Realm-Hopping Martial Master

Taiwu Daoist Venerable’s voice was still as calm as an ancient well, yet the white hairs at the end of his horsetail whisk seemed to curl slightly, as if brushed by an unseen breeze.

"As for the Heaven-Burning Demon Lord, his Half-step Demon Lord Realm should not be something he advanced to through normal means. Perhaps he was directly birthed by the Demon Race’s Great Array."

Taiwu Daoist Venerable spoke after pondering for a moment; even with their status, they could not necessarily grasp all the major affairs within the Demon Race.

They could only infer from various details.

"The Half-step Demon Lord Realm itself is not truly fearsome. His attainments on the Great Dao are not deep. But this realm still brings trouble. Because he is unlike a true Demon Lord—if a great war really breaks out and our Human Clan wishes to encircle and hunt him down, we will have to spend quite some effort."

"Not necessarily."

Taiwu Daoist Venerable’s words had just fallen when Purple Extreme Daoist Venerable, after a brief hesitation, spoke up at once.

"Even if the Dragon and Phoenix Clans temporarily put aside their hatred because of the war, the Heaven-Burning Demon Lord will inevitably be implicated by the Dragon Clan. He may not be able to come out so easily; hiding within the Emperor Palace is likely his true path of escape."

"After all, he is not a true Demon Lord. But the Dragon Clan does have a Demon Lord."

"Moreover, the identity Jiang Shu assumed, Golden Horn, is not some ordinary Dragon Clan prodigy, not even a Dragon Clan Demon Venerable, but a bearer of Ancestor Bloodline. Such a bloodline would stir greed even in a Demon Lord."

"In a certain sense, when Heaven-Burning Demon Lord struck at Jiang Shu, he was also severing another possible path for the Dragon Clan’s Demon Lord."

"How could that one not mind?"

Taiwu Daoist Venerable slowly nodded.

"The upheaval in the Demon Race this time is no small matter. It remains to be seen how the Emperor Palace will handle it."

"A pity that this matter still cannot be made public. Otherwise, with Jiang Shu’s merits this time, no one knows how many resources he could exchange for."

He had delved deep into a demon den, stolen the Great Array’s Origin, and broken through his own Realm.

Then, under the Heaven-Burning Demon Lord’s strike, he retreated with his whole body intact.

Such merit is something even an ordinary Chaos Hole Realm Late Stage Daoist Venerable could not accomplish.

"I am not lacking in common resources. As for truly important resources, the other Seven Great Sects would not be willing to give."

Jiang Shu truly did not care about merit.

For him at this moment, his own progress was far more important.

"Mm. First, rest quietly for some time. Heaven-Burning is, after all, a Half-step Demon Lord now; the imprint he left is somewhat troublesome and must be unraveled slowly."

"Come with me."

Taiwu Daoist Venerable took a single step, and a portal instantly opened within the Void.

As Jiang Shu stepped through it—

A wholly new heaven and earth unfolded before his eyes.

Gigantic mountains lay coiled like hidden Dragons, nine great rivers winding past them.

Together they formed a natural Heaven-and-Earth Great Array.

Countless Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi converged within.

Strands of Great Dao further凝聚成星辰, shining upon the sky.

"This is a newly opened Dao Field, for you to recover your Cultivation."

Once Taiwu Daoist Venerable finished speaking, his figure vanished.

Jiang Shu did not hesitate and sat cross-legged atop a great mountain.

His bare upper body still bore large swathes of charred black and dark-red fissures; the Heaven-Burning strike, carrying Half-step Demon Lord Level destructive Daoist Rules, clung to the depths of the wounds like maggots gnawing the bone, stubbornly entrenched.

He could only slowly erase them through repeated cycles of the Power of Great Dao.

"Wounds branded by a Demon Lord invoking the Time Dao Imprint are indeed troublesome."

Regarding the injuries brought by Heaven-Burning Demon Lord, Jiang Shu had already asked Taiwu Daoist Venerable, who could ascend to Daoist Master at any time.

Injuries from ordinary Power of Great Dao are naturally easy to heal.

Different Powers of Great Dao can be used to grind them away bit by bit.

But the Time Dao is different.

Once the Time Dao is involved, it means that upon the River of Time, there should exist this very imprint upon Jiang Shu’s body.

Even if it is removed in one moment, in the next moment it may suddenly appear upon Jiang Shu again—this is the terror of the Time Dao.

And this is only because Heaven-Burning Demon Lord is merely a Half-step Demon Lord.

If he were to truly become a Demon Lord, then these injuries would simply have no possibility of recovery!

Unless Jiang Shu himself also advanced to Daoist Master!

Jiang Shu’s brows knit slightly as he looked inward at his own condition.

The tender branches of the World Tree were drawing in pure Spiritual Power, continuously releasing gentle vitality and Chaotic Aura, which, together with the Creation Clear Light, slowly mended his torn flesh and damaged Dao Foundation.

The Desolate Power was like the finest file, slowly grinding away the scorching, violent imprint left by Heaven-Burning.

The process was slow and painful, far beyond ordinary injuries, yet it also granted him a deeper grasp of higher-level Power.

In a certain sense, being wounded was also a good thing.

Because the Time Dao is extremely difficult to comprehend, and he could precisely use the wounds within his body to inch by inch understand the Time Dao!

Half a year passed in a flash.

Regardless of the shifting storms outside—

Jiang Shu remained within his own heaven and earth, Cultivating in quiet.

When the last bone-deep fissure on his back finally knit together under the clear radiance, leaving only a faint dark-red mark, Jiang Shu opened his eyes.

His gaze was deep as an abyss; the previous weariness and languor were swept away, replaced by the vast, mountain-solid aura of the Mixed Cave Realm Middle Stage.

Within the flow of his eyes, it seemed as though he could see the changes of time itself.

"Still far from enough. The Time Dao truly isn’t something easily comprehended. Yet I’ve at least grasped some of its transformations."

"If I were to fight Heaven-Burning again, I would still be injured, but at least I would know how to heal."

Jiang Shu spread open his palm.

He did not rush to leave seclusion, but instead took out from his Sleeve Universe a Golden Horn Dragon Body saturated with dense vitality, stabilized by several strands of pure Great Dao Technique.

This was an idea that had suddenly taken shape within him during these six months of healing.

The Golden Horn’s Dragon body essence had already been taken.

But the frame was intact, the Dragon Scale patterns were clear; that vast Dragon Clan blood energy, after being baptized by countless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, had long since left behind a rather fine Dao Foundation.

Had he not suddenly assumed the identity, with Golden Horn’s bloodline strength, even if he could not stir forth Ancestor Dragon’s Shadow, his bloodline would still have been far from inferior.

A pity.

Jiang Shu slowly closed his eyes, lifting the entire Golden Horn Dragon Body up to be refined in mid-air.

Upon the nine great rivers, clusters of flame suddenly rose out of thin air.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the soul imprint of Golden Horn—already fully analyzed and mastered by him—was once again stirred.

At the same time, his own vast comprehension of the Puppet Dao and the Soul Great Dao unfurled like a river of stars.

The Creation Dao transformed into countless cyan talismanic runes, finer than hair by hundreds of times, silently melting into every single cell of Golden Horn’s ruined body like a gentle spring rain.

The damaged Vital organs, the shattered fine tendons, the dim Dragon Blood...

Under the nurturing and reorganization of Creation Clear Light, they emitted faint hums, like dead wood meeting spring, greedily absorbing the Power of Great Dao.

Jiang Shu did not hesitate to consume his own Origin, patiently nourishing this lifeless Dragon body bit by bit, repairing the hidden injuries left by the plundering of its Origin and prior battles, reshaping the robust framework a Dragon Clan flesh body should possess.

The aura of the Power Dao, under his precise guidance, slowly recondensed and flowed along the textures of muscle and bone.

This was an incomparably exquisite process; the slightest misstep would either cause the flesh to collapse or strip it of the pure attributes of the Power Dao.

Jiang Shu’s mind was focused to the utmost, as if conducting the most delicate of carvings.

As the Refining continued, Golden Horn’s flesh was no longer the lifeless husk it once was.

The dark-gold Dragon Scales once again gleamed with icy luster; the muscle lines were smooth yet brimmed with explosive Power, and from deep within the skeleton came a low roar like rushing rivers.

A Dragon Clan Demon Venerable body, full of life force yet cold and deathly, was basically completed.

And the separated soul imprint belonging to Golden Horn was like a clump of congealed golden starlight.

Guided by Jiang Shu’s unmatched Soul Power, and combined with his perfect memory of Golden Horn’s soul fluctuations and the Supreme profundities of the Puppet Dao, it was granted divided soul and imbued nature, undergoing remolding.

"Decree!"

The low syllable reverberated atop the great mountain.

That mass of golden soul imprint was completely scattered and purified into dust within Jiang Shu’s vast soul sea.

A brand-new soul core was forged under Jiang Shu’s Refining.

For the moment, he indeed could not return to the Demon Race.

After all, once he went back, he would be exposed beneath the gaze of the Dragon and Phoenix Clans.

If marked by a Demon Lord, aside from the Two Realms Shuttle, he would surely die.

But if he did not go himself, and instead used a Puppet to lay out a scheme...?