Chapter 286 - Demon King Festival

Han Wu decided to use his final card not on the stronger units in his divine realm but on the ten Cockroaches—the Flesh Golems forever locked at the Heroic rank. He had created them long ago with extraordinary regenerative abilities, yet that gift came with a cost. They could never advance in rank, condemned to remain Heroics for eternity.

Han Wu had grown far stronger since their creation, and Heroic units no longer held any value for him. The Cockroaches had become little more than idle units in his divine realm, neither weak enough to discard nor strong enough to matter. Even a King life form couldn’t kill them, yet their combat prowess was pitiful. They were barely a match for a Lord life form when all ten fought together and utterly hopeless against a High Lord life form.

To Han Wu, the ten Cockroaches were like indestructible super soldiers. He had long since pushed them from his thoughts, yet the Epistian’s brain revealed their true value, and that was their regeneration.

Their ability to recover surpassed that of almost any known life form, making them nearly impossible to destroy. For that reason, he used the last card to seal the cells of all ten Cockroaches.

After using all fifteen cards, he had transformed into a real monster. Alpheus’ scales, claws, and wings covered his body. Steely’s four arms jutted from his torso. Hu Chi’s legs gave him a predatory stance. Dark Locust’s abdomen, the Crystal Lich’s skull, the Epistian’s brain, and the ten Cockroaches’ cells completed the grotesque fusion. He stared into the mirror and saw nothing of his former self.

Satisfied with his monstrous disguise, he activated the invitation. Light enveloped him, and in the next moment he stood in the Hell Civilization’s new training ground. As the glow faded, a barren wasteland stretched around him. The soil was yellow-grey, dry, and devoid of nutrients. Even the hardiest plants would wither here, yet strangely, the land teemed with animal-like life forms.

How do they survive when there are no plants here? What do they eat?

Han Wu wondered.

He soon discovered the answer. Their survival depended on the demons brought here by the invitation, who served as their food.

Han Wu was still scanning the barren landscape when a Hellhound lunged at him. He scoffed, caught the creature by the throat with his dragon claws, and crushed its flesh and bones with brutal force. Black blood splattered across the ground. The sight was revolting, and Han Wu hurled the carcass far from him.

The smell of torn flesh quickly drew the attention of other Hellhounds in the area. Not wanting to waste his strength, Han Wu spread his wings and took to the air. His priority was to leave this region and find a place to hide, somewhere he could assess the situation before making his next move.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

As he flew, he checked his data and saw a special interface appeared.

[Core Objective: Kill the other Demon Lords. Current Demon Lords: 103]

[The first Demon King Festival has commenced. Those who received the invitation are regarded as candidates. Candidates must kill each other during the festival. The last one standing will become the Demon King!]

Scrolling further, Han Wu saw his own data.

[Demon Lord: Han Wu

Demonic Origin: 1 (Can be used to enhance body parts.)

Slain Demon Lords: 0 (Can be used to enhance the quality of body parts.)

Enhance List: (Depending on rarity, body parts can be classified into White, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Red. Each quality has nine stages.)

Dragon Scales, Dragon Claws, Dragon Wings (Red, Stage 1: 0%)

Swordwind Arms (Purple, Stage 1: 0%)

Tigerman Legs (Purple, Stage 1: 0%)

Dark Locust Stomach (Orange, Stage 1: 0%)

Crystal Lich Skull (Orange, Stage 1: 0%)

Epistian Brain (Purple, Stage 1: 0%)

Cockroach Cells (Blue, Stage 1: 0%)]

Han Wu spent 1 Demonic Origin to strengthen the Blue Cockroach Cells. The improvement registered at only 0.01%. At that rate, advancing the Cockroach Cells from Stage 1 to Stage 2 would require a staggering 10,000 Demonic Origin.

This applied only to the Blue Cockroach Cells. He was certain that enhancing the Red Dragon Claws, Wings, and Scales would require even more.

“Damn,” he cursed. “I need to kill a lot of demons here to upgrade all of them.”

Before moving, he confirmed which powers he still possessed. Carefully examining his interface, he realized that the Hell Civilization severely restricted anyone from the Divine Civilization.

Almost all of his Divine Powers, Divine Aspects, and Divine Skills were blocked. Fortunately, the Hell Civilization remained too weak to suppress his Divine Talents. Han Wu still had access to two Divine Talents: the exclusive Chosen One and Defiance, the latter granted by Alpheus.

Thanks to Chosen One, he could still use part of the Divine Powers it provided—Sacrifice and Merge—allowing him to bypass the Hell Civilization’s restrictions.

Meanwhile, true to its name, Defiance outright rejected the Hell Civilization’s restrictions, enabling Han Wu to use the Defiance Aspect along with its five associated Divine Skills.

Though he couldn’t use anything beyond these, his fifteen powerful body parts remained at his disposal. Overall, his combat abilities stayed impressively strong. After confirming his capabilities, Han Wu set out to hunt demons. He needed vast amounts of Demonic Origin to boost his strength.

With his wings spread wide, he patrolled the skies until he spotted a large group of life forms gathering below. As he descended, they emerged from hiding, their eyes burning with animosity and bloodlust, ready to tear him apart at any moment.

Han Wu felt no fear. To him, these life forms were merely walking sources of Demonic Origin. He activated his Divine Skill: Defiant Sword and armed himself with four weapons across his arms.

His bottom right arm gripped the Defiant Sword, a greatsword that converted physical damage into magical damage and vice versa. The bottom left arm held the Soul Reaper, a scythe-like extension of the Defiant Sword. Beyond sharing its properties, it could transform into an immaterial form, allowing it to phase through most objects.

Each upper arm wielded a Soul Shaver, also extensions of the Defiant Sword. They retained its powers while delivering double damage with each strike. His dragon claws grasped the Soul Seeker, another extension that kept the Defiant Sword’s properties and possessed the explosive ability to launch three metal blades.

Han Wu infused energy into the Soul Seeker and hurled it forward. The swarm of Soul Seekers sliced through the life forms, ricocheted around, and detonated the metal blades outward. The shurikens alone eliminated every enemy before him, sparing him from using his other weapons.

From this single battle, he obtained 273 Demonic Origin. While it wasn’t enough to enhance any of his body parts, it boosted his confidence. He was already looking forward to becoming a Demon King here.