Seeing the changes in the Kodo Beast heart, Chen Heng was not surprised.
The difference in color was because he had used up much of the life force within it.
However, there was still some remaining.
From Chen Heng's estimates, the lifeforce remaining in the heart was equivalent to two or three gold potions.
If it was an ordinary person, it would most likely be enough for them to become a true Sorcerer.
In fact, if there was a bit more, it might have been enough for two people.
After thinking about it, Chen Heng carefully put the heart away, storing it as one of his most valuable possessions.
Following this, he started to examine the changes in his body.
After becoming a true Sorcerer, his body had once again changed. Whether it was his body's strength or his mental energy, they had all been increased.
However, the increases were not great; after all, he had only just ranked up.
Regardless, from what Chen Heng knew, during this period of time, he would experience great growth in all aspects.
It was like when a normal person went through their growth spurt.
After becoming a true Sorcerer, as time passed, Chen Heng's strength would continuously grow until he reached the standard of a true Sorcerer.
According to Chen Heng's estimates, this would take roughly half a year.
Only when that time came would he truly have the strength of a true Sorcerer.
As for right now, even though he was stronger than a Third Rank Apprentice, he was not yet at the level of a true Sorcerer.
However, this was quite good—he could afford to wait half a year.
Chen Heng walked to the side and picked up his book, crossed out his goal of becoming a true Sorcerer, and wrote 'complete' next to it.
Of his three goals, he had completed one of them.
That left the two difficult ones.
From what Chen Heng had heard from Herlo and the others, as time passed, there were more and more demon beasts outside.
According to many records, this meant that the demon king was about to appear.
It was just that Chen Heng did not know where this would be.
Once the demon king appeared, it would be time for the hero to appear and defeat the demon king.
Only after that happened would Chen Heng find an opportunity to leave this little world and return to the Sorcerer World.
Before that happened, Chen Heng needed to just wait and observe.
It would take time.
...........
Standing there, Chen Heng thought for a moment before adding 'observe' to his goals, then looked at his second goal.
"Looks like I'll have to stay for a long time."
Looking through his goals, Chen Heng felt quite frustrated as he thought to himself.
However, this was not a big deal.
Patiently waiting was not that bad; he was more or less used to it.
Anyone who could not endure peace and boredom would not be a good Sorcerer.
...
As Chen Heng waited in this town, in the north of this world, many people were gathered before a massive altar.
"Evil demon king! The greatest being of old! Please come and lead us to purify this world!"
Chants continuously sounded out.
Below the altar, there were countless black-robed priests kneeling with incredibly passionate expressions.
As they continuously chanted, the altar began to crack.
Through the cracks, a hand stretched out.
Seeing this, the black-robed priests became even more manic and seemed to go crazy as chants poured out of their mouths.
"Demon king, you are the source of everything; the primogenitor of evil!"
"I praise you! You are the most glorious existence!"
Chants continuously sounded out as the cracks became larger and larger.
A person slowly climbed up from the cracks: At first it was just an arm, then a torso, and then the entire figure.
Soon, his figure was displayed to those present.
He was incredibly tall, about two or three meters tall, and he did not look like the figure of a human.
His skin was dark and there were black runes over his body. His eyes were violet, and they were filled with the unique charm of a demon king. As he blinked, it felt as if there was a massive energy being released, making people want to kneel and submit to him.
This was the demon king.
Seeing him emerge from under the altar, the priest became even crazier, and the scene became as noisy as a marketplace.
The demon king casually waved his hand and resplendent magic power spread out, covering the surroundings.
Everyone's mouths closed and the world became quiet.
"It's always you people every time. So annoying."
After those people stopped speaking, the demon king shook his head in annoyance, "You're going to hassle me to death."
He felt quite annoyed and put on some new clothes before looking into the distance.
As the demon king, he knew many things that others did not.
The reason why he had awakened was not because of these people chanting and making a ruckus; rather, it was because of changes in this world that he had been awakened.
Those changes were no secret to him either.
"Another person going through a trial has come in?" the demon king thought as he tidied up his appearance, "Which unfortunate soul is it this time?"
When outsiders came to this little world, it meant that the world's mechanisms would start to activate.
The show between the hero and demon king would once again begin.
This was the reason why the demon king had suddenly awakened.
Now, the demon king had awakened; it was now for the hero to appear.
"I hope it will take some time," the demon king thought as he stroked his chin, "I finally woke up again, and I don't want to immediately go back to sleep."
The demon king would only wake up after an outsider came in.
After the hero defeated the demon king, the demon king would fall into an indefinite slumber.
He would only be woken up again the next time an outsider came in so that the process could repeat.
It was better in the past, as there would often be people coming into this little world, allowing him to regularly wake up.
However, from a certain point onwards, there had been fewer and fewer people coming to his little world, resulting in him spending most of his time asleep.
It had been so long since he had been able to wake up, and he did not want to immediately fall asleep again.
That would be completely boring.
He shook his head and once again waved his hand.
His magic power returned to him and the people in front of him began to move again.
They maintained their postures from before and continued to worship him.
"Enough!"
He had heard these lines countless times and simply did not want to listen to them anymore.
Was the demon king telling them to stop because their voices were not loud enough?
They thought to themselves but only opened their mouths as they looked at the demon king standing in the air.
"Go, bring me to see the scenery outside," the demon king said casually.
"Great demon king, you are finally going to destroy the world!"
"I understand! We will definitely serve you loyally and sweep away all of this world's obstacles for you!"
The worshippers all began to sob, looking incredibly excited.
The demon king's mouth twitched and did not say anything in response, and he only turned around.
He had experienced this hundreds of times, and he was used to these fellows.
They were all very strange people and would misinterpret anything that he said. For some reason, they always thought that he was going to do something grand.
Why did they not just live their lives and instead come to find him, a demon king?
Did they think that the world was too good or something?
The demon king felt quite annoyed and could only coldly turn and walk out.
He walked step by step and left this place, preparing to go to a human city or town to have a look.
After being sealed for who knows how long, he wanted to go somewhere else and experience the auras of living people in order to relieve his emotions.
As for these worshippers behind them?
They all seemed like crazy people and he felt that he would be affected by them if he stayed with them.
After the demon king left, the altar gradually disappeared as if it was a fading image until nothing was left behind.
As the demon king woke up, the world seemed to also go through changes.
Within various forests all over the world, the number of demon beasts quickly increased, and they began to spread out more and more.
..........
Before, even though the demon beasts had been quite savage, they would mostly stay within forests and very rarely go out.
It was as if there had been some kind of power restraining them.
However, as the demon king woke up, this restraining power seemed to have disappeared.
These demon beasts began to leave the forests and go out into the rest of the world.
It was evident that a catastrophe was approaching.
...
"Not too bad."
Within the quiet laboratory, Chen Heng had cleaned up, making the laboratory neat and tidy again.
Chen Heng tested the magic power armor's defensive properties in the laboratory, and he nodded in satisfaction.
The magic power armor's strength did not disappoint him.
After the reinforcement process, it had become one with him, becoming something innate to him.
After fusing with him, Summon Armor's strength had been boosted.
Ordinary magic skills could not break through this layer of magic power armor.
Of course, that was only for ordinary magic skills.
True Sorcerers' reinforced magic skills were evidently different from ordinary magic skills.
Chen Heng did not know how it would fare against reinforced magic skills.
However, from Chen Heng's estimates, his reinforced Summon Armor should be able to block even reinforced magic skills.
Moreover, reinforced magic skills could be manipulated at one's wish.
For example, Chen Heng could summon the armor over specific parts of his body, making it so that it would not affect his agility.
This meant that his combat prowess would not be reduced at all.
Chen Heng's close-combat abilities were already quite good.
With this magic skill, he would be much safer in the future when he fought at close quarters.
Because Summon Armor had become his bloodline magic skill, he could even use his power to boost this armor and cause it to be even more powerful.
Ordinary magic power, Moon God Energy, and even Knights' life energy could be used to bolster the magic power aura.
Chen Heng was quite satisfied with the might of the magic power aura.
Outside, shouts and laughs could continuously be heard; Chen Heng wondered which boisterous children were playing about.
Chen Heng shook his head, turned, and left the laboratory.
Outside the laboratory, many things had just begun.
Because he had obtained the Kodo Beast's heart from Herlo's mercenary group, Chen Heng decided to put up notices that he was buying antiques and ancient items, hoping to be surprised.
Because of this, the old butler had complained to him many times, saying that the residence's expenditures were skyrocketing.
Chen Heng did not mind and just ignored him.
Right after walking out of the laboratory, someone had come to find him.
It was not the old butler but the mayor of this town.
This town naturally had a mayor, and he had great authority and reputation or else he would not have been able to become the mayor.
This was not an extremely safe place, as there were some forests close to the town. There were also all kinds of savage people and mercenary groups around them.
Without a certain amount of power, he would not be able to sit in the position of mayor stably.
However, to Chen Heng, he was the same as the others, just a weak chicken.
Back when he had decided to reside here, he had taught the mayor a lesson.
It was not that the mayor had made any trouble for Chen Heng but rather Chen Heng wanted to give him a warning in advance.
That warning would have come sooner or later; as Chen Heng stretched his hands out towards the business in this town, this mayor would have tried to take some of his earnings at some point.
When that time came, Chen Heng would have had to teach him a lesson anyway.
As such, in order to avoid any hassle, Chen Heng sent his regards to all of the shady organisations in this town.
This was why no one dared to make any trouble for him despite doing so well for himself.
Normally, the mayor would rarely come to find him; Chen Heng wondered why he had suddenly come.
Chen Heng felt quite curious, but he did not reject the mayor and went to the guest hall.
The mayor was a bald, middle-aged man. His body was quite fat, and Chen Heng felt that if he were to fight someone, he would most likely have to rely on his body to crush his opponent.
At Chen Heng's residence, the mayor respectfully and seriously told him the recent news.
"Demon beasts going berserk?" Chen Heng felt quite surprised and thought to himself.
As the demon king awakened, the demon beasts in the forest began to truly rampage.
They began to swarm out of the forests to attack villages.
The mayor had no way to deal with this, so he could only come to find Chen Heng.
After being beaten up by Chen Heng, he knew that Chen Heng was the most terrifying figure in this town; he was much more terrifying than those gangs.
It was just that he ordinarily did not do much.
Apart from being incredibly strong himself, Chen Heng also had many mercenaries under his command. If he got serious, he would definitely be the strongest in this town.
This was not just for his personal power but the faction under his control as well.
As such, after hearing about this, he had immediately come here, hoping that Chen Heng would step up to protect the town.
"I understand." Chen Heng thought for a moment before agreeing to help.
After all, this would benefit him as well. He had reached a bottleneck in his research towards faith energy, and if he wanted to do more research, he needed more data.
Saving the towns' residents would result in him gaining the favor and gratitude of many people. When that time came, he would be able to gather more faith energy, and it would be easier to observe.
Of course, other than that, Chen Heng was interested in the demon beasts.
Those demon beasts were not very strong individually, and they were at most at the level of an ordinary Knight Apprentice.
However, with so many of them, there were definitely some with great power.
They could be material for the Heaven Devouring Scripture.
As such, Chen Heng agreed to the mayor's request.
Hearing Chen Heng's reply, the mayor happily left and was most likely going to tell others.
Looking at the mayor's fat body disappear, Chen Heng fell into his thoughts.
