When he bowed to the seemingly ordinary statue, it actually grew from half a person's height to the height of a full-grown person. Endless black energy appeared on its surface, and the spreading black energy finally gathered in his mind. In just an hour, his strength rose at a visible pace from that of a mage of the fourth rank, finally stopping at the peak of the sixth rank!
From a mage of the fourth rank to the peak of the sixth rank-all it took was that single bow!
After experiencing this effect, the city lord of Lefen's attitude toward the statue underwent a complete reversal. In addition, as the statue infused him with black energy, it also conveyed a great deal of information to him. This included several types of dark magic, as well as methods of sacrificing living people.
This information also covered sacrificing people with pure souls and how to find such people. He had refined that bead according to this method.
Andrew read through the city lord of Lefen's notes and felt that the situation was more complicated than he had imagined.
This mysterious statue left him feeling as though a bone were lodged in his throat and a blade were at his back. It could increase people's strength through sacrifices and even grow to the height of a person. This...
Andrew thought back, but there seemed to be no such plot in the original novel. Knowing nothing about it, he continued turning the pages of the notes.
After that first act of worship, the city lord of Lefen became a true believer in the statue. Following the information the statue conveyed, he called it the "Nether God." As his faith deepened, his strength gradually increased, and within a year, he had broken through his bottleneck and become a grand mage of the seventh rank.
At this point, simple worship ceased to have any effect, and the city lord of Lefen began secretly sacrificing living people. He could not forget his enemy, the former city lord of Lefen, and began secretly capturing members of his family. After the first sacrifice, his strength surged, and he became a magister in one leap. With such strength, he no longer feared pursuit by his enemy and went so far as to wipe out the former city lord of Lefen's entire family.
Even wiping out the family did not satisfy him. He turned all forty-odd members of the household into dried corpses, making them suffer agonies of the soul before they died!
That was where the forty-odd dried corpses had come from!
Reading this, Andrew sighed with emotion. He could hardly pass judgment on such things. Who could clearly untangle all those grudges? What concerned him most was the speed at which the man's cultivation had advanced. Advancing in rank was extremely difficult for mages, which was also why high-level mages were far fewer than high-level warriors. Yet the city lord of Lefen had gone from a mage of the fourth rank to one of the eighth rank in just a year or two. That speed was surely unmatched across the entire Yulan Continent!
Moreover, he was no ordinary mage, but a dark mage renowned for mystery and terror! Such mages studied souls far more deeply than others, and their lifespans were also greatly extended compared with ordinary people. Relatively speaking, their cultivation was even harder!
After destroying his enemy, the city lord of Lefen seized Lefen City. To obtain more power, he risked being hunted down and killed by the Yulan Empire and openly promoted sacrifices in the city. Yet for some reason, the power he could obtain from the statue dwindled, even when he sacrificed living people...
It took him nearly ten years to advance from a mage of the eighth rank to one of the ninth rank.
To ordinary people, that was already very fast, but he was far from satisfied. To advance further, the city lord of Lefen began searching for people with pure souls. The statue had said that as long as he sacrificed such people, it could immediately grant him the power of a god...
And so the events that followed came to pass.
"Whew!" Andrew let out a long breath. This incident had made him fully realize that even though he knew the plot of the original novel, he still did not understand this world well enough!
This was a real world, after all, countless times more complex than what was in the book.
After thinking for half the night, Andrew still had no clue about the statue. He certainly would not worship it. He disdained taking such a shortcut, and he did not dare take it either.
Every gain must come with a loss. Even if this statue really can help people increase their strength, there's no way to tell right now what price they actually pay.
In the end, with no other solution, Andrew could only put the statue away. This thing was dangerous, but it was also precious. At the very least, it was definitely not something from a Material Plane. It must have found its way here from a Higher Plane. He could not figure it out now, but once his strength increased and he entered a Higher Plane, he would eventually understand.
After putting away the statue, Andrew wondered again just what was special about people with pure souls.
In the original novel, such people could be reborn as angels through light magic. The purer the soul, the stronger the angel born from it. The strongest could even rival an Asura.
However, there were very few angels like that. After untold years of sacrifices across endless planes, their numbers could still be counted on ten fingers.
Clearly, the souls of such people contained tremendous power, or rather, possessed tremendous potential. Otherwise, how could they be reborn as angels?
Sigh, there's no point thinking about this now. There must be plenty of people who know the secret of pure souls, but in this universe, only the Angel Rebirth Pool can turn them into angels.
Andrew smiled self-mockingly. He suddenly realized that his mindset was very dangerous. He was reaching too far beyond his grasp, always thinking about things far beyond his reach.
Gazing at the starry sky, he clenched his fists, a flame burning in his chest.
This world is too dangerous. Without enough strength, I won't be able to protect my family! He thought of everything along the journey: Viscount Frey and Kate's disdain, the frights Bandeni and Polite had given him, and the city lord of Lefen's bizarre magic...
Within ten years, I must reach Saint-level! Andrew silently swore. Putting everything else aside, he began honing his battle-qi.
After the incident in Lefen City, Bandeni was no longer so boisterous. Everyone traveled cautiously, heading west. Milly and her mother also joined the group, taken in by the kindhearted Janice. Milly's mother was named Aida. According to her, everyone else in her family had given their lives to the Nether God. Of their once-happy family, only mother and daughter remained.
Andrew could hardly send them back. With no other choice, he brought the two along, slowing the group down a little more.
A month later, the imperial capital finally came into sight!
Standing on a mountain ridge and gazing at the magnificent imperial capital in the distance, everyone felt a surge of excitement. The immense capital deeply awed them all. Even Andrew could not help feeling stirred.
"Look, that's the capital of our Yulan Empire!" Bandeni pointed ahead proudly and said loudly.
The imperial capital stood on the banks of the Yulan River, surrounded by what should have been the river's alluvial plain, stretching as far as the eye could see. The entire city lay there quietly like a giant beast. For some reason, Andrew kept sensing that an extremely powerful force seemed to exist within the city!
"Andrew, your feeling is right!" After hearing his thoughts, Bandeni wore a somewhat complicated expression. "According to my teacher, countless magic formations exist within the imperial capital. Some were set up by Saint-level Magi, and some were personally set up by the High Priest. Over countless years, the Yulan Empire has stood firm, and the imperial capital has never been destroyed. It's these magic formations that it relies on."
He paused, then said incredulously, "But my teacher said that only Saint-level experts can vaguely sense them, and you're only a warrior of the seventh rank. This..."
Andrew thought it over and could only attribute it to his powerful soul.
"Perhaps it's a natural talent, Bandeni. Let's go. We'll be able to enter the imperial capital before this afternoon!"
The group set off again, slowly making their way toward the imperial capital along the broad road.
"As expected of the imperial capital. There are so many people here." Howard looked around and could not help marveling. Over the past month, they had visited quite a few cities, some of which were even prefectural seats, but not one had so many people.
Bandeni laughed. "Of course. This is the center of the Yulan Empire!"
Andrew asked, "Bandeni, do you know how many people live in the imperial capital?"
"Well, I really don't know, but I'd estimate at least a million," Bandeni said after thinking for a moment.
A million? Andrew was somewhat startled. A city like this would have been considered a major city even in the industrial age. Yet at this time, the entire population of the Yulan Continent was probably only a hundred million or so. It was truly incredible that the imperial capital could gather so many people.
That afternoon, the group arrived at the imperial capital's eastern gate.
"It's so high!" Ling'er and Milly tilted their little faces upward to look at the city wall, both their expressions turning blank.
Andrew found them rather amusing. Two little children pretending to be adults were quite entertaining. Still, the wall really was tall, no less than a hundred meters, equivalent to a thirty-story building in his previous life. That height was deeply awe-inspiring.
"Now that we're in the imperial capital, Polite and I will treat you. Come on, I'll take you to the best restaurant in the capital for a proper feast!"
Led by Bandeni, everyone entered the imperial capital. The capital really was different. The guards showed no reaction at all when they saw Golden Tiger, unlike in other cities, where Golden Tiger's appearance would cause panic.
Bandeni explained, "There are many experts in the imperial capital, including quite a few high-level warriors and high-level mages. A considerable number of them have powerful magical beasts, so high-level magical beasts aren't uncommon in the capital either."