Swallowing the Stars: Cultivate to Become Stronger.

Chapter 156 The Winds of Change

The abyss of purgatory.

On the once peaceful land, several vortex-shaped voids suddenly appeared. A purplish-black figure flapped its wings and stepped out first, followed by a massive army of infernal demonic beasts.

"tread!"

Luo Shen emerged from the hollow.

Looking at the densely packed palaces standing on the ground ahead, they were completely different from the palaces he had seen before. The materials used to construct them were no longer skulls and rocks, but 'Fire-Refined Jade', which was relatively rare in the Abyss of Purgatory. This material was much stronger and more precious than ordinary E9 grade alloys.

Even as a member of Luo Shen's Primal Secret Realm, exchanging for a fist-sized Fire Refined Jade would require at least 600 points.

This price is comparable to that of Blood Crystal.

Moreover, the forging techniques of these palaces are extremely advanced, unlike anything that could be forged in a small place like the Abyss of Purgatory. Even in the Primal Secret Realm, he rarely saw such forging techniques.

Just as Luo Shen was wondering which master forging artist had created this work.

The purplish-black demon stood to the side, arms crossed, gazing at the distant palace, and said with a faint smile, "It seems that after all these years, those cowardly goblins still possess such superb forging skills. It's a pity that their creations will soon be reduced to ashes."

Reduced to ashes?

Before Luo Shen could ask a question, suddenly, incredibly powerful auras appeared on the ground in front of him.

One after another, massive demons, some thousands of feet tall, leaped from the sky. The aura they gathered was incredibly violent, even scattering the thick clouds that had piled up in the sky. Within a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers around them, not a single infernal beast dared to approach.

The terrifying and intense aura stimulated Luo Shen's senses, making him afraid to make the slightest move.

A world lord-level demon! A world lord-level demon! A world lord-level demon!

The scene before them was filled with demons at the level of Realm Lords. Even the weakest of them was comparable to members of the Primordial Secret Realm at the level of Realm Lords of the Virtual Universe Company, possessing powerful combat strength that rivaled that of Marquis-level Immortals. Although they were not Immortals, they were superior to Immortals!

"What kind of hell is this place?"

Luo Shen cursed inwardly.

They initially thought they had arrived at the third level of the Abyss of Purgatory, but judging from the strength of the abyss demons appearing before them, it was clearly not the third level of the Abyss of Purgatory.

After all, the second level was just a chaotic battle between some domain lord-level Purgatory Monarchs. Surely, the third level wouldn't immediately unleash an Immortal-level chaotic battle, would it? Logically speaking, given the human race's understanding of the Purgatory Abyss, their strength shouldn't have reached that level.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be like the Blood Continent, guarded by powerful human races for billions of years, unable to leave.

However, Luo Shen felt fortunate.

His decision not to attack the purplish-black demon was indeed a wise one, because even in the face of the overwhelming power of those world lord-level demons, the purplish-black demon maintained a calm attitude. Clearly, in its eyes, these demons were just small fry.

The big shot who can truly pique his interest has yet to appear.

Think about it too.

How could someone who has possessed the Demon Wings for so long without having it snatched away by other powerful figures be just a simple nobody? It's all the fault of that Demon Lord. Even a mere Karami could possess such a component of the Abyss Authority, which almost caused Luo Shen to misjudge the opponent's strength.

"but--"

Luo Shen's mind raced with thought: "Since the Demon Lord knows of the existence of demons and possesses the Skull Battle Blade, could he be a front man for some powerful figure?"

Forget it, forget it.

The saying goes, "When soldiers come, generals will block them; when water comes, earth will dam it." But if he really encounters a big shot comparable to a king or even a venerable one, he might as well just self-destruct.

Just as Luo Shen was lost in thought.

Suddenly, a massive explosion occurred above the abyss. Violent air currents howled through the sky, and the fierce winds were so strong that many nearby palaces were instantly crushed by the surging and violent gale, along with all the infernal beasts within it, all perishing!

Within tens of thousands of miles of the explosion's epicenter, all the mountains collapsed!

In mid-air, a huge cloud burst open instantly, spreading out in a vertical plane, elliptical in shape, with a diameter of thousands of feet!

At the center of those dark clouds was a gigantic, vortex-shaped black hole!

Upon seeing the appearance of this black hole, even the previously nonchalant purple-black demon straightened up, a look of solemnity flashing in his eyes.

Roar!Roar!Roar!

The towering demons all around roared incessantly.

Immediately, to Luo Shen's astonishment, four enormous horned demons, each over a hundred miles tall, stepped out of the cave. Each demon was wrapped in a thick, gleaming silver chain, and each had a ferocious expression with bulging veins, as if they were dragging some enormous creature.

"What is that?" Luo Shen asked in shock.

But clearly no one would answer his question. Even the purplish-black demon stared solemnly at the other end of the thick, silvery chain.

It plunged straight into the black hole.

Roar! !

A deafening roar suddenly erupted, and four thick streams of white, turbid air shot out like long torrents, shooting far away.

Look again.

The already extremely wide vortex of dark clouds expanded again, growing more than a hundred times larger. At the same time, a black, enormous, sharp horn slowly emerged from the void, revealing only a small part of the iceberg. Even though it was just a small part, it was enough to make one's heart tremble with fear.

It was a huge pyramid-shaped building!

It shimmers with a black luster throughout, like obsidian under the light, but it is different from obsidian.

The enormous spires slowly revealed the entire structure, but even the newly revealed spire instantly caused the previously cloudless sky to become overcast, with lightning flashing and thunder roaring, and bursts of eerie blue electric arcs enveloping its entire body.

Hundreds of millions of tiny electric arcs spread outwards along the entire tower.

However, even the appearance of lightning could not affect its movements in the slightest. Little by little, it slowly leaped out of the entire void. The entire black pyramid was more than ten thousand miles high, towering into the clouds. Countless spatial rifts were constantly appearing and disappearing around the void where it was located, but they could not leave the slightest mark on it.

Even the thick, shiny silver chain remained unmarked, still as bright as new.

The only ones who were pitiful were the four demons who held the chains.

Countless bolts of lightning, imbued with immense destructive energy, struck the pyramid-like structure. Some of them inadvertently landed on the thick chains, and the terrifying lightning energy traveled along the chains directly to the four demons.

Each time, it would cause the four demons to suffer immense pain, their skin torn and their flesh to ripped open.

Even so, they persevered, daring not to relax in the slightest, their hands always gripping the chains tightly, moving forward step by step, leaving deep footprints on the ground, trying their best to pull the pyramid-like structure out of the hole.

"My Lord Demon, what is this?"

Luo Shen's eyelids twitched. This building was probably even more valuable than the legacy hall left by the Demonic Sound God General, yet it was now standing nakedly in front of him, without any warning.

The purple-black demon turned and glanced at Luo Shen, his eyes seemingly containing endless meaning.

But soon, it looked away again.

Clearly, the purple-black demon had no intention of introducing Luo Shen to the demons. After all, in the eyes of the demon race, although Luo Shen had some secrets, he was just a weak human and there was no need for him to know so much.

Luo Shen, having been rebuffed, could only continue to watch obediently.

The massive black pyramid-like structure was quickly cleared of the void in the dark clouds by the efforts of the four demons.

The massive building cast a huge shadow directly on the ground.

It was only then that Luo Shen realized that there were not only four demons carrying the chains on the black pyramid-like structure; there were four more behind the gaping hole in the dark clouds!

The eight enormous demons, like the eight ancient beast gods, roared in unison!

In their hands, the thick chains lifted the black pyramid-like structure high into the air, and then the eight demons leaped up simultaneously, leaving huge footprints on the ground with a loud 'boom'.

"&%#&￥%!"

Each demon was muttering something under its breath, and because they were moving so fast, Luo Shen could only vaguely hear some of it.

But they couldn't understand the meaning behind those words at all.

The purple-black demon's expression alternated between black and red, making it look like the martial arts masters in TV dramas who had gone mad while practicing internal energy cultivation. Coupled with its face that could stop a child from crying, it looked quite terrifying.

Luo Shen almost wanted to ask it if it had gone mad.

Fortunately, his rationality stopped him from such a suicidal act, and he remained calm and watched the demons' actions.

It didn't take long.

The demons seemed to have completed some kind of ritual. The eight demons dispersed and occupied positions in front, behind, left, right, up, and down. Each demon held a thick, long chain in its hand, as if it had been pulled down from the clouds.

Accompanied by a series of crackling sounds.

Suddenly, the black pyramid-like structure was covered with electric snakes, and huge currents resembling thunder serpents flowed down, surging towards the chains in the hands of the eight demons.

This Razer is far more terrifying than those tiny electric arcs from before.

If you really get electrocuted, it won't be as simple as just having your skin torn open; you might end up eating an electric-exploded demon.

The eight demons, who were standing in eight different directions, seemed to have anticipated this situation. Before the electric snakes could arrive, they all took big strides in each direction, spewing out a mouthful of scorching white mist from their nostrils, their faces contorted with rage, and then threw themselves forward in an instant!

It was as if they had rehearsed it countless times.

The black lightning bolts happened to reach the end of the chain, transforming into tiny electric currents that shot out in all directions, condensing into numerous secret patterns in mid-air. Instantly, flames erupted, and large chunks of space were completely peeled away, merging with the eight chains!

Luo Shen was completely dumbfounded.

Clearly, he had never imagined that the laws of lightning could be applied in this way.

However, the lightning construction technique instantly transformed into the fundamental law of fire? Such an operation was far beyond Luo Shen's understanding of the laws. At this moment, he could only firmly remember this scene and the large number of secret patterns that had just appeared, hoping that one day he would be able to use the secret pattern law in the same way.

But the actions of that black, pyramid-like structure were clearly not over yet.

With a deafening roar, Luo Shen's attention was drawn back to the scene. The eight previously separated spaces were like a giant 520 glue, firmly attaching the eight thick chains to the void.

The enormous black pyramid-like structure was thus able to float in mid-air.

Rumble!!

When those spaces returned to their smooth state under the great power of the fundamental laws of space, a large amount of what appeared to be a black, surging tide instantly expanded in all directions from the black, pyramid-like structure. The surrounding space was like a pure white sheet of paper covered with countless strange and obscure runes, which were closely connected to each other.

The moment these runes appeared, they instantly gave Luo Shen an extremely dangerous feeling.

It was as if he would surely die if he got close!

Fortunately, although the purplish-black demon looked terrible, it remained firmly in place and showed no signs of trying to run away. Therefore, Luo Shen was able to stay put. Otherwise, he would have run away immediately.

However, what Luo Shen found somewhat strange was...

As the number of those strange runes increased, other bizarre changes gradually appeared in the surrounding space. For example, one second a purgatory beast was walking normally, and the next second its head was separated from its body. Or a purgatory beast was about to bite another purgatory beast next to it, but inexplicably found that their positions had changed.

However, Luo Shen did not take these changes to heart.

What truly struck him as odd was that the Abyss Lord's avatar, which originally required thousands of years to develop within his primordial world, was developing much faster.

If it used to take a thousand years, now it only takes nine hundred and ninety-nine years!

Although the growth rate doesn't seem fast, the incubation time is decreasing exponentially as the number of those strange runes surges.

"Faster, faster!"

Luo Shen was secretly delighted. Although he didn't know what had happened or what changes would occur in this area, if he could give birth to his Abyss Lord clone, he would have the ability to roam freely throughout the entire Purgatory Abyss.

Although it is unknown whether we can withstand the terrifying demons with unknown strength, such as the Purple-Black Demon, as long as the Abyss still exists, the Abyss Lord's avatar, who holds part of the Abyss's authority, will never perish!

But a pity.

Even though the gestation rate has increased dramatically, it still takes a long time.

However, just as Luo Shen was patiently waiting for the Abyss Lord's avatar to be conceived, a new change occurred on the black pyramid-like structure!

They were strange demons that looked somewhat similar to the Shadow Zerg warriors of the Zerg race. Each of them possessed a pair of broad, scythe-like blades, one side of which gleamed with a cold light, making it clear at a glance that they were born killing machines.

"Shadow Scythe Demon?"

The purplish-black demon's expression grew even uglier; it was clear that it recognized these strange demons.

Although he didn't know what these Shadow Scythe Demons were, Luo Shen could tell from the purple-black demon's expression that these Shadow Scythe Demons were definitely not simple!

"Are they here to deal with us?"

For some reason, a thought suddenly popped into Luo Shen's mind, and as the number of Shadow Scythe Demons around him increased, this feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger.

He wasn't afraid of a single Shadow Scythe Demon, and he could handle ten or a hundred of them.

If you use your cunning and ruthlessness.

Even if all the Shadow Scythe Demons that have appeared now attacked together, he was confident that he could kill them all. This is the terrifying aspect of the King-level willpower secret technique, Mind's Eye Blade, which is invisible and formless, making it impossible to defend against.

What he was really wary of was the black, pyramid-like building and the demons surrounding it.

Most importantly, of course, is the purplish-black demon in front of us.

Even if he could kill all those Shadow Scythe Demons, he wasn't entirely confident that he could defeat the eight chain-linked demons with his Mind's Eye Blade, let alone the purple-black demon beside him whose strength was unknown.

"Is there really no other way?"

Luo Shen had a series of thoughts running through his mind.

Instinctively, his gaze fell upon the black, pyramid-like structure, and a crazy thought surged through his mind: 'If I could hide inside this black pyramid, could I escape this calamity?'

(End of this chapter)