Brian Carter did not sense any spirit birds, exotic beasts, or monsters and demons with whom he shared a blood connection. The black demonic aura swept past this cluster of cloud light without hesitation, continuing to surge deeper into the Haoji Heaven Stele.

In an instant, the black demonic aura broke through eight clusters of cloud light in succession, charging into the final cluster.

Brian Carter also gained a faint sense of understanding: these nine clusters of cloud light were the nine layers of seals within the Haoji Heaven Stele. The higher the cloud cluster, the stronger the sealed demon. The fact that his demonic aura could rush straight to the ninth cluster in one go proved that his bloodline was powerful enough.

Just as Brian Carter thought he would surely find his own bloodline within the ninth cluster, the black demonic aura suddenly felt lighter and actually broke through the ninth cluster as well.

This astonished Brian Carter to the extreme!

In the next instant, Brian Carter felt his body lighten, and his vision suddenly brightened. He was no longer in Yunxi Palace, nor within the seal of the Haoji Heaven Stele, but in a majestic heavenly palace with thirty-three levels.

Countless heavenly soldiers and generals surged out from this palace, wielding boundless primordial energy, thousands upon thousands of magical treasures, and innumerable spells blasting in all directions. Layer upon layer of grand formations were activated, unleashing blazing fire, clouds of mist, and divine radiance, enveloping the palace from without.

Billions of demons and monsters, led by seven peerless celestial fiends, were frantically attacking this heavenly palace. Countless spells, divine weapons, and magical treasures clashed in the void.

Every moment, innumerable demons and even heavenly soldiers and generals fell. The blood of demons and the divine blood of the palace’s defenders turned into vast swathes of black mist, green light, yellow fog, clouds, and even wind, thunder, rain, and sunlight, spreading everywhere, blotting out the sky and sun, shrouding the entire thirty-three-level heavenly palace.

A peerless celestial fiend clad in mysterious golden armor suddenly let out a piercing howl, his body swelling to thousands of zhang tall. The pitch-black iron staff in his hand transformed into a pillar that seemed to prop up the heavens. With a fierce strike, divine blood splattered across the sky, and countless heavenly soldiers and generals perished beneath this earth-shattering blow.

The target of this celestial fiend was not the slaughter of the heavenly army, but a towering giant tree. This tree spanned the thirty-three heavens, its branches and leaves proliferating endlessly, serving as the very foundation of the palace—each level of the palace was formed from its branches.

In an instant, countless layers of protective formations were shattered, and innumerable spells, divine lights, and magical treasures struck the fiend, yet could not halt his invincible momentum.

With this one strike, all the palace’s defenses were forcibly broken, and the blow landed squarely on the giant tree at the palace’s foundation, knocking down eighteen levels of the thirty-three-level palace. The shattered palace broke into pieces, turning into endless dazzling light that scattered in all directions.

After unleashing this earth-shattering blow, the peerless celestial fiend in golden armor was also drained of his energy. Bombarded by countless spells, divine lights, and magical treasures, and suffering the backlash of the palace’s protective formation, he spewed a rain of mysterious golden blood, his body rapidly shrinking. He was caught by another burly celestial fiend clad in black armor with crescent horns atop his head, who, with a flick of his finger, unleashed thousands of black lightning bolts to shield him from the frenzied counterattack of the heavenly soldiers.

The black lightning released by the burly fiend shattered thousands of spells, and even divine weapons and magical treasures could hardly withstand it...

Brian Carter suddenly felt a heat on his face as a surge of blood, colored like mysterious gold, drenched him to the bone. He suddenly realized he could move, and with a slight twist of his body, he extended eight tendrils of black mist like monstrous pythons. His body writhed and twisted within the black mist, devouring the essence of the giant tree and growing rapidly.

Only at this moment did Brian Carter realize that he was a burl growing on the giant tree. After being drenched in the celestial fiend’s mysterious golden blood, he had developed self-awareness and separated from the parent tree. He looked like a bizarre plant with countless branches and vines, but his roots did not touch the soil, his leaves sprouted steel-needle-like tendrils, and he bloomed thousands of ten-colored strange flowers, each with a thousand petals and no stamens. Every flower’s heart was ringed with varying circles of black light, expanding and contracting, naturally exuding a bloodthirsty desire.

Transformed into a ten-colored flower vine, the sensation was utterly strange, but before Brian Carter could experience it for long, the thirty-three-level heavenly palace gradually faded into illusion, the brutal battlefield vanished, and in the next instant, he plummeted downward, quickly leaving the dreamlike realm and returning to the seal within the Haoji Heaven Stele.

As he passed through the ninth cluster of cloud light, he happened to see a giant tree with iron-like branches, roots plunging into the void, flickering in and out of sight. An obsession deep in his nature compelled him to reach out with both hands and, with a grasp, break off a branch and some leaves from the tree. Then he could no longer steady himself and fell straight through the nine layers of cloud.

Moments later, Brian Carter found his hands still pressed against the Haoji Heaven Stele.

He was a bit dazed; everything just now had felt so real, yet so elusive, like a dream.

Brian Carter calmed his mind, only to feel the black demonic aura within him swelling even more, as if he had feasted. But what surprised him even more was that a constantly throbbing thing had appeared at the center of his brow. Though this newborn thing was still immature, it was overwhelmingly domineering, continuously devouring the black demonic aura within him and growing rapidly, innately possessing a fearless and defiant spirit.