Rise of the Demon God

Long Chen swam deeper into the pond, following the Immoral Queen, wondering where she was going to take him.

"What?"  There was a sudden look of shock on the face of Long Chen as he somehow came out of the pond.

There was no end of the pond. Instead, it was as if the gravity had suddenly reversed after he reached a certain depth. Instead of feeling like he was swimming down, the man started feeling like he was swimming up.

Soon, his head came out of the water as his body floated half in half out. He observed his surroundings in confusion. "What is this place?"

It was as if there was an entire different world here compared to the place he entered. There was lush green grass everywhere, but there were no trees at sight.

There were the statues in the beautiful garden, each looking in a different direction. The thousand foot tall statues were nothing like he had ever seen before. Moreover, all these statues were of human cultivators.

"Who are these people?" Long Chen asked, following the Immortal Queen, who had already stepped out of the water and onto the ground.

"These are the greatest cultivators ever to exist. They were the first ten people who broke through the mortal bounds and came to the Immoral World, making it what we know today," Immortal Queen explained.

"How did they do it though? It couldn't have been simple, right? Now we have the knowledge on how we can break through, the skills and all. But at that time, there should've been none. For them to achieve such great feats, they must have been really talented."

"Talented, they certainly were," the Immortal Queen nodded. "However, just talent isn't enough most of the time. You need a bit of luck as well to take those extra steps. They had that luck."

"What luck?" Long Chen asked.

"It all started because they were all lucky enough to find a treasure together. Instead of keeping the treasure for themselves and using it for their advantage, they returned the treasure to the real owner who came searching for it."

"The treasure was something that couldn't be searched for. It could only be found, even by the original owner. So without their selfless help, the real owner of the treasure couldn't have found it," the Immortal Queen explained.

"Seeing their kindness, the real owner of the treasure was really pleased. He asked the ten people to ask for any reward that they wanted, no matter what it was."

"Who was the owner?" Long Chen asked, frowning. He was sure it wasn't a human.

"The person was the Demon Emperor. And the thing he had lost was the Book of Destiny according to the stories," Immortal Queen explained.

"Book of Destiny?"

"It's a legendary treasure I'm not even sure exists now. No one knows who made the book, but it's considered the highest grade treasure in the universe. That's the treasure over which multiple wars were fought between the Demons and the Heavenly Warriors."

"In fact, the entire conflict between the two sides only started because of the book, and that conflict still rages on, even though the book is long gone."

"What was in the book? Why did the deities go crazy over this?" Long Chen asked, stunned.

"I don't know. But I did hear some rumors. Some rumors say the book could predict an exact future of a person. Other rumors state that the book gave them the power to change destiny. There are also rumors that the book had the strength of altering past, present, and future," Immortal Queen explained.

"We can never know what it exactly was. Anyway, the fact remains. In one of the wars, the book was lost. Everyone searched for it. All the Mortal Worlds were searched by gods and demons alike."

"It was the Demon Emperor who searched the earth first. And that's where those ten people informed him about the book and handed it over. Happy, the Demon Emperor told him to ask for any wish."

"What did they wish for?" Long Chen asked. "Strength?"

Since they could climb the ranks so much, it was evident they received strength.

"Nope," the Immortal Queen replied, shaking her head.

"Then what?"

"After coming to a mutual decision, the ten men asked for neither strength nor riches. Instead, they asked for knowledge. They asked the Demon Emperor to share all his knowledge, excluding the secrets that he felt uncomfortable disclosing."

"The Demon Emperor kept his words and gave the ten men all the knowledge he possessed, but he didn't give all of them all of his knowledge."

"Instead, he divided his knowledge in ten parts and gave one part each to each man. That way, the ten men combined received his entire knowledge, but none had it all."

"Using that knowledge, the ten men changed the world. They used that knowledge to make cultivation skills that could be used by humans. They used those same skills to get strength and resources," The Immortal Queen explained.

"That's why they say knowledge is the best thing that someone can be rewarded with. These are the statues of those ten men. And this is the secret meditation place that was created by them. You're lucky this place still exists. It'll come in really handy for you."

"What's special about this place? Other than the statues?"

"All the statues contain a fraction of comprehension of those ten men. If you train here, your progress will be really fast. Moreover, the time here moves slowly, so you can stay here while the world outside is stopped in wait of you to return."

Long Chen walked closer to the giant stone statues. Each statue had a small piece of stone in their hands that was shining.

"What's that small stone?" he asked.

"That's the stone which keeps the time flow so slow in this place. However, as this needs a lot of energy to maintain, the stone keeps losing some of its energy every day. When I first came here, the stone was ten times bigger. But now it's only a small piece which can shatter soon."

"The time will start moving at its usual pace when that happens?" Long Chen inquired.

"Yeah. This place won't be as special anymore. So it's good you came here when there's still some left. Then again, this place existed for millions of years in the outside world which is like billions of years in this space. So it lasting so long is an achievement in itself," the Immortal Queen explained, gently touching one of the statues.