The human demon was the physical body of the province restriction, brought here a thousand years ago by Chen Xiao. Qing Buyi and Mo Yi had captured the celestial emperors of Exalted Major and Nephrite Major so they could sacrifice the heavenly mandates of two majors to the human demon and help him recover his strength.

The human demon’s power, as well as the power of the restriction, had grown dramatically with each heavenly mandate sacrificed.

A heavenly mandate wasn’t a tangible item. It was something of the will, a conceptual energy born from the immortal world and its many facets. Although the previous Exalted and Nephrite Emperors hadn’t truly reached the celestial emperor realm, they’d still been strengthened by the mandates’ protection.

Once dead, the power of their individual protections would also dissipate. As long as the immortal world and its facets lived on, the heavenly mandate would be born anew for the next celestial emperor.

In short, sacrificing two celestial emperors to the human demon was also sacrificing two heavenly mandates.

After obtaining the power of the second mandate, the human demon’s strength had risen to an entirely new level. Even so, Scarlet Ape didn’t cede an inch, so much so the restriction couldn’t spare the energy needed to control Dusk Province and eradicate all of the invaders surpassing golden immortal realm.

“Yo, big monkey!” On the Divine Glory, Lu Yun walked to the bow and shouted, “I freed you from the dragon phoenix seal. Is this how you show your gratitude?”

“Die, humans!” The ape’s eyes burned at the sight of Lu Yun. It’d noticed the heavy black cannon at the bow of the ship at first glance. It was refined with a severed section of his companion weapon, the Divine Seaquell Staff!

As it happened, the principal reason why he’d led an invasion into Dusk Province was to take the staff! So he immediately cast all thought of the human demon out of his mind and brought his staff down on Lu Yun’s ship.

Black Emperor was very important to Scarlet Ape. After the month-long fighting in the North Sea, it’d barely arranged for any reconstruction before leading the monster spirits to Dusk Province.

Seaquell wasn’t only its lifelong companion treasure, but also the item through which it’d realized the dao. As long as the staff remained incomplete, the ape wouldn’t be able to recover its cultivation, so retrieving the severed section was a necessity.

The previously mountain-sized Seaquell was now a towering pillar that held up the dome of the sky. When it swung down at the Divine Glory, the specter of death once again loomed over Lu Yun’s heart and mind. This creature was truly too terrifying!

“Fire!!”

A white beam exploded from Black Emperor, origin-level firepower howling through the air toward the pillar of a staff.

“Aughhhhhh!!!” The ape lost its mind when it saw Lu Yun use its own weapon against itself. Its golden fur rippled scarlet and its frame swelled to ten times its original size, becoming an ape thirty thousand meters tall that roughly matched the human demon’s height.

Both arms wrapped around the immense staff, the ape resisted Black Emperor’s pillar of light inch by crushing inch, slowly advancing on the Divine Glory.

But then the human demon’s colossal frame charged forth and sent a massive kick at the giant ape.

“Shove off!!” the ape thundered. Its build now a full match for the human demon’s own, it turned around with a jab at its opponent’s leg.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Another eighteen beams shot from the Divine Glory.

Eighteen auxiliary cannons thundered in concert in a continuous, no holds barred barrage. Merging with Black Emperor’s light pillar, they worked to push back the giant Seaquell. Newly reforged, the cannons all exploded at the same time after the devastating strike, leaving nothing but fragments behind. As for Black Emperor, the mouth of the cannon had also begun to melt.

Even so, the pincer attack was still too much for the giant ape to face head-on, so its giant figure shot in another direction.

“Kill!!!” the human demon growled. A pair of silver eyes slowly opened in the sky—the dragon empress’ Cosmic Eyes.

After returning to Dusk Province, Lu Yun had gifted the treasure to the province restriction. After all, the restriction was his greatest leverage in making sure that Dusk Province could stand on its own two feet in the world. The stronger the restriction’s power grew, the safer Lu Yun would be.

As soon as the Cosmic Eyes opened, a million rays of piercing starlight descended from the heavens and churned toward Scarlet Ape’s giant figure. Sharp as swords, the rays of celestial radiance brought with them a prehistoric atmosphere similar to the Cosmic Skycarver.

“Aaaahhh—” Scarlet Ape’s staff had been knocked away, but the fiery cape remained draped over its shoulders. It ignited and blanketed the ape’s scarlet fur in a layer of flames that deflected the keen rays of starlight.

The Cosmic Eyes was a peerless connate treasure of resounding fame in the ancient times, but it’d also been stymied by the fiery cape’s protection.

Rising back to its feet, Scarlet Ape summoned Seaquell back into its hand, metamorphosed into its three-headed six-armed form, and rushed wildly at the human demon. Caught off guard, the human demon was knocked to the ground by an even more frenzied opponent.

Swish!!

At this time, a tremendous hum suddenly sounded and the entirety of Dusk Province became a land of black and white. There seemed to be a giant fish of yin and yang slowly swimming through the sky.

All of the local power of the land was now active, and even the energy in neighboring provinces surged wildly in Dusk’s direction.

“Motherfucker, I could’ve immediately ascended to the void realm if not for you bastard! My surname isn’t Lu if I don’t skin you alive today!” Lu Yun jigged savagely on his fortress ship.

After a month of exertions, he’d collected a total of seven goodwill fruits. But now, all seven were burning as they merged into Feinie’s body, propelling her strength to an unfathomable realm. Taking control of the Divine Glory, she unleashed the full power of the two Formation Orbs and enclosed the entire province in their energies.

At the same time, the ship’s hull glowed with an increasingly bright, black hue. The light increased in intensity until, in the end, the enormous fortress ship that had marveled the world transformed into the mouth of a giant cannon that was fully three hundred meters across.

The formation energies of the two Formation Orbs, along with the infinite energy of the land, filtered into the cannon’s mouth.

A Formation Orb was merely a formation item. It could radiate with blinding formation light or shape formation after formation, but all of them would crumble at the first blow from the berserk monkey’s staff.

But now, Lu Yun injected all of this formation energy and the power of the land into his ship-cum-cannon. This one was a true bonafide weapon of war, not an imitation. It could not only fuel itself with the energy of the world, but also compress the chaotic formations from the Formation Orbs into tremendous energy.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths…

As the seconds ticked by, the undulations emanating from the cannon grew more and more foreboding and the aura emanating from it increasingly appalling.

“Is that a war treasure? When did weapons of war become this terrifying?!” Lurking at the borders of the province, numerous powerhouses stared at the giant cannon formed by the Divine Glory with pale countenances.

If a run-of-the-mill weapon of war could threaten peak arcane dao powerhouses like them, then the one they were now witnessing would simply reduce them to ash!

“Lu Yun… must die!! How can a trivial cultivator wield the power to threaten people like us? He has to die, even if it means giving up the Great Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends,” roared a powerhouse.

“Demon sovereigns of the Star Demon Sect, are you so certain you want a figurehead like him? Aren’t you afraid he’ll bite the hand that feeds him?” shouted the Feng Clan’s ancestor. When the Star Demon Sect had publicly announced Lu Yun as their sect head, everyone had thought they’d simply wanted a puppet, a public front.

“The sect head is the sect head, not a figurehead,” the first sovereign responded coldly.

“Then don’t blame us for showing no mercy. Kill!” the master of the Corpse Refiners ordered, frosty ruthlessness on his face. More than ten arcane dao immortal realm zombies by his side immediately threw themselves forward, abruptly heralding the start of a great battle.

……

“Roar!!” Inside Dusk Province, Scarlet Ape had also perceived the incoming danger. It promptly broke away from the human demon and charged at Lu Yun while the big cannon was still gathering energy.

“Keep it busy for ten breaths,” Lu Yun sighed softly. While the human demon’s fighting prowess was extraordinary, due to the power of the province restriction, he had no peerless treasures to rely on. The Cosmic Eyes, although mighty, couldn’t break through the fiery cape.

“Are you still not going to use the strength of my dread zombie even at this stage?” Empress Myrtlestar appeared beside Lu Yun and held her hand aloft, ensconcing their surroundings in violet starlight. Indeed, she’d called upon the power of the Imperial Star.

Scarlet Ape’s giant frame immediately slowed down to a crawl, as if it was suddenly trapped in quicksand. Despite that, its staff and the cape on its back glowed anew, irresistibly cutting through the violet starlight. Clearly, even Empress Myrtlestar’s strength couldn’t stop it for long.

“The cannon’s not ready yet.” Lu Yun gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on the ever approaching ape.

Bang!

All of a sudden, a pair of giant arms snaked out from beneath Scarlet Ape’s armpits and wrapped themselves around its body, locking it firmly in place and preventing it from taking a single step forward.

“Let go!!” Scarlet Ape snarled, its six hands gripping Seaquell and raining a frenzy of blows on the human demon. The latter vomited mouthful after mouthful of dark red blood, yet tenaciously clung on to the creature.

“Die,” the human demon snarled menacingly, eyes bloodshot.