Nine Star Hegemon Body ArtNine Star Hegemon Body Art
Through the battle, the Hidden Dragon warriors’ morale soared—they were fearless. Even knowing the Wind Domain Battlefield was fraught with dangers, they entered brimming with confidence.
Before they ventured in, Ye Lingkong had explained the Wind Domain Battlefield’s layout. It was divided into three sections: the outer area, the inner area, and the core area. The outer area had been thoroughly swept many times and was unlikely to hold valuable items anymore.
The inner region contained curse energy, and only those of the Wind God line could resist it without a problem. Outsiders would need to continuously circulate their energy to shield themselves from its effects.
Within the inner area, walking devil corpses roamed, making it hard for outsiders to move through this region. Because of this, although the Wind Domain Battlefield had opened countless times, and people had searched through it over and over again, some treasures were always overlooked, offering lucky explorers the chance to find them.
Certain spots within this region had such intense curse energy that even peak experts struggled to approach them. Staying too long in those areas would leave their bodies and souls cursed.
Yet, this curse energy had a negligible effect on the Wind God Sea Pavilion’s disciples, making the Wind Domain Battlefield truly a land of treasures for them.
This attracted the envy of other factions, who then ambushed Wind God Sea Pavilion’s disciples in the outer and inner regions. Of course, some were even more sinister—they waited until the disciples had gathered treasures, then struck to kill and rob them.
Now, the Wind Domain Battlefield had become the treasure land of the Hidden Dragon warriors. With Long Chen’s presence, they had no need to fear sneak attacks from outsiders. He organized them into smaller squads to widen the search area, allowing them to cover more ground.
As they traveled, Long Chen noticed a distinct shift in the air after three days of flying. He could feel the potent curse energy enveloping them, which meant that they had reached the inner area.
Although Long Chen knew only a single curse art, he was keenly attuned to the aura of curses. He sensed a powerful, lingering spiritual curse here—one formed through a life sacrifice. The user had bound the devil creatures in an eternal prison so they could no longer harm others.
“Long Chen, should we stay together or split up?” asked Tang Wan-er.
Though Tang Wan-er preferred to stay with Long Chen, she knew splitting up would increase their chances of finding treasures, and she didn’t want to hold him back.
Long Chen said, “We should split up. Take care of yourself and look after your sisters.”
While Long Chen also wanted to stay with Tang Wan-er, he knew the treasures here were most likely left for disciples of the Wind God line. As a divine daughter, Tang Wan-er’s odds of finding them were excellent. If he stayed with her, his bad luck might impact her chances. In any case, given her strength, nothing in the inner area should pose a real threat to her, even an awakened Heaven Devil.
Tang Wan-er nodded. After telling Long Chen to be careful, she set off in different directions, but both were heading toward the depths of the Wind Domain Battlefield.
As Long Chen entered this curse-laden area, he couldn’t help but feel shaken. He could feel the longing and resentment beneath the murderous will of the curse energy.
Clearly, Feng Wuji, the caster of this curse art, had deep attachments. However, he had sacrificed himself to keep the Heaven Devils in an eternal slumber.
Sensing the emotions within this curse energy, Long Chen wondered: if he ever found himself in a similar position, could he make such a sacrifice to drag down his enemies?
Could he leave behind his hot-blooded brothers, his companions, his loved ones?
“I really hate war!” Long Chen sighed. War was cruel, like a monster destroying all kinds of beauty and ripping away what mattered most to people.
Yet, there were always those who thrived on it, pursuing war for personal gain. They took what they wanted without thinking about the pain they brought to others. In their eyes, perhaps war was simply business.
If I want to end this war and rid the world of those who fuel it, I have to become stronger, Long Chen thought, his resolve growing.
Long Chen took a deep breath, feeling a deep melancholy. This battlefield stirred memories of the familiar faces he had encountered along his cultivation path. In his mind, those familiar faces smiled, yet every thought of them felt like a knife to his heart.
Lu Fang-er[1], the old man, Qu Jianying, Ling Yunzi, Hu Feng… all the brothers who had fought to the death by his side. If not for war, they would still be alive, living happily and enjoying the beauty of this world.
But the world held no room for “ifs”. There was only endless cruelty. To stop war, Long Chen needed a power that could instill fear across the land, enough to make those who sought to profit from war tremble at the thought of starting one. He needed to grow stronger—so strong that his enemies would quiver merely at the mention of his name.
Power was the foundation for resolving problems. When this world no longer cared about reason, then brute force was the way to go.
Suddenly, the space before Long Chen started to quiver as intense waves of curse energy radiated in the air, bringing him to a halt.
The curse energy here was especially potent, and although Long Chen wasn’t a disciple of the Wind God Sea Pavilion, nor had he practiced its divine arts, he was unaffected by the curse energy thanks to a jade tablet Feng Xinyue had given him. It enabled him to move as freely as the Pavilion’s disciples.
In truth, Both Feng Xinyue and Ye Lingkong had assumed Long Chen would use this tablet to his advantage on the battlefield, especially by fighting enemies within the inner region, where he would gain a significant edge. But Long Chen rarely walked the normal path. His actions were always unfathomable to others.
Long Chen walked toward the heart of the cursed area and saw a human skeleton in tattered robes holding a rusty sword, the blade plunged into the head of a massive creature—a thirty-meter devil creature with silver wings.
“Silver Wing Heaven Devil?” Long Chen whispered in shock.
He hadn’t expected to encounter a Silver Wing Heaven Devil here. Though it was much smaller than the ones he had seen before, the aura it emitted was unmistakable—he couldn’t be wrong.
“A six-vein Devil Emperor.” Long Chen felt its powerful aura and was taken aback. To find such a being at the edge of the inner region was unexpected. This meant that even at this distance from the core, one needed to be at least on this level to participate in the ancient battle. That realization sent a chill down his spine.
Suddenly, a strange sound came from the Silver Wing Heaven Devil’s head, startling Long Chen and making him leap back in alarm.