Swallowing the Stars: Heart of the Martial God

Chapter 181 The Lord of the Northern Prison Reappears
Time passed little by little.

Hundreds of eras passed quickly.

Ling Xuan completed his comprehension of all eight Paths of the Beast God, breaking through to become a true Lord of the Universe. He also left behind ten Chaos Steles in Chaos City, eight of which were Paths of the Beast God, thus filling in the gaps in humanity's understanding of the Path of the Beast God.

The ninth one is his own 'Dao', named the Ultimate Flame Chaos Stele, which follows the path of the origin of flame space. If he can fully comprehend the Ultimate Flame Chaos Stele, he can become the strongest in the universe.

Theoretically, the Qiyan Bridge to Heaven has 38 levels, surpassing the Chaos Stele of the Giant Axe Creator.

The tenth monument, the "Void Chaos Monument," was erected to commemorate the inheritance of the Void. After meticulously refining the "Void Scripture," he could fully follow the Great Dao of the Void Origin and cultivate the strongest beings in the universe.

After the ten Chaos Steles were erected, countless powerful individuals began to modify and repair the original Chaos Steles.

Cao Benqi also successfully became the seventh "Lord of the Universe" in the Giant Axe Arena.

At first, Cao Benqi was overjoyed and wanted to use "Yan Di" as his title as the Lord of the Universe, but unfortunately Ling Xuan was already called "Yan Di".

After deliberation, the human leadership unanimously agreed that this title violated the taboo of Emperor Yan, and therefore resolutely opposed it.

Despite his reluctance, Cao Benqi had no choice but to compromise amidst the opposition of the crowd, and ultimately chose "Lord of the Blazing Sun" as his title.

At this moment, he gazed in the direction of the Giant Axe Martial Arts Arena headquarters, his eyes filled with malice, muttering to himself, "Damn Yan Emperor, damn Ling Xuan, even a title has to be fought with me. You just wait, with Master Zuoshanke's careful guidance and help, I will surpass you sooner or later, and you'll know the consequences of opposing me!"

In the core area of ​​the Giant Axe Arena headquarters stands a magnificent palace, its entire body a deep purple, its surface shimmering with starlight, exuding mystery and solemnity.

"Ling Xuan, there is an extremely important piece of intelligence here that you must review personally." A clear and arrogant voice rang out in the palace.

A graceful and intelligent woman, dressed in a fitted business pencil skirt, walked slowly into the palace and addressed Ling Xuan, who was sitting quietly on the huge throne.

Ling Xuan, sitting on the throne, slowly opened his eyes upon hearing the voice. A gentle light flashed in his usually deep eyes as he smiled and looked at the person who had come in: "Yan Qiu, what is it that even my great wife can't handle?"

Since Ling Xuan became known as the "Emperor Yan" and his fame spread far and wide, very few people dare to address him by his name directly.

Aside from his direct bloodline elders and his mentor, the founder of the Giant Axe, he only had two older sisters and three wives.

Ling Xuan's two older sisters had relatively ordinary talents. He spent many precious treasures to forcibly elevate them to the Immortal Realm, after which they could hardly make any further breakthroughs.

His three wives, all exceptionally talented, successfully reached the King level over hundreds of epochs, thanks to the abundant resources provided by Ling Xuan and his patient guidance.

Now, Ling Xuan has recruited them to the headquarters of the Giant Axe Arena to assist him in handling complicated matters.

Although Venerable Qianyue is exceptionally capable and can share a lot of his work, his words sometimes lose their influence when it comes to matters at the level of the Universal Venerables.

However, the three wives are different. As the wives of Emperor Yan, even if their cultivation levels are relatively low, the cosmic venerables of the Giant Axe Arena would not dare to easily oppose them.

After all, everyone knows that Emperor Yan has only had three wives who have given birth to three children throughout countless years. Offending them will surely result in Emperor Yan's wrathful punishment.

"It's intelligence about the Lord of the Northern Prison." Leng Yanqiu's expression was solemn as he gently raised his hand and opened an intelligence email.

The Lord of the Northern Prison is infamous throughout the universe and is considered an enemy of all major powers.

Over the long years, he acted eccentrically and recklessly. Every time he appeared, he would stir up a bloodbath. Wherever he went, life was ravaged. All the major powers hated him to the bone and wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.

However, the Lord of the Northern Prison is not only powerful and unpredictable, but also possesses a top-tier palace-type treasure. With this treasure, he has successfully escaped from the clutches of powerful enemies on numerous occasions, leaving everyone helpless.

Last time on the Primordial Star, even the renowned Blood Chisel Lord of the Demon Clan personally took action but failed to kill him, and could only watch helplessly as he swaggered away.

Therefore, the Lord of the Northern Prison has become synonymous with danger and terror.

Logically speaking, the Lord of the Northern Prison had not offended the human race much before, and his appearance should not have attracted much attention from the human alliance.

However, on the original star, the current Void Blade Master of the Hong Alliance was targeted by him, and even the founder of the Giant Axe had a conflict with him.

No one could predict whether the Lord of the Northern Prison would hold a grudge and seek revenge.

More importantly, as Ling Xuan's wife, Leng Yanqiu naturally knew that the Master of the Void Blade was actually an avatar of Ling Xuan.

Intelligence indicates that the Lord of the Northern Prison has appeared in the territory of a powerful clan called the "Lingxi Clan" within the Northern Frontier Alliance.

The Lingxi Clan possesses an innate and keen perception of the laws of the universe. The clan boasts numerous powerful individuals, with the strongest being the "Lord of Lingxi," a cosmic ruler whose strength is merely at the second tier.

For some unknown reason, the Lord of the Northern Prison started fighting with Lingxi.

The battle was fierce and the sky darkened.

This battle completely changed the understanding of the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros and the Lord of the Northern Prison among the major forces in the universe.

Prior to this, this Lord of the Universe of the Lingxi Clan was always regarded as "mediocre," with his combat strength rating remaining in the lower middle of the second-tier Universe Lords. But who would have thought that, facing the renowned and ruthless Lord of the Northern Prison, he could fight to a standstill, even forcing the Lord of the Northern Prison to retreat step by step in some local clashes, creating a situation that was hard to break.

Although the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros gradually fell into a disadvantageous position as the battle continued, the Northern Frontier Alliance reacted extremely quickly.

The three cosmic rulers set off from various parts of their territories and quickly arrived at the battlefield, forming an encirclement.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the "Prison Master of the North" dared not continue the fight.

They teleported away instantly, not daring to linger for even a moment.

At this moment, he was being relentlessly pursued by the three Universe Lords of the Northern Frontier Alliance.

Seemingly in a panic, the Northern Prison Lord's escape route extended towards the human territory.

Judging from this trend, if no one stops him, he will soon break into human territory.

"The Lord of the Northern Prison?" Ling Xuan's fingertip swept across the virtual screen as he looked at the battle footage between the Lord of the Northern Prison and the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros in the intelligence report, as well as the escape coordinates that were constantly approaching the human race's territory. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

His fingertip hovered over the combat power analysis report of the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros, and he couldn't help but chuckle, "The Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros is only a second-tier Universe Lord, he shouldn't have such combat power, right? He can actually fight the Lord of the Northern Prison head-on?"

Leng Yanqiu stood to the side, lightly tapping the screen with his fingertip, and brought up two encrypted intelligence reports: "The real-time monitoring data of the virtual universe, plus the on-site records sent back by our human race's spies planted in the Northern Frontier Alliance, are undoubtedly true."

As she spoke, she looked up at Ling Xuan, her tone tinged with a hint of probing: "Last time on the Primordial Star, he targeted your Zhouheng clone. Now that we've caught him, do you want to take revenge?"

"Never mind." Ling Xuan shook his head first, then tapped his fingertips lightly on the armrest of the throne, as if he was thinking.

But in an instant, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he nodded sharply: "No, this is a good opportunity to settle the score from last time."

"I will send the Nine Nether clone to the celestial realm." When Zhou Heng broke through to the level of the Lord of the Universe, he sent the little Nine Nether clone back. Having mastered a sixth-order secret technique and possessing no precious treasures, Zhou Heng no longer needed the Nine Nether clone to replenish his divine power.

Moreover, although the gene multiplier of Little Nine Netherworld's clone was a bit lower, it still possessed a thousand times the gene multiplier.

The Supreme Emperor with a thousand times the genetic power was already capable of unleashing top-tier sixth-order combat strength in the primordial universe.

Upon hearing this, Leng Yanqiu glanced at Ling Xuan with a puzzled expression.

My husband is acting strange today. He just said it was okay, but then he seems to be interested in the Lord of the Northern Prison again.

Although she had some doubts, she didn't ask any more questions and simply nodded.

……

The Nine Netherworld Avatar located within the Lingxuan Divine Kingdom immediately split off a smaller Nine Netherworld Avatar, which set off towards the direction where the Lord of the Northern Prison had fled.

He first used the divine kingdom to teleport to the nearest location of the divine power token, and then teleported continuously toward his destination, leaving only fleeting trails in the starry sky.

"Hahaha, what Northern Prison Master? He's clearly just that good-for-nothing Cao Benqi in disguise." Ling Xuan laughed heartily.

He had witnessed the strength of the Northern Prison Master whom the Mountain-Sitting Guest had impersonated back then.

Back then, Zhou Heng's clone barely managed to withstand the opponent's attack thanks to the Void Mirror.

Furthermore, it was able to easily escape from the pursuit of at least ten powerful universe lords in an environment like the Primordial Star.

How could such a powerful being be unable to subdue a mere Spirit Rhinoceros Lord?

Moreover, this "Lord of the Northern Prison" is already in such a sorry state, being hunted down by three universe lords, that his weaknesses are far too obvious.

It just so happens that Cao Benqi recently broke through to become a Universe Venerable.

Because of Ling Xuan, the human race obtained a lot of the blood of the Fire Sky Beast God. Cao Benqi used these resources to successfully reach the level of perfect genes and was also bestowed with the strongest talent secret technique by the Primordial Universe. Now, at the level of Universe Venerable, he can rival ordinary Universe Lords.

In this way, he could be considered to have met the requirements of the Mountain Hermit and was qualified to inherit the identity of the Lord of the Northern Prison.

The true identity of the Mountain-Sitting Guest is actually a god-king who escaped from the Origin Continent.

Back then, he was being hunted down by his opponents on the Origin Continent, and had no choice but to flee to the Cosmic Sea.

To avoid being wiped out by the original universe, he chose to be reincarnated in the original universe.

His purpose in coming to the Cosmic Sea was to cultivate a God-King level expert to help him go back and take revenge.

It's important to understand that if you want to become a God-King, or even just the strongest being in the universe, there's no point in just arduous cultivation.

The reason why the Mountain-Sitting Guest created the identity of the Lord of the Northern Prison was so that his disciples would not have to worry about the power or clan behind them when fighting, and could fight without restraint.

If Cao Benqi wants to get more resources from Zuoshanke, he needs to kill ten top universe overlords or one universe lord at the Universe Venerable stage.

This time, the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros was the "easy target" chosen by Cao Benqi. He wanted to prove that he was strong enough, and because of his arrogant personality, he chose to attack the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros, who was a master of the universe. However, he did not expect that the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros was far stronger than expected. Not only did he fail, but he also ended up being hunted down.

Previously, Ling Xuan was busy with cultivation and neglected Cao Benqi, this traitor; by the time he had time to pay attention to him, Cao Benqi had already gained a foothold within the human race and achieved a certain status.

In this situation, killing Cao Benqi without any reason would obviously be detrimental to ethnic unity.

But things are different now. Cao Benqi has taken the initiative to impersonate the Lord of the Northern Prison, a public enemy of the universe, and is even fleeing towards the human territory. Now that Emperor Yan has taken action to "act on behalf of Heaven," surely no one will complain about him?

"Cao Benqi, Cao Benqi, you are really cute."

In the starry sky outside the human territory, the "Lord of the Northern Prison" was being chased and made to look disheveled by the three cosmic lords of the Northern Frontier Alliance.

He frantically teleported through the starry sky, changing directions more and more frequently, completely losing the composure that the "Lord of the Northern Prison" should have had.

The three cosmic lords behind him relentlessly pursued him, unleashing a barrage of attacks around him. The exploding energy forced him to dodge hastily, even disrupting his escape route.

"Lord of the Northern Prison! Run! Why don't you run faster?" A man behind him laughed heartily, his tone full of smug satisfaction. "Weren't you so powerful before? Killing this and annihilating that, why are you like a stray dog ​​today, just hiding?"

Another person chimed in, his voice dripping with mockery: "That's right! Who used to avoid you like the plague? Now look at you, chased by the three of us so badly you don't even dare to turn your head. If word gets out, how will you ever be able to stand up in the universe again!"

Another person deliberately slowed down, trailing behind to mock: "You've done so many evil deeds, and now you've ended up like this, don't you feel especially wronged? Too bad, no one will help you, everyone is waiting to see you die!"

As the "Lord of the Northern Prison" desperately fled forward, he cursed these people in his heart: "A bunch of ignorant fools who have never seen the world! They're so smug because they only gained a little advantage temporarily! When I break through to become the Lord of the Universe, I will make them pay for this one by one."

Thinking of the Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros, he couldn't help but complain about his luck again: "Damn Lord of the Spirit Rhinoceros, why didn't you just obediently accept your death! Why did you resist, you wretched fellow!"

She then turned her grievances to Ling Xuan: "Damn Ling Xuan, if it weren't for you, how could Master Zuoshanke have set such outrageous requirements for me? I've only just broken through to the Universe Venerable! You even stole my title and controlled the resources of the Giant Axe Arena so tightly that even that damned woman, Venerable Qianyue, dared to boss me around!"

Finally, even the Mountain Guest couldn't escape his complaints: "The teacher is unfair! My talent is so good, why didn't he give me more resources earlier so I could become stronger sooner! He had to set this ridiculous rule of killing the Lord of the Universe. Isn't this deliberately making things difficult for me? If I had enough resources, I would have surpassed Ling Xuan long ago. Why would I be being chased by these guys?"

The taunts behind him continued: "Let me tell you, even if you escape into the human territory today, it won't do you any good. If Emperor Yan knew that the Lord of the Northern Prison dared to enter the human territory, he would definitely kill you first!"

Cao Benqi gritted his teeth, his anger and resentment rising like a volcano: "Just you wait! Once I become the strongest in the universe, none of you will have an easy time! Ling Xuan, Teacher Zuoshanke, and this damn universe... Sooner or later, I will make everyone revolve around me, and no one will dare to point fingers at me again!"

Cao Benqi was still cursing in his heart, but he dared not stop teleporting. He hoped that he could rush into the human territory as soon as possible, even if he could temporarily use the human race's power to block the pursuers behind him.

Just as he was about to reach the border of the human race's territory, an indescribable imperial might suddenly emanated from the starry sky diagonally in front of him.

The imperial aura was so dense it was almost tangible. There was no violent energy surge, but it carried a sense of oppression that looked down upon all living beings, as if the entire starry sky had become the territory of this aura.

Cao Benqi's teleportation, which he was about to activate, suddenly stopped. He could even feel that the surrounding space and time had become stagnant under this imperial might—the originally flowing starlight slowed down its flickering rhythm, the attacks launched by the pursuers behind him were suspended in mid-air, and even the circulation of divine power in his body became sluggish.

"Who?!" Cao Benqi's heart tightened, and he looked up sharply.

In the starry sky diagonally in front of them, a black figure slowly solidified.

The figure was dressed in pure black, surrounded by a faint, eerie, and evil aura. Although it did not release any external energy, it instilled in Cao Benqi a sense of fear as if he were facing the abyss of the universe.

What alarmed him even more was the imperial aura emanating from this figure, which carried an undeniable power of control. He was clearly the Flame Emperor who had been presiding over the Giant Axe Arena for hundreds of epochs.

(End of this chapter)