"I'll be quick."
After smiling back at Duna's glare, Leon made an opening in the ice-sealed fissure and disappeared inside the veil of billowing red mist.
All the Wrathful Demonic Energy were quickly swallowed into his Black Vortex Space and refined on his way down into the subterranean world.
Aria quickly resealed the opening before remnant traces of Wrathful Demonic Energy escaped the fissure—when she suddenly noticed something about herself.
"Please watch over the seal for me. I need to cultivate urgently," Aria made her request to the others before entering a seated meditation on Soft Feather's back.
"Hmm…" Duna glanced at Aria with a thoughtful look before shifting her gaze to Lilith, "All you, Lilith. I'm going to cultivate too."
Shortly after, Duna entered her own seated meditation and closed her eyes, resuming True Grandmist Energy's refinement in her body.
"I…"
Lilith shifted her glance to Soft Feather, but the Blue Luan pretended she was sleeping with her head rested on the blood-soaked ground that stained her beautiful whitish-blue feathers.
"I guess I can watch over the seal…" Lilith muttered with a soft sigh.
There was a lack of Spirit Energy in her current environment to practice Divine Cultivation while her Body Cultivation has stagnated after a single breakthrough.
'There's no cultivation pills or high-quality herbs for Body Cultivation in Human Domain… Only my clan has the right resources needed for my Body Cultivation, resulting in my lack of progress over the last few months since I left the clan…' Lilith thought.
She really did not want to go back to her clan due to the arranged marriage, but at the same time, she was also very concerned about her parents.
After Aria raised awareness about the implication that she might have caused her parents upon running away selfishly, she became even more worried.
'Between happiness and family, is it only possible to choose one? Mom, Dad, please be okay. Your unfilial daughter is coming back now,' Lilith sighed with despair.
She walked over to the sealed fissure and sat on the cold ice silently, patiently waiting for Leon's return.
…
Meanwhile, Leon continued to descend deeper into the subterranean world while clearing the heavy concentration of Wrathful Demonic Energy on his way.
"It's strange that a large subterranean space exists under every settlement I've been to—whether it's the human cities, elven tribe, or even a beast tribe." Leon frowned with suspicion.
He knew that the subterranean world was enormous. But for there to be so many pocket spaces so close to every settlement he visited, it no longer seemed like a mere coincidence.
"Is this the demons doing?" Leon pondered.
"Whether it's the Human Domain or the Wildlands, there are traces of demons everywhere… yet I have no encountered a single demon on this continent. Instead, I ran into ugly mutated humans…"
Leon began to wonder if demons were actually their biggest enemy or this new force that has been recently revealed to him.
"It's puzzling that such a huge force has remained unknown until now despite being so widespread across the world…"
This unknown force of mutated beings definitely seemed strong enough.
If it was world domination they want, they could have done so instead of meddling in the dark all this while.
"What are they waiting for?" Leon narrowed his eyes.
Within moments, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he reached a vast open space in the subterranean world, revealing the Energy Conversion Tower.
"The tower is much closer than I anticipated—which is a good thing. But these guys…" Leon muttered as he landed on the ground with a heavy thud.
Thud!
The noise immediately attracted the roughly three dozen mutated beings gathered around the Energy Conversion Tower in worship as they turned around with alarm, "Squee?"
"Good day to you all. Sorry to crash the party," Leon said nonchalantly as the Tier 4 Bone Spear flashed into his hand
Boom!
The ground cracked from his mighty leap as he shot straight for the Energy Conversion Tower and sliced through it in one swift motion.
Shing—!
The Energy Conversion Tower cut in half, revealing the grotesque abomination hidden inside before Leon spread his divine sense and locked onto its core.
Ka-cha!
No time was waste as he tossed his bone spear straight for its core, shattering it in an instant, causing the abomination to cry and quickly deform like melted cheese while he flew through the air.
Squee!
The mutated beings were stunned for a moment before they erupted into anguish cries, pointing their bony limbs at Leon.
His eyes narrowed at the sharp bones growing out from their pointed limbs before recalling the Tier 4 Bone Spear back into his hand with Divine Will and disappeared from the spot.
His figure flickered and reappeared on the ground before piercing the hard skull of a Rank 1 Transcendent-level mutated being, incinerating its brain matter with scorching hot flames that burst out from his bone spear shortly after.
Squeee!!
The Rank 1 Transcendent-level mutated being cried painfully before its eventual death while Leon retracted his bone spear, dodged a few claw attacks, and moved onto his next victim.
At the same time, he frowned slightly, 'My fire ability has yet to reach the level of Transcendents… It should be the same for my other laws…'
Only his Nihility Law has yet reached transcendence.
'I didn't experience any baptism during my transcendence in the Nihility Law as it is a law that exists yet does not exist at the same time. The world cannot sense it…' Leon thought while finishing off his third victim.
Suddenly, his eyes flickered with a question, 'What will happen when I raise my other laws to the Transcendence level?'
Swoosh~!
A bone spike shot towards him before grazing his flesh and redirected off into another direction like it had bounced off his body, failing to break his defense but made him feel a slight sting, nonetheless.
"I worry about that later and deal with these mutated beings first. But before that, let me test the effectiveness of my current Nihility Law as an attack." Leon muttered.
Suddenly, he closed the distance on a mutated being with 6 arms and reached out with his fast claw, immediately gripping the mutated being's face before a surge of Nihility Power rushed into its head.
The range of his Nihility Law was not great, but when he focused it to a single concentrated point—it proved to be very effective.
The mutated creature stopped resisting in a split second like it had lost its soul, becoming motionless before its head slowly disintegrated into energy particles.
Leon absorbed the True Grandmist Energy while muttering, "The disintegrating process is slower on living beings… is it due to the complexity of life or the resistance of the will? Nevertheless, death seems to be instantaneous above all else."
"The soul is not material, making it the quickest to disintegrate into nothingness, huh? This ability seems a little too frightening, no? Killing anything with a touch of my hand… I shall call this skill Vanishing Touch, or perhaps Death's Touch is better?"
As Leon pondered, the mutated being had long stopped attacking Leon and retreated in trembling fear, point their fingers at him while screaming to each other.
"Squee! Squee! Shiva!"
"Squee! Shiva! Squee!"
Shortly after, the surviving mutated beings all turned tail and flee from the area, causing Leon's eyes to widen in surprise, "Hm? These creatures are actually running away from me?"