Chapter 1831: Secret of the Warden

Translator: La009

Sha… sha… sha…

Demon Dragon was walking by himself along a narrow path with bottomless cliffs on both sides.

Numerous runes flickered on and off in the void of space, taking one careless step could mean touching any of them, and the consequences—-

Even with his vast experience Demon Dragon couldn’t let his guard down in this place in the slightest.

He judged his direction, then suddenly paused and took a step towards the bottomless empty space to his left.

Instantly, a new path appeared out of thin air while the path that he was following up to this point vanished without a trace.

“The Hall Master once said that the Devil King Warden Rod was a very unique Divine Artifact- I suspect that she was referring to how dangerous it would be for anyone to obtain it due to its lack of an artifact spirit—– so it had to be stored separately” Demon Dragon explained.

“If it has no artifact spirit, how is the scepter’s seal supposed to be undone?” a butterfly on his shoulder asked.

“I’m not sure- you think I frequently get to enter vaults of this level or something?” Demon Dragon answered.

He continued forward, then suddenly shifted his body and took a step to the empty space on his right.

His surroundings vanished again.

Another path appeared once again in front of him, hanging by itself over the bottomless cliff that led towards a gloomy mass of fog.

As Demon Dragon stepped onto the path, everything behind him vanished like an illusion, disappearing into the fog.

“In this place, we can only move forward without looking back, otherwise, we’d be completely annihilated by the 90 million unique lock seal mechanisms” Demon Dragon explained.

“Then we should hold off on chatting for now and focus” the butterfly replied.

Demon Dragon smirked and replied in a whisper: “I’m not stupid, even if I get stunned, I won’t take even half a step backwards”

He swiftly made his way forward and arrived at the end of the path.

This was a dead end.

Demon Dragon then took out a talisman badge and gently placed it against the wall.

Rumble—–

The wall began to split apart to reveal the secret room inside.

Inside the room, there was a single platform with nothing but a scepter silently hovering atop of it.

This scepter was jet-black, adorned with a one-horned skull on top, which was constantly radiating a dark mist with an interweaving red glow.

It was an eerie scepter in every meaning of the word.

–the Devil King Warden Rod!

“I heard that to wield this scepter, one must possess at least 100 million points of Merit, an unthinkable amount for most”

Demon Dragon shook his head and continued: “I really can’t imagine why it would ask for so much Merit”

“I probably know why” the butterfly flew off his shoulder before transforming into a middle-aged man.

“What’s the reason then?” Demon Dragon asked.

Gu Qing Shan appeared reminiscent before explaining: “When I first learned of this scepter’s existence, I also came across a certain piece of intel. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it, but now that I think about it more carefully, I keep having the feeling that this scepter is hiding quite a few secrets”

“What intel was that?” Demon Dragon was curious.

“Initially, there were only 9 layers of Hell, it only became 18 layers later on” Gu Qing Shan replied.

“How can that be? ‘Hell’ is the underground portion of the Grand Tie Wei Mountain, how could it suddenly grow from 9 layers to 18?” Demon Dragon confusedly muttered.

“Apparently it was after a certain war between the Heaven realm and Huang Quan realm. In the end, the Devil King of Huang Quan was killed; and because the Devil King Warden Rod was so powerful, it drew the ire of the Heaven realm, resulting in its artifact spirit being erased as well” Gu Qing Shan explained.

Demon Dragon appeared shocked, then doubtfully said: “Where did you learn of such a hidden detail? Could someone have tried to deceive you?”

Gu Qing Shan thought about it and sincerely answered: “The one that told me about this was a Divine Artifact of Huang Quan called the Forgetting River Soul Flaying Hook. It claimed to know all there is to know about Huang Quan, while my goal at the time was to save Huang Quan, so it most likely wouldn’t have tried to deceive me”

“A Divine Artifact told you?”

“That’s right”

“Artifact spirits normally wouldn’t lie, especially one that belonged to a world that values Merit like Huang Quan. Then it seems Hell once indeed only had 9 layers”

“In other words…”

Gu Qing Shan muttered: “That was an occurrence from the previous Clash”

The two of them both turned towards the Devil King Warden Rod without saying anything else.

After an uncountably long period of time, this scepter was about to emerge from its slumber once more; the two of them felt like they were practically able to see the fog of deceit and mysteries hidden in the Samsara’s past, as well as the storm that was about to arrive.

“I only heard that not a single generation of Devil King had ever gotten a peaceful end” Demon Dragon commented.

“Perhaps something truly was wary of the scepter, but I suspect that it wasn’t the Heavenly beings of the Heaven realm” Gu Qing Shan commented.

“Why?”

“The Heavenly beings of the past have all been murdered or died off already, only a single Heavenly Immortal clan still persist to this day—–

Gu Qing Shan stepped onto the platform and reached his hand towards the scepter.

Oong!

The Devil King Warden Rod suddenly let out a long whistling noise, as if it was instinctively trying to confirm something.

A black shining sun manifested behind Gu Qing Shan.

-this was the visual manifestation of his Merit as a Virtuous Deity of Huang Quan!

Several lines of bloody red text appeared: [Your Merit is sufficient to wield this scepter]

[Attention, this scepter doesn’t have an artifact spirit, so grasping it will be the same as awakening it]

[As soon as the Devil King’s Rod is awoken, it will immediately enter the 18 layers of Hell]

[The competition to become the Devil King is about to re-initiate!]

Scanning through these words, Gu Qing Shan spread his fingers out and grasped the scepter resolutely!

A boundless mass of dark fog immediately spewed forth from within the scepter.

The eye sockets of the one-horned skull began to radiate a thick bloody red glow.

“Go forthhead towards Hell, I will wait for you there!”

Instantly, the Devil King Warden Rod vanished from his grasp, together with all the supernatural phenomena it manifested.

The secret room swiftly became calm again.

“Has it gone to Hell?” Demon Dragon asked.

“Yeah, I need to quickly head there to compete for the Huang Quan Devil King position again” Gu Qing Shan replied.

“Let’s go!”

As the two of them were about to set out, several Deities descended from above onto the small path.

“Leng Qian Chen, you impudent wretch!”

“You dare lead someone to take the Devil King Warden Rod on your own? Surrender yourself this instant!”

The Deities shouted.

Demon Dragon quickly retreated behind Gu Qing Shan and said: “Buy me a couple of seconds”

Gu Qing Shan immediately stepped forward and shouted back towards the Deities: “What is it? Brother Qian Chen came here to retrieve the Divine Artifact on the orders of his mother-in-law, what are you all getting rowdy for?”

The leader Deity scoffed: “Bullshit! The Hall Master has already given the orders to kill anyone and everyone who comes to this place!”

Gu Qing Shan glared back at him and said: “You’re the one bullshitting- I ask you, are you close with the Hall Master or is brother Qian Chen close with the Hall Master? Does the Hall Master support you more? Or do they support their son-in-law more? Now that Huang Quan is in utter disarray, would the Hall Master care more about their daughter and son-in-law, or about that stupid order they gave you however long ago?”

Everyone couldn’t help but exchange glances.

That… makes sense…

Would we really have the guts to kill the Hall Master’s son -in-law?

What if they really did come here on a secret order by the Hall Master?

The leader Deity opened his mouth, but couldn’t muster an answer.

While standing behind Gu Qing Shan, Demon Dragon spoke: “In reality, ever since I entered Huang Quan, I’ve been thinking about why I lost”

“Oh?” Gu Qing Shan responded.

“In battle, I noticed that you always have a lightning technique or two for restraints but I don’t; so I’ve been studiously practicing some of them, only now did I become somewhat accomplished with them” Demon Dragon explained.

“What kind of lightning technique did you practice?” Gu Qing Shan asked with intrigue.

“For example- – – we can go now” Demon Dragon replied.

Gu Qing Shan turned forward again.

The group of Deities were now standing absolutely still, their bodies apparently paralyzed and unable to move a muscle.

“Leng Qian Chen, you really were a spy!” the leader Deity shouted.

Demon Dragon glanced at him and curtly said: “I know that you all look down on me, thinking that I only obtained my position thanks to my wife. Because of that, all of you always act respectful while secretly plotting every way you can to ruin my work, thus exposing me for being useless”

He patted Gu Qing Shan’s shoulder and continued: “I’ve not had it easy these few years, but it’s a good thing that I don’t have to endure it anymore—-let’s go”

Gu Qing Shan looked at the group of Deities again.

At this point, they were already unable to even speak anymore.

—–that’s quite a technique from Demon Dragon, all it took was him hiding behind me for a few seconds and I couldn’t even see how he restrained those people.

Gu Qing Shan asked: “You’re just going to leave them here? Not worried about them reporting on you?”

“Don’t be in such a hurry, the lightning is already on its way to strike them” Demon Dragon replied.

As soon as he said that——

Several balls of lightning emerged from the void of space and instantly fused together, manifesting a large electrical sphere that fully enveloped the group of Deities.

“This lightning can only restrain, but not damage, so I can take my revenge by my own hands…”

Demon Dragon walked forward step by step.

He rolled up his sleeves and touched the perimeter of the large electrical sphere with a single finger, then gently pushed.

The sphere immediately began to roll off the bottomless cliff on the side of the path, together with the group of Deities inside it..