Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

“I knew it.”

Long Chen rolled his eyes and cursed himself for being foolish. This thing was located right by the entrance, so how could such a good thing wind up in his hands when he was so late?

The greater demon who had just grabbed the bead let out a roar and severed his own arm. His face turned pale as paper, and with clenched teeth, he vanished.

The other contender froze in place, clearly relieved he had been one step slower. If not, he would’ve been the one cutting off an arm. But it wasn’t just the limb—the greater demon’s aura had clearly plummeted. There had to be something off about the bead.

The other cultivator glanced at Long Chen. For a moment, it looked like he would attack. But in the end, he held back with a cold snort before vanishing as well.

“It seems that even three-hundred-flame divine sprouts don’t have the courage to challenge me. Hehe, I have some reputation now,” chuckled Long Chen.

Everyone had seen him wield the Earth Cauldron. For someone to resist their greed despite that was proof they had at least some sense of self-preservation.

Now that the two were gone, Long Chen walked back to the nirvanic bead. He extended his hand, covering his palm in flame energy.

When he grabbed the bead, black qi surged forth again. However, it was instantly blocked by his flames. Long Chen pulled, seeing if he could take it. But it didn’t budge.

The next moment, the island started shaking.

As Long Chen pulled, an image appeared in his mind. Inside this sea of flames were countless islands scattered like stars across the sky—tens of thousands of them. Every single one of them had a nirvanic bead floating in them.

Viewed from above, if these beads were all connected, it would shockingly form the image of a divine bird.

“These tens of thousands of nirvanic beads are all connected in a magical formation. Touching one affects all. Even if Xia Chen were here, I doubt he could crack this,” Long Chen sighed.

No wonder no one had succeeded in taking a bead before now.

Now that this map had appeared in Long Chen’s mind, he saw a particularly large island where the divine bird’s heart would be. A powerful pressure radiated from it.

“That should be everyone’s target!”

With a flash, Long Chen shot away from the island, heading toward the heart.

He soared through the sea of flames, lava churning below. As he passed over a particularly volatile stretch, Huo Linger suddenly warned him.

“Big Brother Long Chen, there’s a strange lifeform beneath the lava. They’re strong—and there are a lot of them.”

“Can you tell what they are?” Long Chen asked.

“Not exactly. You could use your spiritual perception, but they’d probably sense it,” she replied.

Long Chen nodded, but he wasn’t too worried. Any creature that lived in lava was bound to be fire-aligned. As long as that was the case, he had nothing to fear.

Besides, with so many divine birds entering this realm, those lifeforms wouldn’t be focusing on him alone. Even if they were troublesome, he wouldn’t need to worry.

Now that Long Chen no longer needed to worry about being expelled from his realm, he was in no rush. He knew his own luck—anything dependent on fortune alone was bound to betray him.

But while he might not be great at finding treasures, he excelled at taking them. It would be quite nice to swoop in and take the prize while everyone else was fighting.

With Huo Linger’s help, Long Chen concealed his aura. In this world of flames, such stealth was easy for her.

Soon, a flame battle robe appeared on top of Long Chen, along with a pair of long flame wings. As flame runes flowed atop those wings, he merged into the fiery surroundings, almost invisible.

As long as he remained still, even the strongest experts would have trouble detecting him unless they were right next to him.

Then, Long Chen silently snuck his way toward the core of this world.

Huo Linger’s power was astonishing. Along the way, he encountered multiple experts, but none of them noticed him.

However, as he drew closer, the number of experts increased sharply, and Long Chen couldn’t help but curse.

“That damned demonic bird really was useless. He was probably afraid someone else would take the treasure and leave no one behind to kill me.”

He soon spotted over a hundred divine sprouts, each with three hundred Sovereign flames. There were even some whose auras rivaled Di Mengyao’s.

Whether they came from the nine heavens or the other world, they were all vigilant. As they had to keep an eye on everyone else, they didn’t immediately start fighting.

Clearly, the Primal Chaos Vermilion Bird’s remains were important enough for even sworn enemies to set aside their grudges—for now.

Long Chen examined the crowd. All the other-world cultivators radiated a unique, dark aura—completely different from the nine heavens experts. They were easy to distinguish.

One figure in particular caught his attention: a devil race expert with golden wings. The devil qi he emitted was vastly different from the devil cultivators of the nine heavens.

Their auras were darker, colder. There was no way to conceal it.

“Wait a minute... this aura feels familiar...”

Long Chen froze. He had just sensed something that stirred his memory.

Someone was hiding their aura. But thanks to the hyper-sensitive senses of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, Long Chen caught a glimpse of it.

To run into someone familiar in a place like this... Long Chen immediately felt the urge to track them down.

But the problem was the sheer number of experts gathering ahead.𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

That was when he saw it—the giant island.

Looking from the sky, Long Chen felt his heart sink.

That wasn’t an island... it was a corpse.

A divine bird lay there, still emitting flames, and its feathers shimmered with divine light. It had been nailed to the earth by a heavenly pillar.

Long Chen’s pupils shrank at the sight of that pillar.

“This aura...”

The moment he laid eyes on the pillar, his seven-colored Supreme Blood surged violently. He had to suppress it at once to avoid revealing his position.

“That has to be the corpse of the legendary Primal Chaos Vermilion Bird. And that pillar... it’s the divine weapon that killed it. But why is my blood reacting to it? Could this weapon be connected to the Jiuli bloodline?” Long Chen wondered.

His seven-colored Supreme Blood originated from the Jiuli race. Could that pillar belong to them?

Just then, a majestic voice boomed across the world.

“This Primal Chaos Vermilion Bird is mine. I, Kun Wufa, will slay anyone who stands in my way!”

A group of experts appeared in the sky. Their leader wore golden robes and a golden crown. With every blink, golden runes flowed through his eyes. The world was instantly filled with golden light.

“That’s Kun Wufa?”

Long Chen narrowed his eyes, watching the incomparably arrogant figure descend like a sovereign king.