The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

"Princess Longyao's coffin?"

"What does this have to do with me inhaling the deathly aura of this desolate grave...?"

Chu Xiu frowned and casually glanced at the scene with his right eye.

This sight nearly scared the soul out of me.

The coffin containing the demonized Princess Longyao was frantically oozing death energy, which had already been mostly absorbed by the coffin itself, mixed with the naturally occurring death energy in the desolate grave.

Seeing this, Chu Xiu's scalp tingled. He hurriedly checked himself to see if he had been affected by Princess Long Yao's corpse energy, while simultaneously cursing at Ye Wujiang:

"Nightless Blade, you scoundrel!"

"Why didn't you say so sooner!"

Seeing that he had absorbed so much corpse energy and still looked radiant, not at all like something was wrong, Ye Wujiang simply lay back down, pretending that it was none of his business.

Chu Xiu immediately circulated his imperial energy to scan his entire body, checking back and forth two or three times, but found no discomfort whatsoever.

The deathly aura surrounding Chu Xiu also retreated after the imperial aura enveloped his body, as if they had encountered their nemesis and dared not approach.

"What's going on?" Chu Xiu blurted out.

"What happened?" Ye Wujiang muttered, "Of course, it's the work of that special imperial aura on your body!"

"It's one thing that your imperial aura can directly refine the Misty Sea Ghost Mist that others would avoid at all costs, but you're even unafraid of the death aura on the Corpse Demon who is at the Great Perfection of the Qiankun Realm!"

"I really don't know where you human Taoist priests get the nerve to say 'Heaven is ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs.' I think Heaven didn't treat you like a straw dog at all; you got all the good stuff!"

"If I had your special imperial aura after my first reincarnation, I would have broken through to the Qiankun Realm long ago!"

Hearing Ye Wujiang's dissatisfied complaints, Chu Xiu raised an eyebrow but offered no explanation.

In fact, the imperial aura within him did not possess any special characteristics; it was simply that the sheer quantity of it caused a qualitative change after fusion.

"Since even the death energy on Princess Longyao's body couldn't harm me during her unconscious release, I'll take this opportunity to absorb all the death energy overflowing from the coffin, so that my understanding of death will be more unique in the future!"

Chu Xiu was overjoyed and quickly absorbed all the death energy in the vicinity, clearing it away until no more death energy overflowed from Princess Longyao's coffin before he stopped.

All the deathly energy was enveloped by the imperial energy and stored in Chu Xiu's middle dantian.

Moreover, under the continuous refining and compression of the imperial aura, impurities are gradually being removed, turning into drops of water formed from pure death energy.

After watching for a long time, Ye Wujiang saw Chu Xiu stop, so he put away Princess Longyao's coffin and came to Chu Xiu's side.

For any living being on the celestial continent, the deathly aura emanating from the Corpse Demon meant instant death upon contact.

Even if Ye Wujiang were to find a solution, it would probably take a lot of manpower and resources.

Now, Chu Xiu only spent the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to finish dealing with it, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Ye Wujiang patted Chu Xiu on the shoulder and said, "This death energy is enough to help you comprehend the meaning of death within the concept of reincarnation, so you won't need to go looking for those unlucky guys."

"As for the understanding of the meaning of life, I do know the best place to go."

Chu Xiu's eyes lit up: "Where?"

If one can successfully comprehend the meaning of reincarnation and life and death, it means that he is already qualified to step into the realm of Qiankun!

Therefore, Chu Xiu could not hide his excitement.

Ye Wujiang smiled and pointed due north: "Zhongzhou, the Wood Demon Kingdom!"

The two fled northwards, and after ten days, they flew from a great height over a large, chaotic area where war was raging, and entered the territory of Zhongzhou.

Originally, Ye Wujiang wanted to take Chu Xiu, who was about to enter the Qiankun Realm, to observe the battlefields of some mid-to-late stage Qiankun Realm cultivators.

However, they encountered several of Ye Wujiang's enemies along the way, each of them a peak expert at the Great Perfection of the Qiankun Realm.

To avoid implicating Chu Xiu, Ye Wujiang quickly led him away to escape the battle.

Only after entering the territory of Zhongzhou did they finally shake off the last person who had been relentlessly pursuing them.

"Ahead lies the largest demon kingdom in southern Zhongzhou—the Demon Zen Kingdom. Those old fogies dare not venture into Zhongzhou and cause trouble. Let's rest in the Demon Zen Kingdom first before continuing north."

Ye Wujiang pointed to the plains city below, which appeared extremely prosperous and fertile compared to the war-torn and desolate northern border of the Southern Continent.

Chu Xiu, whose face was a little pale, nodded quickly.

The month-long escape had taken a toll on him, consuming a great deal of his mental energy, and he desperately needed to recuperate.

Seeing Chu Xiu nod, Ye Wujiang led the exhausted Chu Xiu to land outside a city in the southern border of the Demon Zen Kingdom.

Chu Xiu noticed that everyone who wanted to enter the city chose to walk, and looked at Ye Wujiang with a puzzled expression.

Ye Wujiang laughed and said, "Several thousand years ago, the capital of the Demon Zen Kingdom was ambushed by a flying yaksha team led by a Qiankun Realm Great Perfection cultivator from my clan. In that battle, even though all the flying yakshas perished, they also exhausted the Demon Zen King, who had dominated the Central Plains for a thousand years."

"So from then on, the Demon Zen Kingdom had this rule: no flying within the borders."

Chu Xiu's lips twitched: "You ordered this?"

Ye Wujiang shook his head. "It was something I ordered in my previous life, it has nothing to do with me."

Chu Xiu rolled his eyes, too lazy to waste his energy arguing with such a shameless person.

Just as the two were about to enter the city, a commotion and cries attracted a lot of attention.

"Let...let go of my brother!"

"Sister! Sister! Please, please let Father redeem them!"

"That place is hell! I'll die if I stay there any longer!"

"You're courting death! My Zen Temple isn't a place you can come and go as you please!"

"If you don't want to go back, then leave your life here!"

Chu Xiu also looked in the direction of the sound and saw several burly, middle-aged demon men dressed in Zen robes punching and kicking a young novice monk.

A ragged young woman used her frail body to shield the battered and bruised novice monk beneath her.

But how could she, so frail, possibly withstand the rain of punches and kicks?

Before long, the woman and the young novice monk had both fainted.

Chu Xiu frowned: "This is..."

Ye Wujiang glanced at it: "The Demon Zen Kingdom, as the name suggests, is a land where Zen cultivation is supreme."

"In the Demon Zen Kingdom, only those who practice Zen are nobles, while other practitioners are commoners. As for ordinary demons... they are slaves who can be bullied at will."

"In order to make a living, slaves would send the male members of their families to the Zen God Academy, which provided Zen training to the Demon Zen Kingdom, to become apprentices. If they had talent for cultivation, they could be freed from their family members' slave status and become commoners."

“Look at that little novice monk, he has the cultivation of the Void Breaking Realm, while his sister has no magical power fluctuations at all. That’s the situation I was talking about.”

Chu Xiu asked doubtfully, "Why is this young novice monk so afraid of the Zen Temple that trained him?"

Ye Wujiang explained, "Have you heard of the method of refining Gu worms? The method of training apprentices at the Zen God Academy is the same as the method of refining Gu worms."

Chu Xiu suddenly realized: "They kill each other until a single winner emerges..."