Chapter 797: Human… Do Not Kill! |
That age was both the most prosperous and the most perilous.
The final battle unfolded within the deep layer.
At the time, neither the gods nor the human powerhouses knew that Antares had secured humanity’s final safeguard against extinction.
They believed that if they lost, the human race would vanish completely.
With foreign races invading and annihilation looming over the world, there was no retreat left for them.
And so, they fought without hesitation, carving out hope for future generations with their lives.
The battle took place within the deep layer.
Though the deep layer was incomparably stable, the battle was so catastrophic that even heaven and earth shattered beneath it.
In the aftermath, many chaotic regions emerged throughout the deep layer.
It was filled with the soul remnants of the foreign races.
Although the Gods and human powerhouses had fallen, their wills had not perished.
They became soul remnants, still battling the foreign invaders.
The moment Lin Moyu entered the Burial Ground of Gods, he carefully observed his surroundings.
The sky was pitch-black, as though soaked in ink.
Occasionally, flashes of light tore through the darkness as law aura surged, revealing faint figures locked in battle.
From time to time, beastly roars echoed. These were soul-echoes.
None of the combatants were living beings. They were all soul remnants.
The Dragon Emperor led the way ahead, “Not long after I entered this place, I encountered that sword-wielding soul—”
Before he could finish speaking, a streak of sword light descended from the heavens and pierced his body at astonishing speed.
His voice stopped abruptly.
The Dragon Emperor collapsed to the ground before disintegrating into ash, scattered to the winds.
When a resurrected died a second time, every trace of their existence was erased from the world.
Lin Moyu felt no emotion at the Dragon Emperor’s death.
To him, he had already been dead, nothing more than a tool.
Even if he hadn’t died, Lin Moyu would have killed him himself the moment they met again in the deep layer.
Looking toward the source of the sword light, Lin Moyu saw a soul remnant.
The soul remnant possessed a human form, though far more ethereal than a complete soul.
He had no legs, only an upper body suspended in the air.
A sharp sword floated beside him. Though he appeared to be holding the weapon, the sword actually moved on its own.
It was a real sword and an exceptionally sharp one at that.
“Sword Venerable?” Lin Moyu asked cautiously.
He wasn’t certain whether the soul remnant still retained consciousness.
The soul remnant stared at him silently for ten full seconds before finally speaking, “Human... do not kill.”
After saying those words, he turned and vanished into the darkness.
Lin Moyu was deeply shaken.
Those words reminded him of the human Knight who saved him at the end in the Putrid Corpse Land.
Even after death, even after becoming a Putrid Corpse, the human Knight’s will to protect humanity had never disappeared.
Human... do not kill!
Four simple words, yet they represented a final will.
At that moment, Lin Moyu became completely certain that this soul remnant belonged to Sword Venerable.
The aura emanating from him was identical to the aura contained within the stone stele.
Sword light flashed across the sky once more, accompanied by faint beastly roars.
Lin Moyu looked up and saw Sword Venerable locked in fierce combat with a beast-like soul remnant.
The creature was bizarre. Its head resembled a beast with long tentacles, while its body was covered in insect-like limbs.
Though both were only soul remnants, the scale of their battle was terrifying, and their combat power remained astonishing.
Lin Moyu knew exactly why he had come here.
He raised a hand toward the sky.
Thick mist began to roll across the sky, and silver-white flames flickered against the darkness.
The Undeath World descended.
The sky split open like a curtain, revealing the Undead Eye, a colossal eye spanning a hundred thousand meters.
Law art: Undead Gaze!
With a thought, Lin Moyu summoned his undead army, surrounding himself with layer upon layer for protection.
At the same time, he linked his consciousness to the Undead Eye, intending to wield its power personally.
Against souls, soul-type attacks were the most effective weapons.
Undead Gaze was capable of instantly annihilating any existence below level 96, let alone mere soul remnants.
Through the Undead Eye, Lin Moyu surveyed half of the Burial Ground of Gods.
The Burial Ground of Gods was far larger than he had expected, seemingly divided into two distinct regions.
The other half was cloaked in an overwhelming death aura, hidden even from the Undead Eye.
Countless soul remnants drifted across the graveyard. Among them were the soul remnants of humans, Gods, Zerg, and Dreadbeasts.
It was the latter two who had descended upon this world back then.
Although many years had passed since the great war, the fighting had never ceased. Their soul remnants continued battling endlessly.
Within the Burial Ground of Gods, even when the soul remnants were killed, they were not truly erased.
Much like monsters in the outside world, they would regenerate after a period of time.
The great war never ceased.
But Lin Moyu’s arrival would bring this cycle to an end.
Manipulating the Undead Eye directly, Lin Moyu turned his gaze upon the soul remnants of the Zerg and the Dreadbeasts one after another.
With Undead Gaze activated, he unleashed powerful soul attacks.
The soul remnants caught within his sight emitted shrill screams as they were struck down.
Undead Gaze was extraordinarily effective against these weakened soul remnants.
Even if they had been terrifyingly powerful in life, they were now dead, their souls incomplete, reduced to soul remnants.
Before Undead Gaze, they possessed little resistance.
In mere moments, several soul remnants were obliterated.
As they perished, they dissolved into wisps of green smoke, leaving behind strands of essence that flew into Lin Moyu’s soul world.
This soul essence was the true purpose of his journey.
It was precisely because of the soul essence that the soul remnants could continue to exist.
Once the soul essence was extracted, they could no longer regenerate.
The soul essence was absorbed by the Nine-Colored Dragon Soul Crystal, refined within it, and released once more to enhance Lin Moyu’s soul grade.
For both human class users and the other race powerhouses of the greater world, reaching level 90 marked the beginning of dealing with the soul.
The stronger the soul, the farther one could progress on the path ahead.
The soul was perhaps the most mysterious aspect of all living beings.
Generally, the soul’s strength was determined by three factors.
First was soul tier. Under normal circumstances, soul tier determined one’s strength.
Second was soul rank. Unlike soul tier, which defined the ceiling, soul rank represented one’s current stage.
A high soul tier did not guarantee a high soul rank, but a low soul tier inevitably limited the soul rank.
Soul rank also determined the amount of soul force one could contain.
Most experts eventually reached a point where their soul tier and soul rank matched. Cases like Lin Moyu’s were rare.
Third was soul grade, which determined the quality of one’s soul and the purity of one’s soul force.
Lin Moyu’s soul grade was currently at peak 1st grade, the pinnacle of 1st grade.
In the greater world, peak 1st grade soul, combined with specialized soul tools, was sufficient to transfer talents.
At least transferring one talent would pose no problem.
However, Lin Moyu possessed no such tools, leaving him with only one option: improve his soul grade.
If he could raise it to 2nd grade, he would be able to transfer one talent successfully.
If he reached peak 2nd grade, he could transfer all three.
Lin Moyu continued eliminating the soul remnants one by one, absorbing their soul essence and using the Nine-Colored Dragon Soul Crystal to enhance his soul grade.