Chapter 2688: Difficult Progress
The remains of the Life-devouring Beast were split into several dozen portions and handed to the leader of each organisation.
Life-devouring Beasts were an extremely rare type of organism because they only existed within the World of the Fallen Beast. Moreover, any single part of their remains possessed extremely powerful life force. This life force could not be directly absorbed by cultivators. However, they were fantastic materials for various God Tier pills.
As a result, the remains of Life-devouring Beasts might not possess much value within the World of the Fallen Beast, but they would be valued at several dozen times, or even hundreds of times, in the Saints’ World.
Due to the limitations on cultivation, people who could refine the remains of Life-devouring Beasts into pills were basically mythical existences. That was why it was not a resource exploited in the World of the Fallen Beasts. However, it would be a completely different story in the Saints’ World.
In the Saints’ World, the remains of Life-devouring Beasts would be items that powerful cultivators or strong organisations would fight over.
As a result, all the leaders of the groups were rather pleased when they obtained these remains.
“The Two World Mountains may be dangerous, but it’s also a way to get rich…”
“If I collect enough remains when I return to my clan, it will be a service of great merit. I will definitely be rewarded personally by the great elders. It will give me a basis for when I fight for the position of patriarch in the future and increase my chances at success…”
A few prodigies smiled to themselves. Even some of the prodigies who were initially afraid of the Life-devouring Beasts felt their fear subside slightly as they looked at the remains they held.
Afterwards, everyone reorganised their groups and set off once again. No one showed any interest towards the God who had died in the mouth of the Life-devouring Beast.
Jian Chen was the only exception. He arrived before the God’s corpse that had its life force drained and was reduced to a bag of bones, and the light in his eyes flickered.
“A God’s life force was completely drained away in just a few seconds. That Life-devouring Beast had such a great devouring ability.” Jian Chen was secretly surprised. He could tell with a single glance that not only had the cultivator lost all of his life force, but even his soul had dispersed.
Let alone Godhood cultivators, even the weaker Origin realm cultivators could have their souls survive upon the destruction of their bodies. They could subsequently rebuild their bodies.
However, after this God had his life force drained, even his soul did not remain.
“Can the Life-devouring Beasts not only devour life force but also souls?” Jian Chen thought.
By now, the group had already set off again. The dead God was abandoned in the wilderness with no one to take care of his corpse.
With a wave of his hand, a sharp sword Qi immediately shot out, creating a deep pit in the ground. Afterwards, he waved his hand again, and a gust of wind blew the corpse into the pit, burying it there.
Only after doing all that did he turn around a leave, catching up to the main group and returning to He Qianqian’s side.
“Yang Yutian, this is the Two World Mountains. The true danger of the Two World Mountains has yet to appear, so I don’t wish for you to fall behind. The senses of the soul are greatly limited here. Once you fall behind, no one will come to save you,” He Qianqian said coldly as soon as Jian Chen returned to her side.
She clearly knew what Jian Chen had gone to do. She said emotionlessly, “If you want to emerge from the Two World Mountains alive, you must forsake your benevolence, as a moment of benevolence can doom you for eternity and trap you here forever.”
“I obviously wouldn’t joke around with my life. You don’t need to worry at all, miss Qian.” Jian Chen broke into a chuckle. However, as soon as he finished speaking, something happened. A huge tree nearby seemed to come to life at that moment. Thousands of branches rained down, stabbing towards the group of people like sharp swords at lightning speed.
Immediately, cries rang out in the surroundings. Several hundred cultivators were pierced by the branches. Their life force was drawn away by the branches at a terrifying rate, deposited into the main trunk of the tree.
At that moment, the several hundred cultivators lost all of their life force. Even their souls were not spared. They died.
After draining all these cultivators of their life force, the energy within the tree suddenly swelled. Its strength was actually forcefully raised to a higher level. It had reached Godking from peak Overgod.
“This is a Life-devouring Beast. Oh no, it has actually broken through! Kill it!”
A great bellow rang out. The leader of the Empirelotus Sword sect was the bravest. His presence roared, and he killed his way over first. Against the Godking Life-devouring Beast, he did not hold back at all, unleashing his full strength.
At the same time, all the other cultivators in the surroundings struck out as well. Various attacks flooded towards the tree-like Life-devouring Beast.
Facing all these attacks, the Life-devouring Beast took defensive measures. It used its tremendous life force to conjure up a powerful barrier around itself. At the same time, a powerful suction force appeared.
Immediately, all the Gods and Overgods within a radius of three thousand metres lost control of their life force, which rapidly gathered towards the Life-devouring Beast.
“What a powerful ability. Even the life force within me is stirred. I almost lost control. Yang Yutian, all the guards, attack! Kill the Life-devouring Beast immediately!” He Qianqina called out, and the Laws of Ice descended. The surrounding temperature abruptly dropped, and large snowflakes began to fall. She formed a seal with both hands and icicles radiating with coldness condensed in the air. They shot towards the tree with coldness so terrifying that they seemed to be able to freeze up the space there.
“These Life-devouring Beasts don’t seem to be particularly clever. They seem to be moving on instincts alone, or they would be able to understand that with so many cultivators here, they won’t be able to survive even if they can kill a few of us,” thought Jian Chen. He did not stand aside in this. With a flip of his hand, a supreme quality saint artifact sword appeared, and he produced several strands of sword Qi with a few swings. However, the strength he displayed was only a regular early Godking’s.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With consecutive rumbles, the Life-devouring Beast’s barrier of life force shook and dimmed.
However, the Life-devouring Beast actually managed to withstand all of these attacks alone, even when many of them originated from Godkings. They failed to kill it off.
At this moment, a resplendent spear of light pierced through the sky and stabbed the dim barrier with great force.
The Life-devouring Beast’s barrier was already nearing destruction. Now that it had to withstand the attack from the spear, it immediately crumbled. The spear continued onwards and stabbed into the Life-devouring Beast’s body with a Godking’s pulse of energy.
The wielder of the spear was a prodigy from the Sun family. He seemed to be around forty years of age, a middle-aged man. However, he was extremely courageous at this moment. He wielded a spear in one hand while both of his feet remained planted in the ground. He suddenly jolted and called out, “Mountain-splitting Spear—Crack!”
With that single word, cracks rapidly expanded from where the spear had stabbed into the Life-devouring Beast. Pieces of wood erupted.
However, as soon as the cracks appeared, they closed up due to the Life-devouring Beast’s powerful life force. Such a small wound was unable to pose any threat to it at all.
Even more Godkings arrived before the Life-devouring Beast, encircling it.
The Life-devouring Beast’s regenerative powers were very powerful, making it almost impossible to kill. However, no matter how quickly it could heal, it could not rival so many people. Ten seconds later, the Life-devouring Beast was unable to avoid death. It was smashed into pieces by the Godkings, reduced to thousands of splinters.
Only when the Life-devouring Beast died did the Overgods and Gods become relieved. Before a Godking Life-devouring Beast, they did not even have the right to approach it, let alone fight. They were as helpless as they could be.
“We actually lost eight hundred people from this alone. We can’t let this continue, or we’ll lose more than half of everyone before long,” a Godking said with an ugly expression as he looked at the cultivators who had fallen to the Life-devouring Beast.
“Gods are completely useless within the Two World Mountains, and the assistance that Overgods can provide is basically non-existent as well. I would advise us to stow them away in the divine halls we carry with us, or the weaker cultivators will just become sustenance for the Life-devouring Beasts to become stronger.”
“I agree. We can’t let everyone die here. Once we get to Hundred Saint City, there are more matters for them to attend to.”
“That’s right. The place where we can really use them is the Hundred Saint City, not the Two World Mountains. Let’s get them all to stay in the divine halls. It’ll save them from creating trouble.”
Everyone reached an agreement very soon. The leaders all produced their divine halls and let in all of their Gods and Overgods.
With that, the size of the group suddenly shrunk, going from several hundred thousand to a few tens of thousand in an instant. They were now a tenth of their original size.
All of the people outside were Godkings. Of course, over ninety-nine percent of them were sacrificial soldiers raised through Hundred Tribulations Godking Pills. The actual prodigies who had cultivated to Godking amounted to less than one percent.
As a matter of fact, some of the leaders were not even Godkings themselves, so they ended up hiding within their divine halls as well. They gave the divine halls to Jin Hong to keep.
With that, Jin Hong now carried over twenty divine halls on him. However, he also obtained the authority over the sacrificial Godkings from those organisations as well.
Every organisation had brought several hundred to over a thousand sacrificial soldiers. As a result, the sacrificial Godkings under Jin Hong’s command now amounted to over twenty thousand.