Chapter 1445: Divine Battle Harms Innocent Bystanders

The Demon Emperor’s expression darkened. He reached out to grab the red light.

As he raised his hand, it rapidly expanded, seeming to cover the sky and block out the sun, directly intercepting the red light.

Although it wasn't Wu Liang's first time seeing the Demon Emperor act, he was still incredibly amazed. The Demon Emperor's moves were simply divine techniques.

The enormous hand seized the red light directly. A smile appeared on the Demon Emperor's face as he was about to retrieve the Sun-Shooting Bow.

To his surprise, his expression froze. The red light had passed directly through his palm and quickly diminished into a speck of light, vanishing into the distance.

The Demon Emperor looked down at his palm, which was completely unharmed!

This was truly beyond his comprehension. If the opponent's power had been too great for him to contend with, allowing the Sun-Shooting Bow to escape his grasp, then his hand surely would have been injured.

Yet, now there was nothing. The Sun-Shooting Bow seemed to be in void, completely beyond his reach.

"Father Emperor, hurry and chase it!" the Golden Crow Crown Prince urged, anxious. This was his most reliable possession. In previous years, the invincible Sun-Shooting Bow had given him immense confidence against peers. If he lost it, he might not be able to defeat his formidable second brother.

Seeing his father standing motionless as if in a daze, he quickly pressed him. With his father's abilities, even if the Sun-Shooting Bow flew to the ends of the sky, it wouldn't be difficult for him to retrieve it.

"Chase what? Chase, chase, chase your head!" To his surprise, the Demon Emperor flew into a rage and slapped the back of his head. Fortunately, it wasn't a forceful blow, or the Golden Crow Crown Prince might no longer exist.

"Father Emperor, what's wrong?" The Golden Crow Crown Prince was both startled and angry, yet unable to resist, he could only look at his father with a wronged expression.

"Do you think the Sun-Shooting Bow would suddenly leave on its own?" The Demon Emperor gazed in the direction where the Sun-Shooting Bow had vanished, his eyes filled with an unidentifiable complexity.

"Of course not," the Golden Crow Crown Prince immediately replied. The Sun-Shooting Bow was a treasure passed down through generations of the Demon Imperial family, and it recognized him as its master. How could it run away by itself?

"Exactly. Someone used a divine ability to seize the Sun-Shooting Bow," the Demon Emperor paused, his voice tinged with both fear and excitement. "Their cultivation is above mine, and at a level I cannot possibly comprehend."

"What?" The Golden Crow Crown Prince was stunned into silence.

Wu Liang was also dumbfounded. Was there someone even more powerful than the Demon Emperor in this world?

And judging by the Demon Emperor's tone, there seemed to be a considerable gap between him and the other party.

This is it, I'm done for. What kind of cursed secret realm is this? Will I even make it out alive?

However, after his initial shock, the Demon Emperor was now ecstatic. Indeed, there were higher levels of power in this world, proving that his path continued. Ha ha ha ha...

As one of the two most powerful beings in the current era, the Demon Emperor had experienced periods of confusion over the years, countless times feeling that his cultivation path had reached its end, with no possibility of further improvement.

Ancient texts from the cultivation world, spanning millennia, also indicated that humans could not surpass his realm.

Countless prodigies had raised the question, "Do immortals truly exist?" He, too, was no exception.

But now he had experienced it firsthand. Even if he were to leave immediately, that brief moment of contact had yielded significant gains for him. Given time, he was even confident he could completely surpass Zhao Hao.

If he could have closer contact with that power, he might truly become a legendary immortal.

"Could it be because I just broke open the Chaos seal?" the Demon Emperor muttered to himself.

Hearing this, Wu Liang hastily advised, "Your Majesty, previously, when we unsealed the Taotie and Chaos, there were phenomena like ten suns appearing in the sky and terrifying presences emerging. If we proceed to unseal Qiongqi, and all four seals are completely broken, who knows what calamity it might invite. I implore Your Majesty to reconsider."

The Demon Emperor ignored him and instead directly questioned Dan Zhu's soul, "Where is Qiongqi's seal?"

He had previously been wary, fearing Dan Zhu might play some trick. He had intended to observe the situation after breaking three seals, but after experiencing that higher-level power, he no longer cared about such concerns.

As a cultivator who had reached his current level, he had spent his entire life pursuing that next step. Now, with an opportunity presenting itself, and knowing his life was nearing its end, he disregarded all danger and resolutely decided to continue.

Wu Liang's face turned pale. He thought, "If you're determined to seek death, can you at least let me go first?"

However, he absolutely dared not voice this thought. Speaking it would mean instant death; sticking with them at least offered a chance to live a bit longer.

Soon, Dan Zhu revealed the location of Qiongqi's seal. With determined eyes, the Demon Emperor led the group towards that direction.

The Golden Crow Crown Prince kept looking back, extremely reluctant to part with the divine artifact, the Sun-Shooting Bow. Unfortunately, if even his father was helpless, he was even more so. He could only follow his father, dejected.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of people watched, dumbfounded, as the red light descended and hovered before Zu An. Everyone could now clearly see it was a red bow.

Yan Xuehen and others found it somewhat familiar. They had seen the Golden Crow Crown Prince use it among the Serpent race; it seemed to be the Sun-Shooting Bow.

However, its appearance seemed slightly different, though they couldn't quite pinpoint how. Zu An vaguely reached out his hand, and the red light gradually faded. The solid feeling in his hand told him he wasn't dreaming.

A unique, red bow appeared in his hand. At the same time, ten white feathered arrows materialized beside it. Each arrow was adorned with extremely ancient and profound patterns, which, upon closer inspection, seemed to merge into the arrow shaft itself.

A majestic aura emanated from them, seemingly resonating with the heavens and earth.

This was the sensation of a divine artifact.

At that moment, the golden light in the sky dispersed, the celestial music ceased, and everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

At this time, from the distant Goddess Peak, a graceful figure cast a deep glance at Zu An, then turned and returned into the mountain.

The Ten Witches of Lingshan now came forward and surrounded Zu An, their faces filled with shock as they asked, "Why would the Heavenly Emperor give you this?"

Their gazes were as if Zu An were the Heavenly Emperor's illegitimate son.

Zu An was also bewildered. He hadn't expected to obtain a divine artifact so easily, and from the Heavenly Emperor himself?

He suddenly recalled what Shun had said earlier: that by retracing Yi's heroic journey, he would gain the approval of the world's will and receive assistance from divine artifacts. Could this be what he meant?

It made sense. With his current strength, the gap between him and the ten Golden Crows in the sky was so vast that he simply couldn't contend with them.

Therefore, this was destined to be an absolutely impossible task.

However, with the addition of the divine Sun-Shooting Bow, he now had a fighting chance.

A thought stirred in his mind: "Which Heavenly Emperor was that just now?"

"That aura... it seemed to be Heavenly Emperor Zhuanxu," the Ten Witches of Lingshan discussed amongst themselves, quickly reaching a consensus.

Zu An was startled. Zhuanxu?

He had always thought Hou Yi's Sun-Shooting Bow was given by Emperor Jun; he never expected it to be Zhuanxu.

Connecting this with the rift between Zhuanxu and Emperor Jun that the Ten Witches of Lingshan had mentioned earlier, it was clear that by giving him the Sun-Shooting Bow, Zhuanxu intended to deal a harsh blow to the ten Golden Crows.

If the gods were to fight, wouldn't he be caught in the crossfire?

He thought, if he killed Emperor Jun's sons, wouldn't Emperor Jun hate him to death?

As the Heavenly Emperor, he could kill him with a single thought.