Chapter 195: Taiyi

Of course, it sounds esoteric, and indeed it is both esoteric and bizarre, after all it's the Demon Sect. But in some people's eyes, this skill is probably a bit…

Of course, none of that matters.

When the jade disc, trailing a long tail of flame, fell from the sky, many survivor bases on the ground spotted it.

Under Yin Shenli's control, the craft happened to land not far from South Light District No. 1 Survivor Base.

"W‑where is this place?" A violent impact, dust swirling in the sky, and a massive explosion.

Of course, that's not why the siblings passed out; Yin Shenli herself knocked them unconscious.

Third‑rank experts can basically walk around freely in this world, and even Wang Wu could not match these siblings, but as the mastermind of this incident, Yin Shenli naturally placed some special restrictions on them.

The only thing that fell outside the First Base with the craft was the demon Long Qing; as for her brother, Yin Shenli casually tossed him over 108,000 li away, also sealing his power and bringing him down to the same level as Wang Wu.

That level is already sufficient for self‑protection in this world; if it weren't, it would be the moment for one's own disciple to appear and play the hero.

With all that maneuvering, it can be called painstaking; Yin Shenli is still very kind to her disciple.

"Ha ha, my good disciple, do you know the arrangement I, your master, have made for you? Do you know my brilliant plan!??"

Thinking of the scheme she set with unparalleled wisdom, Yin Shenli couldn't help but feel proud of herself.

Indeed, a woman who combines beauty, intelligence and strength like her— even looking across the whole world, the entire universe, how many could compare?

Absolutely none, definitely none!

"Cough, cough cough, cough cough cough!"

When Long Qing woke up, an odd sensation in her lungs made her cough; after coughing for a while, she looked around and found the familiar cockpit, but the familiar figure was no longer there.

"Long He, Long He?"

Struggling to get up from the floor, Long Qing shouted her brother's name loudly, but after scanning the cockpit she still could not find Long He.

She hurriedly staggered to other sections of the ship, soon searching the entire vessel, yet she could not find any trace of Long He.

"Long He!??"

The whole ship was silent, no alarms, no lights, only a hiss from the overhead air‑conditioning.

"Long He!"

Returning to the cockpit and pressing a few buttons, she saw that the crew display showed only herself. As for her brother, the locator read 'signal lost'.

"L‑Long He…?"

When she saw the information on the control panel, Long Qing's voice trembled.

Her brother was gone, vanished without a trace.

Even though the siblings often fought, constantly bickering over trivial matters until full‑blown battles, blood is thicker than water regardless.

The Demon Tribe, a race for which reproduction is extremely difficult, having a twin brother is something Long Qing is very proud of in this life.

After all, for many demons, not to mention twins, even having a single sibling is a luxury.

Long Qing's relationship with Long He is good, though demons unfamiliar with them might not see it, since they usually appear more like rivals than siblings.

Nevertheless, even though her brother is missing and grief covers her heart, Long Qing has not completely lost her mind.

She is rather steady, very calm, and also optimistic.

Therefore, after a brief sorrow, until she finds concrete news of her brother's whereabouts, she will not think he has perished.

More likely, her brother has been swept into this world's bizarre environment and taken to somewhere she does not know.

For example, the True Realm.

But regardless, the living must see demons, the dead must see corpses. As long as there's no definite information, Long Qing will never give up the search.

After regaining her senses, Long Qing tried to contact her clan, but Yin Shenli of course would not give her that chance, so the communication had already been cut off.

When entering this star system, the system's AI had already analyzed the situation, classifying it as a third‑grade pollution zone, with the main pollutant being the True Calamity.

It's not a very high grade, but not low either. Within the Wind Nation, in star systems inhabited by the Demon Tribe, the highest pollution level is second‑grade.

The situation in the Tianyuan Realm, according to the Wind Nation's pollution rating, is also third‑grade, but its third‑grade is much higher, nearing fourth‑grade.

The Demon God Projection is terrifying, but only for the beings of the Tianyuan Realm. The Wind Nation has witnessed even more terrifying things in the cosmos.

The Heavenly Court is indeed powerful, but the Heavenly Court is already dead. Its corpse still possesses immense power, yet for a civilization it does not pose such a great threat.

Otherwise, transcendants from other star systems would not covet this already dead civilization.

The Wind Nation is, of course, aware of the fallen hegemonic civilization in the neighboring star system. However, the Wind Nation and Jie Nation are both extremely cautious in their attitude toward the Heavenly Court.

After all, that is 'Demon', a force all demons dread and avoid.

The Demon Tribe here utilizes a power system that develops the 'demon energy' each demon inherently possesses; demon energy has no side effects.

But if pursued excessively, over‑development can cause demon energy to overflow, greatly increasing the risk of demonic corruption.

Demon energy is fundamentally very close to demonic power; after all, demons are far more prone to demonic transformation than humans. Though the mechanism is unknown, this energy naturally lends itself to becoming 'Demon'.

In other words, it facilitates the cultivation of demonic arts.

The master's side is already working on a supplement exclusive to the Demon Tribe; both the Supreme Heaven Vajra Sect and Yin Shenli's Dark Extreme Divine Sect are developing it.

As for the reason, it's obviously to accumulate experience. After all, the universe is vast, many planets host life, yet non‑human civilizations are still hard to find.

And this can only be blamed on one's ancestors; after all, the ancestors were once cosmic overlords, and who knows what they tinkered with in the star systems, making it so hard for humans to find an alien now.

After a hard struggle, they finally made contact with a civilization tens of millions of light‑years away, thinking they'd finally found an 'extraterrestrial civilization', only to discover it was a hometown.

Then it turned into a war of insults.

Such situations have occurred countless times in the cosmic exploration departments of the major cities of the Solar System, each accompanied by harsh insults and massive streams of information crossing time and space.

"Grass Mud Horse, you're human—why are you sending messages in such a weird format? Are you an idiot? Is pretending to be an alien fun?"

Up to now, over a thousand years, although the archives of the former Human Empire recorded many accounts of alien civilizations, to date people still have not found any trace of an 'extraterrestrial civilization'.

It's as if they too have vanished.

Perhaps they truly disappeared; after all, the great war back then almost shattered the entire universe, and the Human Empire's territory was already boundless, so not finding them is understandable.

At this moment, Long Qing has been in the cockpit for over ten minutes, trying every method she could think of, yet none succeeded in contacting her clan or the empire.

In the end, after using the detector to scan the surrounding environment and leaving a voice message for her younger brother, Long Qing still chose to leave.

Even though the outside environment was extremely strange, even though she knew nothing about this world.

But her brother had already vanished, so staying here any longer was meaningless.

The cabin door of the Jade Plate opened slowly, and a figure appeared behind the door.

The composition of this planet's atmosphere… Well, she's a demon, so she doesn't need to fuss over that.

As long as the environment isn't extremely hostile, the demon race doesn't need spacesuits; even an ordinary demon, with a powerful body and adaptability, can already endure most harsh planetary conditions in the universe.

Of course, this 'harsh' refers to the level of a habitable planet—that is, a planet that at least has the conditions to support life.

As for planets completely unsuitable for life, those must be handled by more powerful demons.

Like Long Qing, for example.

Leaving the spacecraft and stepping onto the ground, the moment her foot touched the surface, a cold, eerie sensation surged into Long Qing's mind.

This is a characteristic of a star region with a pollution rating; when you set foot here, you can feel a distinct abnormality.

Level‑3 Pollution Star Zone is not the highest pollution level Long Qing has seen since becoming a bounty‑hunting demon, but stepping here herself is still a first.

Earlier, the siblings had also carried out a contract in the higher‑level Level‑4 Pollution Star Zone, which required them to search for the relics of a lost civilization.

There are many extinct lost civilizations in the universe, powerful ones like the Heavenly Court, and weaker ones like this one.

The San Yue people, of course, don't count, because the San Yue people haven't gone extinct.

And bounty‑hunting demons, though said to capture wanted criminals, actually make most of their money by selling relics of lost civilizations.

Many civilizations may never leave their own star system, yet over their lifetimes they can still leave behind some interesting little things.

The Wind Nation and the Jie Nation, two demon‑tribe empires, were built upon the ruins of a once‑great empire.

Relying on the remnants left by that empire, they developed rapidly and soon grew into a power capable of rivaling the original top‑tier civilization of this star system—the human faction.

In fact, the three human factions and these two demon‑tribe empires grew for the same reason.

Indeed, in the distant past—very distant past—this star system also harbored a hegemonic‑level civilization.

And that civilization has now collapsed, no longer existing, leaving only its immortal corpses and relics.

This already lost ancient civilization is now referred to by the civilizations of this star system as—

'Xian'.

In this universe, a Xian is a high‑grade being; each civilization calls a being or advanced civilization that becomes god‑like in their eyes a 'Xian'.

The Heavenly Court is such, and the lost hegemonic civilization of this universe is likewise.

'Taiyi'.

This is the name people derived while probing the traces of that civilization.

The strangeness of this universe lies not only in its environment and those calamities, such as true disasters and demonic calamities.

It also has many 'odd' aspects, for example: why do all higher lifeforms in the universe essentially look the same outwardly?

They are all 'humanoid'.

Even in the civilizations they have developed, they refer to themselves as 'people'; both the terminology and the characters describing 'people' are astonishingly similar.

Both the Heavenly Court and Taiyi are ancient enough civilizations in the universe, at least as far as the civilizations on their respective territories today are concerned.

These two civilizations share many similarities.

Naturally, this includes their core 'intelligent races'.

Even demons, when shapeshifting, also choose the human form; even if their home planet lacks the 'human' species, they still become that way.

'Humanoid'.

Even the name they give to this form is the same.

It is indeed very strange, isn't it?

Of course, Wang Wu doesn't care about such universal secrets; he has many things to attend to right now.

"Mr. Wang, are you sure… sure that's the bounty‑hunting demon coming to capture me?"

When Chi Zhi and Wang Wu set out together, although she already trusted Wang Wu a great deal, she still asked.

"Yes, that's what my master said." Wang Wu nodded. "Let's go, we'll find her."

"Is your master also here?" Chi Zhi was startled. "I don't know where she is now…"

"If she doesn't want to see you, you won't be able to meet them under any circumstances." Wang Wu said with a smile. "She is an extremely powerful master, a Star Lord‑level elite on your side."

"Star, Star Lord!??"

At once, upon hearing Wang Wu's words, Chi Zhi was startled as well, "This, this…"

In the Wind Nation, the person who governs an entire star sector is a Star Lord. A star sector contains roughly a thousand stellar systems, perhaps even more.

And a Star Lord is a demon who stands above these several thousand stellar systems.

He possesses absolutely overwhelming strength and wields absolutely overwhelming authority.

"Extreme Heaven Divine Palace, that is the name of my sect." Seeing the genuine expression on Chi Zhi's face, Wang Wu felt very proud, after all, it meant his master's strength had also been recognized here.

He didn't know what level the Wind Nation was at, but it was certainly very powerful.

After all, even Master Yin Shenli wasn't that arrogant when mentioning this civilization, which shows its greatness.

(End of Chapter)