Chapter 86
Neal formed a seal, pulling a massive rush of spiritual energy into his eyes, his pupils and their colors inverted, he spread his arms wide.
The others formed the same seal in resonance.
The soul power and spiritual energy of the cultivators was ripped loose, twisting into a chaotic vortex midair that rushed straight into Neal.
Even the Ancestor Realm powerhouse from the Heavenly Demon Alliance frowned at the uncanny technique.
"Pooling all their spiritual energy and soul power for his sole use?"
"Rather interesting."
"Everyone’s soul power and spiritual energy differs, almost no one would dare absorb it directly. For Neal to try proves it’s an extraordinary method."
"However. If he loses..."
"None of the cultivators feeding him escape either, they’re grasshoppers on one string now, their lives shared with his."
"What a reckless mess, though I don’t dislike it."
"Watching you humans spare no effort against Soren, I ought to give you some praise, hahaha."
He drifted aside to watch the show.
Barring surprises, pooling everyone’s power should grant Neal strength close to a Lower-Tier Ancestor for a short while, surely Soren wouldn’t be arrogant enough to ignore even that.
The spiritual energy Neal drew in compressed into a suit of radiant battle armor draped over his body.
All the soul power surged into his forehead, sharpening his perception and his grip on the armor.
Every strand of soul power matched a specific cultivator’s spiritual energy, because it wasn’t being folded into his own dantian, he could control it flawlessly, his body became a specialized vessel, using everyone’s collective soul power to wield everyone’s spiritual energy at once.
The process would take one incense stick to finish.
Soren gave it a glance and lost interest.
From within his grasp Caspar used the last of his strength to preach. "With great power comes great responsibility."
"Even a demon should guide demons toward benevolence."
"This old man advises the Demon Emperor, cease your wrongdoing, stop slaughtering the innocent."
Soren frowned. "You’re slandering me. I was born kind-hearted."
"I wouldn’t dare kill a chicken, and you say I slaughter the innocent?"
Chickens he didn’t know about.
A moment ago Soren’s aura alone had shaken a vast swath of cultivators to death, sweeping a thousand miles, vaporizing many before they could react.
"You’re the one who trapped me, what, I’m not allowed to break out?"
"Every cultivator who died today died because of your mistake as Domain Protector."
"If you hadn’t used the Pestle on me, none of it would have happened."
That makes sense, that makes so much damn sense.
"The root of all this is your invasion of the Moonveil Human Domain..."
Soren tightened his grip a fraction, drawing a muffled crunch of bone from Caspar’s throat.
"Hundreds of thousands of humans invaded the Endless Demonic Domain to besiege me first, what right do you have to lecture me about invasion?"
Soren pulled the old man close and asked with a beaming smile. "I hear you have a granddaughter, living in Azure Stone Village?"
Caspar shook all over, as if thunder had gone off inside his skull, his identity and home should have been known only to Grant and Neal.
How did Soren know?
And Soren’s next line broke him further.
"Is she... pretty?"
"Demon Emperor, you... leave some leeway in how you act!"
"Good, you have a point, so I’ll try my best not to play her to death." Soren said it half-smiling.
"After all, there are plenty of days ahead, aren’t there?"
"But she’s afflicted with Witch Poison? Her organs bitten by a Witch Beast? Bedridden all year, so maybe she can’t handle the high-difficulty poses?"
Casual as the words were, in Caspar’s eyes Soren looked like a bone-cracking, marrow-sucking devil.
"It doesn’t matter, this Emperor can neutralize her Witch Poison and regenerate her damaged organs, turn her back into a lively, healthy person."
"You worked your bones off for Neal and disrespected me, so I’ll let your precious granddaughter work hard for me. Fair enough?"
Caspar’s eyes nearly split with rage, he stayed silent, but inwardly he was stunned. Soren claimed he could cure the poison, and regrow organs a Witch Beast had chewed through.
"Old thing, I won’t kill you, because I want you to watch with your own eyes... how this Emperor torments your precious granddaughter."
"That’s right. Right in front of your face. I’ll take her and... Hahahaha!"
The wild laughter set Caspar’s blood boiling, and he could do nothing.
Soren threw him aside, a surge of demonic energy sealed his movements, caging him in place, Caspar gasped for air, color slowly returning.
But picturing Soren beating Neal, taking the domain with no one to stop him, his granddaughter humiliated, Caspar felt a sharp pang in his heart.
Now he could only pray Neal pulled through.
Right then, Neal’s technique neared completion, he’d gathered all the spiritual energy and soul power onto himself.
Clad in spiritual armor, soul light blazing from his brow, his whole presence transformed.
By aura alone, Neal was no longer beneath Soren.
There were signs he’d surpassed him.
He drew a halberd from his spatial ring, it gave off a pale blue glow, a top-tier Emperor-grade weapon, striking beside the armor.
The crowd, drained of most of their soul power and spiritual energy, drifted down like withered wood, staggering, propping each other up.
They couldn’t hold flight anymore, eye sockets sunken, vitality sucked dry, only a wisp of soul power left to keep their consciousness going.
Weak as they were, their deathly faces burned with fervor, pair after pair of eyes fixed on Neal, glowing pale blue, and felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
"It succeeded!"
"This is a technique we rehearsed dozens of times in secret! I heard even Emperor Grant never mastered it!"
"Great Emperor Neal truly lives up to being a once-in-ten-thousand-years prodigy of our domain!"
"Now that demon Soren’s dead for sure!"
"The Myriad Spirits Battle Armor can pool the spiritual energy of up to ten thousand cultivators!"