Chapter 769

At this moment, ahead of her, a particularly massive stone appeared.

This stone was as large as a small planet.

Yet its appearance was far more grotesque than any planet.

Under the scouring of dark energy, the entire stone was utterly black.

The stone was covered in sharp spines, each extending tens of kilometers in length.

Angesite landed on one of the spines, sensing something.

"Holy Realm!"

She whispered.

She shot abruptly toward the base of the spine.

There, a cave led deep into the stone.

Yes, stones within the Dark Abyss rarely had solid cores—they were mostly hollow—but the secrets within this stone were immense.

Angesite descended deep into the stone.

Finally, the Holy Realm-level dark creature she had sensed drew near.

Angesite quickly saw the form of the Holy Realm-level dark creature.

It was a dark creature radiating endless resentment!

This dark creature's body was intangible—lacking physical form, it was instead a peculiar energy entity.

In the Dark Abyss, such dark creatures were numerous.

Roughly half had physical forms; half did not.

If this thing wandered onto the Continent of Gods, it would be a standard ghost.

Or, one could call it a resentful spirit, an evil spirit.

An immaterial, immensely powerful entity.

But when this Holy Realm-level resentful spirit saw Angesite enter, it did not move—it merely hung its head, staring blankly at its chest.

There, a hole had been torn open!

Angesite's foot hovered in midair as she walked slowly forward.

With her strength, she could easily determine this Holy Realm-level resentful spirit was not the source of the evil whispers.

This spirit was far too weak!

Yet the spirit's condition stirred Angesite's curiosity.

Resentful spirits had no physical form.

Even if a hole were punched through their bodies, they could rapidly heal.

But this spirit's chest had a hole that remained.

Of course, that was merely the location of the chest.

Do resentful spirits even possess organs like a heart?

Though Angesite had spent considerable time in the Dark Abyss, her understanding of resentful spirits was not deep.

Soon, Angesite reached the front of the resentful spirit.

The spirit finally sensed her arrival.

Immediately, it opened its mouth and emitted an ear-splitting scream.

This scream was not merely piercing.

It was an attack on the soul itself.

This was a Holy Realm-level resentful spirit—its technique might overwhelm even legendary beings.

But to Angesite, it posed no problem whatsoever.

Angesite's expression did not change.

She seemed utterly unaffected by the scream; she reached out, pinched the spirit with her fingers, and captured it in her hand.

After capturing the spirit, Angesite examined it.

"It seems something is missing."

Angesite thought.

Inside the hole in the spirit's chest, something crucial was indeed absent.

And that crucial thing was very likely the heart!

The resentful spirit's heart!

But not a physical heart!

Angesite tried to speak to the spirit, but clearly, it could not communicate at all.

Angesite gave up and destroyed the spirit outright.

This time, Angesite did not hesitate—she immediately stripped the dark rules the spirit carried and claimed them for herself.

This was a shortcut to rapid growth for dark creatures.

In the past, Angesite dared not take such shortcuts.

Her strength had risen too quickly; she could barely contain it—how could she dare enhance herself further this way?

But now, Angesite had no worries at all.

With the Light and Dark Rules in her possession, dark power was merely pure energy to her—no longer capable of corrupting her soul.

She needed to further strengthen herself, to uncover more dark secrets.

Angesite was still distinct from pure dark creatures.

In a war between two Holy Realm-level dark creatures, the victor would completely devour the loser.

In comparison, Angest merely stripped away the dark rules it carried.

Even so, Angest's power surged again, rising rapidly.

She had already been very close to the Fourth Rank of the Sacred Domain.

This time, after taking the shortcut through dark creatures, Angest successfully reached the Fourth Stage of the Sacred Domain!

On the Continent of Gods, this was already an invincible stage.

Generally, even the most gifted Sacred Domain cultivators would choose to ascend to godhood at the Fourth Stage of the Sacred Domain.

And they would not delay further.

Reaching the Fifth Rank of the Sacred Domain was extremely difficult.

It seemed that the Fifth Rank of the Sacred Domain required only one additional rule to be comprehended beyond the Fourth Rank.

But the difficulty lay in this:

Existing knowledge strongly interfered with the comprehension of new knowledge.

Comprehending—or even contacting—the rules was not a matter of raw power.

It required more knowledge and greater intellectual capacity.

And your existing rules in fact interfered with your comprehension of new rules.

This was certain.

Therefore, a Legendary breakthrough from the Sacred Domain was simpler than advancing from the First Stage to the Second Stage of the Sacred Domain.

At the Legendary stage, you were a blank sheet.

At the First Stage of the Sacred Domain, you made your first stroke upon that blank sheet.

At the Second Stage of the Sacred Domain, you made your second stroke upon that blank sheet.

The later you progressed, the more strokes you had made upon that blank sheet.

But the more carefully you could not make arbitrary strokes.

Because what you drew was yourself; what you drew earlier would determine what you drew later—you couldn't just scribble randomly, could you?

Thus, Sacred Domain cultivation took longer and longer as one progressed.

On the Continent of Gods, even the most gifted Sacred Domain cultivators chose to ascend to godhood at the Fourth Stage of the Sacred Domain, for delaying further would waste too much time.

It was not worth it.

"Fourth Stage."

Angest stood there, sensing the changes in her strength.

She had no intention of becoming a god.

As an elf, she had reached the Fourth Stage of the Sacred Domain in just over a thousand years—her extraordinary talent was evident.

Of course, this also proved that in darkness, there truly were shortcuts.