There should be no Demons in the Sea.

A gentle breeze of azure blue swept by.

Chen Xia gave himself a slap.

Not a very hard one.

But enough to wake him up.

Lately, he would occasionally space out, and during those moments, his consciousness would briefly fade into emptiness. It was a short period of time.

But within that brief period, Chen Xia's state of mind would undergo a significant change.

Arrogance, tyranny, and madness.

Almost the complete opposite of Chen Xia's usual temperament.

And this temperament would occupy his consciousness, leading him to do things that Chen Xia would never have expected.

For the first time in thousands of years, he felt so irritated, and it was all because of himself. He bit his fingernails, continuously thinking of ways to resolve the situation.

He knew this was his inner demon, and he had heard stories about inner demons before.

An inner demon had a personality completely opposite to the host's, and for cultivation, it was detrimental. But it wasn't necessarily harmful to the host.

However, it was only not harmful to the host.

What about the people around him?

Under Chen Xia's irritation, he remembered the words spoken by his inner demon back at Heart Lake, and one particular sentence caught his attention: "Just sever the mundane cause and effect personally."

If he had truly "personally" taken action to sever it, things wouldn't be good.

Chen Xia sighed, thinking about whether he could negotiate with his inner demon. Maybe he could let his inner demon be active during times when he fought and engaged in battles.

That way, the division of labor would be clear.

But the current difficulty was that he couldn't directly communicate with his inner demon; they couldn't establish contact.

And whenever his consciousness weakened, that is, when he spaced out, his inner demon would take advantage of the opportunity to manipulate Chen Xia's body and do some outrageous things in a short period of time.

For example, just a moment ago, Chen Xia had spaced out for only three breaths, and his inner demon had kicked aside a cultivator's robe that happened to be in their way.

If Chen Xia hadn't snapped out of it quickly, that cultivator's robe would have been lost.

Chen Xia sighed, feeling helpless. Judging from this situation, he couldn't afford to space out casually anymore. The influence of his inner demon was too immense, and if his spiritual awareness wasn't clear enough, he would soon be overtaken by the inner demon.

With his hands behind his back, he walked outward, wanting to wander around and dispel the frustration in his heart.

The azure blue wind brushed past him.

Heading toward a colorless sky.

------------

In the depths of the Triumphant Mountain's main hall.

These days, the flesh and blood statues had been feeling increasingly uneasy. At first, they thought Chen Xia's inner demon would be the supreme demon, but they noticed some discrepancies later on.

The supreme demon referred to the top-tier type of inner demon, and its appearance required extremely harsh conditions.

First and foremost, the host had to be an exceptional genius, at least at the level of an ordinary imperial disciple. Only then could they cultivate a supreme demon.

The second point was that there had to be something out of the ordinary in the host's Mind Lake and Sea of Consciousness, such as peerless treasures or unparalleled techniques.

These were the nurturing grounds for a supreme demon.

The third point, which was the most fundamental, was that the host needed to have cultivation at the Half-Step Heavenly Ascension realm.

And this most fundamental point was what puzzled the flesh and blood statues the most.

Because previously, Chen Xia had been able to kill cultivators at the Heavenly Ascension realm, so the flesh and blood statues had completely forgotten about one thing.

That was the fact that Chen Xia only had cultivation at the Reverse Sea realm.

How the hell could he have an inner demon?

And not just any inner demon, but a terrifying supreme demon?

It was something the flesh and blood statues had never come across before, and they couldn't make sense of it. So, they even had a more horrifying idea.

That was, Chen Xia's inner demon wasn't just a supreme demon, but it was even higher in level.

After all, manipulating the consciousness of the main body's inner demon in the Reverse Sea Realm was known, but a flesh and blood statue was unheard of.

This raised the next terrifying idea: just how terrifying would Chen Xia's inner demon be when he reached the half-step Replenishing Heaven Realm?

When a cultivator reached the half-step Replenishing Heaven Realm and advanced to the true Replenishing Heaven Realm, their inner demon would truly awaken and affect the main body.

This was when the concept of slaying the inner demon came into play.

The inner demons of ordinary cultivators were insignificant and could be easily cut down.

But the stronger the talent of the cultivator, the stronger their inner demon.

So some cultivators chose a different method, not to slay the inner demon, but to coexist with it, making the inner demon a part of their sea of consciousness.

This was also considered accepting their opposite side.

It was the second method of advancing to the Replenishing Heaven Realm apart from slaying the inner demon.

But Chen Xia was still some distance away from the Replenishing Heaven Realm, and his inner demon was far from awakening, let alone affecting the main body.

Everything that happened before was impossible.

Yet it happened nonetheless.

The fact was right in front of their eyes, and the flesh and blood statue didn't know what to do. They could only sigh and take it step by step.

The spacious hall was silent.

There was no light when looking outside.

Perhaps in this lifetime, he would never have a chance with the Emperor's Path.

------

It had been many years since the fierce battles in the Great Death Realm.

Since Chen Xia had promised Wang Yangzi to go, he had to prepare himself first. So during these days, Chen Xia had been madly refining pills, which also helped stabilize his mind and prevent the inner demon from influencing him.

Zhang DaoMing watched from the side, with a hint of worry in his eyes. It was the first time he had seen Chen Xia work so hard.

It was something that had never happened since he knew Chen Xia.

The pills were stored in the storage treasure as if they were free, and they were all at least spirit medicines.

Chen Xia had refined fewer elixirs than pills because his luck did not allow such crazy refinement, and the medicinal materials were not complete, which affected the efficiency. It was simpler to refine several spirit medicines.

He was still stoking the fire when suddenly there was a sound at the door. It was the sound of light footsteps, deliberately suppressed as if afraid of disturbing the host.

It could be a polite visitor.

Or it could be a thief.

"Tap, tap." The door was lightly knocked twice, and a crisp and faint voice sounded.

"Chen... Is Chen Master here?"

"Who?" Chen Xia frowned and asked.

Creak.

The door was gently pushed open.

A lovely face emerged, with short black hair that reached her shoulders. There was a small braid next to her ear, making her look adorable.

The woman didn't dare to look into Chen Xia's eyes. Her pretty face blushed, her dark gaze lowered, and she stammered, "I... I am also one of the participants in the Great Death Realm Battle. I came... I came to introduce myself to you, as instructed by Senior Wang Yangzi."

She tilted her head slightly and didn't dare to look at Chen Xia. She even reached out to touch her fine hair, as if trying to cover up her shyness, and continued, "I... I also brought you a gift."

She leaned out half of her body, wearing a plain white dress, and displayed the gift in her hand.

It was a small alchemy furnace, exquisitely made, with the words "Dan Cheng" (Elixir Completed) engraved on it.

It was evident that she had put a lot of thought into it.

"I don't have a gift." Chen Xia shook his head.

The woman hurriedly waved her hand, anxiously replied, "You don't need to give me anything in return. This is... This is a voluntary gift from me to you, absolutely with no one's coercion."

"Um..." Chen Xia stared straight at the woman, feeling a bit hesitant. He directly picked up a pill and threw it at her, saying, "Since there's no gift, take this pill."

"Ah... Ah?" The woman was at a loss as she awkwardly accepted the pill. Her deep black eyes stared directly at him, but her lips uttered, "No, no, I can't accept your things. How can this be?"

Although she said that, she showed no intention of letting go.

"Well, then come back," Chen Xia agreed to her wish.

"Ah?" The woman was momentarily stunned, then her expression turned resolute. Her petite body entered the room, holding the pill in her hands. She stood up straight, bowed to Chen Xia, and said, "Thank you."

In other words, she had no intention of returning it.