Chapter 159 - Soul Devouring Demon! (Long - .)

At Null’s first return after three hours of relentless hunting, Cale made a crucial observation and noticed.

These monsters were actually weak to lightning.

He immediately enhanced Null with both chaos flames and lightning infusions, making the centipede more effective against the beast horde. The combination of devouring cold and destructive electricity proved devastating.

With this, eight days passed in a blur of endless slaughter and soul absorption.

On the eighth day, Cale sensed that he had accumulated sufficient souls for advancement.

He sat down and created a smaller version of a soul-absorbing formation, dismissing his soul armor to reveal his bare torso — half-covered in tattoos that seemed to pulse with internal light.

’This...’

As soon as he deactivated the armor, Cale noticed something he never consciously recognized before.

These tattoos weren’t merely runes created by his yin-refined body as he’d always assumed. They weren’t related to qi cultivation at all. They activated through mana instead!

"How the hell did I miss something this simple?" he muttered, or perhaps they had only just activated now.

While Null rested after its relentless hunting marathon, and Sesrir sat at a nearby table with an increasingly complicated expression, Cale sighed and activated the mana patterns.

The tattoos illuminated brilliantly across his pale skin, revealing an intricate network of power.

"...oh, so these are... oi, what are these called?" he asked the system.

[Heavenbound Marks: A forbidden enhancement art in which the host’s cultivated mana is forced through specially formed patterns etched across the body. When activated, the marks awaken one after another, illuminating in sequence.

Grants boost in Physical Strength, Speed and Reflexes, Energy Output, Defensive Toughness, and Perception and Combat Instincts.]

Cale squinted suspiciously at the notification.

"You... knew this all along?"

[Even if host knew, they cannot use it unless their soul is strong enough to sustain the strength boost.]

"So I can use it after my soul reaches Emperor Stage level?"

[Affirmative.]

"Sigh... who knew I had some booster all along. Well, I guess that’s good."

He tilted his head, suddenly noticing Sesrir staring at him with unsettling intensity. Cale felt the abrupt need to cover his exposed body!

Covering his bare chest self-consciously, he sighed.

"Even if it’s been quite long since you’ve done it, you shouldn’t eye fellow men as your targets... sigh, beautiful as I may be—"

"S-shut up! Damned idiot! Who the hell do you think I am! And vying your body? Blergh..." Sesrir made an exaggerated disgusted face.

Cale grinned, abandoning the joke.

"So, what the hell are you looking at?"

Sesrir’s expression turned suddenly serious — almost grave.

"You... were you in the Maleficent Realm too?"

"Hmm? Of course I was... wait, how do you know? I didn’t even appear in front of many people..."

"—And those who saw you aren’t alive, right?" Sesrir completed his sentence.

The pieces were finally clicking into place for him. The technique he witnessed earlier, the formation Cale had just created, and to add to that... absorbing souls like dinner.

Sesrir withdrew a picture drawn on weathered paper from his pocket and threw it at Cale.

Cale caught it and looked the image.

It wasn’t a close-up portrait, but the figure was unmistakable — a man with white hair and a deliberately obscured face, his neck and chest covered in numerous tattoos. One entire arm was completely covered with strange markings.

His face was deliberately left vague and indistinct in the drawing; clearly intentional obfuscation.

It was Cale himself. His own wanted poster!

"...w-who... is this?" he asked, though he already knew.

"Are you playing with me now?" Sesrir leaned forward, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I... sigh, well it is indeed me. But what the hell is it?"

Sesrir pointed at the picture, his voice carrying a hint of anger beneath the facade.

"That... I didn’t know who it was, but seeing you eat souls of beasts, and then those marks on your body... even you yourself were mumbling something about them. Then it clicked! You... you’re the Soul Devouring Demon!"

"S-soul devouring... demon? Come on... who the hell is even that? And anyway, if I’m to be given a title, shouldn’t it be ’White-Haired Demon’ at least? Call me Demon Lord or something..." Cale grinned, attempting to deflect.

"Don’t play dumb! You killed... no, rather you devoured thousands in that inheritance realm! I know this very accurately! I’ve met many people from various sects asking for you. Even some wanting to hire me to kill your goddamn ass. Many people I knew were killed by you too... some of them were just in their twenties. Why did you kill everyone? Was it so necessary? Heh, who am I even arguing with? I doubt you’d care less. If you ever enter the Central Plains, you better hide those goddamn marks on your body, else you’re doomed."

Cale’s expression shifted from playful to completely expressionless.

He stared at Sesrir in silence as the man continued his tirade.

Then he leaned back, tilted his head, and laughed.

"Hehe... hahahah... a Soul Devouring Demon, eh? I guess it’s interesting. To think I set up an entire array powered by that dying world’s world energy itself, and even hid my face, killing every existing person, but still people found it... how many clans even have diviners of this level?"

He corrected his posture, settling into a lotus position to begin soul absorption.

"You think I care about the dead? No, not at all. If they died, they were just that weak. Don’t tell me you haven’t killed your fair share of people. Dying youngsters? Aren’t I one too? If they weren’t so greedy — if they’d teamed up against me instead of fighting each other, I would’ve lost too... possibly. And being called a demon? Isn’t this too cliche? Sigh, what did I expect from people who haven’t read good fiction?"

The array lit with orange radiance.

Cale closed his eyes.

His body levitated into the air as souls emerged from the Netherworld Prince’s Ring one by one. Each one floated suspended before being suddenly sucked into his core like being pulled into a black hole of inexorable gravity.

His body erupted with black chaos flames, burning any remnant souls attempting to escape his grasp, preventing their flight.

Sesrir watched in deep, contemplative silence.

Then he smiled weakly, shaking his head in defeat.

’Don’t tell me he’s going to eat me too? Boy oh boy, what kind of creature’s jaws have I stepped into?’

’Hmph, human? Demon? Righteous? Demonic? Loyalty? Betrayal? Does that even matter? It is ’I’ that matters in this world. As long as ’I’ exist, as long as ’I’ am strong, no one would dare harm those close to me, let alone myself. If ’I’ am the strongest, even if I kill an entire continent itself, who would dare oppose me? If I’m fated to be the Sin of Wrath, shouldn’t my wrath be the strongest among all! So what if I borrow millions from people? If later I’m the strongest, will they dare ask for that money back?’

Such thoughts reeled through Cale’s consciousness for four days as he continued absorbing souls to advance into the Emperor Stage.

A few more hours passed.

Cale opened his eyes.

[Congratulations Host! For cultivating to Low Emperor Stage of Soul Cultivation!]

[New Technique Acquired: Holy Flame Creation]

[Holy Flame Creation is an ancient and extremely profound flame-manipulation technique that allows the user to merge multiple distinct flames into a single supreme flame. Rather than simply combining their heat, the technique harmonizes the individual essences, attributes, and laws contained within each flame, creating an entirely new form of fire.

Every flame possesses its own nature—destruction, purification, vitality, frostfire, lightning, devouring, creation, or other unique properties. Holy Flame Creation forcibly brings these conflicting natures into perfect equilibrium, transforming their combined power into the user’s personal Holy Flame.

When activated, the individual flames revolve around the user’s body before being drawn into a central point. Their colors and properties gradually disappear beneath an intense radiance, until only the newly created Holy Flame remains.]

His eyes lit up with excitement.

’Isn’t this what I’ve been asking for all this time! Haha...’

Even though chaos flames could devour many other flames, Cale couldn’t utilize them at this level of sophisticated merging. He has been forcefully combining them instead, which was why he avoided using chaos flames in most fights.

But now... heh.

Another message cascaded across his vision.

[New Ultimate Technique: Flame Spirit Bomb]

[Type: Supreme Flame Technique

Classification: Offensive / Destructive

Difficulty: Extremely High

Requirement: Powerful Spiritual Energy + Mastery of Multiple Flames

The Flame Spirit Bomb is a supreme flame technique created to condense the destructive power of multiple flames into a single point.

Upon activation, the wielder summons his flames and forcibly draws them toward a central core. Rather than allowing their energies to collide and explode, he uses his Spiritual Energy to suppress, compress, and stabilize them. With every successive compression, the volume of the flames decreases while their destructive energy increases exponentially.

When the technique reaches completion, the raging flames that once filled the surrounding space have been reduced to a small sphere suspended above the wielder’s palm.

Within that tiny sphere exists an enormous quantity of compressed flame energy, continuously rotating around a central core. Every rotation forces the different flames to interact, causing their destructive properties to compound upon one another.

The more flames incorporated into the technique, the greater its power.

However, the technique becomes increasingly difficult to control as more flames are added. A single imbalance between their opposing natures can cause the compressed energy to collapse and erupt prematurely.

At its highest level, the wielder can utilize Holy Flame Creation to fuse the flames before compression. The resulting Holy Flame Spirit Bomb possesses a terrifying characteristic.

It does not immediately release all of its energy upon impact. Instead, the Holy Flame core begins devouring surrounding flame energy and spiritual energy, using it to sustain and enlarge the explosion. The longer the explosion continues, the more violent it becomes.

Only someone possessing extraordinary spiritual control can wield such a technique without suffering catastrophic backlash.]

Cale’s smile was genuine, purely, unfiltered excitement radiating from his entire being.

He couldn’t contain his exhilaration.

The thought of seeing foolish enemies being obliterated by this technique made his hands actually itch with anticipation, unable to wait even a moment longer.

For the first time in days, Cale felt something approaching joy...