The duo moved quickly toward the demons. After three hours of walking, Ruri pulled out the golden tablet and communicated with the two groups. There were fifteen hours left to complete the two days of exploration.
"Rivine reported that she tried to negotiate with all her might... in the end, her group had to eliminate all the demons and didn’t have much time to explore. However, they found some strange herbs in their rings that seem pretty valuable; they’re probably the treasure of the place."
Ruri commented, and neither she nor the whale believed in Rivine’s diplomacy. Unfortunately, Rivine and Nixis always had to be together due to the synergistic nature of their powers. Both were somewhat extreme regarding everyone and everything that didn’t worship the whale. That’s why the three young Feys were left in the other group.
"Rehvka, on the other hand, reported that her group faced some conflicts but had time to explore. They found a colossal Earth Essence Crystal vein. It was surrounded by demons, and it was impossible to carry everything discreetly... in the end, they ended up fighting. The Shadow God sect’s demons seem to have secret communication methods among them. Quickly, all from that secret world were summoned. The result, as you might guess, was a mess."
Ruri concluded, and the whale snorted. In the end, all the demons became fertilizer for the demonic metal. Afterward, they’d need to ensure the young Feys’ mental development wasn’t harmed by this. Currently, the two groups were spending the last hours collecting as many items as possible without any live enemies to contest.
When they finally approached a new region, they climbed to the top of a mountain and spotted a distant location.
The view revealed a circular lake with a diameter of thousands of meters. Instead of water, the lake was filled with a black liquid like ink, which absorbed all the surrounding light. Hovering over the surface, a dark, macabre mist swirled, intensifying the sense of mystery and danger.
Along the stretch between the black liquid and the ground, pulsating red runes emerged, casting a sinister glow that danced in the darkness.
In the exact center of the dark lake, a black altar floated, supported by a tangle of runes interwoven like mystical serpents emitting a malevolent aura.
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They observed dozens of figures wandering over those waters. Most were demons, all disciples of the Shadow God sect.
Suddenly, one of them punched the surface of the black lake. The surface exploded backward, revealing a fist-sized grayish crystal. The figure quickly grabbed it.
Alm recognized the crystal immediately. "These are Dark Yin Crystals."
Alm and Bruno were slightly surprised. They didn’t expect to find Dark Yin Crystals here, although these were clearly not of high quality. The amount of Yin in them was limited and not very pure.
However, this indicated something more. These crystals formed after a long time when a large mass of death Yin accumulated. Looking at the altar in the center of the lake and the runes, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. They turned to Ruri, who nodded.
"This is the formation made to create the demonic metal. As for this black lake... it seems they are very picky about the bloodline and power of the sacrifices. Only more powerful souls and energies are used; the rest is employed in the formation to create this lake."
Alm and Bruno understood. This sealed world was just the outer region; the real talents of the sect were in the central region. Those of very low level went to the outer worlds, the best to the inner region, and those a little better to this place. These scraps forming the crystals are a treasure for them. The demonic metal was meant for the heroic disciples and, naturally, should be of the highest quality.
The whale watched those exploring the lake. Even if these low-quality crystals were offered to him, he wouldn’t accept them. But the black, bottomless lake gave him an idea.
***
The Dark Yin Crystals were hidden in the black waters of the lake, and finding them was the hardest part of the task. Fishing them out wasn’t a big challenge, but figuring out where they were hidden required considerable effort. The disciples had to send their senses deep into the water, an exhausting process they couldn’t maintain for long.
One of the demons, after attacking the black river and retrieving a crystal, noticed something unusual in the water. Although he couldn’t see the whole figure, something caught his attention.
"A treasure?" The demon murmured, fascinated.
Without hesitation, he summoned his manifestation. As a True Empyrean, his manifestation formed and his body grew into a giant. With a huge hand, he plunged into the black water.
The manifestation attracted everyone’s attention. What was going on? Was he trying to gather crystals in bulk?
The demon’s hand found and pulled out a figure that looked like a fifty-meter-long grayish serpent. Panic and shock spread among the onlookers.
"What is that?!" Reactions were of shock and surprise.
The serpent didn’t have a physical body; it was made up entirely of Yin runes. It resembled a fish in the lake, swimming happily before being captured. It let out a furious roar, and a dense Yin energy filled the area.
"Heavens, it’s a Heavenly Elemental Spirit Yin!" A demon exclaimed.
The Yin power reverberated through the lake, and everyone’s eyes widened.
"This is... a natural life form born from the Yin side. It’s extremely pure and sinister! Run!" A frightened scream echoed.
"Fool, why would we run? This Heavenly Elemental Spirit Yin is an invaluable treasure and is still in a young state. We must capture it!" Another demon responded.
With this revelation, the eyes of several demons gleamed with greed. This was such a rare and precious creature that even under favorable conditions, predicting its birth was almost impossible. Surely, even the higher-ups of the Shadow God sect hadn’t expected this to appear here, and there had never been rumors of something like this. They had found something that would make any demonic cultivator go mad with desire.
More importantly, this creature had just been born, and its combat power wasn’t very high. They had a great chance of subduing it.
"NO!" Suddenly, a miserable scream echoed. The first demon who had pulled out the serpent was suddenly enveloped in a Yin aura. In just a few breaths, that demon was turned into bloody mist.
The others were both surprised and thrilled. That demonic disciple had sacrificed his own life to demonstrate the power of this life form. It was a true treasure.
The rune serpent was about to submerge back into the black lake when a human launched an attack. A beam of light hit the serpent’s body, enraging it. It let out a roar that shook the sky and attacked the human aggressor.
"Everyone, don’t be afraid! If we attack together, using long-range attacks, it’ll be defenseless! We just need to exhaust it. Heavenly Elemental Spirits are dumb and won’t run away. Once we drain its energy, we’ll be able to capture it easily!"
The human spoke and attacked again, flying in the air and dodging the creature’s attacks. He drew a bow and focused his attack. As the rune serpent chased him, a demon launched a strike with his saber. The serpent was hit and, enraged, shifted its target to the demon who attacked it.
Realizing that the serpent was indeed irrational, the Shadow God sect disciples relaxed a bit. They surrounded the creature and began attacking carefully while calling for reinforcements. All Shadow God sect disciples present in the sealed world received the summons.
They knew that, at most, they could capture the Heavenly Elemental Spirit Yin, but subduing it was beyond their capabilities.
As Rehvka had discovered, all the Shadow God sect demons had communication methods to help each other when they found powerful treasures. The goal now was to keep the rune serpent in place until reinforcements arrived.
Everyone had four names in mind and were confident that one of them would manage to subdue the creature, or maybe all four together. It was a matter of time, and everyone who survived the ordeal would earn a significant favor.
Once the request for reinforcements was made, more and more demons began to arrive. Within an hour, a swarm of demons was fighting the rune serpent.
Meanwhile...
The whale was hidden on the mountain next to the black lake, watching the demons’ attack on the rune serpent as if it were a monkey show.
’Such efficiency,’ Bruno murmured, while Alm remained silent and focused.
The serpent was, in fact, a fragment of Alm’s divine soul. He had infiltrated the lake and attracted the Yin to pretend to be a Heavenly Elemental Spirit Yin. It was impossible for those low-level demons to notice the difference.
Bruno waited calmly, enjoying the high-quality entertainment, when he felt the approach of a figure from a distant point.
’Excellent...’ he thought, then turned to other directions sensing three more figures. ’Four Conquerors? Even better.’
’Master, it’s almost ready,’ Ruri’s voice came through the array. She was far away, near the altar at the center of the lake, which was the core of the formation.
Alm smiled wickedly. ’You must have had fun using the other two sects to refine this metal. Great, their lives completed the process. Afterwards, it will be put to very good use by me.’
The four Conquerors were just stronger disciples, not talented enough to go to the central region. They were exploring other regions of this world randomly; nothing in this place could move them, so they were just hoping to find a past legacy. That’s when they received the call for reinforcements.
The four sensed the distant competitors preparing and understood the situation. Moving quickly, they arrived around the rune serpent at the same time.
They looked at each other coldly, not wanting to attack the serpent. The reason was obvious: they needed to capture the creature and then eliminate the competitors. Only one would leave alive with the treasure, and if one of them captured the serpent, the others would hunt him down. If they fought the creature and got injured, they would lose forever.
"Well, well, don’t worry too much."
A sarcastic and malevolent voice rang through the skies, frightening all the demons. The serpent suddenly stopped moving.
When everyone looked up, they saw a whale in human form staring down at them with a sinister smile on its face.
"All your existences will be useful, don’t worry, hehehehe..." The whale said, laughing wickedly. Its eyes glowed a brownish hue as it waved. The entire black lake vibrated. "Magnetic Calling!"
BOOM!!!
Suddenly, the lake turned into a gray thorn forest. Divine blades erupted from the void and shot up to the skies at an abnormal speed. Everyone around the lake was pierced with no chance of defense and exploded into a bloody mist.
In an instant, amidst the black blood mist, four golden runes pulsed.
SLASH!
A katana cut through the space with a single movement, and the four runes of the Conquerors exploded completely. The four disappeared forever.
’It was an old move with earth power, now useful again,’ Bruno commented lightly. This technique, created a long time ago with the power of the behemoth, manipulated elements related to the earth, like metals. In this case, the Yin crystals were used; it was different but similar.
With the death of the Conquerors, the red runes at the river’s edge shone like stars. At the center of the altar, a dark light emerged.
"It’s ready!" Ruri exclaimed, and Alm smiled excitedly.