My Arts Evolve When Perfected

South of Kunlun City, a faint ripple from a Secret Realm spread out, and the prone figures of several hundred people gradually materialized.

’I’m back already?’

Standing alone, the flame on the pebble in Jiang Qiu’s left hand—infused with the Fiery Flame Spirit Charm—gradually died down, its light slowly dimming. The fingers of his right hand dug into the pale belly of a small toad. He squeezed hard. "Why has the purple mist dissipated?"

He looked up. Thick clouds covered tens of thousands of miles of sky, and the world grew as dark as if night were about to fall.

The ruins of buildings stretched in every direction. Spiderwebs spanned the streets overhead, and the alleys on all four sides were shrouded in Spider Silk. A few small, purple-black spiders crawled onto an upturned stone slab, their eight ghostly green eyes staring at Jiang Qiu like eerie lights.

"CROAK, the pur... purple mist is a technique of the great Spider Mother. It was probably dispersed after the first Pebble was activated, right?"

The small toad’s front webbed feet rested on the fleshy part of Jiang Qiu’s right hand, between his thumb and forefinger, its mouth opening and closing with a clicking sound.

Jiang Qiu shot it a cold glance. "Why does the Demon Race still have Great Halls inside the Secret Realm?"

According to the general knowledge textbooks, ever since the dawn of the Secret Realms, although many Demon Beasts and even Great Demons at the Transformation level or higher have emerged from them, they all tended to settle in the areas *affected* by the Secret Realms. In reality, no member of the Demon Race could exist for long within a Secret Realm itself. When it was time to be expelled, they would be expelled. This phenomenon was known as the "Rejection Effect."

With the exception of the Demon King Red Flame Spider Mother, who had never revealed her True Form, the Demon Race’s top combatants—the Ten Great Demon Marshals—all used large Secret Realm-affected areas in deep mountains, deserts, or canyons as their base camps. They didn’t establish their main headquarters directly inside a Secret Realm.

’And yet, Twelve Great Halls have now appeared inside a Secret Realm, and the Demon King has even ordered them to be defended to the death?’

RUMBLE—

Suddenly, a clap of thunder rolled in from the north, sweeping across the sky. A Gale lifted Jiang Qiu’s damp hair. He turned to look. In the direction of central Kunlun City, thunderclouds swirled, causing the dark clouds stretching for tens of thousands of miles to churn.

"CROAK, M-Milord, I’ve heard rumors of a place like that before, one that holds the Demon Race’s most precious treasures. But this is the first time I’ve ever received an order from the great Spider Mother, the first time I’ve been given a Pebble in my life, and been sent to the Twelve Great Halls... AGH!"

With a wet pop, the toad’s innards burst from between his right fingers like an exploding balloon. Jiang Qiu flicked his hand twice, his gaze falling on his buzzing college entrance exam wristband.

[URGENT NOTICE!!!]

[All Secret Realms in Kunlun City have entered an active phase. The college entrance exam is hereby terminated. All candidates who have not yet been evacuated are ordered to exit the examination areas immediately and return to the temporary exam base!]

[URGENT NOTICE!!!]

[All Secret Realms in Kunlun City have been tampered with by the Demon Race. A Demon King is suspected to be emerging within a Secret Realm. High-level officials from the Exam Committee have intervened. Evacuate all surviving candidates from Kunlun City immediately!]

[URGENT NOTICE!!!]

[A large Demon Race army has appeared north of the Kunlun City ruins. The force is confirmed to be led by the Demon Marshal [Cangyuan], last seen in a standoff with Tianshan City. All temporary exam bases are to dispatch Martial Artists as reinforcements!]

[URGENT NOTICE!!!]

[A worldly phenomenon has occurred in central Kunlun City. The Demon King is emerging ahead of schedule. All executive committee members and all Major Generals not currently inside a Secret Realm are to move to intercept!]

They were sent three days ago, an hour ago, over ten minutes ago, and three minutes ago. The signal had just been restored, so he was only receiving them now.

He opened his map to check the location. The entire Southern District of Kunlun City had become a gray, "examiner-free" zone. The Medium-sized Secret Realm in the center was colored crimson and marked with a large exclamation point.

’Grand General Luo just led numerous Grandmasters to attack the Twelve Great Halls, and now the Demon Marshal [Cangyuan] has appeared in northern Kunlun City?’

Jiang Qiu took a sharp, cold breath and scanned his surroundings. In the blink of an eye, the world switched to grayscale, becoming empty and vast. He could faintly see a few nests of pale-yellow mutant spiders burrowing into the ground like ants. Far in the distance, the thunderclouds were a ghastly crimson, like a Red Flame, burning to the point of blackness. Something was still brewing!

He had a strange feeling that something familiar was about to be born in the center of the swirling thunderclouds. It was a connection like two hearts beating as one, yet also like two people standing back-to-back—they had both sensed the other’s existence but had never truly met...

Just as Jiang Qiu raised an eyebrow, an intangible thought rippled toward him like a drop of water falling into a pond. With a HUM, it resonated with the Pebble, and a voice became audible: "The experts of the Human Race have all been tied down at the Twelve Great Halls. Now, all members of the Demon Race, hear my decree of gestation! Await the birth of the new king of the Northwest Demon Clan."

’How can the source of that thought be so close?’

Jiang Qiu’s heart skipped a beat, and he swallowed hard. With a BOOM, he leaped onto a five-story building. A series of explosive BANGS echoed as his figure, wreathed in Flame, flashed across one rooftop after another, leaving a trail of shattered concrete in his wake until he scaled a skyscraper thirty or forty stories high.

The wind howled, making his loose pants flap against his legs. His gaze swept over the endless sea of staggered buildings, finally settling on a point on the far horizon.

North of the Southern District, in the very center of Kunlun City, dark clouds had gathered, turning day into night.

"Using my own body as the vessel, nurtured over a hundred years, with a Foundation Establishment built upon the Nine Great Hot Springs, and nourished by the geniuses of the Human Race as Food—this is the ritual of [Blood Sacrifice Rebirth]."

"Let the cosmos be overturned! The [Blood Sacrifice Rebirth] begins!"

The ancient, resonant voice spread from the Pebble, no longer concealed. It was deep and heavy, like a stone falling into a desolate valley, grave and solemn.

Then, a bolt of extreme, blindingly white Thunder crashed down from the center of the swirling clouds. Jiang Qiu was momentarily blinded and threw his hands up in front of his face, the afterglow searing his forehead and chest.

RUMBLE—

The rolling thunder that followed swept in like a tsunami, crashing down again and again, each wave more ferocious than the last.

As the daylight-bright glare finally began to fade, Jiang Qiu kept his eyes squeezed shut, clamping his hands over his ringing ears. And yet, he could still perceive the scene in the far distance.

His grayscale world swirled around a magnificent bonfire at its center. A colossal spider the size of a mountain burrowed up from the earth beneath Kunlun City, toppling every building within a radius of several kilometers.

It threw its head back and shrieked at the sky. The void within the thunderclouds ripped open, and a fluorescent blue waterfall descended from the heavens, pouring directly into its mouth.

Mixed within the waterfall were all sorts of Treasures of Heaven and Earth, dotted with students whose skin was as smooth as jade. Without a single chew, the creature consumed and began the Refinement of everything in its belly.

At that moment, the blood in Jiang Qiu’s body surged like a great river. His Soul felt like a fish on a hook, yanked and pulled by an unbreakable connection.

He could faintly hear shouting and cursing, as if from a hundred miles away, or perhaps right beneath his feet. "What the hell is that bastard carrying in its belly?! It’s devouring the chosen geniuses of our Human Race!"

"Rebirth... It really is the rebirth recorded in the ancient texts! I can sense the fluctuations of nine types of Spirit Charm! It plans to gather all nine types up to the Ninth Rank to complete the Foundation Establishment for a reborn demon! General Gao, you must stop it! Otherwise, a great calamity will befall the entire Northwest Province!"

"A great calamity..."

Before the voice could fade, a powerful force, like a magnet pulling iron filings, yanked Jiang Qiu’s eyelids open. His vertical pupils shone like Blood Jade inlaid with gold, overflowing with a crimson light.

In the distance, the colossal body of the Red Flame Spider Mother stood, seeming to prop up the heavens. The opening in the thunderclouds above it suddenly expanded, and the multi-colored waters of the hot springs poured down.

Chen Gold, Kun Earth, Yang Water, Chang Wood, Flame, Vast Thunder, Gale...

He looked up. The dense clouds overhead began to swirl open, like an undercurrent about to suck in everyone who had been touched by the waters of the hot springs.

Meanwhile, his own luminous pupils began to hum and tremble. The blood-colored egg within him, long since filled with the Fiery Flame Spirit Charm, had just detected an opportunity to hatch.

[Reincarnated Medium]

Steal the Origin for one’s own use.

The Flame is already obtained. All that is missing is a wisp of ancient Origin.