"Tianxuan, are you still holding up?" Zhou Hong looked at Fairy Tianxuan, filled with guilt. She was a proper celestial being, and now she looked like this. While she could recover with later care, her current state was truly pathetic. To put it bluntly, in these past five years, he had been more miserable than those who worked professionally in such fields.
"I'm fine, I can still manage. Five years have passed, and you've broken through so much. You're only a few steps away from becoming a Demon Emperor. No matter how difficult it is, I'll grit my teeth and endure." Fairy Tianxuan let out a laugh.
"Then I can only continue to apologize to you. I promised you before that when I become the Demon Emperor in the future, I'll make you the Demon Empress. I will definitely keep that promise."
"Heh heh, those are things for the future. Let's focus on surviving first. Right, it's been five years, how much more spiritual medicine can I still yield?" Fairy Tianxuan was also full of curiosity. With such frequent harvesting, how much longer could this continue?
"The medicinal power now is only forty to fifty percent of what it was at the beginning. I estimate that in another two or three years, there will be nothing left."
"Alright, then I'll persist for another two or three years. I hope you can step into the Demon Emperor realm in one go."
"Of course, I have confidence. I haven't even used the immortal medicines that my grandfather, the Nine Dao Immortal Emperor, collected. There's still quite a lot of them, after all, it was his life's savings."
"Then let's begin." Fairy Tianxuan closed her eyes. Five years had passed now. She had long lost any novelty, and each time was excruciatingly painful. But to help Zhou Hong, she could only bear it.
Time slowly passed again.
Three more years went by.
"Hahahaha, hahahaha!" Zhou Hong let out a great laugh. Just a second ago, he had finally achieved his wish and stepped into the Demon Emperor realm.
On the ground, Fairy Tianxuan said weakly, "Congratulations, you've finally made it."
"Tianxuan, how are you? You've been recuperating for half a year, yet your body still looks so gaunt?" Zhou Hong looked at the withered Fairy Tianxuan on the ground with pity.
Half a year prior, Zhou Hong had finished harvesting. Since there was nothing left to harvest from Tianxuan, Zhou Hong had then used the immortal medicines collected by the Nine Dao Immortal Emperor. After half a year of digestion, those immortal medicines were also completely depleted, not a drop left.
Zhou Hong had initially been very worried that even after using all the immortal medicines, he wouldn't be able to reach the Demon Emperor realm. However, heaven favored the persistent. After exhausting all the immortal medicines, Zhou Hong, without any further assistance, cultivated diligently for half a month and finally broke through to the Demon Emperor realm in one go.
Yet, Tianxuan's condition completely surprised Zhou Hong. He had originally thought that after six months of rest since the harvesting stopped, Tianxuan would at least be able to recover. But after half a year of recuperation, her condition had only worsened.
Now, her hair was completely white, her skin was wrinkled, making her look like a woman in her sixties or seventies, her eyes were sallow and lifeless.
"Zhou Hong, I have a premonition that I might not make it." Fairy Tianxuan gave a sad laugh.
"Don't talk nonsense."
"I can feel my own condition. I was nurtured by the Nine Dao Immortal Emperor as a spirit. Once all the spiritual medicine on me has been harvested, it means I will completely wither. Back then, I didn't expect this. I thought that after the harvesting was done, resting for ten or eight years would surely allow me to recover. Now it seems, heh heh..."
"Tianxuan!" Zhou Hong opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say. He felt immense guilt. In fact, Zhou Hong could also see that Tianxuan's condition was deteriorating, like a tree slowly withering, likely beyond recovery.
Zhou Hong himself hadn't anticipated such an outcome.
"Heh heh, Zhou Hong, don't blame yourself. It's all fate. I don't blame you. Perhaps my destiny was to be a stepping stone for you to reach the Demon Emperor realm."
"I'm sorry, Tianxuan, I've harmed you."
"Alright, let's not talk about these pointless things. Tell me about your current situation. I heard that for those who first step into the Demon Emperor realm, their sub-worlds will be rapidly completed, and their world power will surge."
"Let me test it myself first."
Zhou Hong's consciousness immediately entered his sub-world. He discovered that his sub-world was divided into three layers, much like the Immortal Realm, Mortal Realm, and Microscopic World.
The place where Zhou Hong's family members lived was in the topmost layer of his sub-world. The second and bottommost layers currently had no living beings. Especially the bottommost layer, which seemed to have just formed.
Zhou Hong then checked his current world power. The more complete the sub-world, the vaster the world power. Zhou Hong's sub-world already presented a complete three layers, so its world power was likely not weak.
The next second, Zhou Hong's expression changed, as if he found it hard to believe.
"How is it? How much power has your sub-world generated?" Seeing Zhou Hong's expression change, Tianxuan eagerly asked.
"My sub-world has three layers, from top to bottom. I think they correspond to the Immortal Realm, Mortal Realm, and Microscopic World of the real world."
"Impossible," Tianxuan said, not quite believing him.
"Why do you think it's impossible?"
"Because from what I know, a sub-world that can complete two layers is already very strong. Very few can complete three. I don't know about other places, but in the Immortal Realm, I've heard that no more than three people can complete three layers. It's probably similar in the Demon Realm; there wouldn't be more than three or four people who can complete three layers."
"Heh heh, it is indeed three layers." Zhou Hong smiled slightly. He finally understood why his world power had surged so much. This explanation made sense.
"Then, what is your world power level?"
Zhou Hong no longer hid anything and directly said, "1086!"
"What does that mean?"
Zhou Hong was speaking in Earth dialect, so Tianxuan didn't understand.
"One thousand and eighty-six star power."
"Impossible, absolutely impossible." Tianxuan was stunned and instinctively denied it.
"Do you think I would lie to you? I was also shocked and checked several times. My current world power has indeed reached one thousand and eighty-six stars."
"My heavens, how can it be so high?"
"Yes, I can't figure it out either. I've only just stepped into the Demon Emperor realm. Does the cultivation of Demon Emperors have a disparity in power from the start? Some are stronger than others the moment they break through."
Tianxuan nodded excitedly, "Yes, the Demon Emperor realm is considered the culmination of cultivation. Furthermore, individuals cannot snatch each other's sub-worlds. The strength achieved upon breaking through basically determines one's lifelong potential. Although some increase can be gained over long periods, it's not much, at most a few dozen or a hundred."
"Heh heh, then at the moment I step into the Demon Emperor realm, I possess 1086 stars. That would place me among the top few in the entire Demon Realm, wouldn't it?" Zhou Hong grinned broadly. With this power, who would dare to kill him?