Holy Daughter Joyflower looked increasingly shocked as Yang Qi explained the matters of power indexes to her. “Your way of analyzing power seems very much like the ancient scientific and technological civilization. Don’t tell me you have the power assessment systems of the Cruiser of Civilization!”
“I do,” he replied, his eyes glittering. “I just stole it from the future world’s fleet. It has other functions, too. For instance, it can analyze the power flows in the Great Necropolis and split them apart to be used separately.”
“The Cruiser of Civilization can do that?” She was clearly taken aback by his revelation.
“Yes. Actually, I’m curious about that. It seems to me that anyone who absorbed the raw vital energy of this place would be injured or killed. So how do you stay alive here?”
From what he could tell, this Holy Daughter Joyflower seemed to be breathing in the vital energy and storing it within her. If she could really just assimilate it, that would be terrifying.
“I can absorb the vital energy, but it takes a lot of effort. Every breath I take needs to be refined in a pill furnace to extrude its impurities before I can absorb the power within. And the conversion rate is terrible!”
By way of comparison, they were like two mine owners, one of whom extracted only soil from their mine, the other of whom extracted gold. The two simply couldn’t be compared. Yang Qi was able to split apart the various types of vital energy, and set aside the dangerous ones to forge weapons and treasures. It was something that ordinary breathing exercises couldn’t do.
In contrast, Holy Daughter Joyflower’s method involved a lot of hard work, and wasn’t very efficient. Now more than ever, she realized the benefits that would come from partnering with Yang Qi.
“I can give you a device that will produce similar results, helping you absorb vital energy much more quickly. Want it? If we’re going to work together, it’s only natural that I would do my best to help you out.” He extended his hand and several streams of light converged there, creating something that looked like a disc, swirling with magical laws and the profundities of the legion of gods.
He handed the disc to Holy Daughter Joyflower, who examined it for a moment before sending some true energy into it. It immediately began drawing in the surrounding vital energy and extracting the pure essence power of the gods.
Almost immediately, the vital energy began flowing rapidly through Holy Daughter Joyflower. She took a deep breath, and clearly, it was as if a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Now it didn’t take such effort for her to assimilate the surrounding vital energy.
“This is amazing,” she said. “It certainly takes a lot of pressure off of me. I think now we really have a shot at taking that god soul. The main thing I’d been worried about was how to deal with the flaming god energy down there. If even a tiny bit of it got into us, we could be burned alive. But with this device, we should have no trouble at all.”
Yang Qi frowned. “Are you saying you’re dead set on getting that soul? Maybe we could get down there and take it, but are you sure we could assimilate it? It would come with benefits, true, but it would also be very dangerous.”
“Presumably, you’ve noticed that I cultivate a frigid ice energy art. It’s called the Grand-Frigid Profound-Netherworld Ultimate-Yin God Energy. It was left behind by the Ultimate-Yin God of ancient times. Right now, I’ve reached the point where the only way I can make progress is with that god soul.
“Of course, I’ll make sure you benefit as well. After I get it, we can work on our cultivation together, and you’ll definitely make progress. Agreed? By combining my Grand-Frigid Profound-Netherworld Ultimate-Yin God Energy with the god energy in that fiery god soul, I’d say our power indexes would probably surpass the level of one hundred.
“And that will make it much easier for us to get some godhood. You should know that the Great Necropolis is huge, and there are paths everywhere. Finding the location of the godhood we seek is not going to be easy. However, I already know of some locations where Lesser Gods were buried, and we could definitely benefit from their godhood. I was just too weak to do that on my own before. But with this god soul, we shouldn’t have any problems.”
Yang Qi considered the proposal and decided that it was a good idea. He could also benefit a lot from the godhood of a Lesser God. After all, his progress on the Deathless Heavenly Stairway would be many, many times more difficult than other old-timers, and would take much more power. No other power in the world would help him reach the Grand Emperor level as quickly as godhood.
“Then let’s start conquering this kingdom of fire,” Holy Daughter Joyflower said. “It’s all built around the foundation of the god soul of the fire god and has given birth to a veritable army of flame-based giant-spirits, which we can’t afford to take lightly.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Yang Qi said. He waved his hand and a primal-chaos elder-snake popped into being. “I’ll absorb the quintessence energy of the fire while you lead the way to the god soul.”
“What?” Holy Daughter Joyflower said. “Those are King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans! You collected all three thousand? That means you can create a true projection of King Heaven-Devourer. But doesn’t that mean you awoke his will? Throughout history, a lot of people have collected his talismans, but each additional talisman contains more of his will, and most people end up getting possessed and turned into monsters. Those talismans are from the dao of devils!”
Yang Qi didn’t offer an explanation. After all, if he hadn’t used the God Legion Seal to suppress the will of King Heaven-Devourer, he would likely have been devilized.
“I have my ways,” he said. “In any case, don’t worry. Just watch as I absorb this fire.” With a thought, he sent the primal-chaos elder-snake out to begin devouring the flames.
Howls of rage erupted from the giant-spirits as they rushed forward to defend the kingdom of fire. However, Yang Qi simply poured some more true energy into the primal-chaos elder-snake, allowing it to devour them. A huge vortex of flame sprang up as the giant-spirits tumbled into the snake’s maw.
Soon, the giant snake didn’t bear the colors of primal-chaos, but was as red as flame instead. Obviously, the power of the flames was so intense that the snake couldn’t break it down.
The overall strength of the snake was linked to the user’s cultivation base, so until Yang Qi reached a higher level, what he could do was relatively limited. And if he pushed them too far, it was possible that the talismans could collapse from the force, and possibly even be destroyed.
The talismans were already starting to buckle under the strain of what Yang Qi was using them for.
Seeing what was happening, Yang Qi’s expression flickered, and a stream of quintessence vitality shot out of him, along with some of the Blood of the One God.
BOOM!
A shock wave rolled out that caused Holy Daughter Joyflower to tremble. At the same time, a howl of rage erupted from within the talismans, seemingly originating in the god world itself. Then the mighty will of King Heaven-Devourer surged, a will that could devour the legion of gods. The primal-chaos elder-snake suddenly grew a hundred times larger than before. Its fangs were long and glistening, and when it opened its mouth it was like a black hole that could suck in anything and everything.
As King Heaven-Devourer’s howl of rage continued echoing out, an enormous vortex of Heaven-Devouring True Energy appeared. Yang Qi had unlocked another ability of King Heaven-Devourer’s talismans, the Heaven-Devouring Tempest.
The first function of the talismans was to produce Heaven-Devouring True Energy. The second was to take that true energy and turn it into Heaven-Devouring śarīras. The third was to take those śarīras, crush them, and create the Heaven-Devouring Tempest, which could crush everything in its path and be a major tribulation even to the legion of gods.
When King Heaven-Devourer had been in the god world, it was impossible to say how many kingdoms he had devoured with the help of the Heaven-Devouring Tempest. Lesser, Common, Greater, Consummate, and Perfect Gods had all fallen to it. Only Paramount Gods had stood a chance of defending themselves.
As soon as the Heaven-Devouring Tempest swept forth, the kingdom of flames was devastated, and streams of fire energy began flowing toward Yang Qi.
A short time later, Holy Daughter Joyflower saw that the fire was merging together into the shape of a ring on Yang Qi’s finger, a ring of fire that was clearly a god item.