I am just a mortal, why do you all worship me as a saint?

Days passed by.

The festive atmosphere on the surface of Qinggu Shendu is getting stronger and stronger.

Golden banners symbolizing divine protection were hung in the streets and alleys, and the imperial palace distributed "blessing gifts" every day, making every doorway bustling with prosperity.

Many citizens of the divine kingdom sincerely believe that in seven days His Majesty the Divine King will bestow divine grace upon them, and the damage caused by the series of major upheavals that the Qinggu Divine Kingdom has previously experienced will be made up for.

Only a very few powerful individuals could perceive the undercurrents beneath the festive atmosphere.

They could feel a certain intuitive tension, but they had no idea why. After all, why would they be so nervous when such a joyous occasion was approaching?

Unless it's not a happy occasion at all.

But who can say for sure?

The divine kingdom and the divine ruler are interdependent, sharing both glory and ruin. It's impossible to say that the Azure Ancient Divine Ruler had ill intentions and planned to harm the entire Azure Ancient Divine Kingdom.

That guy might not be a good person, but he probably wouldn't do something to harm himself.

Even so.

Many people still chose to leave, knowing that their departure would not escape the notice of others.

But they chose to trust their gut feeling.

Gu Heng sat in the Imperial Preceptor's residence, waiting for that day to arrive.

Qin Yiyao spent most of her time at the Fortune Observation Platform, using the Divine Emperor Battle Formation as a guide to silently process the power she had gained. When she returned, she would occasionally exchange a few words with Gu Heng, but most of the time she would cultivate in silence.

In Gu Heng's view, the little girl was very focused.

It's a good thing.

After breaking through to the "Unique in All Realms", her aura became more and more profound each day.

But Su Jinxi has been unusually quiet these days.

She mostly remained in cat form, curled up on Gu Heng's lap or in the flower bushes, unlike her usual tendency to cling to him. Gu Heng initially thought she was depressed and didn't want to move much, but she showed signs of distress when she came on the evening of the third day.

Gu Heng was sitting at the stone table in the courtyard, trying to study several treasures in the Eternal Crystal Sphere whose origins and uses were still unclear.

Su Jinxi curled up on his lap, her originally snow-white fur gleaming with a faint golden-red luster under the sunlight.

He suddenly stopped moving because he felt an unusual heat on his leg.

"Jin tide?"

The cat did not respond.

He reached out and gently stroked her back, finding it slightly hot to the touch. Even more subtly, her breath carried a faint scent of blood, like condensed blood mist uncontrollably seeping from her mouth and nose.

"Jin tide!"

Gu Heng gently picked her up.

Su Jinxi then barely managed to open her eyes.

Those heterochromatic cat eyes were much dimmer now; the gold in the left eye and the azure in the right eye were both shrouded in a layer of gray mist, the pupils were unfocused and the focus was unstable.

"Brother Gu..."

Her voice was weak and almost inaudible, "So sleepy... There's something moving inside my body..."

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly convulsed.

Countless fine, dark red blood vessels burst forth from her hair!

Instead of gushing forth, they slowly emerge like plant roots, meandering and twisting in the air. They are not aggressive; on the contrary, they exude a strange "craving," spontaneously weaving some kind of structure.

Gu Heng's heart sank.

What's going on here?

Whether it was good or bad, he didn't know what to do. In just ten breaths, Su Jinxi's entire body was covered in blood.

Finally, in his eyes, it turned into a cocoon.

The blood cocoon was crystal clear. Through the outer wall, Gu Heng could see a cat curled up inside, looking like it was sleeping peacefully. With each breath, Gu Heng could feel a certain rhythm in the blood cocoon.

But this state definitely startled Gu Heng.

"Xi Tong!"

Although he hadn't contacted the system for a long time, his first instinct was still to seek answers from the system.

However, Gu Xitong had been out of contact with him for a long time, so he naturally did not receive a response. Therefore, Gu Heng could only try to call Gu Ce over.

"Imperial Advisor, I have urgent business to discuss with you!"

Gu Ce arrived as soon as he was told; a gust of wind blew by, and the Imperial Advisor appeared before Gu Heng.

It wasn't that he responded quickly, but rather that Gu Heng's voice sounded really urgent. Gu Ce wasn't sure what had happened to make this big shot so anxious, so he came immediately.

As soon as he arrived, his gaze immediately fell on the blood-red cocoon in Gu Heng's hand.

In Gu Ce's perception, the blood cocoon completely blocked all his detection!

Mr. Gu is in such a hurry, it must be because of this.

"Is this Mr. Gu's cat?"

"Does the Imperial Advisor know what's going on?"

Gu Heng asked hastily and urgently, "Has something bad happened to her?"

Gu Ce frowned, staring at the blood cocoon for a long time before slowly shaking his head: "I don't know. Such a regular way of forming a cocoon and sealing itself off, it seems like... it's about to transform."

He raised his hand and pressed down, a gentle force reaching towards the blood cocoon, but was violently repelled the moment it made contact!

The patterns on the cocoon wall lit up for a moment, radiating a desolate and ancient pressure that caused even the Grand Preceptor, a peak-level expert in the Concept Realm, to change color slightly.

Good guy!

This is extraordinary!

Although it appears eerie and bizarre, it also exudes the aura of a great artifact of civilization!

Gu Ce stared at the patterns for a long time, and a look of realization and solemnity gradually appeared in his eyes.

He withdrew his hand, pondered for a moment, and then looked at Gu Heng: "Mr. Gu, have you ever heard of the crazy idea that those alien races had before the Demon Race Civilization Alliance was established?"

Gu Heng shook his head.

Gu Ce was not surprised and continued, "That was at the end of a very distant era. At that time, the myriad worlds did not have such clear boundaries as they do now. Gods had only recently appeared. The various races of the demon race fought each other, yet they all longed for the birth of an era god that belonged to all the demon races."

"So the seventeen most powerful tribes joined forces and planned to use some forbidden secret method to try to give birth to a special supreme god of civilization. They took a drop of divine blood from their respective nascent supreme gods of civilization and sacrificed half of their tribe's people, and finally refined a 'seed'."

"seed?"

"Yes, a divine embryo that can theoretically give birth to the supreme ruler of the demon race."

Gu Ce's gaze returned to the blood cocoon, his eyes filled with complex emotions. "But later, I don't know what happened, the plan failed."

"That divine embryo never hatched, and even continued to lose its vitality until it became a dead thing."

Gu Heng's heart skipped a beat.

That demon god fetus has such a past.

Gu Ce clicked his tongue: "Back then, I was fortunate enough to witness firsthand the sacred object worshipped by the Demon Race Civilization Alliance. I heard about the old story back then."

"But this matter is extremely ancient, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false. Moreover, according to what I saw at the time, the so-called 'demon god fetus' was said to be a sacred object, but it was really ordinary and had no divine charm whatsoever, making it hard to believe."

Although the treasures of civilization are simple and unadorned, they can easily be seen as ordinary, but the strong can always see their value.

But no one could discern anything about that demonic embryo.

Although the Demon Race Civilization Alliance takes that thing very seriously, outsiders don't see it that way.

You call it a demon god's embryo, but I think it's just a smooth, precious stone.

However, those who can see the Demon God Embryo are all honored guests of the Demon Race Civilization Alliance, and naturally, the host and guests cannot speak too bluntly and strain their relationship.

But what people secretly think and give is beyond the control of those demons.