Chapter 321 - 320

Negotiation?

Bei Yi and Evlyn, trapped in the Linglong Tower, exchanged glances.

The same was true for the four who were stuck in the Sanctuary, their faces frozen in disbelief.

They could hear the voice of the New God.

So...

What did that mean?

Their God...

Was backing down?

The top four members of the Sanctuary could hardly believe their ears.

And they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, either.

Facing a human being.

The great New God actually showed a flattering expression...

Their faith was on the brink of collapse at that moment.

Their belief was wavering.

"Rejected."

The casual tone rang out, which made the New God’s face stiffen.

Then—he changed his face in an instant, revealing a cruel expression with a cold snort.

Subsequently.

The four high-ranking members of the Sanctuary trapped in the Linglong Tower concurrently groaned.

A dense black fog surged outward from their bodies like it was worthless.

When it hit the wall of the Linglong Tower, it disappeared quietly.

Their power was dwindling.

Their faces were aging.

The Sanctuary’s four people’s faces changed, quickly realizing what was going on.

The New God was extracting the power from their bodies through some method.

As the power was drawn away, the life force inside their bodies was also rapidly fading away.

No!

The four of them wanted to howl, they wanted to beg for mercy.

But they found they couldn’t control their bodies. They couldn’t even utter a syllable.

Bei Yi and Evlyn were also affected.

Perhaps because they couldn’t follow the path of the faith system, at most only obtaining power through the so-called "Seeds of God’s Power" and not for very long.

Compared to the Sanctuary’s four high-ranking members’ rapid aging and weakening, the speed at which the energy in their bodies was being drawn out was relatively slow.

But the sensation of the life force in their bodies being quickly drawn away was very bad.

The body of an artificial human didn’t have potential.

Its functionality was set in stone the moment it was created, with no possibility for improvement.

Once signs of degeneration appeared, it was hard to recover by self-adjusting.

However, faced with this situation, they were also powerless.

The chip equipped with artificial intelligence was still functioning.

However, the "Seed of God’s Power" implanted in their bodies had intervened forcefully and violently seized control of their bodies.

Noticing the strange behavior of the six people, Linglong immediately relayed this to Li Jing through a mental communication.

"Master, there’s something strange about these six."

"I know."

Li Jing responded to the message and squinted at the health bar above the New God’s head.

As he was connected to the Lifebound Magic Instrument, he was somewhat linked to Linglong, and they shared a body and a mind. He could easily sense what was happening in the Linglong Tower, he did not need Linglong to remind him.

The moment Bei Yi and the others in the tower encountered difficulties, he had sensed it.

Simultaneously, right before his eyes.

The health bar above the New God’s head, which initially displayed 11231, showed a gradually increasing trend.

In less than a breath’s time, it had grown to the level of 11314.

It was clear.

The power that was being extracted from Bei Yi and the others’ bodies was all converging on the New God.

No.

To be precise.

This power had become something like nourishment, feeding the New God’s body and enhancing it.

The convergence of power was temporary.

It could give the recipient a short-term boost, but it wouldn’t increase their inherent power by much.

This evidence confirmed it.

This so-called god was nothing more than a joke.

With a contemptuous smile, Li Jing lifted his foot and stomped on the ground heavily.

"Boom!"

An unimaginably fearsome force caused the entire subspace to vibrate. Simultaneously, he was launched like a cannonball, streaking into the sky with a trail of afterimages, and charged straight toward the New God.

The New God’s face changed slightly upon seeing this. He wanted to retreat immediately, but the Linglong Tower was behind him.

Li Jing’s unassisted speed was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, he drew near.

Unable to retreat and still in the process of powering up, the New God gritted his teeth, let out a roar, and nine thick tentacles shot out from his back, lashing at the air in front of him.

"Bam bam bam!"

With the tentacles whipping through the air, the immense force generated terrifying sounds of air explosions.

Facing the concentrated attack of these nine thick tentacles, Li Jing swung his Unnamed Taoist Tool to deliver a blow.

"Boom!"

A loud noise rumbled through the sky.

With the New God’s wailing, the nine tentacles extending from its back were all broken, spraying a shower of dark and filthy yet strangely fragrant blood.

The New God’s giant body couldn’t resist the force and slammed back into the Linglong Tower.

At the same time, the health bar above its head reduced by several hundred points.

However, his attack was not without merit.

Li Jing had been pushed back by the concentrated attack of nine tentacles. He was sent flying backward and landed on his feet without moving. Still, due to the intense impact, his body continuously slid backward.

Facing this situation, a sparkle appeared in Li Jing’s eyes.

One collision had clarified the situation for him.

This so-called New God was also walking the path of physical strength.

That cursed power, was just the icing on the cake, similar to a monster’s talent.

That attack just now left his arm feeling slightly sore.

He was able to feel this sensation, despite having entered the God’s Hidden Truth state through sheer physical strength, which gave him an idea of how powerful the New God’s physical body must be.

The difference was a significant stage.

Even someone as powerful as Shenmin was helpless against him, who had entered the state of God’s Hidden Truth during the Six Realm, let alone having his Taoist Tool stolen.

At that time, Li Jing’s God’s Hidden Truth was not yet at full level.

There was also the enormous gap of the Seventh Realm in between.

The gap between the Eighth Realm and the Seventh is naturally considerable.

However, the difference between the Sixth and Seventh Realm goes beyond just power, but also includes the pronounced influence of the celestial aura that marks the Seventh Realm as a watershed!

When considering hierarchy among species.

The New God might posses a status even higher than the Gods-Human Race, who are descended from the Ancient God!

The situation appears rather grave.

But at the same time, it tells Li Jing.

This New God might very well be a genuine "God"!

Unless it surpasses the God-Human Race who claim to be the descendants of the Ancient God, how can it earn the title of "God"?

"Thud!"

Unnamed, smeared with the New God’s blood, crashed to the ground. Li Jing harnessed the momentum to steady himself and then with a loud shout, he lunged, charging again.

On the other side, the New God braced against the Linglong Tower, seething with anger. The nine severed tentacles instantly regenerated and lunged forward in the form of thick and pointed spikes, at a speed surpassing even an Immortal Item’s sword light.

This battle strategy was different from before.

At this time, Li Jing’s tactics were also different.

He didn’t leap into the air with the help of the momentum but instead, he sprinted across the ground.

His agility was on a whole different level now.

Considering that under the state of God’s Hidden Truth, he would temporarily lose all magic skills, even the most basic Sky Control would be unachievable.

In the sky, he could only move in a straight line.

On the ground, however, this wasn’t a problem.

The enhancements brought by God’s Hidden Truth were comprehensive, not just limited to physical strength.

With his dynamic vision, which was formidable enough to be deemed terrifying, Li Jing clearly charted the trajectory of the nine piercing incoming tentacles. He evaded three of them by continuously shifting his footing, then countered the unavoidable one with a crushing swing of Unnamed. Thrusting a punch immediately after, he met another tentacle coming from the side.

"Boom!"

Li Jing stumbled mid-stride, feeling a sharp pain at his knuckles.

His defense was torn open.

The boost in physical strength that God’s Hidden Truth offered him, ultimately prevailed according to his own cultivation level and potential, it wasn’t limitless.

Compared to the New God of the Eighth Realm, who walked the physical path, he wasn’t qualified yet.

However, it wasn’t a big issue.

The blow from the New God merely breached his defense, the injuries were not severe.

At this moment, he was not relying on his own physical body, but the damaged Taoist Tool Unnamed.

Taking advantage of the stumbling motion, Li Jing seamlessly dodged another incoming tentacle and quickly transitioned into a bow step position.

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, the subspace trembled.

Li Jing took the force of the next three tentacles hitting against his back like a steadfast mountain.

"Boom!"

The Wind King Mysterious Clothing shattered instantaneously on Li Jing’s body, his physical defense was torn, and a large chunk of flesh was torn away from his shoulder.

The tentacles of the New God could break his defense.

But they couldn’t penetrate through his body.

The three tentacles that hit, tore away large chunks of flesh and were flung high into the air.

Li Jing seemed to be unfazed by the pain, without even blinking his eyes, he reached out like lightning and grabbed one of the tentacles, sandwiching it under his armpit as he flipped himself up.

"Got you now!"

A cold chuckle that caused the countenance of the New God to transform.

Li Jing didn’t give him time to react, his hand clenching the tentacle, he forcefully twisted his body mid-air.

"Whoosh!"

With unprecedented brute strength acting on it, the New God who was braced against the Linglong Tower couldn’t stand up in time, he was yanked up by force causing his colossal body to rise into the air and hurtle forward.

The distance between them was already quite insignificant.

With this pull from Li Jing, they were now almost face to face.

After exerting so much energy to finally get close to the New God, how could Li Jing be polite?

With a loud shout, he swung Unnamed straight at the New God’s face.

The New God was wary of Li Jing.

But what he feared even more, without a doubt, was the damaged Taoist Tool Unnamed in his hand.

Being dragged in mid-air, his face was about to smash into Unnamed. The New God quickly raised his arm to block.

"Boom!"

With a loud bang accompanied by a wailing scream, the New God’s robust arm was shattered on the spot by Unnamed.

The entire arm twisted and deformed, hitting his own face, halting his gigantic rising body in mid-air, and a large chunk of flesh from arm being torn away by the striking Unnamed.

But these were just minor things.

The worse part for him was.

The power of Li Jing’s strike was terrifyingly potent.

Blocking it was definitely better than not blocking it.

However, the tremendous shock from his shattered arm smashing into his face left him feeling dizzy.

In his daze, he saw Li Jing, with a friendly face and the bat in both his hands, ready to swing like a baseball player.

"Spar..."

As the strange syllable sounded out, the corresponding syllable for "Mercy" hadn’t left his mouth yet, when Li Jing’s muscles contracted, swinging the bat.

"Boom!"

The sharply pointed Unnamed almost tore apart the space in an instant, causing the originally stable subspace to distort, making direct contact with the lower jaw of the New God, full of tentacles.

"Bang!"

Blood splattered everywhere.

"Experience +11406."

The experience prompt sounded in his ear.

The gigantic headless corpse of the New God flipped in the air and fell.

"Boom."

A heavy mass fell to the ground, and all was silent.

Inside the Linglong Tower.

In a short time, the four high-ranking members of the Sanctuary, who were nearly drained of their energy by the New God, were in an abysmally weak state with a deserted and exhausted look, having barely any vitality left inside them.

Even though they had already seen the essence of the New God when their powers were being drained.

At this moment, they still couldn’t believe their own eyes.

The God they worshipped was seemingly killed by a man who, in an exceedingly "simple and honest" manner, smashed its head with a bat.

From their perspective.

They couldn’t grasp how strong Li Jing was, leaping into the state of God’s Hidden Truth, much less could they understand how terrifying the damaged Taoist Tool Unnamed in his hand was.

In their view.

Although the New God chose to admit defeat instantly, it was evidently in a better position when the conflict between the two erupted.

The injuries Li Jing inflicted on the New God were almost negligible and could heal instantly, but Li Jing himself was badly injured by the New God’s onslaught.

However, in the blink of an eye, the situation was flipped around.

He, had committed Godslaying.

It was an instant killing...

Watching Li Jing stand there, colored by the blood that soaked him, the four individuals from the Sanctuary stared blankly.

Their faith crumbled as their worshipped God was struck down right in front of them, their internal power nearly all siphoned away.

And due to these factors...

The final traces of life inside the four of them quietly vanished, their bodies collapsed to the ground, reduced to old corpses.

Bei Yi and Evlyn fared slightly better,

though not by much.

The youthful appearances of the two remained,

but they were so weak they could not stand and fell to the ground.

The sight of their New God’s head exploding from Li Jing’s strike left the pair pale as death.

At the front of the New God’s corpse...

Li Jing exhaled lightly, the horrifying wound on his back, reduced almost to a pile of rotten flesh, was visibly healing rapidly.

But he didn’t care about his wound at this moment.

Anyway, it hurts at first, then there’s no feeling.

Under the effect of God’s Hidden Truth, his endurance is unusually strong.

Peering at the headless corpse of New God, Li Jing, drooling, fondled the Unnamed Taoist Tool in his hand.

The Unnamed Taoist Tool - devoid of any character beyond its toughness and unbeknownst to some needed repairs - was indeed the greatest contributor to the battle.

If it wasn’t for this deadly tool in his hand, he might not have been able to deal with the New God whose power kept increasing.

The Taoist Tool, it truly was a Taoist Tool.

Even though it’s just a decayed Taoist Tool without any power, its hardness and weight alone can cause immeasurable damage.

What’s harder to come by,

is the compatibility between the Unnamed Taoist Tool and his God’s Hidden Truth skill.

Under God’s Hidden Truth, he lost all his magic skills, but his physical strength was great.

Combine them and it’s ruthless.

He swept back the Unnamed Taoist tool with his hand, and Li Jing turned his head.

A bright light rushed to him, Spirit Weapon Qingfeng appeared with an Evil Cultivator’s head in hand - proud of his accomplishment.

This Evil Cultivator had been slain by him quite some time ago.

Mainly when the New God squeezed Bei Yi and the others’ power, the black fog in the Subspace had already dissipated, the Evil Cultivator had no place to hide.

Facing Spirit Weapon Qingfeng - a Seventh Realm cultivator with an Immortal Item as its body, the Evil Cultivator who had burned a lot of his power to ambush Li Jing was slain in one encounter.

Spirit Weapon Qingfeng didn’t come over earlier due to fear of disturbing Li Jing.

As for Li Jing, he saw Spirit Weapon Qingfeng holding the Evil Cultivator’s head and silently waved his hand off.

"Throw this ill-omened thing away."

"Oh."

Spirit Weapon Qingfeng responded, casually throwing away the Evil Cultivator’s head in his hand, his gaze fell upon the New God’s headless corpse with anticipation.

Seeing this, Li Jing twitched the corner of his mouth and recalled him.

There’s something off about his Spirit Weapon, always wanting to chop something.

He knew this,

but even after the enemy was dead, it still crazily craved to administer an additional strike, which was outrageous.

As for this, Li Jing didn’t know what to comment.

In any case, what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.

After recalling Flying Sword Spirit Soldier, Li Jing glanced towards the Linglong Tower.

The colossal entrance that came from the arrival of the New God had disappeared at some points.

Four executive level members of the Sanctuary were all killed at once, as Bei Yi and Evlyn whose breaths were still lingering were sitting on the ground. Li Jing shook his head and signaled Linglong Tower to return.

Linglong understood, the tower that had expanded to a height of about two thousand stands shot up into the sky, then rapidly shrunk into a golden light and flew back into his body.

The task was done and Linglong’s voice squeaked into Li Jing’s ear.

"Master, this beast’s bones are precious. If we consume them, it will greatly benefit me and Qingfeng brother."

?

Li Jing paused slightly,

Linglong’s sudden claim surprised him.

Looking at the New God’s gigantic body, Li Jing asked curiously.

"The bones of this creature truly benefit you two?"

"Absolutely!"

Linglong hummed, adding,

"I can’t explain the specifics, but they are beneficial. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Qingfeng brother."

Before her words fell, Spirit Weapon Qingfeng said coldly.

"I am not a brother."

"..."

Li Jing,

these two Spirit Weapons quarreling like siblings, will it never end?

Just as he was speechless, Spirit Weapon Qingfeng said.

"The bones of this creature are indeed special, containing a mysterious neutral power that can greatly benefit me and Linglong sister. Also, its blood also contains something similar and the concentration is even higher, but since we are artifacts, we can’t absorb it."

Hearing his words, Li Jing raised an eyebrow.

He didn’t know what kind of mysterious neutral power Spirit Weapon Qingfeng was talking about,

However, when he mentioned that the New God’s blood also contained this power, and that it was even more concentrated than the power in the bones, Li Jing had a guess.

This neutral power could possibly be known as Divinity.

Now, Li Jing finally understood.

So, it turns out that Flying Sword Spirit Soldier had his eyes on the New God’s corpse not to give another strike, but because he was coveting the New God’s body.

It’s just that due to his cold and somewhat antisocial nature, he didn’t say a word.

Shaking his head quietly, Li Jing gave a command with his mind, Linglong and Qingfeng both appeared.

On their arrival, Li Jing fetched over thirty empty buckets originally used for storing pure water from his storage space and threw them on the ground, then handed one to Linglong.

?

Linglong,

"Qingfeng, deal with the corpse, take out the skeleton. Linglong, you collect the blood, don’t waste it, you don’t need to worry about the one on the ground."

Li Jing ordered,

"You two are mature Spirit Weapons now, and you’ve learned how to work with your own hands. Hurry up and tidy this thing up. Divide the skeleton in half. Leave the flesh and viscera, I’ll take care of it later."

The two looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

Li Jing didn’t concern himself with them further, but hovered above Bei Yi and Evlyn, who were sitting on the ground.

Confronted by one person, Bei Yi and Evlyn’s fair faces were entirely pale.

Li Jing looked at them and said indifferently,

"If you have something to say, now’s the time."

"...."

Bei Yi remained silent, then suddenly spoke,

"If you want to kill... don’t waste..."

"Thud!"

A crimson flash, and the dark red Fighting Thunder pierced through Bei Yi’s chest.

"Experience +10422."

"Thump."

Bei Yi’s face drained of color, fell backward to the ground, and lost all signs of life.

"..."

Evlyn.

Li Jing said he was giving them time, a chance to say their last words.

But his actions were ruthless, showing them no mercy.

This sight, after instilling a sense of fear in Evlyn, stirred up a new emotion in her — terror.

This newborn emotion, Evlyn could not understand for the time being.

Face-to-face with Li Jing, she trembled uncontrollably.

She did not know why she was trembling, only that she was completely unable to control it.

Staring at Li Jing, who had not laid a hand on her, Evlyn briefly pursed her lips, then asked,

"What will happen to Bei Yi and me now that we’ve fallen into your hands?"

"I will hand you over to the people of White Hawk."

Li Jing replied indifferently.

"Whether you’ll continue to exist, it all depends on your destiny."

Evlyn nodded, then asked another question.

"Can you tell me why you relentlessly pursued us?"

"If there’s a chance in the future, I suggest you two ask Adela yourselves."

Li Jing shrugged.

Silent at Li Jing’s suggestion, Evlyn nodded again and then spoke with her eyes closed.

"Go ahead, this body is already too weak to be of any use. If there’s a chance in the future, we will meet again."

"Unlikely."

Li Jing shook his head, flicked out a Fighting Thunder with his fingertip that pierced her chest, and ended the life of her broken body.

"Experience +10387."

With the experience reminder popping up, Li Jing waved his hand, drew out a Flying Sword Spirit Soldier to behead them both, and stored their heads in his storage space.

These two were definitely going to be used to trade for money from Jester.

He was unconcerned that his true identity might be exposed.

After all, including Adela, all three were in Jester’s hands.

Unless Jester was brainless, he surely wouldn’t cause trouble for Li Jing.

Even if he found out, there would be no harm done.

In any case, this kind of thing couldn’t be concealed forever.

Compared to that, it was more practical to get another batch of Spirit Crystals from Jester.

As for whether there would be a chance to see Evlyn and the others again in the future, Li Jing didn’t hold much hope.

If it were possible,

he would love for the trio to come and deliver more experience in the future.

Unfortunately, Jester wasn’t stupid; he wouldn’t use such inhumane Artificial Intelligence.

If he had to use them, their personal traits would definitely be erased in advance.

Additionally, if White Hawk had similar plans in the future, they would definitely ensure that the AI does not possess independent personalities to avoid more tragedies like the Desert Fortress incident.

Having dealt with Bei Yi and Evlyn, Li Jing exhaled slowly and turned his head.

In just a short while, the new god’s bones had been separated from his body by Spirit Weapon Qingfeng.

The typically sharp-tongued yet soft-hearted Qingfeng was very considerate of Linglong by not making her handle the blood, and created an opening in the new god’s body for the blood to drain out.

By now, over a dozen buckets had been placed next to Linglong.

Seeing this, Li Jing took out the Consonance Heart from his storage space, hesitated for a moment, and then walked over.

Ignoring the already collected "bucketed" blood, Li Jing placed the Consonance Heart into the pool of blood pouring out of the new god’s severed neck.

When it came to saving resources, he always did his best.

As the Consonance Heart touched the pool of blood, it quickly stained with a layer of blood.

However, other than being stained with the color, there was no special reaction.

Li Jing frowned at this.

Could it be that his judgment was wrong, and this so-called new god was not a "god"?

No sooner had he thought this, when he saw a crack appearing on the surface of the Consonance Heart.

At the same time, a notification sounded in his ear.

"Obtained germinated Life Tree Seed, can merge with Momentary Space to accomplish Limit Breakthrough, do you wish to merge?"

?

Li Jing slowly typed out a question mark.

What on earth?

Life Tree Seed?

This...

Isn’t it the Consonance Heart?

Furrowing his brows slightly, Li Jing silently chose to merge.

Although he didn’t know what was going on, since there was a prompt, he might as well follow it.

The Consonance Heart in front of his eyes couldn’t really be said to have sprouted, but it did crack open.

How to open up space using this, Li Jing had no idea.

There was a guide, so he just needed to follow it.

The arrival of this prompt also made Li Jing understand one thing.

Boundary Breakthrough, it’s not necessary to have a trinity, there can also be other conditions.

As soon as Li Jing made his choice, the cracked Consonance Heart quietly disappeared, then appeared in his storage space.

At the same time, a hint of green quietly peeked out from the crack in the Consonance Heart.

"Successfully merged, acquired Limit Breakthrough skill, Little Universe."

The notification sounded again, and Li Jing subconsciously cast his thoughts into his storage space.

At this moment, his storage space underwent an earth-shaking transformation.

Inside, life began to erupt.

A wide expanse of earth gradually appeared, swallowing the budding Consonance Heart, and then little sprouts of green emerged all around it.

When the transformation reached this point, it ceased.

Li Jing had a realization.

His storage space can now accommodate living things.

Yet, to further develop, the Consonance Heart needs to grow further.

To do this, he needs higher-level Divine blood to irrigate it.

Simply put,

The blood of the new god is inadequate to help the Consonance Heart grow robustly, it can only barely make it germinate.