"KEEPERS OF THE IMPERIAL CULT, I PERMIT YOU TO EXECUTE THIS IMPUDENT WHELP"

The Emperor's shout echoed out through the city. Six golden lightning bolts fell around Zang Xuang. Riding each Lightning bolt was a rank 6 Heavenly King practioner.  So these were the mythical keepers, who kept the law of Tang . Their fingers danced into an arc, with a sharp inhale they drew heaven's qi in and with an exhale released it through their accusatory fingers. Six divine golden thunderbolts sprang from their fingers to annihilate Zang Xuang. They struck with explosive power, leaving a rising plume of smoke and a large crater. 

"It is done my L..."

"Gahahahahahahaha....hey hey hey....did you really think it would be that easy?"

The smoke cleared and floating in the middle of the crater was Zang Xuang, eyes crimson on black. The golden lightning still enveloped him desperately trying to get away. He held it with one hand, the lightning sqirmed like a snake but he did not let go. A wolfish grin on his face. 

"So this is the lightning of the divine dragon eh? Heh...nothing special after all."

"No...NOTHING SPECIAL, IMPUDENCE!"

The six keepers began gathering qi once more, this time five breaths worth of qi, enough power to level a small town. Zang didn't care. What none of the keepers had realized yet, possibly no one had realized except for the Emperor, was that Zang had ascended beyond the level 1 Heavenly King rank he had previously held.

By forcefully sealing his lower Dantian with the poisonous qi, Zang had transformed his Blood Soul Palace into a Demonic Hall. He had then forced all this qi out and up through his upper Dantian, the Crown of Heaven and Earth, essentially breaking down his Upper Dantian and throwing it open permanently. Thus massive amounts of qi constantly flowed into his body with every breath. Only the qi had nowhere to go because his lower Dantian was now sealed, so it would flow through his middle Dantin and out again. The Demonic Hall within his middle Dantian had finally awoken to its demonic powers. With the Demonic Hall, he could finally channel this raging waterfall torrent of qi that churned through him constantly.

For one breath, Zang could use the immense qi of heaven and earth that was flowing through him. 

This was power far beyond any rank 6 Heavenly King, this was perhaps power beyond even the Emperor's rank 9 Heavenly King cultivation. This was power comparable to Heavenly Emperor.

This was the power of the Heavenly Demon. 

So this time when the Keepers shot out their golden lightning at Zang, the Emperor knew it would have no effect. This time there wasn’t even an explosion. He caught the bolts of lightning with his bare hands.

“Hmm I wonder how it tastes.”

He bit into the lightning with glee, devouring the pure golden qi and sucking into the torrent of qi within him. The sqirming lightning that enveloped his body changed in color from golden to red.

“A little too spicy for my tastes, tell you what, you can have it back.”

The red lightning split up into six bolts and speared each of the Keepers, turning them into ash instantly. The Emperor felt his throat go dry. This was indeed the power of the Heavenly Demon. Such a shame, for this child to be able to break through straight to Heavenly Demon meant he for sure had the caliber to reach Heavenly Emperor. Alas, now thanks to Cao Li’s scheming he had become a Heavenly Demon, an abomination to all cultivators and a blight on the great Empire's reputation.

The boy would die. Either hunted by all the cultivators of the land or from the eventual poisoning of his middle and upper Dantians from the noxious qi he had used to create his Demonic Hall. Such was the fate of all Demonic practioners.  But these were concerns for a later time. The amount of qi raging through Zang kept growing at an exponential rate, soon he would be able to command the power of a Heavenly Sage for one breath.

The Emperor knew he had to end this conflict soon, but for the first time in his life the Emperor was thinking, could he even win this fight?

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*If I get out of this alive, I swear I’ll castrate Cao Li* thought the Emperor