Chapter 195 - 144: Supreme
"So you’ve been hiding under Qin City all these years?"
"Do you know of any other Ancient Demon Fiends that exist within the Profound Realm?" Lu Changfeng asked.
Hua Chengyu shrugged. "I snuck into the Profound Realm to enjoy a free ride, so of course I had to avoid the three Human Kings."
"But now, tens of thousands of years have passed since the Ancient Era. The Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy in the Profound Realm has grown this weak."
"I did come out to look for places with more abundant Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, but I never found any. The entire Profound Realm is in this sorry state, which means the Outer World is probably in even worse shape."
"So I just resigned myself to my fate and went into closed-door cultivation beneath Qin City."
"As for other Ancient Demon Fiends, I know even less. I hid in the Profound Realm before the three Human Kings severed it."
According to Hua Chengyu, after first hiding in the Profound Realm, she immediately went into closed-door cultivation for ten thousand years.
She only came out to investigate after noticing the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy had declined even further, causing her Cultivation Realm to drop.
By that time, the three Human Kings had also vanished without a trace, and the Profound Realm had become a world completely dominated by the Human Race.
As a pure-blooded member of the Demon Race, Hua Chengyu didn’t dare act too recklessly. After a brief investigation, she went straight back into closed-door cultivation beneath Qin City.
...
Lu Changfeng was generally satisfied, having learned a great deal about the wider world from Hua Chengyu.
’So the Profound Realm was a small world, severed by the three Human Kings...’
’No wonder none of the legendary Ancient Great Powers exist, not even their descendants.’
’Even the Indigenous People within the Profound Realm don’t know when they were separated from the Great World.’
It was like everyone living on Earth, only for the planet’s environment to deteriorate for some reason.
To avoid being consumed by the deteriorating environment, your village seals itself off from the rest of the world.
You grow up in this village, hearing the ancient legends of Earth—stories of Ancient Greek myths, diverse cultures, and modern technology.
But growing up in the village, you never actually experience high-speed rail or airplanes. The most you ever see are oxcarts and horse-drawn carriages.
Eventually, you start to believe that era is gone, and that none of those things exist anymore.
Similarly, Lu Changfeng had originally thought the same about the Profound Realm—that the beings from the legends of the Ancient Era had probably vanished as the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy declined.
In reality, however, those beings might still exist in the Outer World, or perhaps they had built their own small worlds and fallen into a deep slumber, just like the Giant Elephant Woman, waiting to reawaken.
This realization made Lu Changfeng, who had grown somewhat complacent after becoming the top expert, vigilant once more.
His current strength might make him the top expert in the Profound Realm, but in the grand scheme of the entire Chaotic Great World, he was completely out of his league.
This wasn’t because Lu Changfeng’s Root Bone and Talent were lacking, or because the system’s functions were weak.
Instead, it was dictated by his environment.
It was just Lu Changfeng’s bad luck to be born at the wrong time. In this harsh era, the returns from cultivation were yielding less and less.
The price Lu Changfeng would have to pay to reach the same level of cultivation as the beings of the Ancient Era would be unimaginably high.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Lu Changfeng secretly made a resolution: no matter how difficult the path ahead, he would never give up.
’The three Human Kings of the Profound Realm...’
’The Outer Chaos World...’
A thought suddenly struck Lu Changfeng. "Do you happen to know the names of the three Human Kings of the Profound Realm?"
Hua Chengyu thought for a moment before speaking. "Hmm... There were many Human Kings back in the Ancient Era, and I don’t remember them all that clearly. I just happened to catch wind that the Profound Realm was being severed, so I snuck in."
Lu Changfeng was speechless. ’This woman is a real master of laying low.’
"The Profound Realm has already been severed from the Outer Chaos World, so why is its Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy still weakening?" Lu Changfeng asked.
"That’s inevitable," Hua Chengyu explained. "As living things multiply and grow stronger, they consume Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy. Even though it’s been severed from the Outer Chaos World, the Profound Realm still has its own internal cycle of consumption."
"Then why didn’t the three Human Kings just destroy all the living beings in the Profound Realm? In that case, wouldn’t all the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy belong only to them?" Coming from an era where Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy was scarce, Lu Changfeng had no concept of how it circulated.
Hua Chengyu rubbed her forehead. "You know what an internal cycle is, don’t you? Under certain conditions, a small world’s internal cycle can actually *increase* the amount of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy. But if there are too many High Level beings in that small world, the cycle starts to have problems."
"Right now in the Profound Realm, it’s obvious that the small world’s internal cycle has reached its limit. At the same time, the number of High Level beings hasn’t decreased in the slightest. Those High Level beings are the ones who consume the lion’s share of the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy."
Lu Changfeng understood. "The three Human Kings are the biggest consumers of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy. They are the main reason for its decline in the Profound Realm."
Hua Chengyu nodded. "You’re a quick study."
"The Cultivation Realm of the three Human Kings is equivalent to the Demon King Realm of my Demon Race. An expert at that level has a terrifying need for Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, even just to maintain their current state."
"Sigh... Still, the Profound Realm is the small world they built for themselves. Even if it gets destroyed because of them, opportunists like me have no right to complain, do we?"
"I just hope I can last until the Day Count Resets and the world restarts."
Lu Changfeng gave a slight nod, leaving Hua Chengyu unable to tell if he agreed with her.
"What was your Cultivation Realm originally, and what is it now?" Lu Changfeng asked, changing the subject.