Chapter 2956

The demon emperor flicked its tail, the hard dragon scales striking the pillar with a sound that hadn't changed.

At this moment, the sun rose.

Before and after sunrise, purple qi came from the east; before the first ray of golden sunlight illuminated the dragon scales, the demon emperor had to seize the time to extract the true fire of the sun.

In a year, it needed to take the sun's true fire for at least three hundred days, but who would have thought that today an accident would occur:

No matter how it activated its secret technique, it simply couldn't absorb it!

What was going on? Clearly the eastern light was faint, clearly the flowing clouds were dyed vermilion, why couldn't it harvest the true fire of the sun?

The demon emperor instantly sensed something was wrong, flashed its body down from the coiling dragon pillar, and swam toward the outer hall.

Though the vaulted palace was vast, with the demon emperor's dragon-swimming speed, at most one breath would see it leap into the layered seas of clouds outside the hall.

It needed to get far away from the palace as quickly as possible.

However, a strange thing happened:

The demon emperor soon discovered that no matter how long it raced through the cloud sea, the front was always endless mist and clouds, with no end in sight!

Terrible.

Even if it dove quickly, the cloud sea was as deep and bottomless as a real ocean, no matter how it swam, it could find no edge.

Originally, to the west of Heart-Mind Island there was a great mountain named Mount Ji; the demon emperor had already flown out a hundred li, and logically it should have been able to glimpse Mount Ji's peak. Yet ahead, there was only mist.

Between heaven and earth, only the vast cloud sea and the demon emperor itself remained!

In all directions, there was no way out.

By now, how could the demon emperor not know it had fallen into an ambush?

Hateful, it had placed all its vigilance on Ascending Dragon Mountain, thinking that was the gods' only opportunity. Who could have predicted the danger would lurk in its own lair?

The demon emperor equally couldn't understand how the enemy could tamper with the Vaulted Palace. For so many years, it had clearly maintained its dragon nest as tightly as an iron barrel!

Moreover, when had it fallen into the enemy's ambush, and why had it felt nothing at all?

All sorts of doubts flashed through the demon emperor's mind as it flew back, but no matter how it tried, it could not find the Vaulted Palace again.

At this moment, a flash of light appeared ahead, and a flying vessel broke through the clouds and mist.

The vessel was very large, nearly ten zhang from prow to stern.

On the ship stood forty or fifty people, plus an equal number of demon beasts, each nearly humanoid but with indescribably strange appearances.

The demon emperor instantly recognized them: they were all charm beasts!

Without doubt, the hidden enemy who had tailored this trap for it had finally appeared.

And where the enemy came from, the demon emperor knew all too well.

Even the Nine Abysses Great Emperor and the Mou Emperor had sent out conciliatory signals to the Spirit Void City. At present, those who wished nothing more than to consign it to death were only the Heavenly Gods! "Who is the leader? Step forward and speak!"

Three people on the prow spoke in turn:

"Pò Rèntiān."

"Yán Shàntiān."

"Hélú Tiān."

Indeed, the three great Heavenly Gods had come together! The demon emperor's heart sank to the valley floor.

Indeed, since the Spirit Void Holy Venerable could send Jiālóutiān and Bai Zhàntiān to deal with the Nine Abysses Great Emperor, theoretically it could naturally also dispatch several more great Heavenly Gods to deal with it. Without doubt, these three great Heavenly Gods must be complete divine incarnations.

The irony is, these Heavenly Gods, in the Myriad Gods Hall on Mount Xushan, all have divine idols receiving offerings and enjoy the incense of the Bèijiā believers.

Now, however, they have turned their heads to deal with the emperor of Bèijiā!

Most of the other people on the ship are also Heavenly Gods.

"Hah, for me, the Holy Venerable actually dispatched the three supreme gods!" The demon emperor gave a self-mocking smile, "I really do have presence. Where is this?" Hélú Tiān only said four words:

"My Cloud Terrace."

The demon emperor suddenly understood.

Hélú Tiān and Pìlì Tiān are both gods of space, but their main directions differ. Pìlì Tiān excels at the Great Severing Technique of cutting space, while Hélú Tiān's divine nature is the self-generated small world, called the "Cloud Terrace."

The small world within the Cloud Terrace can not only be connected in parallel without conflict, but can even produce real-time interaction with the outside world. In the past, the demons collected the body of the Extravagant Hidden Divine Lord within the Cloud Terrace's glass sea, and every moment had to draw in outside seawater to maintain the vitality of the Hidden Divine Lord's body.

This time is the same: the cloud mist the demon emperor inhales and exhales in this trap carries the same fragrance as usual, so it has never been suspicious. "You have taken back your divine nature!" The Spirit Void Holy Venerable originally had Hélú Tiān's divine nature made manifest, that is, to produce a real "Cloud Terrace," as the cornerstone of the Spirit Nourishment Palace's existence, to establish the testing ground for divine incarnation bodies, and also as the hiding place of the Extravagant Hidden Divine Lord. But Hélú Tiān's incarnation was taken by He Lingchuan into the Great Square Vase; according to the laws of this realm, Hélú Tiān cannot continue to dispatch incarnations to the human world, and thus cannot retrieve its materialized divine nature, the "Cloud Terrace."

But this information is clearly outdated, because Hélú Tiān's true self now stands before the demon emperor.

Incarnations cannot descend to the lower realm, no matter—the true self has fully descended, that will do.

Hélú Tiān reclaimed its own divine nature, turned around, and applied it to the demon emperor.

Obviously this is precisely the main reason the Spirit Void Holy Venerable sent the pools personally down to the lower realm.

To the Spirit Void multitude, capturing the demon emperor is also a tremendous matter. Either do not do it, or if done, allow no failure.

If they turn against the demon emperor and fail to subdue it, the Spirit Void City will certainly immediately become hostile toward the Heavenly Gods. With such a great leverage in hand, the demon emperor could easily gain the support of the Bèijiā soldiers and civilians, and the Heavenly Gods' hope of seizing Bèijiā would instantly become dim.

In this regard, the importance of this battle is not inferior to that of the Earth Mother Plains War, and may even surpass it.

Since victory must be won and defeat not allowed, the safest method is to trap the demon emperor, making it unable to escape birth, then the great Heavenly Gods will have time to slowly deal with it.

Therefore, the "Cloud Terrace" comes into use.

"Your space ought not to have illusion arts!" The demon emperor stared at Hélú Tiān, "Even if it did, how could it deceive my senses?"

The Cloud Terrace can generate small worlds, but Hélú Tiān is not skilled in illusion arts. Moreover, the demon emperor's elemental power is incomparably abundant, worthy of being the first of Bèijiā, how could it fail to see through the illusionary disguise of the Cloud Terrace and the real entrance?

"Who said it was illusion?" Hélú Tiān smiled, "Everything within the Cloud Terrace is real scenery, a one-to-one complete replication of your Vaulted Palace!" Yán Shàntiān also said: "Several months ago, we found the most skilled artisans, and in the Cloud Terrace replicated the Vaulted Palace, not only is the material exactly the same, but even the pillar you often perch on must be made to look aged, every dent and scratch on it must be exactly copied."

To achieve success in one stroke today, the Heavenly Palace invested vast manpower and material resources to set up this trap, then placed it on the essential path of the demon emperor's return to its nest. The Cloud Terrace differs from other small worlds, its connection with reality is very natural, almost a gentle embedding. The entrance can be large or small; the demon emperor, passing through the Cloud Terrace entrance, sees inside the roads, lofties, buildings all as real scenery, and even with elemental power cannot detect any flaw.

It can be said that as long as the demon emperor does not detour from the rear, it will not discover the loophole.

Therefore, the most critical priority in setting this trap is to estimate the demon emperor's return route to the Vaulted Palace, absolutely cannot be wrong!

To deal with it, these Heavenly Gods truly have not spared hard work. The demon emperor reckoned in its heart that probably only by killing Hélú Tiān could it escape this desperate place.