Chapter 359: Admit Defeat!
Mo Jianzhi, with eyes rolled back and in an eerie voice, said, "I thought I'd just give the underdog a leg up, let Yun Xiao have a ten-day break to catch up, and have 'em duke it out. But did I overdo it?"
"That kid's a bit much," the Dream Demon chimed in with a voice as tender as a babe yet eerie as a haunted whisper.
"No harm done. Even if it didn't end up with both sides wiping each other out, we've already more than halved their power," Shen Xiaochan mused, peering from the Eight Trigrams array to the Fate Ocean Realm cultivators outside, a sly grin on her face. "These remaining small fry are no real threat."
"With the Immortal Asylum sealed, the array is locked tight. It'll pick 'em apart, eat 'em up, and that's the ticket to breaking free..." Kun Jiang's face twisted with a touch of madness, glancing around the battlefield, already hearing the spine-tingling skitter-skatter from the shadows.
"Think it'll gobble up the kid?" Shen Xiaochan suddenly asked.
"Why not?" Mo Jianzhi's lips curled into a sly smile. "After all, he's the main course at this feast."
With that, the four of them stood solemn, respectfully waiting for their master to take the stage.
A feast, ready to commence.
It was a massacre! The remaining 100 or so rebels in the Heaven Sanctuary Real were torn asunder amidst the onslaught of Yun Xiao and the five Genesis Spirit Realm Powerhouses.
With the balance shattered and trapped within the array, these renowned figures of the Nine Hells had nowhere to run, meeting their grisly end on the spot!
Those brash, arrogant Yang Devils, fell by the hands of the very Yin Demons they scorned.
And those high-and-mighty Inscription Cultivators met their demise at the hands of the Sword Cultivators, their dying screams filled with indignation.
The resentment demons and sea dragons fared even worse!
Yun Xiao, right there on the battlefield, harvested their demon bones, refining their corpses into Blood Crystal Sword Rings, sparing nothing usable.
"16,000 layers of Sword Aura, just a notch above Mo Jianzhi." With Yun Xiao around, the other Sword Cultivators wouldn't dare to absorb the demon corpses first on their own.
"The Prison Warden Sigils and Heaven Burial Sword Soul share the same essence... After devouring about 40 Life Sigils, my Rune count has soared to 22,000!"
Like Sword Aura, the absorbed Runes weren't merely stacked; they were assimilated by the Prison Warden Sigil, boosting Yun Xiao's count by thousands, which was quite the feat.
And so, his Sword Soul and Life Sigils saw significant growth.
"Almost all gone." Yun Xiao surveyed the battlefield, where only a few Inscription Cultivators and Yang Devils were still holding out, soon to be consumed by despair.
"In broad daylight, it's tricky to practice devouring techniques, but the Mortal Dust Blood Calamity has little to no repercussions."
Standing in the midst of the battlefield, Yun Xiao remained motionless. Yet the blood of the fallen silently flowed towards him, forged by the Mortal Dust Blood Calamity into Mortal Dust Devil Blood, seeping into his Blood Base.
Blood of the mighty from the four great hells!
Without a doubt, the War Princess's Blood Base was set for a transformative welcome right then and there.
Yun Xiao personally transmuted the Mortal Dust Devil Blood, visibly augmenting the Mortal Dust Devil Heart, mastering the power of his veins. The radiance of the Devil Heart within the walls of his physical heart shimmered ever more brightly, swiftly breaking through into the Establishment Heaven Sanctuary Realm.
"Just a tad more growth in the Devil Heart, and stepping into the Heaven Sanctuary Realm should be no issue."
The War Princess' advance transformation would undoubtedly bolster his fused form yet again... And with the demise of the Talisman Emperor and Wick Devil, theoretically, no one within the Nine Hells should obstruct Yun Xiao anymore.
Yun Xiao's true self, having claimed all treasures and resources, faced no hurdles in his path to growth.
But... even now, a seed of unease nestled in Yun Xiao's heart! He knew the waters of the Nine Hells were deeper than he'd fathomed.
At this moment, all enemies in the Heaven Sanctuary Realm or above, be they Inscription Cultivators, Yang Devils, resentment demons, or sea dragons, had been utterly eradicated!
The Immortal Asylum remained eerily silent.
"Exile Yun, these are all the tokens." The Sword Warden presented the completed Trigram tokens before Yun Xiao.
And so, whether by rule or by fact, Yun Xiao was the new Nine Hells Conqueror.
"All hail the Nine Hells Conqueror!" Mu Tianjian knelt respectfully, his demeanor solemn. He set a fine example, and following his lead, every living soul, inside and outside the Eight Trigrams formation, felt a surge of reverence and submission, kneeling before Yun Xiao.
A multitude bowed in homage.
Henceforth, the fate of the Nine Hells was sealed.
Yun Xiao looked up, his gaze extending beyond the formation to the Fate Ocean Realm Inscription Cultivators, Yang devils, and others. He hadn't anticipated such thorough kneeling from these thousands.
"You kneel before me, but are you prepared in your hearts?" Yun Xiao asked, his voice deep.
"What preparation..."
"In the future Nine Hells, humans, devils, and demons will fall under one governance! Humans shall honor the Sword Ruins, devils the Endless Netherworld, sea demons the merfolk... Those willing to accept this reality may remain kneeling; those unwilling, I offer you a chance to rebel," Yun Xiao declared.
He never short changed his followers. It was the support with ample resources from the Sword Ruins, Yin Devils, and land demons that allowed him to resolve the matter in ten days.
These early birds, these clever souls, surely deserved a special favor.
His declaration was undoubtedly cruel, especially to these lofty figures from the four hells who were used to being on the top. But the hard truth was, all their big shots were dead.
Right then and there, not a soul dared to cross Yun Xiao; the fear of him was etched deep in their hearts.
Seeing a sea of heads bowed, not one daring to stand tall, Yun Xiao laid it on the line, "Crossing me comes at a price, but play ball, and at least your kin might live to see another day!"
Lose the battle, tip your hat.
The Inscription Cultivators, Yang Devils, resentment demons, and sea dragons were hanging their heads, while the Sword Cultivators, Yin Devils, and merfolk were grinning ear to ear. Especially the Yin Devils.
To their ears, Yun Xiao was practically handing over the Rising Sun Inferno, making them the new bosses of the Yang Devils!
The madder the Yang Devils got, the better the Yin Devils felt!
Right about now, the Netherworld Emperor and his crew were itching to step out and knock some sense into those uppity Yang Devils.
The heart of the array in the Rising Sun Inferno, the Sun Cave, was anchored in by the Dragon Wick Seal. With the Netherworld Emperor holding that seal, he was the new ruler of the Rising Sun Inferno.
It was clear as day; Yun Xiao was going out of his way for the War Princess and her kin.
"Nine Hells Conqueror!"
Yun Xiao's renown echoed throughout the Immortal Asylum, drowning out all else!
Everyone was eating out of his hand!
"And what about our slice of the pie?" the Phoenix Empress piped up, feeling a tad left out.
"What pie are you eyeing?" Yun Xiao turned, a smile playing on his lips. He couldn't help it; even if it was his body double wooing her, it was all his hard work, and that tenderness was real.
"Uh" The Phoenix Empress gave it some thought. Her territory in the Primeval Demon Hell was vast, and she couldn't exactly exert her influence over the seas, so there wasn't much to covet.
"You land demons getting off scot-free is already a win. Don't push your luck," Yun Xiao shot her a look.
In the Nine Hells, humans always had the upper hand, with demons historically getting the short end of the stick, often finding themselves on the wrong side of a beatdown.
Yun Xiao's beef with the Demon Continent's demons didn't quite carry over to the local variety in the Nine Hells.
"You just can't scrub demons out completely," he'd reckon, his heart set on beefing up humanity. He envisioned a future with fewer commoners and more cultivators, ready to stand tall against any outsiders.
"Alright, alright, alright" the Phoenix Empress grumbled under her breath. Her run-ins with Yun Xiao were few and far between, but she couldn't shake off a niggling annoyance towards him.
"Didn't that crafty fox claim he was his equal? Where'd he dash off to?" The Phoenix Empress wondered, eyes darting about the crowd, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
She was dying to ask Moon Fairy, "So, the Primeval Demon Hell gets the short straw, and we're supposed to be on the same level? How's that fair?"
But at that moment, a chill would run down her spine, a gut feeling of that she had touched on a frightening revelation.
"Exile Yun..." the Phoenix Empress muttered. Her gaze landed on Yun Xiao as he gathered up all the Trigrams tokens and turned to Mo Jianzhi and the other three delegates.
"I've rounded up all the Trigrams. All the enemies are dead. Half an hour is also almost up. How about we turn off the formation and start wrapping up the Nine Hells Conquest Clash?"
"The Sword Ruins wish for Exile Yun to take the reins and become the next Nine Hells Conqueror," Mu Tianjian declared, his hand thoughtfully stroking his beard.
"The Reverie Abyss is in full support of Exile Yun," the Siren Empress announced.
"Let's deactivate the formation ahead of time," the Netherworld Emperor added.
The Immortal Asylum, just referees in this grand affair, never truly commanded respect. But now, as the Nine Hells bent the knee to Yun Xiao, all eyes were on their next move.
What would the Immortal Asylum decide? The answer was key!
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