Strength Soars!

Gu Ding picked up the Black Sphere, which was several times larger than a basketball. Just by touching it, he could clearly feel the soul energy contained within it.

The little black dog clearly wanted him to eat it, but he hesitated because the soul energy contained within was too powerful, and he might not be able to withstand it.

The little black dog kept urging him on, but Gu Ding thought for a moment and figured the dog wouldn't harm him, so he started eating it like fruit, taking bite after bite. After a dozen or so bites, he had devoured the Black Sphere completely.

After entering the stomach, a powerful soul energy dissipated, and Gu Ding's Devouring the Heavens and Swallowing the Earth Divine Power also automatically activated, forming a huge Black Hole that quickly swallowed up the energy.

Gu Ding, who thought his soul would burst, found that he didn't feel any discomfort at all. In just two or three minutes, the enormous energy was completely devoured.

A moment later, the Black Hole formed by Devouring the Heavens and Swallowing the Earth within Gu Ding's body began to feed back a continuous stream of soul energy, constantly nourishing his soul. The feeling was warm and comforting, a hundred times more so than soaking in a hot spring.

As that warmth was injected, Gu Ding's soul strength also began to increase rapidly.

In less than two minutes, its strength was directly upgraded from two stars to three stars.

As time passed, it continued to climb to four stars, five stars... all the way up to seven stars without encountering any obstacles.

Upon arriving at the Seven Stars, the warmth not only didn't dissipate but actually began to intensify. Gu Ding also planned to take this opportunity to elevate his soul strength to that of High-rank God, so he gathered that warmth within his body. Streams of energy accumulated until they finally reached their limit and suddenly erupted.

His entire soul trembled. His soul, which was at the peak of the Seven Star level, broke through in one fell swoop, not only reaching the level of High-rank God, but even reaching the strength of a two-star high-ranking god.

The warmth gradually faded away.

The little black dog was asleep at Gu Ding's feet. Guding patted the Gu Ding's head to express his gratitude before returning to his body.

Gu Ding was suspended in the void, slowly opened his eyes.

Now that his physical strength has reached the seventh rank, his soul strength has reached the upper second rank, and his divine source strength has reached the upper first rank, he will use his weakest physical body as the standard when unleashing "Asura World Extinction". Even so, compared to his previous soul strength of the second rank, his Combat Strength has increased by five minor ranks.

For Half-Step True God, each star increase represents three minor tiers of Combat Strength. Even without using methods like the Demon Face, Gu Ding's Combat Strength has already steadily reached the peak of a three-star Half-Step True God, not far from four stars. Previously, he needed to use methods like the Demon Face to fight Ye Mei, but now he has truly reached the same level of Combat Strength. Even without the Demon Face, he might not necessarily lose.

"Those vengeful spirits, were they swallowed up by what's inside you?" The Sea Emperor noticed Gu Ding's increased strength immediately.

"Hmm, their strength has increased slightly again." Gu Ding nodded with satisfaction. This time, the Ancient Ruins had yielded truly substantial gains. "Have Lily and the others collect all the soul crystals there. There shouldn't be anything in that lake that can threaten them anymore."

After Gu Ding finished speaking, he sped off towards the lake they had just visited.

Liliath and her companions, having received a message from the Sea Emperor, revealed themselves from their hiding places and began a massive looting spree.

When Gu Ding reappeared over the lake half an hour later.

The people by the lake were all talking about it.

"It's that human! Wasn't he just chased by vengeful spirits and escaped? How did he return unharmed? Could those vengeful spirits have come back?!" A member of the Dark Race looked around in other directions in the sky. He didn't see any other figures.

There was also a murmur among the Human Race Camp.

"It really was Gu Ding who ran away just now. Why is he back? What about those vengeful spirits?"

"The vengeful spirit couldn't be retrieved; it must have been killed by Gu Ding." The one who said this was a young man, who probably had some blind worship for Gu Ding.

"What do you know, kid? Just now, two of those vengeful spirits were at the level of Half-Step True God. The Platinum Vengeful Spirit is different from the Platinum Skeleton. The Platinum Skeleton's consciousness strength might only be at the Peak-rank God. As long as the soul attack is strong enough, it can be killed. But the Platinum Vengeful Spirit is different. Vengeful spirits are soul entities, immune to physical attacks, and their soul strength, like their cultivation level, is at the Half-Step True God. Gu Ding isn't a strong person who mainly cultivates the soul. Even if he advances to godhood, I don't believe he can kill such a powerful vengeful spirit." A middle-aged man, who was clearly more experienced, analyzed the facts.

"Then how do you explain why those vengeful spirits didn't catch up?" the boy retorted, somewhat unconvinced.

"This..." The middle-aged man was speechless at the question.

"Look, Gu Ding is heading towards those Dark Race members!" someone suddenly shouted.

The others immediately stopped arguing and looked in the direction the man was pointing.

Gu Ding slowly landed not far from the Dark Race and said, "Leave all your temporary Storage Space behind, and you can leave."

"They really are Interstellar Pirate, openly robbing people..." one of the Human Race Camp muttered to himself.

"Human, don't think that just because you've ascended to godhood you can be arrogant!" The tallest youth of the Dark Race stepped forward and roared at Gu Ding.

"This shouldn't be considered being arrogant, right? I'm stronger than you, so isn't it only natural for me to take your things? Besides, I'm an Interstellar Pirate, and not killing you is already being very polite. If you were other Interstellar Pirate from the Human Race Camp, you definitely wouldn't have been allowed to leave alive." Although Gu Ding's statement was rather blunt, it was also a fact.

"Hmph, just a Low-rank God, everyone attack together! Take him down!" The tall youth waved his hand and called out, and the group rushed towards Gu Ding.

Gu Ding's body swayed for a moment, and then he heard a chorus of wails from the Dark Race.

Moments later, the eleven Dark Race were piled up by Gu Ding into a human mountain, their bodies covered in black blood.

Gu Ding didn't kill them; he simply tore off the arms that wore temporary Storage Space. He removed the rings one by one and stored them in his own Storage Space, then tossed the arms aside.

The Human Race Camp was somewhat terrified. Although Gu Ding hadn't killed anyone, the act of tearing an arm off a person was still quite gruesome.

"He's walking towards us... Could it be that he's planning to rob us too...?" The Golden-haired Youth who had previously disliked Gu Ding shouted in a panic.

"Shut up, you idiot!" the middle-aged man scolded. If Gu Ding hadn't had such thoughts, upon hearing this, he might have also wanted to rob them all.

Gu Ding walked towards the group step by step, stopping a few meters away before speaking, "There are basically no more vengeful spirits of the Gold Level or above in this lake. Those who feel they are strong enough can go down to search for Soul Pearl. As long as you are careful, there shouldn't be any danger."

"Thank you!" The middle-aged man, clearly the most experienced, was the first to respond.

The others were preparing to go into the lake. The Golden-haired Youth spoke again, "Gu Ding, you're telling us this with ulterior motives, aren't you? Otherwise, who would give away these treasures so easily? If it's really as you say, you can just go into the lake yourself and loot all the treasures; there's no need to tell us."

Gu Ding glanced at the Golden-haired Youth, then turned to the others. "This lake gets wider and wider as you go down, and there are a lot of Soul Pearl. Our team can't possibly collect them all in a short time, and we don't plan to stay too long."

After Gu Ding finished speaking, his gaze returned to the Golden-haired Youth, and he added two more sentences. "Also, what you consider treasures are just ordinary cultivation resources to us. At most, Soul Pearl can only raise a person's soul strength to the High-rank God. In this lake, the only things we can consider treasures are those few Soul Crystal."

After hearing Gu Ding's explanation, the group secretly thought to themselves, "So this is what they left over from the meat feast, and they want us to have some soup too..."

"Let's go, let's go! Let's go retrieve the Soul Pearl!" the middle-aged man shouted, waving his hand. He was also worried that if the Golden-haired Youth said anything else that angered Gu Ding, then he wouldn't even be able to drink the soup, let alone save his life.

The Golden-haired Youth felt a chill run down his spine when he saw Gu Ding's gaze. He didn't dare say anything more and reluctantly followed the last group into the lake.

Gu Ding stood still, organizing his Inheritance Memory while patiently waiting for Liliath to finish their looting.

About an hour later, Liliath and the others emerged from the water.

"Hehe, we've scooped up all the Soul Crystal!" Dokter laughed at Gu Ding from afar.

"Then let's get ready to go to the next treasure chest!" Gu Ding read aloud.

"Huh, Gu Ding, your soul strength..." Liliath was the first to notice the abnormality.

The Sea Emperor didn't explain in detail what Gu Ding had just encountered to Liliath and the others; he only said that there was a disturbance of vengeful spirits in the lake and told them to hide.

When Liliath asked, Gu Ding then recounted the whole story.

"A five-star peak Half-Step True God vengeful spirit was directly devoured?!" Liliath was extremely envious after hearing this. "No wonder your soul strength suddenly increased by a major level... Although my soul is strong, I can only deal with a two-star Half-Step True God at most. If I devour this Soul Crystal and strengthen my soul again, I should be able to fight a three-star Half-Step True God. But even so, if I encounter those two vengeful spirits chasing you, I will surely die."

"How's our Combat Strength now?" Scarlet was quite concerned about this.

"It's about the same as Ye Mei." Gu Ding didn't hide anything.

"Looks like I need to find the next sword spirit soon. If this keeps up, I'm really going to become the weakest in the team." Scarlet was a little discouraged.

"Would vengeful spirits work too? If so, have the Sea Emperor keep an eye out for powerful sword-wielding vengeful spirits," Gu Ding suggested.

"Yes, as long as there is any residual consciousness." Scarlet Reader.

"While you were talking, I found several. Scarlet, what level can you absorb at most?" the Sea Emperor asked directly. (To be continued...)