Chapter 489: Refining the Realm Heart

The two demon kings’ apathetic gaze left Ye Chen and stared outside of the realm’s boundary. In their eyes, Ye Chen’s fate had no recourse. Since he dared to trespass into a realmlord’s territory, he should just die obediently. Their concern was Ba Shifang floating outside the realm's boundary.

They had detected Ba Shifang as soon as he appeared. For a human to appear so deep behind the front lines of the Demon Clan, naturally meant something had gone wrong. Their companion had led a squad of demon lords to intercept, but none of them thought it would lead to his death.

Before they had a chance to act, Ba Shifang had already killed their fellow demon king and the many demon lords. More frightening was the attack Ba Shifang unleashed. The demon realmlord didn’t know how many times the immortal monarch could use the spell—less than three, in his opinion—but if Ba Shifang launched it on the realm, the foundation would become shaky.

Once the foundation became shaky, then the realmlord’s control of the realm would falter. It might even cause a backlash and injure the realmlord. What’s more, as the realmlord, he had a duty to the life inside the realm. If the life in the realm died, he would suffer a portion of the Karmic Sin. The demon realmlord mobilized the power of the realm to stabilize the realm boundary to its limit and limit the amount of outsiders from entering.

He had already sent a message to the Demon Clan. As long as he held on for a short time, the reinforcements will arrive and encircle the attackers. Ba Shifang will be buried here forever.

Ba Shifang frowned. The fact that this high-rank realm had a realmlord was not in the information transmitted by Donghai Longzi. He didn’t doubt Donghai Longzi’s allegiance and came up with various reasons why he didn’t know this realm had an owner.

He frowned. The appearance of a realmlord severely decreased the chances of the mission’s success.

“No other choice,” Ba Shifang said. He raised his hand and the Five Planet Pearl.

With a flip of his palm, the Five Planet Pearl fell toward the high-rank realm. Just like Ba Shifang’s previous spell, the Five Planet Pearl grew. However, unlike the previous spell, it became more translucent as it grew. When it reached its max size, it enveloped the entire high-rank realm and appeared like a transparent gauze.

“I’ve interfered with the realmlord’s connection with the realm. Go and attack now. He can still suppress your power, but not as much as before. Form the war formations outside before entering to make sure he doesn’t disrupt the formation once inside,” Ba Shifang said. “Use your numbers and deal with them quickly.”

The immortal monarchs and true immortals obeyed. The monarchs from the Immortal Court used half as many true immortals to form their war formations, but the war formations created by the Numinous Sword Sect had a stronger aura.

In the end, ten emperor-level formations entered the high-rank realm. Ten monarch-level formations, all formed by the cultivators from the Immortal Court, also entered the high-rank realm.

Ye Chen felt the suppression of the realm weaken. He immediately dodged, narrowly avoiding the demon lords’ attacks. Although he had mastered the Law of Time, he hadn’t used it to form a new body. Meaning that true immortals could still injure him, even if they hadn’t mastered a worldly law. In addition, he could only affect the surrounding space with his Law of Time because of the suppression of the realm.

The time around him accelerated, allowing him to dodge the attacks by the slimmest of margins. He persisted for a few seconds, and the pressure immediately lessened. He, along with the demons, looked up to see the many war formations enter.

The most common of the bunch were humanoids holding treasure swords. It was the Ten Thousand Sword War Formation of the Numinous Sword Sect. They waved their swords and sword lights flashed. The demons released tragic cries and suffered under the indiscriminate attacks.

The demon realmlord wanted to mobilize the realm’s power to strengthen his allies and weaken his enemies, but he discovered an external force interfering. In the end, he could only increase the demon lords’ power to the point that they reached the half-monarch level, while his demon king companion gained the power of a half-emperor. Only the realmlord could reach the emperor-level.

“What’s not appropriate?” a sword monarch countered. Although he was mad that Ye Chen spoke before him, he didn’t want the Immortal Court to pick up on this benefit. “Immortal Lord Ye has already mastered a complete law. His performance is also high, rivaling ours.”

The monarchs from the two forces prepared to argue, but Ba Shifang stopped them. “Enough, we are tight on time. Let Immortal Lord Ye refine the realm heart first. If he fails, you can argue again. It’s best to do it before the reinforcements arrive.”

The monarchs weren’t willing, but they still obeyed Ba Shifang’s arrangement. A few of them released a sigh of relief. Becoming a realm lord in the middle of the Demon Clan’s territory was a high-risk position, hence their hesitation moments ago.

Ye Chen paid no heed. The location of the realm heart was quickly discovered, and he entered the core of the realm. Not every realm could condense a realm heart. No one knows the condition to condense a realm heart, but the general consensus was that neither the Primordial Realm nor the Numinous Realm had a realm heart.

He stared at the realm heart, which appeared like a glowing blue sphere. Upon closer inspection, Ye Chen could see the tiny strands of light that formed the sphere. He didn’t take long to ready his heart and plunged his left hand into the glowing sphere.

Pain burst in his head. It was as if an explosion had gone off. The pain wasn’t a deliberate attack from the realm heart, but a side effect of Ye Chen receiving much more information than he could process. He could feel the steps of all life in the realm. The gentle wind caressing the feathers of birds. The sturdiness of stones that aged for thousands of years.

The heartlessness of the sea, drowning all those unworthy. The unending wrath of volcanoes, bursting and raging at uneven intervals. Ye Chen felt himself merge with the realm. His mind became preoccupied by the vastness of the realm, and his sense of self slowly grew dim. It was as if Ye Chen had become the realm. Compared to the endless history of a realm, what was one Ye Chen? His lifespan couldn’t even compare to a grain of sand in the realm's history.

Ye Chen resisted the assimilation. However, the realm’s information continued to flow through his brain without end, eroding his willpower. His eyes grew dull, and his aura changed, becoming more and more similar to the realm heart.

Ba Shifang observed the process with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

“You seem very pleased?”

He turned and smiled at Hu Landie. “Of course. A potential threat is going to be eliminated because of his own actions without me needing to do anything. How can I not be happy? I like watching fools biting off more than they can chew.”

“Why don’t you help with your realm artifact?” Hu Landie asked back, using her immortal sense. “It’s much safer this way, much less of a chance for him to make a comeback.”

“If I take action and the monarchs from the Numinous Sword Sect detect it, it will jeopardize the alliance. It’s not worth it,” Ba Shifang said. “Do you have any ideas?”

“I did, but you didn’t ask me beforehand, so it’s too late,” Hu Landie said.

Ba Shifang shook his head in disappointment. “Oh well. It doesn’t matter. It looks like he will fail soon and die.”

Just as he said that, Ba Shifang noticed that something in Ye Chen’s right arm burst out. It was a black light containing a powerful destructive aura. It caused Ye Chen’s eyes, who were slowly losing his sense of self, to regain part of their clarity.

“If I find out who helped Ye Chen...” Ba Shifang said through gritted teeth.