In the Great Heaven Palace, Lin Huang patiently sorted out the rewards he had obtained from this trip into the Abyss.
Above all else, the biggest gain was that his combat strength had broken through two ranks. He had elevated from eighth-rank true god-level to tenth-rank.
Although he had yet to achieve peak tenth-rank, he had mastered over 1.5 billion types of rules in his inner world.
Based on the precedents established previously, Lin Huang guessed that he might have to accumulate up to 1.8 billion to reach his limit.
This was not a difficult task for Lin Huang. It was just a matter of time.
In truth, he could now actually start thinking about how to elevate to heavenly god-level.
However, he put that problem aside for now and resumed checking over his gains.
Over the past one month of killing various heavenly god-level monsters in the Abyss, apart from plundering Rule Bending Powers, he had also plundered over twenty thousand god sequence chains. The god sequence chains in the God Territory within him had surpassed thirty thousand in number.
He had obtained over five thousand God Territory Shell Remnants.
In general, most people would not dare to refine the God Territory Shell Remnants of Abyssal creatures, as there would still be a great deal of Abyssal energy remaining within. Such energy was an extremely virulent contaminant.
However, this was not a problem for Lin Huang.
The Eternal Fire left by Qi Muxiong’s Goldfinger could absorb and convert all sorts of energy, including Abyssal energy.
Others would be terrified of Abyssal energy, worried that they might be contaminated by it. However, to the Eternal Fire, the Abyssal energy was delicious.
All Lin Huang had to do was wait for the Eternal Fire to completely devour the Abyssal energy. Then he could start to refine and integrate the five thousand-over God Territory Shell Remnants.
Apart from these resources that he could directly utilize, Lin Huang had also obtained a massive amount of materials from Abyssal creatures. Not only that, most of these were heavenly god-level materials.
A lot of these were superb research materials. Many others could also be used to refine weapons and medicines.
Based on the amount and the quality of materials he now possessed, Lin Huang felt certain that he would be able to get a handsome price for all of them.
Naturally, the gains he obtained this round also included the hundred-over Nirvana Trees, but Lin Huang did not plan on selling them.
Virtuoso had given Lin Huang some information on the function of the Nirvana Trees. All it took was a mere glance at this, and he immediately realized how precious the trees were. If he were not forced into an absolute last resort, he would not part with them at all—not a single one of them!
Apart from these surface gains, Lin Huang had managed to obtain several Skill Cards and over a dozen complete Monster Cards from Xiao Hei due to the multitude of Abyssal creatures he had slaughtered.
Among the dozen-over Monster Cards, apart from the supreme god-level Silver-Armored Nine Gloom, who was at ninth-rank heavenly god-level, there were two pseudo-supreme god-level Monster Cards. They were Greed from the Ascetic Buddhist Tribe and a humanoid female Jealousy. Both of these possessed high combat strength, and they were both seventh-rank heavenly god-level.
After spending half an hour or so to sort out all of his gains, Lin Huang finally retrieved from his space storage the item with the highest value that he had obtained from this trip to the Abyss.
This object was a red, irregularly-shaped thumb-sized crystal. Its color resembled a ruby illuminated by the sun, but its form was like a leftover fragment from a large piece of glass that had been crushed.
This small, inconspicuous crystal that did not emanate even a single trace of Divine Power waves was Virtuoso’s payment to him by way of thanks at the end of the trip—a Soul seal fragment.
A Soul seal was a remnant of a crushed Dao seal after a spirit-cultivating Lord had died.
Since a Dao seal might be crushed into fragments that varied in number and quantity, each fragment would contain different information.
An example would be the Sword seal fragment that Lin Huang obtained from Virtuoso previously. In reality, not all Sword seal fragments contained Sword Dao Inheritances. Some might contain complete Sword Dao Inheritances, while some might contain incomplete Sword Dao Inheritances. Then again, some might only contain sword skills or memory images about cultivation.
Simply put, refining a Dao seal fragment was like opening a mystery box.
Those who were lucky might obtain the complete skill inheritance from the Dao seal Lord’s main cultivation path. Those who were unlucky might only be able to see some worthless information in images.
As soon as Lin Huang had returned to the great world, he could barely wait to enter the Great Heaven Palace. Apart from sorting out his loot, his main objective was actually to open the mystery…no, to refine this Soul seal fragment.
He scrutinized the ruby-like Soul seal fragment in his hand carefully. The bright red light within the crystal looked like flowing lava; it also resembled a burning charcoal fire.
Lin Huang had a rough idea of what the main cultivation path of this Lord’s Elemental Dao might be.
Without any hesitation, he extended his Divine Telekinesis and wrapped it around the Soul seal fragment, drawing it between his brows.
Under the guidance of Lin Huang’s Divine Telekinesis, the Soul seal fragment fell like a meteor, heading toward Lin Huang’s spiritual dimension.
The moment it dropped into his spiritual dimension, the crystal began to burn intensely, radiating endless sparks.
At the same time, countless golden divine patterns lit up on the crystal’s surface, the light from it growing more and more intense.
After the divine patterns lit up, the entire crystal began showing traces of hairline cracks. Not only that, as the divine patterns grew brighter, the bigger the cracks became.
In the end, the crystal disintegrated completely, turning into blood-red stars that masked the divine patterns.
Meanwhile, the divine patterns were spinning wildly like tiny golden snakes as they hurtled toward Lin Huang’s Sword Soul.
They turned into golden streams of light that penetrated the middle of the Sword Soul’s brow.
Almost at the same time, Lin Huang felt an upheaval in his mind, and endless strange messages immediately surged in.
He quickly did a scan with Divine Telekinesis to see if there were any cultivation method inheritances. However, he did not find any God’s soul cultivation methods. Instead, he only found a fire element cultivation method inheritance called the Immeasurable Calamity Fire.
Just when Lin Huang was feeling a little disappointed, he saw a spark light up on the Sword Soul’s brow.
“This…this is the Immeasurable Calamity Fire’s tinder?!” The inheritance messages were transmitted into Lin Huang’s head immediately.
After the spark lit up, it swiftly began spreading from the Sword Soul’s brow at alarming speed. Within the time it took for a breath, it had set the entire Sword Soul alight.
“What’s happening?!”
Lin Huang was shocked when he saw this. He was even a little dumbfounded.
The intense pain and burning sensation that was transmitted from the Sword Soul caused him such agony he felt as if he might die. This burning was targeted at his God’s soul.
However, he soon saw an even more terrifying scene.
The flames from the Calamity Fire not only spread throughout the Sword Soul’s entire body but even began spreading to areas outside the Sword Soul.
Days passed. In endless agony, Lin Huang watched the flame burning every single place within his body.
The flame even spread outside his body until his physical flesh began to burn.
Even his telekinetic threads were on fire, every single one of them.
The intense burning sensation spread through every nerve in Lin Huang’s body. He could not think of any way to douse the fire. However, a phrase flashed through his head suddenly.
“The true spirit doesn’t die, it revives in countless calamities!”
In his confused, blurred state, Lin Huang could not even remember where he had seen this phrase. However, he gradually began to calm himself. He set aside all distracting thoughts and held fast to his true spirit, completely entering a state of emptiness.
The burning body in the Great Heaven Palace was losing its life force bit by bit.
One day, two days, three days…
A hundred days, two hundred days, three hundred days…
A thousand days, two thousand days, three thousand days…
The flame burned for an entire three thousand and thirty-three days before finally extinguishing itself gradually.
On the spot where Lin Huang had initially been sitting cross-legged, there remained only a pitch-black scorched body. Even its features were completely unrecognizable.
After an unknown length of time, a surge of life force arose from the blackened body.
The scorched corpse that had been sitting with its legs crossed suddenly opened its eyes…
