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Chapter 654 The dust has settled and the trial is over

"Burning away distractions? This junior is quite decisive."

Seeing the Demon Lord of Annihilation burn his divided spirit, transforming it into black flames, and throw them into the black bone claws, greatly increasing their power, he broke free from the encirclement and crushing force of his spatial vortex and broke through the void to leave.

A hint of helplessness flashed across the old man's face.

If he could be a hundred years younger, even if the Demon Lord of Annihilation burned his divided spirit, he would still be unable to escape.

Unfortunately, his lifespan is nearing its end, and his vital energy is depleted. He cannot fully utilize his cultivation. Otherwise, with the depletion of his source, his remaining lifespan will be even more strained, leaving him no choice but to watch his opponent depart.

However, this is for the best. If the black bone claw had been left behind, the Demon Lord of Annihilation would probably have gone mad.

Even for a Seventh Tribulation Nascent Soul cultivator, a top-grade demonic artifact is an absolute treasure, and he certainly wouldn't give it up.

If a real war breaks out, the demons will certainly not stand idly by.

At present, the Netherworld Palace does not want a full-scale conflict with the Demon Clan, so this outcome is acceptable.

As the Demon Lord of Annihilation took his demonic artifact with him, the trial space returned to calm.

The elephant-trunk-like man in the distance, and the Daoist from Daoxu Temple, were both panting heavily, their faces showing signs of relief.

When the Demon Lord of Annihilation struck them with his palm, they truly believed they were doomed.

Unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better, and they survived. They were truly kindred spirits.

Only Lu Qing's eyes remained calm.

He didn't feel any regret that the Demon Lord of Annihilation took away the black bone claw.

Not to mention that he couldn't refine that demonic artifact, when he used his supernatural abilities to investigate the information earlier, he knew that the black bone claw was still under the control of the Demon Lord of Annihilation and could not possibly fall into his hands.

The appearance of the gray-robed old man surprised him.

He had originally planned to use the secret realm stone tablet to leave this space directly, but now it seems that he may not need to use this trump card.

However, Lu Qing remained vigilant, keeping a sliver of his mind focused on the secret realm stone tablet at all times.

If anything seems amiss, it will be activated immediately.

"Boy, you are very good."

The old man in gray sighed for a while, then suddenly turned his head, looked Lu Qing up and down, and smiled.

"You flatter me, senior," Lu Qing said calmly.

"This is no exaggeration. To be able to remain neither humble nor arrogant, nor change your expression, even when facing the Demon Lord of Annihilation at the Golden Core Realm, there are probably very few people in the world who can match your composure."

Lu Qing shook his head slightly, but said nothing more.

The reason he remained calm and composed when facing the Demon Lord of Annihilation's divided consciousness was because he had enough confidence to survive.

Since that's the case, there's naturally no need to be subservient or show weakness to them.

If he didn't have the secret realm stone tablet as his trump card, he probably wouldn't have been so calm.

Of course, the inside story cannot be told to others.

So he bowed deeply to the old man in gray: "Thank you for saving me, senior. Otherwise, I would probably have been shattered to pieces and my body and soul would have been destroyed."

"These are all minor matters," the gray-robed elder waved his hand and said, "This trial is held by our Netherworld Palace, so naturally no one else is allowed to interfere. Let alone a mere Demon Lord of Annihilation, even if the Black Heaven Demon Lord came, he would still be sent back!"

Black Heaven Demon Lord?

Upon hearing this name, Lu Qing's heart stirred slightly.

He remembered that the demonic cultivator enslaved by his soul in the Fire Cauldron was one of the 108 demon generals under the Black Heaven Demon Lord in his previous life.

That black bone claw just now is also called the Black Heaven Demon Claw.

It seems that this Black Heaven Demon Lord must be one of the most powerful Demon Lords among the Demon Race.

However, Lu Qing did not inquire about these matters. Instead, he cautiously said, "Senior, the trial is not over yet. I still need to collect trial jade tokens. What do you think..."

"There's no rush. With your strength, you're sure to be number one in this trial. There's no doubt about it. Didn't you just save that little girl from Biluo Palace? Release her. I have a past relationship with her master, so I owe you a favor."

The old man in gray did not rush to let Lu Qing leave, but instead said to him somewhat embarrassedly.

This is actually why he volunteered to come out and stop the Demon Lord of Annihilation; he couldn't bear to see Lu Qing actually kill the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace.

"So that's what happened. Please don't misunderstand, senior. I only said those things to provoke the demon. I didn't mean to offend that young lady."

Lu Qing explained, then gently waved his hand, releasing the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace from the Li Huo Cauldron.

In any case, when he put her into the Fire Cauldron, he had already isolated her with a spatial cage, so he wasn't worried that the woman would discover the secret inside the Fire Cauldron.

When the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace was released, she still looked somewhat bewildered.

She was locked in a spatial cage inside the Fire Cauldron by Lu Qing. It was pitch black all around, and she couldn't sense anything.

Now that they've been suddenly released, they're still a bit disoriented.

“Young lady, please forgive me for my previous words. Senior, please continue your conversation. I will take my leave now.”

After releasing the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace, Lu Qing disregarded her feelings and, with the consent of the gray-robed elder, immediately transformed into a streak of light and flew away into the distance.

Unaware of the gray-robed elder's intentions, he didn't even attempt to snatch the trial jade talismans from the elephant-trunk man and the Daoist disciple of Daoxu Temple, and simply disappeared into the sky.

This scene left the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace even more bewildered.

She recognized Lu Qing as the one who had rescued her from that demon and then imprisoned her.

But who is that demon, and who is this old man in front of her, whose aura is calm yet inspires awe in her?

"I know you have a lot of questions right now, but let's focus on healing first."

The gray-robed old man tossed out a bottle of pills, which landed in the hands of the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace.

The Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace held the pill, somewhat bewildered: "Senior, what exactly is this...?"

"You can ask the kid lying down there for details later. I'm leaving now."

However, the old man in gray did not give her a chance to ask further questions. After leaving behind a single sentence, his figure gradually disappeared and finally vanished.

Seeing this scene, the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace was once again shaken.

She had no idea how the old man had left.

It was obvious that the other party was a senior expert whose abilities she could hardly fathom.

Looking at the pill in her hand, the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace hesitated for a moment, but finally took one out and swallowed it.

After swallowing the pill and its effects taking hold, she quickly felt her injuries improving rapidly.

A surge of joy welled up in his heart, knowing that there was no problem with the pills, and he flew down to the Daoist Temple.

The elephant-trunk-like man in the distance breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the gray-robed old man disappear; his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

He glanced at the Holy Maiden of Biluo Palace and the Daoist disciple of Daoxu Temple who were gathering, then did nothing and quietly left.

And this time, he was no longer as flamboyant as he had been when he arrived.

Having witnessed the battle between the gray-robed elder and the Demon Lord of Annihilation, the elephant-nosed man knew that this trial was far more complex than he had imagined; the waters ran deep.

Moreover, the strength that Lu Qing displayed deeply shocked him.

He never imagined that the Golden Core Realm could be so powerful.

Compared to him, even though both were at the peak of the ninth level of the Golden Core realm, he was far inferior; they weren't even on the same level. How exactly did that masked man cultivate?

"I didn't expect it to be the gray-robed Venerable One who came out. I thought it would be one of the other Venerable Ones who would make a move."

Within the mysterious space, the dozen or so mysterious figures stirred once again after seeing that everything had settled down.

"Rumor has it that the Gray-Robed Venerable and the old Palace Master of the Azure Palace have a past relationship. Now it seems that this is not untrue."

“That’s for sure. I think the reason why the Gray-Robed Venerable came out is because of this.”

"Silence! Is it any of your business to discuss the affairs of the Venerable Ones?"

"The Demon Lord of Annihilation has lost a wisp of his spirit, which is quite a loss. It will probably take him at least ten or twenty years to recover."

"It's a pity we couldn't keep that black bone claw, otherwise our Netherworld Palace could have added a high-grade demonic artifact."

"Just think about it. A top-grade demonic artifact is already considered the foundation of the Demon Realm. If we really leave it behind, I'm afraid the other demon lords in the Demon Realm will have something to say."

“That’s right. Although our Netherworld Palace is not afraid, there is no need to actually start a war with the Demon Realm right now.”

The group of mysterious figures began to discuss among themselves.

They were not surprised that the Demon Lord of Annihilation's avatar was destroyed.

A newly promoted seventh-level Nascent Soul cultivator, though powerful, is able to dominate a region in the Demon Realm.

But compared to their Netherworld Palace, it's nothing.

Any one of the elders could easily destroy his primordial spirit shard.

On the contrary, Lu Qing's previous performance was more likely to pique their interest.

"Do you think that, given this masked kid's performance, he'll be noticed by that lord and taken as a disciple?"

"It's hard to say. This masked kid is definitely the most incredible genius I've ever seen, but he clearly has someone behind him. I wonder what that person thinks about this."

“Indeed, his background is clearly questionable, and that lord may not be willing to accept such a disciple.”

"Let's keep watching. The top scorer in this trial is clearly the kid with the ghost mask. Let's see how the higher-ups will handle him."

After discussing for a while, the group of mysterious figures turned their attention back to Lu Qing.

And the facts were exactly as they predicted.

In the following time, the masked ghost continued to search for other powerful individuals, attempting to seize the trial jade tokens from them.

And perhaps it was because he had almost been killed by the Demon Lord of Annihilation with a single palm strike earlier.

The masked boy was relatively kind to the strong members of the human and demon races, mostly only injuring them without killing them, and only taking the trial jade talismans from their bodies.

However, once he encounters a demon, regardless of whether the other party admits defeat, he will kill it with a single sword strike, without even giving it a chance to beg for mercy.

Thus, the group of mysterious figures saw that Lu Qing hadn't spent much time, and his trial jade tokens already exceeded half of the total, firmly securing him the top spot.

Swish!
Lu Qing flicked his sword finger, and sword energy flew out, severing the head of a demon with a seventh-stage demon core and taking all of its belongings.

"Yes, the number of jade tokens collected has reached 60% of the total."

Lu Qing checked the virtual space inside the trial jade talisman. Judging from the number of white dots, he had already collected about 60% of the total number of jade talismans.

In other words, even if he stops looting now, his position as the top scorer in this trial is already unshakeable.

Besides the trial jade talisman, Lu Qing also gained many other things.

For example, some of the storage treasures on the bodies of Golden Core Realm experts still contain a considerable amount of spirit stones, which could make them a little richer.

Lu Qing felt no psychological burden regarding this kind of looting.

Since they dared to come and participate in the trials of the Netherworld Palace, these trial participants should have been prepared to die long ago.

The rules of this trial at the Netherworld Palace clearly require them to fight each other.

In this situation, his decision to spare the lives of the trial participants and only take their treasures was already considered extremely merciful.

As for demons, yes, he did have a very bad impression of demons because of Cang Jue and the Demon Lord of Annihilation.

And every demon that encountered him harbored deep hostility, wishing they could devour him alive.

Lu Qing, of course, showed no mercy and spared no one.

"It's a pity that the spirit stones used by these demons for cultivation have all been tainted by demonic energy and are not easy to use."

Lu Qing held a spirit stone in his hand and examined it.

However, unlike ordinary spirit stones, this spirit stone had swirling black energy inside, making it look quite eerie.

Lu Qing knew that the environment of the Demon Realm was very different from that of the human realm.

The spirit stones produced therein were also tainted with demonic energy.

To absorb the spiritual energy within, one must purify the demonic energy within; otherwise, one is easily corrupted by the demonic energy, which may at best impair one's cultivation, or at worst lead to falling into the demonic path.

"I wonder if the [Eternal Heavenly Witch Body] can refine this demonic energy."

As Lu Qing weighed the demonic spirit stone in his palm, an idea suddenly came to mind.

The 【Eternal Undying Heavenly Witch Body】 was created by the supreme being of the Witch Clan after observing all kinds of calamity beasts in the world, as well as various other cultivation methods.

Its greatest skill is refining various exotic energies to strengthen itself.

Those who cultivate to a high level can even devour tribulation lightning to enhance themselves.

This mere demonic energy shouldn't be a problem for this supreme technique.

With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Lu Qing did not immediately begin the experiment.

Ever since the gray-robed elder appeared, he had been on guard, knowing that the people of the Netherworld Palace could observe the movements of the trial participants in this space.

Therefore, it's best to wait until we get out and find a safe place to experiment with refining demonic energy.

However, if his guess is true, then he will have another path to follow in his future cultivation.

Putting away the demonic energy stone in his hand, Lu Qing did not continue searching for the next target this time.

Instead, he casually carved out a cave in a mountain, went inside, and secluded himself to meditate and recuperate.

Since he already holds the top spot in the number of jade tokens, there's no need to do anything extra.

After all, any movement or disturbance in the space is likely under the observation of the Netherworld Palace.

If you go too far, you don't know how the other party will react.

Anyway, the trial is not far from ending.

And so, Lu Qing stayed in the cave, waiting for the trial to end.

Perhaps it was because he possessed too many trial jade tokens that the other trial participants realized the gap.

As he waited quietly, no one went to bother him.

Finally, three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the trial came to an end.

A pillar of light suddenly appeared in the trial space.

(End of this chapter)