Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

This person was over six meters tall and incredibly muscular. He wore a metal helmet with thorns on it that covered his whole head, revealing only a pair of beast-like eyes.

His shoulders, waist, knees, and elbows were protected by specialized plating, while spiked gloves covered his hands and deadly blades protruded from the backs of his metal boots. He was a titan fully equipped to his teeth. Just his appearance alone was enough to frighten people.

Adding to his ominous appearance, black viper-like threads coiled around his entire body, pulsing with an eerie life of their own.

“What a powerful Blood Qi. Is this really someone from the Devil Eye Water Lily race?” Long Chen asked, baffled.

This warrior exuded the raw power of a wild beast rather than a tree demon. His Blood Qi surged like a volcano on the brink of eruption—a terrifying force far surpassing Lan Yin’s. Yet, what truly shocked Long Chen was the man’s origins.

Upon stepping on the martial stage, the giant man shouted, “The Devil Eye Water Lily race’s Power King Aguta is here for pointers!”

His voice was like a powerful bell spreading in the air, loud enough to shake the martial stage.

The expressions of the Undying Willows changed when they heard his voice. Just how was his Blood Qi so terrifying?

The elegant woman from the Undying race studied Aguta carefully before speaking. “So the Devil Eye Water Lily race mated with the savage blood demons… Not only have you preserved the Devil Eye Water Lily’s devil runes, but you’ve also inherited the savage bloodline’s raw might. The fusion of the two breeds immense power… No wonder you’re so confident.”

“The Devil Eye Water Lily race is willing to mix their pure blood with others?!”

“Are they mad? Once a tree demon fuses with another species, its bloodline and will are forever suppressed! Do they not realize they’re ultimately becoming something else?”

Murmurs of shock spread through the Undying Willow race’s ranks. After all, this kind of hybrid species actually didn’t even exist before the Nine Star Master was born.

It was the Nine Star Master who altered the fundamental laws of cultivation, forcing most races to transcend the Human Emperor realm by adopting human form. But in doing so, they were inevitably influenced by human emotions. This shift also broke the reproductive barriers between species, setting off a chain reaction across the ten thousand races.

This result frightened countless races. To protect their pure bloodlines, many major races forbade interspecies unions, especially the birth of their hybrid offspring. Yet, without cultivating human form, reaching greater heights of power was impossible. And once they did cultivate it, human emotions took root within them.

Then, they started to develop a particular human trait—curiosity…

Although all the major races opposed hybrids, they couldn’t suppress their curiosity about what kind of “product” such unions would create.

That curiosity led to the birth of countless hybrid species. Of course, beyond curiosity and desire, there was another force that drove these unions. It was love.

As hybrid races emerged, some displayed the ability to wield the strengths of both bloodlines, becoming even more formidable. Some races thrived through these mergers, while others were ultimately erased from existence.

Long Chen was familiar with the mixed beast race, a product of that era. However, as time passed, the powerful and prideful races came to detest these mixed-blood hybrids. They refused to allow their bloodlines to be tainted.

Any love that crossed racial boundaries was met with ruthless annihilation. Yet, even such brutal deterrents were not enough. The Human Emperor realm acted like a poison spreading through the ten thousand races—inescapable, even for those who knew its dangers.

The emotions of the human race caused these creatures to lose control of themselves, leading to the gradual acceptance of hybrid offspring.

Even so, such unions were only grudgingly tolerated when they occurred between races of similar lineage—such as different Undying clans or other vegetative species. That was the limit of their tolerance.

A merger between a vegetative race and a demonic beast race, however, was out of the question. For hybrids to be accepted, both bloodlines had to be equal. But in such a union, the power of the vegetative race would inevitably be subdued and tamed, serving merely as a supportive force to the dominant demonic beast bloodline.

To the vegetative race, this was not a fusion—it was subjugation. A violation of their lineage and an unforgivable betrayal.

For that reason, no union between the vegetative race and flesh-and-blood species could be allowed.

Upon learning Aguta’s origins, the Undying Willow race’s experts were both shocked and outraged. The Devil Eye Water Lily race had not only broken a fundamental law of their species but had also disgraced their entire lineage.

“The times have changed, and so have the Heavenly Daos. If we cling to outdated traditions instead of evolving, we will be the ones erased,” Aguta sneered. “The Devil Eye Water Lily race refuses to fade into history, so we strive for strength. I, Power King Aguta, am just one of millions. Our hybrid army is far beyond your imagination. And yet, you still posture with arrogance and disdain. How laughable.”

The beautiful woman’s expression flickered at the mention of a hybrid army. If they truly had such numbers, it meant the Devil Eye Water Lily race had been creating these hybrids for an exceptionally long time. They had likely crossbred with many species to have such numbers.

Although the shift in the Heavenly Daos had removed the reproductive barriers between species, interbreeding was still incredibly difficult, at least thousands of times harder than normal.

If the Devil Eye Water Lily race really did have that many hybrid experts, then through extrapolation, they must have begun their experiments as far back as the primal chaos era.

The Devil Eye Water Lily race’s ambitions truly were staggering, their boldness even more so. Did they not fear their own bloodline being diluted or lost? Or had they discovered some method to control these hybrid lifeforms?

Suddenly, Aguta produced a vajra scepter—thick at the top and narrowing toward the bottom. A third of the way up, it widened to the size of a barrel. With a casual tap against the stage, it left a gaping hole in the stone floor.

This scene caused countless experts to gasp. The might in that casual tap was terrifying.

“What’s the matter? Is the Undying race too afraid? Does no one dare to fight?” Aguta taunted, his voice dripping with contempt as he swept his gaze across the crowd.

“Let me—”

Huai Yushan stepped forward, but before she could move, Long Chen’s voice sounded in her ear.

“Don’t move. You’ll be the third bout.”