Chapter 51: Returning to the City of Slaughter
The atmosphere of the City of Slaughter was the same as the last time he had been in this place. The purple moon hung over the city at a relatively close distance. The streets were dark and a faint moon moved across the ground. Distant screams could be heard at all times, with some much closer ones filling Percy's ears from time to time.
The smell of blood seemed to flood Percy's nose as whispers could be heard for a few moments. Hidden presences that Percy could clearly sense seemed unsure when their gazes were directed towards him.
Percy walked slowly, his eyes looking straight ahead, and at no point did he move his gaze to look at any of the people on the street. Even if he wanted to be on the lookout for any surprise attacks, his enormous spiritual power was enough. At this moment, even with the restrictions of the City of Slaughter, he had already passed through the path of hell. Furthermore, the Asura God himself invalidated the rules for the sake of the task he gave Percy.
Even as strong as Percy was, his mission was not an easy one. In fact, ever since he entered the city, Percy had been preparing his mindset to be able to accomplish the task. He had not yet accomplished his mission of reaching titled douluo, but even so, he already knew what the next mission might be. And when he reached level 90, the Asura God had in fact already given him the next mission. This was not some kind of preference or advantage, but the Asura God knowing that the mission of reaching titled douluo was already a done deal and that the next mission was even dangerous for Percy.
In short, it was a small warning and opportunity for Percy to decide whether or not to say goodbye to his family for whatever outcome.
Percy walked towards a house; the same house he had used when he was here for the first time. When he entered, there was no one. In fact, it was completely empty and dusty, as if no one had been in the house all this time.
As he sat on the ground, he closed his eyes and expanded his detection radius to see if there were people too close. There were two people on the street outside, walking past the house. There was one person in the house on the right and three in the house on the left. Behind the house was another street, where several people were passing by.
Suddenly, his eyes opened and turned red. The killing intent originating from his heart and concentrated thanks to all his evil thoughts and desires spread out everywhere, causing these people to tremble. Even if there were walls everywhere, these people felt it and their bodies trembled as if they were leaves touched by a cold wind.
At that moment, a power descended upon him and condensed into a spirit ring. One of the advantages that the heirs of the gods had was to increase the ages of their spirit rings, this was something that some people knew, regardless of whether these individuals were heirs or not. Anyone with knowledge of the gods would know that the heirs could increase the ages of spirit rings.
However, something that perhaps only inheritors would know, was that the gods could bestow spirit rings at every bottleneck between the ranks. Of course, this wasn't always a good thing. The spirit ring bestowed by the gods would always come with abilities according to the martial spirit and it will always be a good thing. However, there have been cases where these inheritors exploded from overdoing it.
The spirit rings bestowed by the gods were different from those bestowed by spirit beasts. They didn't come with a mental shock or battle against any resentment left by the spirit beasts, but they also couldn't be easily absorbed as a sacrifice from these spirit beasts. The inheritors would have to absorb the god's power to form the spirit ring, then sustain said power and endure as the age of the ring constantly increased.
Several of the worst cases were overestimated and ended up exploding due to not having a body that can withstand the age and power of a spirit ring bestowed by the gods.
The power that descended into Percy's body had condensed into a nearly transparent white spirit ring. This spirit ring was not even ten years old yet. But within an hour's time, it turned completely white as its age and the pressure on Percy's body increased.
He had no problems, especially with the refinement that Percy's body has undergone from the seed of life bestowed upon him by the Goddess of Life. On top of that, there was also the power he absorbed from the fire and water dragon kings in the well. Along with that, there was the task where he had to withstand the pressure of the lake of blood on the road to hell. Right now, Percy's body was really powerful.
Adding to all of this was the enormous spiritual power and mental endurance he gained from absorbing the Eye of Annihilation and everything he had endured in his life.
In an estimated time of ten hours, the spirit ring on Percy was constantly absorbing energy as it slowly turned a purple color. Percy kept his eyes closed as he concentrated, ignoring everything else. It was dangerous to condense the god-given spirit ring in this city of slaughter, but he wanted to do it here because of the environment and the King of Slaughter himself.
Regardless, he would have to kill the King of Slaughter. The man was the previous heir of the Asura God, but was corrupted by the Rakshasa God. Percy had never accepted a god-given spirit ring in his previous bottlenecks, but now that it was his spirit ring to reach titled douluo, he preferred to accept it knowing that it would be for the best.
When two full days passed, the spirit ring had reached the astonishing age of 99,980 years. As he slowly approached 100,000 years, the pressure on his body increased. This spirit ring was not like the one Zi Ji had given him through her sacrifice. The pressure was real, it was harmful, it was complicated and powerful.
Suddenly, two hours later, the ring turned completely red as Percy frowned and gritted his teeth. A golden mark appeared on the ring, but Percy did not stop. His goal was to surpass the two hundred thousand years of his eighth spirit ring. So, as four more hours passed, Percy's back hunched forward slightly as two golden marks appeared on the ring, indicating two hundred thousand years. The speed at which the ring's age increased seemed to triple, thus increasing the difficulty of absorption.
Percy's spiritual power also detected a person who entered the house and looked at him, but did not move from his position. He was in front of him, almost as if he was watching him. Percy didn't move, nor did he stop, the absorption continued until a third golden mark appeared on the hundred thousand year spirit ring.
Percy held on as a line of blood slowly trickled out and fell from the corner of his mouth. By this time, his spirit ring was about to reach 400,000 years. Suddenly, the spirit ring began to descend down his body as a fourth golden mark appeared. When he opened his eyes, he saw a dark-haired beauty in black robes.
"Murong Yun," Percy spoke.
"You're lucky..." she let out a suppressed sigh at the pressure of the spirit ring. "I was sent by the Slaughter King when he sensed the power that descended. If it was anyone else, you'd be dead."
"Liar," Percy snorted. "If the Slaughter King wanted to find out the reason for the power, he would come himself. No, he already knew what it was. You came because you wanted to."
"What do you want?"
Murong Yun frowned before shrugging.
"I want to leave. When I felt your presence once again in the city, I came because I need your help to leave."
Percy nodded, he could understand Murong Yun's desire to leave the city.
"I have to do something first. I'll see you later, anyway. I have to see the King of Slaughter."
Murong Yun nodded before turning around, but giving Percy one last look and asking, "May I know the spirit ability you received?"
She wouldn't ask how a spirit ring condensed out of nothing. She didn't need to know. All she needed to know was if Percy wanted to help her. However, she was still curious about the ability he might have obtained.
Percy stared at her for a long moment before answering. Of all things, it couldn't hurt for her to know, was what she thought. At least, not her last ability, it couldn't even help her if she wanted to go against him.
"It grants me 400% more power in my next attack with my saber."
Murong Yun widened her eyes in surprise.
"A hundred thousand year spirit ring... it really grants power beyond measure," she muttered before walking towards the door and leaving. What she didn't know was that Percy's ninth ability granted him 400% more power on his next attack, but this wasn't just for a normal attack with Anaklusmos. Except for his abilities like Devour, Saber Light, and Abyssal Saber, any other attack or spiritual ability that followed the activation of the ninth ability would receive the power boost.
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