Cale leaped forward. Right as Ahn’s sword came down to slash, Cale folded Thorned Lotus, using it to block the sword attack. Then with his free hand, he bent slightly and punched right at Ahn’s gut.
"Kurgh!.." Ahn groaned as he was sent flying behind.
Cale ran forward. Ahn quickly got away before Cale’s kick landed on him.
"I-I will kill you!" he roared.
Thorned Lotus flew up, splitting into eighteen blades, floating in air ready to attack.
"How?! Isn’t your realm back as a mortal! How can you use telekinesis!", Ahn was getting more and more shocked with each passing second.
Cale waved his hand, sending all blades to attack Ahn. Since all his blades worked based on his own given divine consciousness, and along with that his soul cultivation hadn’t reset—it was Apex Realm, enough to kill small fries like Ahn.
All blades attacked Ahn, and he had no other choice than to parry each of them and still get tens of cuts on his body.
’He’s wearing an armor?’ Cale thought.
Cale released his will and divine consciousness onto Ahn, though it was harder now due to his weak constitution.
Suddenly, Ahn fell on his knees, throwing up a mouthful of blood. "Kugh!" Ahn rolled aside creating some distance. He still had a few artifacts. He took out a ball with some markings on it. It was likely an explosive.
"Hahah! Kid! If I’m going to die, I will take you with me." With that, he threw the bomb at Cale’s side and it landed near Cale’s feet.
Cale stared at it, Ahn had probably given up on fighting. Now that he would die, at least he killed the enemy with him. His Lord can stay safe and cultivate by then.
One second passed... two, three... ten seconds! Ahn’s head snapped to Cale. "What did you do?!"
Cale stepped upon the bomb and crushed it with force. "A dying man has no need to know."
He had used Override to take control of the explosive itself. And since the activator was only a mortal realm, it was easy to take control fully with no problems.
Two blades pierced each of Ahn’s ankles, and he fell with a loud scream.
"You!---" Right as he was going to speak more, a blade went straight through Ahn’s mouth, killing him.
Walking forward, Cale held Ahn’s head and started to absorb his soul.
’Sigh... he still had a normal soul? His is not too corrupted. Phew, good for me.’
Two minutes passed and Cale had absorbed Ahn’s soul completely.
A system message popped.
[Congratulations host! On cultivating to Low Apprentice stage of cultivation!]
He let out a small laugh. "Heh, no rewards here, huh."
At least it proved the point that the system wasn’t exactly omnipotent. It still followed rules of other realms. Even if abilities like Override, Separate, etc. were usable, it won’t give rewards for a realm he had already achieved first.
"Now, let’s search for treasures." He took Ahn’s storage ring. It had tens of low-grade spiritual stones, another two artifacts, which were pretty useless to Cale. So he would absorb those too. With those stones, his speed would increase definitely, but that wasn’t the goal here. He still needed to perfect himself without any cultivation.
He pulled out the sword from the skeleton. It could be used as a secondary weapon. Its strength wasn’t that bad compared to Noxis. Yes, Noxis still was at the realm of Grandmaster. The protective armor... looked way too heavy for someone like Cale, he would look like a gladiator.
"Hmm, I should sell this. All the people I know, none of them are that muscular to use this one. As for the bones—"
Right as he was about to touch the bones, the skeleton glowed. Cale quickly retreated a few steps back.
’Huh? it left some of its consciousness?’
A ball of light flew from the skeleton’s forehead, stopping right ahead of Cale.
The ball said, "Open your sea of consciousness to me, and let me teach you my cultivation method."
’Hah, this idiot. You’re a demonic cultivator. What if you try to take over me? Who does this guy think he’s fooling?’
Even Cale wasn’t this dumb. Right as the ball stopped in front of him, Cale quickly opened his palm and grasped the ball inside. Using Deity Devouring Technique, he absorbed the remnant consciousness too.
[Your soul grows stronger...]
"Sigh, I guess it won’t be easy to level up soul cultivation from now on."
After all, Apex Stage was something which took people decades to reach. Each of its levels—low, mid, peak—would be gruesome.
After taking the entire skeleton, he felt fluctuations beneath the throne itself.
"So it’s here, huh." He smiled and kicked the throne chair aside. Though huge, it was still nothing compared to his physical might. Since his body trained under ten-times gravity in the inner sanctum.
Opening the flooring below, he found a small box. He opened it, and inside it... were three rings. One with a fire symbol, one with ice made into a diamond-like symbol, and one with a water drop symbol.
"Hmm, what are these?"
The system quickly registered them.
[Affinity Assimilation Rings]
[Affinity Assimilation Rings are demonic artifacts created by sacrificing a being possessing a specific elemental affinity. The sacrificed being’s affinity is assimilated into the ring, allowing its wearer to cultivate and utilize that element with 3× greater speed and efficiency.
Due to the demonic nature of their creation, Demonic Qi Practitioners receive an additional benefit, with their cultivation speed increased by 2× while wearing the ring and cultivating Demonic Qi, cannot work with other kinds of Qi.
Restriction: Can only be used by cultivators below the Emperor Stage.]
"Hmm? So, for affinities of... fire, water, and ice, right? Well, I technically have all three of them, but it would look weird to wear all three of them."
He decided to wear all three for now and would decide to either consume, sell, or give the ice and water rings to someone later on.
Other than that, there was a technique scroll.
’Which one is it?’
[Three Illusionary Steps Mystic Art]
[A movement technique that allows the user to instantly blink a distance equivalent to a single step. Upon reaching mastery, the technique can be executed up to three times consecutively, allowing the user to cover a greater distance in an instant.]
"A good technique, I see. Although, only three times? Well, getting a technique in your first tomb itself is a very rare thing. So I shouldn’t complain." Saying that, he stored it.
Techniques were rare. Not everyone left them written just so that later on after their doom, someone else would inherit it. In case of artifacts, they were already there, in physical form. But techniques—what if it’s an evil technique which will somehow help the user? In the demonic sects, there were techniques which, when used by anyone but the real owner, the owner could literally slowly consume their soul power. Many evil practitioners did this to revive themselves even after dying.
And herbs—well, herbs were everywhere. Now that he couldn’t sense any more items inside this complete tomb, he decided to leave.
And indeed, the tomb was empty now. The entire structure started collapsing, giving Cale confirmation.
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