Chapter 1562 - 452: Taichu Master, Golden-winged Roc, Empress

Just as Zhou Qing was calculating silently, the ground suddenly shook violently.

"Gululu——"

Accompanied by the eerie sound of mucus churning, a demon beast covered in foul-smelling slime, with its surface not completely solidified, burst through the earth.

It resembled a lizard but had six legs, and its newly formed scale armor glistened with a moist sheen, yet the aura it emitted was astonishingly at the Divinity Transformation Realm Perfection!

Almost simultaneously, a sharp screech pierced the sky.

A giant eagle with a wingspan of nearly ten zhang tore through the clouds and dove down, its feathers shining with a metallic luster, its talons like cast gold, stirring up gusts of wind upon landing.

The purple-robed Demon Emperor opened his eyes and casually pointed to two vacant spots.

The two newly arrived demon beasts immediately bowed their heads obediently and crawled to the designated positions.

This scene sent a shock through Zhou Qing’s heart—his speculation was indeed correct!

There must be some mysterious place within this Secret Realm capable of mass-producing demon beasts of Divinity Transformation Realm Perfection.

And their gathering here was clearly in anticipation of a second evolution...

"If this is truly the case..." Zhou Qing’s breath hitched slightly.

If even ordinary demon beasts can be nurtured, then might the legendary Golden-winged Roc also be incubating?

This might be the reason they mistook him for something else!

At this thought, Zhou Qing’s heart rate suddenly accelerated.

If the real Golden-winged Roc emerged, wouldn’t his impostor identity be exposed on the spot?

Even more terrifying—

His gaze swept over the dense horde of demon beasts behind him, then toward the inverted mountain, and he felt a chill in his heart.

If all these demon beasts evolved into Demon Emperors, who in the entire Holy Martial Dynasty could stop them?

Years ago, when he, Lu Yaoyao, and his second elder sister fled the Secret Realm, three Demon Emperors awakened here shortly after.

Just these three alone devoured over a dozen top sects in the Southwest Two Domains of the Vast Mansion, turning over a thousand Mortal Cities into scorched earth in just a few days.

If not for Xuanyuan Shuo rallying several Late-stage Spirit Severing Realm cultivators to jointly counterattack and a bloody battle lasting several months to slay the beasts, the disaster might have continued spreading...

And now, if these more than forty demon beasts of Divinity Transformation Perfection all successfully evolve...

The entire Holy Martial Dynasty would undoubtedly become a hunting ground for the demon beasts, with billions of living beings becoming their blood food!

With this thought, killing intent surged in Zhou Qing’s eyes.

Though there was no one he cared for here anymore, this place was ultimately his birthplace and homeland.

He might disdain it for all its faults, but he would never allow outsiders to encroach upon it!

"You, go in——"

At that moment, the purple-robed Demon Emperor of the late-stage Spirit Severing Realm suddenly opened his eyes, raising his hand to directly point at Zhou Qing, standing at the very front, then gestured toward the inverted mountain behind.

Zhou Qing quickly concealed his killing intent, his eyes suddenly brightening.

It seemed that being at the front of the line indeed had its advantages.

In that case, I won’t stand on ceremony!

Then, Zhou Qing, in the form of a Golden-winged Roc, suddenly flapped his wings and soared towards the inverted mountain.

As he drew closer, he saw that the mountain’s surface was riddled with countless holes, crisscrossed like a honeycomb.

Each hole emitted an eerie blood-colored glow, with a network of tiny blood vessel-like patterns faintly visible, pulsating within the mountain body.

This was completely unlike the suspended mountains he had seen in the past.

As he passed through the external layer of the blood-colored light curtain, an overwhelming stench of blood assaulted him, nearly causing him to retch.

Forcing himself to endure the discomfort and press on, the scene before him made his eyes narrow slightly.

The interior of the mountain was actually a massive spherical space, with a blood pool several hundred zhang in diameter suspended in the center.

The pool did not contain ordinary blood, but a viscous liquid with a rainbow-hued sheen.

The continuously rising and bursting bubbles on the surface revealed distorted phantom images of demon beasts, struggling and howling.

Twelve blood-colored platforms hovered around the pool, each with a demon beast of Divinity Transformation Perfection lying upon it.

They were bound by blood-colored chains, their bodies pierced with transparent tubes continuously funneling some form of essence toward the central blood pool.

The most horrifying sight was a golden skeleton, incomplete and floating above the blood pool, its silhouette resembling some kind of avian creature.

A seven-colored crystalline heart hovered at its heart position, throbbing with an eerie rhythm.

Each pulsation caused the entire space within the mountain to tremble.

The transparent tubes inserted into the demon beasts writhed and contracted in response, as if cooperating with the heartbeat’s frequency to convey something.

This scene was eerily familiar, instantly reminding Zhou Qing of the black heart within the Taiqing Sect Grotto Heaven Forbidden Area years ago.

However, that heart had since fused into the old hen’s body and was continuously awakening.

Unfortunately, the Daily Reflection had already been used today, otherwise he could have appraised it.

"Wait, that is——"

His gaze fixated unexpectedly on the translucent silhouette beneath the skeletal frame.

It was the phantom of an ancient-looking middle-aged cultivator, but his head bore a pair of golden plumes, with the outline of drooping golden wings faintly visible on his back.

The most striking feature was a golden Dao Pattern on the phantom’s chest, shockingly resonating with his Emperor’s Brilliance Scripture.

The Dao Pattern emanated an ancient aura, seemingly containing the supreme secrets of the Golden-winged Roc clan.

"This..." Zhou Qing’s heart shook violently as he suddenly looked up again at the golden skeleton.

As he channeled the Emperor’s Brilliance Scripture, layers of golden halos emanated from the skeleton, with intricate, mysterious patterns surfacing across the bones.

"Is this a Golden-winged Roc’s skeleton?!" Zhou Qing’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The pressure emanating from this skeleton far exceeded that of the Old Peng King relics he had seen on Canglan Mountain.