Rivers of the Night

Chapter 795: Primordial Destruction Bolts

Theron raised an eyebrow and barely held back a chuckle. He didn’t expect Ayame to come out so aggressively, but suddenly he was very interested in how this would go.

Urong was a Transcendent. This wasn’t a level of strength that even Theron could take lightly. In fact, the smartest thing to do in most situations was to turn tail and run.

But Ayame seemed quite confident in this trump card of hers, though Theron didn’t quite understand it.

Even if she had the favor of a Demon Prince now, she hadn’t officially cleared all of the requirements. In addition, she had every intention of trying to climb up higher.

Theron knew that her goal wasn’t just Demon Prince. She wanted to move up to Demon King, and then even Demon Emperor before she was finally satisfied... if that term could be used for this woman at all.

In reality, she probably wouldn’t be satisfied even after she became a Demon Emperor herself. She looked like the sort that was constantly chasing something higher, and Theron could understand the sentiment.

The issue with that, though, was that if she used the Demon Prince’s name now, very soon she’d have an even more powerful entity pissed off at her.

If even a Demon Duke was unhappy with her leaving, how would a Demon Prince whose name had been used to get her out of trouble feel when they found out that she wanted to leave them behind as well?

Of course, that was just a future problem. Maybe Ayame felt like this wasn’t a huge pressing issue in the interim, so she had ignored it.

The main issue was that... a verbal threat to someone as experienced and wizened as a Demon Duke wouldn’t work.

Theron knew very little about the Demon Corps, but that was just his own measure of the matter. Usually, he preferred to be a lot more informed. But over this last near year and a half, while he hadn’t run into very many non-beasts, he had run into enough to piece together a few things.

These things weren’t details about the Demon Corps itself, but more so about the character of the people that were within its territory. If Theron was correct, even under the threat of a higher-ranked Demon, the Demon Duke wouldn’t fold nearly so easily.

’Hey, old man,’ Theron sent Ayame’s master a secret message. ’How powerful is a Demon Prince?’

Master Uyon’s heart skipped a beat. Why the hell was Theron asking this sort of thing right now? Also, secret messages sent through one’s Third Eye in the presence of a Transcendent might as well have been like whispering right into the powerhouse’s ears.

However, when Master Uyon looked toward Demon Duke Urong, there wasn’t even the slightest reaction.

’Hey, hey, he can’t hear us. Hurry up, I’m curious.’

’... They are Transcendents too, just of a vastly different caliber.’

’Is that the same for Demon Kings and Emperors?’

Master Uyon flinched. Why was Theron constantly saying these things so casually? You couldn’t just evoke names so easily without being punished for it. And yet, here he was, still standing.

’... It is the same for Kings, but Emperors are on an entirely different level.’

’Is that so...’ Theron nodded. ’Then what divides the level of Transcendent? Is it just a matter of cultivation? Or is it something deeper?’

’I am not a Transcendent, how would I know?’

’Mm...’ Theron nodded.

"Hey!" Theron suddenly called out. In the deathly silence, this sort of thing was completely unheard of. But Theron didn’t seem to care. "I’m curious, how much weaker are you than a Demon Prince? What divides you from them?"

Demon Duke Urong, little more than a shadowy figure in the skies, truly couldn’t remember the last time he had been spoken to like this. Two of his Chosen had died here—his second and third ranked. And now the one who had done the killing was asking for... guidance?

The worst part was that Theron was asking him about those far more powerful than himself. Was he trying to die a quick death?

The eyes of Demon Duke Urong flashed, and then he looked away from Theron. He thought the matter was already done, but nothing of the sort happened.

Theron stood, blinking, looking up at Demon Duke Urong.

Seemingly sensing that something was wrong, Demon Duke Urong slowly turned back.

"... Who are you?"

A voice that reminded one of sturdy earth echoed.

"Me?" Theron smiled. "I’m Theron Galethunder."

"I have never heard of you. Where do you hail from?"

"Wait, I answered a question, shouldn’t you answer one of mine?"

Demon Duke Urong fell into silence for a long while.

"... The strength of Transcendents is decided very early on. From Laws, to Mandates, to Profound Truths. The quality of a Transcendent is decided by how refined their Profound Truth is. However, it is much harder to decipher ahead of time. Usually, you can only know how truly powerful your Profound Truth is once you face your Transcendent Tribulation.

"There are many dividing tiers, but the goal of most Transcendents is to face at least one Primordial Destruction Bolt. This is the highest order of difficulty lightning and stores the Primordial Essence of Existence itself. Many say that this bolt is Existence attempting to repair itself, using the cultivation of geniuses who had accomplished what it couldn’t to fill in the gaps it is missing.

"The more of these Primordial bolts you withstand, the more powerful your status as a Transcendent. Usually, you are divided into those that haven’t received this acknowledgement, those that did but didn’t quite survive and were knocked back to a half-step, and those that did survive.

"A Demon Duke will not have faced a Primordial Destruction Bolt. A Demon Prince will have survived at least one. A Demon King will have survived at least three."

"I see... I see..." Theron nodded slowly. "As for your question, I’m a nobody, just a loose cultivator who happens to have taken a liking to this beauty here, so I’m here to help."