Chapter 331: Subordinate Deity - Soul-Shaking Heaven

With a light raise of his hand, the Music Box scattered among the various junk floated into Li Yu's hand. This dust-covered Music Box looked like it was made of ordinary wood.

Some patterns with distinctive Suster Civilization characteristics had somewhat faded and couldn't be seen clearly.

Trying to open the Music Box, Li Yu didn't encounter any obstruction. It was just that this Music Box seemed to have some sort of malfunction and didn't emit any sound.

This thing... Li Yu frowned tightly. Right at this moment, Stanley, who had also been watching the Music Box, suddenly frowned. Beside his ear, he heard faint whispers, as if a voice was tempting him to touch the Music Box.

Stanley shuddered all over and hurriedly reported this matter to Li Yu.

"Oh?" Li Yu's interest was piqued. This thing didn't come to bewitch him, but went to bewitch Stanley. Is it bullying the weak and fearing the strong?

However, because of Stanley's report, he roughly understood that this thing should act on the Mental Plane.

Scanning with the Force, sure enough, a layer of Mental Energy Field enveloped the Music Box, like an invisible coating, possessing a certain defensive capability.

Li Yu wanted to see what was inside. He used the Force to form a drill to break through the Music Box's Mental Energy Field. However, the moment the Force came into contact with the Music Box's body.

"Interesting..." Li Yu's interest surged. He had the crowd step back and decided to adopt the most simple and crude method.

His five fingers abruptly exerted force, directly crushing the hard Music Box into pieces.

"Ah—"

Everyone present sensed that the moment the Music Box shattered, a tyrannical mental fluctuation suddenly erupted.

The expressions of the rest of the people turned pale. They covered their respective auditory organs, yet it was of no use whatsoever. Ear-piercing screams echoing in their minds dealt them mental damage.

This mental shriek echoing in their minds revealed a sense of excitement and thrill, as thrilled as a person imprisoned for many years finally seeing the light of day again!

Whoosh—

As if a storm had formed on the spot, a dim phantom gradually manifested.

It had no facial features or bodily details, just a shadow, but its shape was bizarre and unique.

It looked like a humanoid creature with countless twisted limbs. Its shape was constantly changing, exuding a terrifying aura, like ghosts and gods from the legends of some planetary civilizations.

"Food... Food..."

The mental fluctuation spread out. There was no language, yet everyone could comprehend the meaning of this phantom creature.

An inexplicable sense of terror was born in everyone's heart. Even Stanley and the others couldn't avoid it. Only Li Yu stood in place, unaffected.

"Is it... a Demon Soul!?"

The expressions of Anthony and the others drastically changed, their faces full of horror. None of them knew that a Demon Soul was actually hidden in the Music Box.

Carol finally came back to his senses and abruptly realized that the situation in front of him had suddenly changed again. When did that monster in midair appear?

Damn... no, it's a f*cking Demon Soul. How could a Demon Soul appear outside the Ancient Starpath!? Carol was startled, not yet understanding what was going on.

Just staring at this phantom made their hearts palpitate. The special fluctuations it emitted made them begin to feel a bout of dizziness, their minds suffering waves of impact.

"Demon Soul?" Li Yu heard the exclamations of Carol and the others. Stanley forcefully suppressed the horror in his heart and transmitted the information he had just purchased at the Serpent's Nest to Li Yu.

Among them was information about this Demon Soul. This was a type of spiritual entity monster that "frequently" appeared in the Ancient Starpath.

This so-called 'frequently' was also in comparison to other cosmic calamities.

This kind of monster would inexplicably appear in spaceships sailing through the Ancient Starpath, and then devour all the active mental consciousness entities within, leaving behind only empty shells.

Because it was a spiritual entity, it was almost immune to physical attacks. For lower-tier lifeforms, it was simply a dimensionality reduction strike.

However, precisely because of this trait, the Demon Soul was also coveted by many large factions and frequently captured. The Meditation Research Institute had published many papers on it.

They listed many uses for this thing, mainly being relatively useful in terms of mental power. However, most were just hypotheses, and actual research results were not many.

But Demon Souls were difficult to capture. No one knew the pattern of their appearance, making them extremely rare.

The Music Box itself was a sealing container. The Demon Soul had been trapped inside for who knows how long, completely unable to contact the outside world. At this moment, it was very weak and in an extremely hungry state.

As soon as it escaped, it briefly observed its surroundings and then impatiently rushed towards Carol and the others. Its mental fluctuation transmitted an incomparably thirsty and hungry emotion.

In its eyes, these people were walking delicious meals.

"Quick! The Demon Soul is coming!"

Carol, Stanley, and the others tightened their expressions. They hurriedly grabbed their weapons and hurled all sorts of attacks at the Demon Soul.

However, when these attacks hit the Demon Soul, the effect was very limited.

Most of the attacks penetrated right through its body. Only the attacks of Stanley and the others, which had the Force attached, could deal limited damage to it.

Enduring a massive amount of attacks, the Demon Soul was basically unscathed. Twisting its bizarre body, it swiftly approached Carol.

Seeing that the eerie Demon Soul was about to stick to him, Carol's expression drastically changed, and he frantically retreated.

Swish!

Right at this moment, Golden Chains suddenly pierced through the Demon Soul from behind. The Demon Soul immediately stopped and began to tremble violently.

A massive amount of Golden Runes scattered from Li Yu's hand and formed the Golden Chains, piercing through the Demon Soul.

Although the other party was an A-Rank Spiritual Entity, he was a genuine Deity.

Possessing A-grade Mental Power only meant possessing the foundation to become a Deity.

To become a true Deity still required a lot of effort. Li Yu was also able to become a Deity through various coincidences.

The Golden Runes continuously spread within the Demon Soul's body. Carol and the others saw that the Demon Soul, which couldn't be harmed despite enduring their attacks, was heavily injured by a thin beam of light. It trembled violently, seemingly struggling madly, like a fish that had been skewered but wasn't dead yet.

The frequency of the mental fluctuation emitted by the Demon Soul revealed intense despair and unwillingness, making everyone's hearts infected with this emotion as well. It was as if they saw a beast at the end of its rope wailing and roaring, and they couldn't help but feel sorrow for it.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire... This is too unlucky!

"Deity... Deity... You are a Deity!" The Demon Soul let out a miserable howl. This mental fluctuation allowed everyone to clearly understand its meaning.

The Demon Soul possessed extremely high intelligence. In fact, it was very difficult for a creature of this level not to possess intelligence.

Deity? Carol and the others couldn't help but cast horrified gazes at that Masked Man. They had been active in the Ancient Starpath within the Amethyst Civilization all year round.

They were too far away from the Radiant Council, so the term 'Deity' was very unfamiliar to them.

"Spare me... I am willing to become your Subordinate Deity!?" The Demon Soul begged for mercy. The painful mental fluctuation was simultaneously transmitted into the minds of the rest of the people, making them couldn't help but sympathize.

Looking at the unmoving Li Yu, they had a momentary illusion that the Masked Man was the big boss, and the Demon Soul was just a victim.

Spiritual entity big brother, fighting, you must succeed!

These baffling thoughts were dispelled by the crowd. This was only because of the mental infection passively emitted by the Demon Soul that made them feel this way.

"Subordinate Deity?" Li Yu paused for a moment in his heart, then sized up the Demon Soul from top to bottom. This thing was pitch-black and didn't look very presentable.

He had always been somewhat resistant to things with a poor appearance.

However, if he killed this thing, he also didn't know what use it would have. He wasn't a professional either; he couldn't just carry this thing and go look for the Meditation Research Institute.

If he let it become his Subordinate Deity, he could pick up an A-Tier combat power for free. This bit of flaw in appearance was also acceptable.

However, Li Yu was a half-baked Deity. He fundamentally didn't know how to convert a Subordinate Deity. But in front of the Demon Soul, he certainly couldn't let the other party know, avoiding leaving any hidden dangers.

His eyes shifted slightly. He maintained his posture, the Golden Runes suppressing the Demon Soul, and said in a deep voice: "Show me your sincerity!"

Under a life-and-death crisis, the Demon Soul fundamentally didn't dare to hesitate in the slightest, immediately transmitting a mental fluctuation: "Please tell me your Divine Name. I am willing to open my mental defenses and let you leave your Divine Imprint!"

Through this sentence, Li Yu roughly knew how to turn the other party into his Subordinate Deity.

The most important thing to become a Subordinate Deity was not the method, but whether the other party was willing.

A Subordinate Deity wasn't a believer. Their main function wasn't to provide Faith, but combat power.

After being told his Divine Name, the Demon Soul also began to open its mental defenses, revealing its Mental Core.

This was the product of the physical manifestation of mental power after reaching an A-Rank Spiritual Entity. What a Deity displayed was what Li Yu called the Divinity Core.

The so-called Divine Imprint, for Li Yu, should be the Allspark Runes.

A massive amount of Golden Runes merged into the other party's Mental Core. The Demon Soul let out a miserable howl again, and its mental fluctuation continuously dissipated, forcing Stanley and the others to retreat once more.

Then, under everyone's gaze, those Golden Runes began to spread along the Demon Soul's ferocious and twisted body, seemingly undergoing some kind of special modification.

Wisps of black mist drifted away. The Demon Soul's body actually stopped twisting and instead began to emit a sense of holiness.

The surrounding mechanical parts trembled and hummed, rushing into the Demon Soul's body from all directions, then dissolving into liquid and beginning to form a new body.

This lasted for about half an hour. The metal of the entire Serpent's Nest had been completely consumed, and this place had thoroughly become a flat piece of land.

The Demon Soul's brand-new body was born. Its appearance was humanoid, about the same height as Li Yu, with a white-gold metal color scheme. The mechanical structures at the joints interlocked with each other, and its streamlined limbs were perfectly crafted according to the golden ratio.

It looked somewhat blankly at its new body, then looked towards Li Yu not far away. Kneeling on one knee, it respectfully said: "Great Primordial Celestial Sovereign, please bestow upon me a new name."

Although the Demon Soul became Li Yu's Subordinate Deity, it didn't become fanatical. It still retained its own thoughts. The greatest significance of a Subordinate Deity to a Chief God lies in combat, not in providing Faith.

Li Yu pondered for a moment, then grinned and said: "Then you shall be called Soul-Shaking Heaven."

The Demon Soul raised its head and said in a deep voice: "From now on, my name is Soul-Shaking Heaven!"

A surging aura swept out, announcing its rebirth. As Li Yu's Subordinate Deity, relying on the Allspark Runes, it completed a metamorphosis and once again possessed a physical body, albeit a Mechanical Body.

Carol, Stanley, Anthony, and the others looked dumbfounded at the unimaginable scene before them.

How did that ferocious and twisted Soul-Shaking Heaven from before turn into this appearance?

With their status, they couldn't reach the level of a Deity at all, completely not understanding what Li Yu was doing.

Although Soul-Shaking Heaven had a mechanized body, its combat power was mainly still concentrated in the aspect of mental power.

If one didn't have a way to counter mental power, they would probably suffer a great loss facing it.

Since the Demon Soul had become one of his own, Li Yu pondered for a moment and inquired: "Are you from the Suster Civilization?"

"Suster... such a familiar name..." Soul-Shaking Heaven was somewhat confused. If he was from the Suster Civilization, then he had existed for over 100,000 years.

For a spiritual entity without a physical body to attach to, this was already a very long time.

"...I don't know where I came from either, but I seem to remember the Suster Civilization." Soul-Shaking Heaven explained:

"A civilization that didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, attempting to create a Level Nine Mental Entity."

"Level Nine Mental Entity..." Li Yu slightly narrowed his eyes. The Tiered Mental Strength Classification was passed down from the Titan Civilization.

Li Yu was currently only a Level Five Mental Entity. Apart from slowly increasing mental power through Faith, Li Yu still didn't have a regularized method to increase mental power.

As for Stanley, Anthony, and the others, they were even more confused.

"I don't know the specific details either. Anyway, the price paid for it was the demise of the entire civilization." Soul-Shaking Heaven shook his head. Then his mechanical brows furrowed tightly, and he hesitated: "Spiritual entities of our form seem to have been born because of this."

He remembered some more memory fragments. They were indeed from the Suster Civilization, but they weren't transformed from the spiritual entities of biological creatures after death.

They seemed to contain some kind of immortal trait to be able to exist for so long, but this also caused their consciousness to twist, becoming one of the calamities of the Ancient Starpath.

The original location of the Suster Civilization was not within the Ancient Starpath.

But for some unknown reason, tens of thousands of years after its demise, some inexplicable ruins actually appeared in the Ancient Starpath.

The Demon Soul even became one of the quite famous calamities among them.

Li Yu pondered for a moment. I'm afraid those large civilizations also know the origins of the Demon Soul clearly, and perhaps even grasp more intelligence.

Because of Soul-Shaking Heaven's devouring, all the obstructions around the Serpent's Nest had disappeared.

The battle here just now had already attracted quite a few evildoers in Lant Hub to gather over. They stretched their heads out, wanting to see exactly what had happened and whether there was any opportunity to pick up scraps.

Li Yu scanned his surroundings and instructed: "Take the people and leave here first."

Receiving the order, Stanley immediately escorted Carol, Anthony, and the others to leave along with Olena.

Under Li Yu's powerful strength, they naturally didn't dare to resist.

Carol sighed and groaned, not knowing how the situation had turned out like this.

Anthony lowered his head, his snake pupils shrinking from time to time, not knowing what he was considering.

(End of this chapter)