the earth cracked, the sun and moon lost their light, and the Nine Provinces splintered. Realizing he was no match and was about to be captured,

in his desperation, he took advantage of the chaos of the intense battle and resolutely tore off a corner of his own Divine Soul, flinging it randomly into a small world.

Subsequently, this Divine Soul Fragment, intended as a contingency, first laid dormant for a hundred years, then under the unyielding property, began to recover and, seizing the moment when the Origin of the newly-born Demon Realm was vulnerable, directly latched onto and began to erode it.

And this process had taken nine hundred years.

The Demon Lord's initial plan for this Divine Soul Fragment was to thoroughly erode and take control of the Demon Realm's Origin, thereby manipulating this small world birthed from the destruction of the Nine Provinces.

But as time passed, he gradually felt somewhat powerless. Although the Demon Lord's Divine Soul Fragment possessed the unyielding property just like his main body, the Origin of the world was no ordinary thing.

At first, he took advantage of the world's frailty and easily latched on and began to erode it, but in recent years, as the living creatures of the Demon Realm prospered and developed, the world's Origin also grew increasingly strong, even beginning to subtly influence the Demon Lord's Divine Soul Fragment in return.

After detecting this influence, the Demon Lord's Divine Soul Fragment harbored the intention of abducting this world's Origin, returning to the Nine Provinces, and going back to its physical form.

In his view, he was merely a Divine Soul Fragment. Although indestructible, he felt somewhat weak.

It was natural to be unable to withstand the influence of the world's Origin.

But the main body was different.

And when the world's Origin is taken out of its birthplace, wouldn't it become utterly malleable, utterly at one's mercy?

As for what would happen to the Demon Realm if it lost the support of the world's Origin...

That was no longer his concern.

However, when the Demon Lord's Divine Soul Fragment conceived this thought, it tried to secretly open a spatial channel between the two realms, attempting to sneak back into the Nine Provinces Realm.

Unfortunately, due to the impending descent of the heavenly tides, the Heavenly Dao of the Nine Provinces Realm instinctively aimed to protect the living creatures within.

It fortified the firmness of the external space to the highest level.

So his plans to sneak back had been thwarted.

Only then did the Demon Lord's Fragment deliberately manipulate the Origin of the Demon Realm, creating something known as the Seven-Day Origin Warning, and deceive the elite from all tribes of the Demon Realm into gathering at the West Pole Peak, located in the east.

He planned to use the threat of a catastrophic heavenly calamity and the lives of the various tribes to aid his dream of sneaking back into the Nine Provinces Realm.

...

...

Within the golden Spiritual Power Ball racing through the sky,

the Bronze Gate looked nervously at the silent little Taoist beside him.

After a brief moment, he asked in a low voice,

"Temple Master, where did the Demon Lord go?"

"... It seems like he's self-harming?"

Jin Xu said with a puzzled expression.

"What?"

As soon as this remark was made, Elder Qin and the two women were taken aback, looking over in surprise.

"Cough, he went to the entrance of the spatial channel we came through and briefly made contact with the Spiritual Power barrier I had set up with his arm.

"Then, after pausing for a moment, he took out something from his brow and continued to make contact with my Spiritual Power barrier using his fist."

The little Taoist explained earnestly to the two women, while at the same time speeding up the Flying Escape Skill even more.

Yu Yaoer, after listening, blinked her eyes somewhat bewilderedly and asked,

"And then what, Young Master?"

"And then... then I saw his entire arm explode!"