Yan Jin Shi

Blood Spirit Island, Blood Spirit Tower.

The Blood Spirit Tower had a total of 108 floors, rising straight into the blood-colored clouds. From afar, it looked like a sharp sword piercing the heavens.

An entire legion of the Blood Phantom Army was stationed in the Blood Spirit Tower.

The Blood Phantom Army was the Sovereign's Army within Blood Phantom Prefecture. Although it was widely said that the Netherworld had seven rulers, there was only one Netherworld Continent and one Nether Sea. The specific territories controlled by the Overgods were a "secret" to God-level experts, so the Sovereign's Armies within each prefecture were named after their respective prefectures.

As for the Prefecture Armies controlled by the Prefects of each prefecture, though they were likewise named after their prefectures, they needed the word "Prefecture" added to them. For example, the Prefecture Army of Blood Phantom Prefecture was called the Blood Phantom Prefecture Army.

The difference of one word meant they were two entirely different armies.

Aristotle returned to the lowest floor of the Blood Spirit Tower. This was where he and the members of the other ninety-nine squads lived. Their hundred squads formed one battalion.

Within the Blood Spirit Tower, the floor one lived on depended on the strength of one's squad. Naturally, the lowest floor housed the relatively weakest squads.

The squad he belonged to was among the bottom hundred squads in the Blood Spirit Tower.

Aristotle did not know how many legions of the Blood Phantom Army existed within Blood Phantom Prefecture. Nor had he ever planned to turn his squad into an "elite" of the Blood Phantom Army. He only wanted to improve their standing within the Blood Spirit Tower.

However, no member of the Blood Phantom Army was weak. It would not be easy for his squad members to defeat other squads.

In fact, even among the bottom hundred, his squad ranked near the very bottom.

"Hey, Aristotle, how did it go? I just heard that a High-God came from a Material Plane? Something that might not happen even once in hundreds of millions of years, and you happened to encounter it. You really are lucky."

The moment Aristotle returned, he ran into a brawny minotaur over two meters tall. The minotaur had a nose ring, eyes like bronze bells, and a somewhat muffled voice.

He was also a captain in the Blood Phantom Army. Their duties guarding the Teleportation Array rotated in shifts. Other than when they were on duty, they had considerable freedom when they had no missions, with few restrictions on what they could do so long as they did not leave for too long.

Aristotle glanced at the minotaur, merely snorted, ignored him completely, and went straight back to his quarters.

"Hey, you bastard."

Seeing that Aristotle had ignored him, the minotaur scratched his head and looked toward the soldiers who had returned with Aristotle. "Hey, what's wrong with your captain?"

The soldiers exchanged looks. In the end, one of them cautiously sent a voice transmission. "That High-God rejected the captain's invitation, and..."

Very quickly, the soldier briefly explained what had happened.

The minotaur chuckled dully when he heard this. "He knew all about that sort of thing. That fellow knows quite a lot. Looks like your captain really was made a fool of. But that makes sense. How could there be so many High-Gods in the Material Planes?"

Becoming a High-God was no easy feat even in the Divine Planes. It was even harder in the Material Planes. Those people probably had some connection to the Divine Planes.

"Chek, it's your turn to escort this batch from the Material Plane."

At that moment, Aristotle emerged from his quarters and looked at the minotaur. "Everyone is here already. But I paid one Nether Stone in advance for you. Remember to pay me back."

One Nether Stone was actually nothing to him. Otherwise, he would not have given one directly to Ailin earlier. By the rules, he did not even need to pay that Nether Stone.

So, he was not dissatisfied over a single Nether Stone. He simply felt that Ailin had "toyed" with him. He had thought he had found a High-God genius, only to say so much and discover that he had wasted his excitement for nothing. He could not do anything over such a trivial matter, so he merely felt uncomfortable.

"Haha, don't worry. I won't owe you."

The minotaur called Chek laughed heartily, then summoned his squad members and headed out of the Blood Spirit Tower.

After the minotaur left, Aristotle began considering once more how he could improve his squad's strength. Less than a hundred years remained before the next internal competition.

Either he improved the coordination of his squad members, or he improved his own strength. Neither would be easy.

Ailin had already left the vicinity of the Blood Spirit Tower.

"An island can actually be this enormous. As expected of a Divine Plane."

Although he had expected the islands of the Divine Plane to be far from small, the fact that he still had not discovered its edge surprised him somewhat. He had only asked that soldier where Blood Nether City was; he had not asked how large Blood Spirit Island was.

Now, it seemed that even if he flew at full speed without stopping, it would probably still take some time to reach Blood Nether City.

"Hm? Is that Yan Jin Shi?"

Ailin suddenly stopped in midair. His attention was drawn to a region of scattered rocks below, where several stones traced with dark golden patterns were mixed among the rubble.

When he had killed Pavlos, he had obtained a piece of Yan Jin Shi from Pavlos's Space Ring. It was precisely because of that Yan Jin Shi, together with some materials from the Brinia Plane, that he had forged two Divine Weapons of decent quality.

He had not expected to discover Yan Jin Shi so soon after arriving in the Netherworld.

This much Yan Jin Shi was enough for him to forge several Divine Weapons made entirely from Yan Jin Shi.

He had left his Divine Weapons with his Death God Avatar. Since he had no other weapons, he naturally would not pass up this Yan Jin Shi.

Of course, Ailin had yet to see better materials in the Divine Plane. Otherwise, he might not have thought much of Yan Jin Shi. Still, better materials were a matter for the future. Since he had no weapon now, having something usable was already good enough.

Whoosh~

Ailin descended directly. With a movement of his divine power, the pieces of Yan Jin Shi flew into his hands.

"This quality is far better than the piece I got from Pavlos."

Ailin could not help but sigh. "The Netherworld really is full of treasures."

He spread out his Divine Sense and, aside from those pieces of Yan Jin Shi, discovered more Yan Jin Shi in several relatively hidden places. Things unseen in the Material Planes seemed as commonplace here as dirt.

After selecting several pieces of higher-quality Yan Jin Shi, Ailin did not hurry to leave. Instead, he prepared to refine them into weapons right where he was.

He did not have a Space Ring now. Carrying this Yan Jin Shi while traveling would be troublesome.

The best solution was to forge them into weapons first, making them easier to carry.

After becoming a god, forging weapons was not difficult. Even shaping a weapon took little time. Once a weapon had been forged into shape, the only time-consuming and exhausting part was nurturing it into a Divine Weapon.

Nurturing a Divine Weapon required continuously feeding divine power into the weapon. This process had to be carried out bit by bit, and a Low God might even need ten thousand years to complete it.

Only after reaching that stage could a weapon truly be considered a Divine Weapon. Only then could it recognize an owner and withstand divine power when techniques were unleashed.

During the nurturing process, one had to consider the material's own limit of endurance. Therefore, one could only spend time slowly nurturing it with divine power bit by bit.

The better the quality of the material, the more energy it could withstand after being nurtured into a Divine Weapon. It could even amplify energy to many times the power of the technique itself.

Conversely, if one used ordinary materials such as common rock, then even if they could become Divine Weapons, the divine power they could withstand would be limited. Forget amplifying the power of techniques—even the energy of some techniques might be enough to damage them.

However, the stronger the expert, the more precise their control over divine power. With the same material, they could bring out greater potential.

For this reason, some well-made Low-level Divine Weapons could be nurtured again by experts and become more powerful Mid-level Divine Weapons, or even High-level Divine Weapons.

Although Yan Jin Shi was a material as commonplace as dirt in the Netherworld, its unique properties allowed it to withstand sufficient divine power. After being forged into a Divine Weapon, it could almost always easily amplify a portion of power beyond that of the technique itself.

Moreover, unlike certain special materials that were difficult to forge, Yan Jin Shi could be altered into any desired shape using divine power alone, making it extremely convenient.

Furthermore, Yan Jin Shi had an obstructive effect on weapons made from certain metallic materials. Thus, Yan Jin Shi had always been one of the most common materials used to forge Divine Weapons in the Netherworld.