Chapter 57: Fire Demon Spirit

Outside Cuiling City, in the middle of the vast ocean, a figure suddenly surfaced from the water.

He swam toward the sandy beach.

Fortunately, there was no one around. He gasped for air, lying on the sand, motionless for a long time, unable to believe what had happened.

It was none other than Luo Zhou!

At the final moment, he had been tainted by the Tide Heavenly Palace. Amidst a shroud of darkness, he was expelled from the Heavenly Palace and fell into the ocean.

He had swum for a full half-hour before finally reaching the shore.

Luckily, the sea beast catastrophe had only recently ended, and there were few people around the coast for recreation.

Luo Zhou lay prone for a long while before standing up and looking into the distance, searching for Cuiling City.

At this moment, Luo Zhou was not just the Holy Son of Demonization, but also the Holy Son of the Jellyfish.

With Yuan Qiuyun's death, Luo Zhou had inherited her identity as the Jellyfish Holy Son...

However, Luo Zhou had gained no tangible benefits from this.

Because the Tide Heavenly Palace had transmitted the Jellyfish Holy Grace, Luo Zhou had avoided being controlled and instead performed a reverse taint. Consequently, he had not accepted the Jellyfish Holy Grace and received no benefits.

But Luo Zhou did not care in the slightest; having killed the Jellyfish Protector, Granny Wang, and purged the hatred in his heart, it was entirely worth it.

As for Yuan Qiuyun, there was nothing to be done. Luo Zhou did not wish to kill her, but she harbored the intent to kill him.

In the end, she dissolved into countless wisps of water vapor and died!

Luo Zhou found the direction of Cuiling City and began walking toward his home.

As he walked slowly, a demonic voice suddenly rang in his ears!

"Luo Zhou, you have killed the Jellyfish Heavenly Palace Holy Son, Yuan Qiuyun, and altered her destiny.

She can no longer steal the Jellyfish Remains, and the Jellyfish cannot be resurrected. Thus, you have changed the fates of tens of millions of people!"

"These many changes have transformed into Fate. Consequently, one strand of Fate has been accumulated within the Primordial Golden Chapter!

Luo Zhou, you shall enjoy two strands of Fate, two lives of immortality, and a single proof for ten thousand proofs!"

Luo Zhou found it hard to believe. Although he had not received the Jellyfish Holy Grace, he had gained a life.

"Luo Zhou, the Tide Heavenly Palace has been tainted. Once you advance to the Foundation Establishment stage and your strength is sufficient, you can claim the Tide Heavenly Palace as your personal Grotto-Heaven!

This is one of the Nine Paths of Cultivation!"

There was such a benefit?

The Foundation Establishment stage?

Luo Zhou laughed loudly. He returned to the city and to his home; everything was normal.

His special ability, "Reward Good and Punish Evil," yielded no rewards this time.

However, "Omniscience" discovered a change in Luo Zhou's body.

Something seemed to be quietly forming within him, resembling meridians.

Luo Zhou did not know what it was, but after a long deliberation, Omniscience finally concluded

"If possible, this should be an Innate Water Spiritual Root!"

"What? An Innate Water Spiritual Root?"

"It is also possible that it could form a Water Spiritual Dao Body, or even one of the Twelve Immortal Bodies above the Sixty Dao Bodies—the True Water Immortal Body."

"Otherwise, how could it prove you are the Jellyfish Holy Son? There must be some kind of transformation."

Luo Zhou was speechless. Was this actually a good thing?

"However, do not worry, Luo Zhou. You possess the Demon Lord's Holy Body. Whether it is an Innate Water Spiritual Root, a Water Spiritual Dao Body, or the True Water Immortal Body, it will eventually be absorbed by the Demon Lord's Holy Body. It will not affect you!"

Luo Zhou was even more speechless. Was this a blessing or a curse?

The next day, he went to the Dao Academy, where he learned from his teacher that an anomaly had occurred in the ocean.

This signified the death of the Jellyfish Holy Son; there was no doubt about it.

The White-Eyed had already sent over the closing report. Dean Zhao had also achieved a merit and would naturally receive a reward.

Luo Zhou, who had cooperated with the investigation, also received a small merit along with a reward of one spirit stone.

With this, the matter of the Jellyfish Holy Son was completely closed.

Luo Zhou didn't know what to say. The Jellyfish Holy Son was truly dead, yet also alive...

He was carrying too many spirit fragments. After thinking it over, he tried asking his teacher.

A teacher was indeed a teacher; one thousand fragments could be exchanged for one spirit stone. He exchanged all his fragments for spirit stones!

After staying at the Dao Academy for half a day, Luo Zhou continued to the Flower, Bird, and Fish Market. News of Granny Wang's disappearance had spread throughout the market.

She had not shown up for two days, which was almost impossible.

To Luo Zhou's surprise, almost everyone in the market had gone out to search for Granny Wang.

Even if they weren't doing business today, they were spontaneously searching the entire city for her.

For so many years, Granny Wang had sold goldfish here. Countless people had received her goldfish for free during their youth.

Everyone in the market treated her like family. Her mysterious disappearance left everyone deeply concerned.

People searched for three full days before finally confirming that Granny Wang was indeed missing.

Some said that Granny Wang hadn't actually disappeared, but that a distant relative had come to take her to the countryside to live out her old age.

They made solemn guarantees!

They claimed to have seen her get into a vehicle to leave, and that she had even told them to convey her well-wishes to everyone.

Only then did the people in the market feel relieved. Who would harm an old woman? She was simply going to the countryside to enjoy her life.

At least it gave them some good news, true or not, to comfort them.

Yuan Qiuyun had also disappeared, but the outcome of her disappearance was not so pleasant.

Her family only discovered she was missing on the third day.

They reported it to the officials, hired people to search, and offered bounties...

But it was impossible to find any trace of Yuan Qiuyun. However, her family did not seem to care much.

After searching for two or three days, they stopped, treating it like a mere formality.

Even her biological mother had given up, because with her brothers and sisters around, she had always been a non-entity in the household...

However, two people were searching for her desperately.

One was Dean Zhao, who was exceptionally caring toward his disciples.

The other was Qiu Muye, who truly loved Yuan Qiuyun. He searched everywhere, and when he finally couldn't find her, he wailed loudly within the Dao Academy.

Because of the Old Crocodile Dragon's habit of eating people, such disappearances were commonplace in Cuiling City over the last century. To disappear and not be found meant that the person would never appear again!

Luo Zhou did not know whether what was being born in him was a spiritual root or a Dao body, because seven days later, before it could fully form, it was swallowed by the Demon Lord's Holy Body.

During the process of being swallowed, Luo Zhou also felt that a strand of Fire Thought Divinity was consumed.

It was a strange kind of power that quietly attached itself to him.

Luo Zhou had not noticed it until it was swallowed along with the rest.

Only after the consumption did Luo Zhou realize that this was called the Desolate Flame Divinity, one of the killing moves of the Heaven and Earth Dao Sect.

The Desolate Flame God was an ancestor and a Transformation Stage True Venerable of the Heaven and Earth Dao Sect. He had condensed thousands of divinities to reward the sect's disciples.

When encountering an irresistible and powerful enemy, a disciple of the Heaven and Earth Dao Sect could activate the Desolate Flame Divinity to borrow a portion of the ancestor's power.

This was one of the killing moves carried by Zhang Youzhi, but before he could activate it, he was killed by Luo Zhou.

Even after experiencing the shattering of the Universe Bag and the fluctuations of space-time, divinity is indestructible, and it quietly attached itself to Luo Zhou.

If Luo Zhou were to go to the Heaven and Earth Dao Sect, the Flame Divinity would be detected by the original Desolate Flame God, thereby exposing Luo Zhou's identity as the killer of Zhang Youzhi.

Unexpectedly, as the Demon Lord's Holy Body swallowed the Jellyfish Holy Son's spiritual root and Dao body, it swallowed the Desolate Flame Divinity in one gulp as well.

The Desolate Flame Divinity was not swallowed in vain.

That night, as Luo Zhou slept, the Spirit Pattern Dreamscape appeared in his trance.

Within this eternal sea of fire, amidst the infinite flames, the Fate accumulated by Luo Zhou during this period was being silently refined.

All things that have ever existed naturally leave traces; these traces are called Fate, transcending the physical body, the mind, and the soul!

Fate is divided into "Heaven," which is the record of the world upon a person, and "Man," which is the record of one's own existence—the very essence of the unity of Heaven and Man.

The Fate of the Primordial Golden Chapter is "Human Fate"—the record of the self and self-affirmation. It is similar to completing a great achievement in a game to receive a medal; in the Primordial Golden Chapter, it grants multiple lives.

The Fate of the Spirit Race's Spirit Patterns is "Heavenly Fate"—the recording of the fates of others within the world to be absorbed for one's own use.

Since the great battle had ended and he had not yet reached one hundred strands of Fate, Luo Zhou had not been refining his body or concentrating his mind.

But at this moment, the Spirit Patterns automatically began refining his body and mind, turning all the Fate into flames.

Then, a Fire Spirit quietly emerged.

This Fire Spirit was born from the fire, a self-contained life. Looking at it, Luo Zhou felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Granny Wang!

It was the flame transformed from Granny Wang's Fate, which then became a Fire Spirit!

This was only the first. Another Fire Spirit appeared, which was Yuan Qiuyun's Fate...

A third Fire Spirit appeared, belonging to Zhang Youzhi.

Then, the Fire Spirit of the Old Crocodile Dragon appeared!

Luo Zhou truly did not know what to say. Even though the Old Crocodile Dragon's soul had been taken by the Cuiling Fairy, it could still give birth to a Fire Spirit?

More new Fire Spirits appeared: the Siege Crab that Luo Zhou had killed, and two Golden Turtles...

Even the large man with a knife, a cultivator who had been eaten by the Old Crocodile Dragon, had actually transformed into a Fire Spirit.

In the end, Luo Zhou possessed eight Fire Spirits!

Looking at them, each one resembled a tadpole—a burning skull for a head, trailing a tail of flame behind them.

No hands, no feet, no heart, no soul...

Looking at them, Luo Zhou knew their name: Fire Demon Spirits!

Luo Zhou had a feeling that they were similar entities to the Death Spirits.

But he had no idea what they were useful for; he could only watch them float upon the eternal sea of fire.

Flying freely forever!