Chapter 134: Spiritual Energy (2)

What a shocking improvement, Su Chen thought to himself.

All he had done was absorb the remaining consciousness energy from a broken Spirit Race individual, but Su Chen’s consciousness energy had still increased by six hundred units. This was really something else.

Apart from the increase in his consciousness energy, the Spirit Race individual had also passed along its knowledge. Unfortunately, because of its self-destruction, its memory had been fragmented, and most of the information was incomplete.

However, that wasn’t a big deal. To Su Chen, the fragmented memories were not a problem. He was quite confident that he would be able to fill in the gaps. Actually, a lot of this information was about consciousnesses, and it supplemented his weak points and opened his eyes. Many things that he wasn’t clear about in the past had suddenly become clear to him.

The Spirit Race’s will and body were combined. Once the Spirit Race’s will was exterminated, their spirit body would disappear as well.

However, immediately after the spirit body disappeared, Su Chen found that a strange green stone had mysteriously appeared in the cage where the Spirit Race individual had been kept earlier.

“Hm?” Su Chen walked over and picked up the green stone. He immediately felt as if his consciousness was being refined by something.

After he had absorbed the Spirit Race individual and strengthened his consciousness, he was already able to more clearly sense his increase in power. His consciousness could leave his body and wander the world as a separate entity now.

Under the human system of cultivation, this was something that could normally only be achieved at the Spirit Burning Realm. Now, however, Su Chen was able to do that at the Yang Opening Realm because his consciousness power vastly exceeded what any normal human possessed.

As Su Chen held onto the green crystal, he discovered that his consciousness energy was increasing again. His consciousness voluntarily left his body and rose high into the air. In the blink of an eye, the entirety of Aurora City was beneath his feet.

He felt like he was flying through the air, calmly surveying the tens of thousands of lifeforms beneath him. He could even see himself standing on the ground, holding onto the green stone and staring at the ground in a daze.

At this point, if someone were to behead his physical body, Su Chen could immediately try to take over another lifeform’s physical body.

This was the benefit of having such a powerful consciousness.

His powerful consciousness would manifest in combat as an increase in Fata Morgana’s power, and his usage of Origin Skills would also improve. He would be able to unleash many Origin Skills with but a thought, increasing his explosive potential.

These were all things that only a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator should have been able to achieve, but he had done it as a Yang Opening Realm cultivator. Su Chen was ecstatic.

It could be said that even if a Light Shaking Realm cultivator were to attack him now, Su Chen was highly confident in defeating him.

A moment later, Su Chen’s consciousness returned to his physical body, and he put the green stone away.

At this point, he realized what the Ferocious Race had been trying to do.

It was obvious that they had been constantly squeezing this Ferocious Race individual dry to produce these green stones.

These green stones were likely an object that could be used to increase a person’s consciousness. The Ferocious Race were innately inferior in this aspect, so this was obviously one method that they had come up with to try to supplement that deficit.

However, an immense price was necessary to construct these consciousness crystals, and it required some brutal sacrifices. Many lives needed to be taken. It was unknown how just many lives had been sacrificed to produce just this small chunk of rock.

Based on Su Chen’s estimation, this small consciousness crystal alone was enough to cause Su Chen’s consciousness power to increase by a thousand units.

That was truly frightening.

Su Chen had always only been interested in knowledge and not in physical resources. As such, he didn’t care much for even the most precious resources, as long as they could be bought with Origin Stones.

Even a rare medicinal ingredient like the Corpse Spirit Flower could be bought for the right price.

However, this consciousness crystal was different. From the Spirit Race individual’s memories, Su Chen could gather that creating this consciousness crystal was exceptionally challenging. There were other conditions that needed to be met than just sacrificing many lives and enslaving a Spirit Race individual.

For instance, the Heavenly Spirit Stone, which was used as a vessel to contain the consciousness energy, was a rare resource in its own right. The Shivering Chill Tribe had used quite a bit of effort to obtain this piece. In addition, the Spirit Race individual that Su Chen had assimilated was unique. When all of these conditions were taken into account, it might not be possible to get another item like the consciousness crystal in front of him in the next ten million years.

“It really is quite a treasure,” Su Chen muttered.

The main reason the Ferocious Race would construct a crystal like this was to deal with the Spirit Race. Because they lived in the interior, they didn’t fight much with humans; instead, the Shivering Chill Tribe primarily were disturbed by the Spirit Race. The Spirit Race treated the Ferocious Race as a source of experimental subjects and would capture many of them to do research every year. To avoid this kind of fate, the tribe had racked their brains for a solution.

Consciousness crystals were an effective tool to use against the Spirit Race. This crystal would give a Ferocious Race individual enough power to resist being controlled by the Spirit Race.

Unfortunately, before it could be used, the Shivering Chill Tribe had been ambushed by the human army.

In Su Chen’s eyes, using this just to ensure that they wouldn’t have their consciousnesses controlled was far too wasteful.

It could have many more uses than that.

“Su Chen! How are things going for you?”

Just as he was thinking of all the possibilities, a voice called out from behind him.

It was Chu Yingwan.

The Heavenly Might Battalion had slaughtered their way into the Divine Shrine and was currently plundering it.

Her cry confirmed one thing for Su Chen: the enemies had been defeated.

The tribe’s chieftain, Styma, was dead, the Head Ancestor had been killed, and the Heavenly Might Battalion had won the victory. All that remained was to reap the spoils.

“I’ve gotten quite a bit of benefit from this trip, but they all suit me the best. The ingredients for making more Hemolytic Totems should be over there,” Su Chen said as he pointed off in a nearby direction.

He was pointed at a large building that had been smeared with blood and covered in strange inscriptions. If he wasn’t wrong, that should be the place in the Divine Shrine where all the Totemic Inscriptions were drawn on. All of the materials Su Chen would need could be found in there as well.

“Go and gather anything that has any value!” Chu Yingwan yelled as she turned around.

There was no mercy or compassion to be shown. People needed to die, valuables needed to be taken, not just for the sake of revenge but even more to improve one’s strength.

Large groups of soldiers charged into the building. Under the leadership of those who knew what they were doing, they furiously grabbed anything that might be of value.

Medicinal herbs, crystal essences, pill kernels, unique metals, and theurgical literature - anything with any value was plundered. After everything was taken, someone lit a torch and burned everything else so that their enemies wouldn’t have anything.

Flames rose all throughout the city. Su Chen walked amidst the flames, constantly giving directions as to where the soldiers should plunder next and where they should give up on.

His insight was incredibly accurate - anywhere he pointed, there would definitely be something valuable.

The garden had been ransacked, the medicinal hall had been looted, and the place of totemic inscriptions was destroyed. Even the Divine Shrine’s training grounds weren’t overlooked.

Every year, the Divine Shrine would be tasked with developing as many individuals with special professions as possible, including Bone Diviners, Soulless, Cursed, Blood-Baptized, Beast Tamers, etc.

All of these special professions were trained at the Divine Shrine’s training grounds, but Su Chen and the others robbed the place to their heart’s content.

Plunder the enemy to increase one’s own strength - this was the unbreakable law of battle.

The plundering lasted for three hours. Not only was the Divine Shrine swept clean, but even the houses of the tribe’s wealthy were completely emptied out.

Rations, resources, riches - anything and everything was seized, and none of it became an encumbrance, as Su Chen had brought enough Origin Rings to take away half of the entire country’s resources.

After emptying out the homes of the wealthy, it was time to ransack the homes of the middle-class. A few soldiers even began to vent by razing some of the buildings to the ground.

The generals of the Heavenly Might Battalion made no attempt to stop them.

The soldiers had been repressed for too long. They needed to vent some of the pressure building up in them, which was fine as long as they watched the time.

“It’s time. Everyone, retreat!”

In the end, the signal to retreat still came.

No enemy would sit and watch their opponents invade their territory without counterattacking, so the advantage of surprise had a time limit. It was important to know when to strike, but it was equally important to know when to leave.

Even so, the soldiers all groaned unhappily.

Their time of enjoyment was short-lived, and they weren’t able to plunder as much as they would have liked.

Despite their unwillingness, the soldiers quickly packed up and retreated.

Snow began to fall from the sky, concealing the light from the flames, as well as all of the unspeakable evils that had been committed there.