Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 92 The Conflict Between Silver Demon and Black Demon

Soon after Hunzhen entered the building, it completely submerged.

The house wasn't particularly dark; even without consciously using one's consciousness to spread out, one could clearly see the faces of the other people.

Including the old man from earlier, there are more than twenty people hiding in this house.

The entire group consisted of middle-aged and elderly people; not a single young face was seen, making it hard not to suspect that one had wandered into a nursing home.

These natives are all at least at the Star level, but it seems that even in the first level of this Purgatory Abyss, the Universe level is still a rare strength, and there isn't one among this group of middle-aged and elderly people.

With the strength of a Hengxing level, even setting aside the scope of the primordial universe, compared to worlds and secret realms like the Blood Luo World where complete civilizations exist, they would be considered skilled or elite. (To clarify, in the original text, the guards that Luo Feng encountered when he first entered the Blood Luo World were Hengxing level. Here, "elite" refers to the elite or core level of ordinary forces.)

But not only are they ubiquitous here, they are also mostly old, weak, sick, and disabled. However, considering the world's gravity, it's understandable that without the strength of a star level, even daily activities would be difficult.

Therefore, it can be seen that even if the world level of the Purgatory Abyss is not necessarily higher than that of the Blood Luo World, its energy level is at least one level higher than that of the Blood Luo World.

With a higher base of life levels, although there are no World Lord level powerhouses here, the number of Domain Lord level beings alone far exceeds the total number of beings in the Blood Luo World.

However, according to data provided by the Virtual Universe Company, the lower-level slave races, which make up 90% of the population, account for less than 10% of the strong individuals...

Hunzhen suddenly stopped his reverie and pricked up his ears.

He had been very curious since he saw the familiar actions of the surrounding residents, but he did not ask any questions. Instead, he remained a quiet eavesdropper and finally overheard some useful information.

Listening carefully to their discussion, Hunzhen finally finished integrating the information. He looked up at the ceiling, his gaze seemingly piercing through the flesh-and-blood technological material of the ceiling and looking out into the outside world.

The ceiling, made of flesh and blood, could effectively block his mental power. Hunzhen could indeed exert some power to penetrate it, but this action would inevitably attract unnecessary attention, so he ultimately gave up and did not put it into practice.

However, by listening to the old people's casual conversations, he could also conjure up images of battles outside.

"As expected, it's that battle between the two royal families again. Even if the lower-class residents hide in the city, they still can't live in peace. These royal family members don't care about the homes of the lower-class people at all, and treat them as battlefields at will."

But this arrogant behavior was not the focus of Hunzhen's attention.

He has obtained several more crucial pieces of information.

"Both royal families enjoy killing, and this bloodlust is more inclined towards their respective rival royal families. So most of the time, slave races are not in mortal danger when facing members of the royal family. Of course, this is the most of the time. Just like adult humans don't usually step on ants for fun, but sometimes they suddenly have nothing better to do, or they see an insect bite their cake and retaliate in anger."

"They are not afraid of death, but rather take pleasure in war. Even if their comrades die in front of them, they will not feel sadness or anger. And their battlefields are mostly set up in the outermost layer of the abyss, especially the first layer. The reason is simple... these places are the most resource-scarce, so they can fight and destroy as much as they want without losing anything."

"Some people have witnessed them devouring the flesh and blood of rival royals. It seems that devouring rival royals can make them stronger and evolve their bloodline? This is just speculation, but it can reasonably explain their bloodlust towards rival royals, though further investigation is needed."

Soul inheritance only inherits knowledge, not intelligence. While the simulation system's distinction between intelligence and knowledge is somewhat blurred, it is not entirely without rules.

In general, knowledge that tends to fall under the academic categories of his previous life can be recognized as knowledge, and knowledge that can enhance his understanding of laws, combat ability, and combat experience can also be classified as knowledge.

The last time, the Immortal Teacher was chosen in the form of a codebook. In reality, this was to categorize the opponent's information and inherit it as combat knowledge.

With these experiences, Hunzhen didn't have any special soul inheritance that could bring him the information he wanted, and instead prepared to take a down-to-earth approach and search for it himself.

boom!

A loud bang interrupted Hunzhen's thoughts.

Amidst the horrified gazes of the elderly crowd, the ceiling cracked open.

In the past battles, people were occasionally killed by the aftershocks of the fighting.

It just seems that this time the misfortune has befallen them.

They shouted in disarray and jumped out from underground shelters.

However, the result was even more unfortunate.

A silver demon suddenly fell from the sky and crashed into the ground, creating a large crater. Four of the ten people who had just escaped from the underground air-raid shelter died on the spot.

"Ugh—".

This silver demon had one wing torn off, instantly transforming its appearance into that of a one-winged angel from movies and TV shows.

Not to mention the numerous wounds on his body, a long, black sword was embedded in the center of his chest, pinning him to the ground. His condition was truly horrific.

Hunzhen couldn't help but take another look at the strangely shaped black longsword.

Its shape is somewhat like a black rapier version of the demon sword Apophis. Near the hilt of the blade is a dark red eyeball, and the entire blade is covered with blood vessels, making it seem not like an inanimate object, but a living sword.

"Noferic, the three-thousand-year struggle will come to an end. Rest assured, you will become the cornerstone upon which I step into the royal bloodline!"

A cold voice echoed from the sky.

A man with a pair of black fleshy wings, wearing black fleshy armor and gray skin, looked down at the man with an arrogant expression, delivering a judgment-like pronouncement.

"Zagarad, do you think I'll do as you wish?"

The black sword embedded in his chest gradually spread with inky marks, and the silver demon named Noferic exuded an aura of decay, yet still grinned menacingly.

He suddenly gripped the black sword tightly and pulled it out.

During this process, the erosion effect intensified, and the hand holding the black sword was stained with ink all over its arm.

Seeing his weapon gripped by Noferic, Zagarad's face darkened with anger: "Don't touch it with your dirty hands!"

He immediately focused his mental energy and used all his strength to pull the black sword back from Nofelix's hand.

"hehe……"

Nofelix grinned, his gaze sweeping sharply over the remaining six people who had left the air-raid shelter.

Even though he was severely injured and on the verge of death, with only one-tenth of his strength remaining, Noferic was still a ninth-tier cosmic-level powerhouse.

With a swift wave of his hand, he smashed the six people into minced meat with a single claw.

A silvery-white light shone through the space, and under the sweep of Nofilic's spatial power, the energy of ten people, including the four who had just died, was absorbed into his body.

In just a brief moment, while Zagarad was retrieving his black sword, he finished eating, recovered slightly, and then, without even glancing at his opponent, flapped one wing and vanished amidst the spatial ripples.

"Damn it!"

Zagarad looked at the sword in his hand, feeling both angry and regretful that he had missed the chance to kill Nofelix because of his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

They also came to hate these few ignorant and lowly races.

Inside the air-raid shelter, the few people who were obediently staying inside were cowering in fear when suddenly they saw a huge handprint rapidly enlarging in front of them.

Hunzhen's hand twitched slightly, but in the end, he didn't make any further movement.

Zagarad slapped the exposed air-raid shelter with his hand, then, without even looking at the result, flapped his wings and chased after it again.

The ground was a mess, with stones and mud scattered everywhere.

If it weren't for the extremely strong gravity of the Purgatory Abyss and the exceptionally solid nature of the matter here, a casual strike from a ninth-tier cosmic-level powerhouse would likely have reduced the entire area to dust.

"Cough cough cough, kid, are you alright?"

With a cough, the huge boulder was pushed aside, revealing the dusty, old man who liked to act like a master.

Beside him, several middle-aged and elderly people who remained motionless, along with Hun Zhen, were all unharmed, though they looked rather disheveled.

"Old Huo, thank goodness it was you."

A middle-aged man with a bald head and a goat's head, looking like he had just escaped a disaster, winked at Old Man Huo and said, "I knew I'd be safe hiding next to you."

Old Man Huo wore a bitter expression: "Alas, don't even mention it. In order to block that lord's casual attack, my most treasured life-saving item was completely shattered."

The people around immediately curled their lips and pulled out several meatball-like objects from who-knows-where.

These meat dumplings were almost identical in size, but their colors and shapes varied slightly. Each one exuded a strange black demonic aura, and the meat dumplings could be vaguely seen to be pulsating slightly, with bumps that looked somewhat like human faces appearing on their surface.

After they tossed these meat dumplings to Old Man Huo, the old man, who had just been frowning, immediately beamed with joy.

Then, Old Man Huo turned to look at Hunzhen, his eyes almost explicitly telling him.

Hunzhen's lips twitched. He knew perfectly well that Old Man Huo's immediate inquiry about his safety wasn't out of genuine concern, but rather because everyone else already knew the situation, and he was the only clueless one, so he was giving a special reminder.

That strange lump of flesh is probably the currency used in this abyss of purgatory.

He coughed lightly and said, "Um, sir, I'm new here and don't have much money on me. You see, I just came from the garbage dump. Do you need any metal materials?"

A hint of disdain flashed in Old Man Huo's eyes as he subtly glanced at Hunzhen, forcing an awkward smile. "It's alright, it's alright. We all live in Black Rock City. Do you think I mind that?"

The latest novel is first published here!

As he spoke, he rubbed his fingers together.

Hunzhen didn't take out his spatial ring, but instead subtly retrieved a large piece of metal debris from it and placed it on the ground to Old Man Huo's astonishment.

"That's it? That's all?"

Looking at Old Man Huo, who opened his mouth but was speechless, Hunzhen remained calm: "I encountered the struggle between those important figures as soon as I arrived, so that's all."

Old Huo's eyes twitched. If he hadn't seen that Hunzhen was brought in by Xingluo, he would have wanted to snatch this kid away to see how much profit he could actually make.

In the end, he waved his hand, dejected and reluctantly making his decision.

Not long after, it seemed that the city's administrators had noticed the battle disturbances had subsided and once again manipulated the mechanisms to make the buildings in the city rise again.

Hunzhen immediately bid farewell to the middle-aged and elderly people and headed towards the factory as originally planned.

As she walked, she fiddled with several oddly shaped dark red rings on her fingertips.

He smuggled it from the corpses of those old men who had just died tragically.

With his abilities, he could naturally do this quietly.

Of course, he didn't take everything; he left a few corpses nearby. Anyway, he figured he could pin the blame on that guy named Noferic, and let the old men assume he'd been crushed by that silver-haired nobleman.

He has already discovered it.

The local indigenous people also have spatial storage items, but their designs are significantly different from their spatial rings and world rings.

Like the walls and roof, it has a touch of flesh-and-blood punk style.

However, judging from the barrier technology items that Old Man Huo used and the road-clearing tools that Xingluoou used,

They will also use mechanical technologies.

"There's a unique kind of fun in gradually getting to know the world."

As Hunzhen thought this, a faint smile appeared on his face.

When faced with Zagarad's palm strike, he did not choose to retaliate, nor did he even make a defensive move, letting the slap fall.

Naturally, this is because the simulation recorded this experience without any major setbacks, with virtually no recorded content.

He decisively held back, and then waited for the scene where Old Man Huo revealed his trump card to protect everyone around him.

If we're talking about the lowest-risk operation, it's naturally when the simulator successfully completes the simulation, and the simulator perfectly replicates the other person's actions one-to-one, without adding any extra actions.

As they walked into the factory, Hunzhen saw a giant in overalls. Meeting the man's unfriendly gaze, Hunzhen immediately stated his purpose: "Hello, sir, I was introduced by Xingluo. I heard you buy metal here?"

"That kid Xingluo."

The giant in overalls nodded, still sporting that intimidating expression that warned others to stay away, and said, "Come in with me."

The man looked like a gangster, but he actually just had a naturally fierce look in his eyes. He accepted the metal debris that Hunzhen threw out in a very friendly manner. Hunzhen was obviously a bit ignorant about the classification and price of metal debris, so he kindly gave him a lecture.

"Since this is your first time here, I'll give you a slightly higher price to round it up. Here, take it carefully and count it carefully. This is 3 Gray Demon Heads and 7 Gray Demon Bodies."

Those meat dumplings were indeed the currency here, but the name of the currency made Hunzhen feel a little embarrassed.

The color goes without saying.

The demon head and the demon body are easy to distinguish: the fleshy mass with human face bumps is the demon head, and the fleshy mass with a torso is the demon body.

It seems that demon heads are a higher-level currency than demon bodies. After Hun Zhen mentioned the idea of ​​exchanging for change, the burly man in overalls didn't hesitate to help him exchange three gray demon heads for thirty gray demon bodies.

Soon after, Hunzhen realized that this thing was not only currency, but also one of the most basic rations in the Purgatory Abyss.

With a "career," "job," and "income," Hunzhen maintained a simple, routine lifestyle for the next month.

During this time, he gradually discovered that scavengers were not "low-level workers," but rather belonged to the middle and upper classes of Blackrock City.

There are two reasons.

Firstly, he discovered that his income was quite unusual.

One Gray Demon Body can buy enough plant rations to feed a Star-level being for a week.

The last time he sold 37 pieces of metal remnants from gray demon bodies, it was only the amount he estimated a normal star-level being could find in a garbage dump in a week.

Considering that most people here barely manage to get enough to eat each day, it can be inferred that the income of scavengers is probably dozens of times that of ordinary people.

Secondly, when he was scavenging in the garbage dump, he encountered very few scavengers, and he had basically met them all over the past period of time.

The person he got to know best among them was, of course, the first person he met in the Abyss of Purgatory, the gaunt young man Xingluo.

They all worked as scavengers, but Xingluo's manners and manners were clearly superior to the others. Coupled with his kind and easy-going personality, even though Old Man Huo had warned him beforehand, Hunzhen quickly became familiar with him.

Despite their familiarity, Hunzhen still didn't ask why the number of scavengers was so small.

However, as time went by, he had guessed some of it.

"You'd better be careful, it seems like old man Huo has his eye on you."

While scavenging for scraps one day, Hunzhen once again encountered Xingluo, only to be suddenly reminded by the other party.

Hunzhen raised an eyebrow, glanced at Xingluo with a hint of surprise, and then smiled and replied, "Understood."

Of course he already knew.

(End of this chapter)