CHAPTER 203: The Void Inventory and the Seed of the True Law (Part 4)
The silence in the vast Throne Room of the Primordial Heritage Palace was deafening. The echo of Samael's deep, dark laughter still bounced against the black jade columns, but the attention of the forty-five Sequences, along with Lilith, Vexia, and Sienna, was locked entirely onto the figure of the young Patriarch. The promise that the true ambition of the Morningstar Clan had just awakened hung in the air, heavy as lead.
Samael stood up before the colossal mountain of gold, cores, and scrolls they had just looted. His violet eyes flashed with an authority that distorted space itself.
"You think you are rich," Samael began, his voice ringing with a coldness that chilled the blood of everyone present. "You think that because you have two, three, or seven million Contribution Points on your badges, you have touched the pinnacle of the mortal world. You have bled, you have hunted Saint Kings, and you have wiped the Iron Blood Alliance off the map. You have every right to feel proud."
Samael raised his right hand, spreading his fingers toward the vaulted ceiling.
"But it is time you see the difference between a mercenary's savings... and the treasury of a Divine Empire. System!" he commanded mentally. "Deploy the Void Pavilion Catalog. Display the entire inventory."
A hum of cosmic static made everyone's eardrums vibrate in the room. The fabric of reality tore open, and four colossal monoliths of spiritual light emerged from the obsidian floor, rising until they nearly touched the darkness of the ceiling.
Each monolith radiated a distinct color, teeming with tens of thousands of runes that spun and translated into human language before the wide eyes of the Sequences.
The First Monolith: The Foundations of the Empire (Earth Grade and Low Heaven Grade)
The leftmost pillar shone with a metallic blue and earthly green hue. Samael walked lazily in front of it, pointing to the endless lists of resources.
"This is trash to us, but pure gold to the rest of the continent," the Patriarch explained. "Resources, materials, and support consumables to keep our armies and alchemists functioning for the next ten thousand years."
The eyes of Kael, Dante, Violeta, and the others read the quantities in disbelief. These were not mere chests; they were entire mountains of logistical resources.
[Natural Resources, Alchemy, and Forging: Base Vault]
30,000 Tons of Dead Star Steel (High Earth Grade): Ultra-dense metal, capable of withstanding siege impacts.
9,000 stalks of Purple Cloud Yin Grass (High Earth Grade): The definitive base for necrotic poisons and medicines.
800 Seismic Vein Crystals (Low Heaven Grade): Core materials for city-scale gravity arrays.
200 Toxic Mirage Fruits (Mid Heaven Grade): Absolute enhancers for deadly illusions.
5 Pure Volcanic Cores (Mid Saint Grade): Inexhaustible heat batteries, capable of maintaining living arrays for centuries.
3 Millennial Cloud Lotuses (Low Saint Grade): The supreme treasure of the extinct sect, capable of healing direct soul wounds.
"To this, we add the utility artifacts," Samael continued, snapping his fingers to rotate the interface.
[Tactical Artifacts and Consumables]
Void Protection Amulets (Mid Heaven Grade): Small black jade plaques. Upon receiving a lethal blow, they activate Nothingness Phase, granting 3 seconds of absolute intangibility where no law or physical attack can touch the user, followed by a Void Blink that randomly teleports them 100 meters away, erasing their divine presence. (Price: 800,000 CP)
Shadow Silk Inner Armor (Mid Heaven Grade): Nullifies 30% of physical damage and absorbs direct impacts from Fire and Lightning Qi.
Clouded Sky Mantle (Mid Origin Grade): A cloak that grants total invisibility to the spiritual sense of anyone below the Saint Realm.
Tyrant King Shackles: Sealing chains that suppress the flow of Qi, Iron Blood's secret to subduing beasts.
Dante stared at the Void Protection Amulet. "An extra life for eight hundred thousand points..." the sadistic youth whispered. "If I buy three of those, I can launch myself headfirst at a Saint King and detonate my own Qi without dying."
"Don't get excited, Dante," Samael interrupted. "That is only the entry level. Look at the second monolith. Here are the true inheritances we seized."
The Second Monolith: The Arts of War (High Heaven Grade to Saint Grade)
The second pillar erupted in red flames and purple clouds. The inheritances distilled and perfected by the System from the Purple Cloud Sect and Volcanis's lineage were displayed in all their violent glory.
"If you want to survive at the Grand Saint level, your bodies and movements must evolve," Samael declared. "Cultivation is not just absorbing Qi; it is shaping it. Behold the Way of the Volcano."
Goran, Korg, and the members of the heavy vanguard felt their mouths watering.
[Combat Inheritance: The Way of the Volcano (Joint Cultivation)]
Molten Iron Body Sutra (High Heaven Grade): Transmutation through internal heat. The user melts away impurities, acquiring a bronze skin that bounces off Earth-grade weapons. Blows carry a "heat wave" that burns meridians.
Obsidian Armor Forging Art (High Heaven Grade): Condenses Qi into physical plates of black crystal. If broken, it shatters into thousands of sharp splinters at point-blank range.
Mountain Splitting Axe Technique (Mid Heaven Grade): Force multiplication through seismic vibration. Damage bypasses the surface to strike internal organs directly.
Boiling Magma Steps (Low Heaven Grade): Concentrates fire Qi in the feet to generate controlled explosions that propel the user forward. Allows walking on lava or mid-air.
Slumbering Volcano Breath (High Earth Grade): Qi filtration in toxic environments. Increases regeneration by 30% in combat and burns away poisons inside the lungs.
Tyrannical Core Sentence (Evolving Saint Grade): Utilizes tectonic pressure. Its Crimson Slash rips open incandescent void tunnels that ignore distance, and the Crimson Dragon Dance turns the user into a whirlwind of living magma.
"But not all of you are beasts of burden," Samael said, turning his gaze toward Eris, Vania, and the squad of shadows. "You prefer silent death. The Way of the Purple Cloud is for assassins and saboteurs."
[Assassination Inheritance: The Way of the Purple Cloud]
Illusory Purple Cloud Codex (High Heaven Grade): Transmutes Qi into a dense, vibrating mist that confounds the enemy's divine sense.
Deceptive Wind Steps (High Heaven Grade): Leaves residual images with a half-second delay. The enemy attacks ghosts while the user "flickers" through space.
Weeping Mist Sword Art (Mid Heaven Grade): A vibrational sword technique. The sound induces dizziness, and the slash injects "damp cold" that slows blood circulation.
Mist Lotus Concealment Technique (Mid Heaven Grade): Creates an invisible cocoon within fog, concealing heartbeats and body heat.
Absolute Miasma Refining Manual (Low Heaven Grade): Creates necrotic gases that do not kill instantly, but rather corrode meridians, reducing enemy output by 20%.
"And if what you seek is absolute control of the battlefield," the Patriarch added, "the Way of the Abyss and Gravity will turn you into inescapable nightmares."
[Control Inheritance: Abyss and Gravity]
Devouring Abyss Claw (Evolves to Grand Saint): Manifests a colossal claw that tears and consumes vitality. Includes Underworld Swipe (injects dark static), Chains of Darkness (elongated fingers that entangle and drain), and Abyssal Wrath Explosion (an expansive shockwave). Its defensive variant, Shadow Maw Shield, has a "biting" property that traps enemy weapons.
Mercury Heaviness: Increases gravity at the enemy's feet, rendering them clumsy and heavy.
Kinetic Impulse: Sudden gravitational thrusts to throw targets off balance.
Stability Anchor: Multiplies personal gravity x4 to become unmovable against wind attacks or physical charges.
Murmurs filled the room. Altair mentally calculated whether it would suit him to combine the Deceptive Wind Steps with his assassination affinity, while Korg visualized himself clad in the Obsidian Armor. Prices ranged between one and five million. They were expensive, but accessible.
The Third Monolith: The Threshold of Laws (Saint Grade to Emperor Grade)
"Silence," Samael ordered. The third monolith, shining with pure white and absolute black, projected its contents. Here, the runes were far more complex, pulsating with the weight of true concepts.
"This is the Ambition Level. Laws, concepts, and spatial and temporal anomalies. Things that defy the logic of this continent."
Violeta felt the emblem in her eyes contract as she read the lines dedicated to space and extreme cold. Kael gripped the hilt of his sword upon seeing the blade arts.
[Vanguard Systems: Movement and Assassination]
Movement Technique: Evolved Shadow Step (High Earth / Initial Saint Grade): Transcendental displacement.
Quicksand Dune Steps (Mid Earth Grade): Treats solid ground like an ocean of grains, granting erratic and fluid mobility.
Lunar Frost Waltz (High Earth Grade): Elegant movement based on cold light. Leaves a trail of frost that slows the world down while the user accelerates.
Phantom Gale Slash (Evolves to Grand Saint): The draw speed nullifies sound waves. Decapitates in absolute silence.
Black Horizon (Initial Saint Grade): Profound sword art.
Thunder God Step (Movement): True instantaneous teleportation through electrons. It is not speed; it is quantum transfer.
[Ice and Space Mastery]
Astral Frost Prison (Semi-Saint to Saint King Grade): Creates a "Cold Density." At the Saint King level, it not only freezes the body, but halts relative time within the area.
Absolute Zero Lotus (Saint King Rank): Molecular annihilation. Eliminates all kinetic and thermal energy from the target.
Frost and Void Bridge (Evolving Saint Grade): The user fractures and freezes space simultaneously, achieving an omnipresent presence.
Void Sword Manual: Dimensional Slash: A slash that bends space, bypassing distance entirely.
Shadowless Wraith Sutra (Emperor Grade): "That which has no light cannot be seen." Combines mobility through dimensional folds with the eradication of presence Karma.
[Destruction and Physical Foundations]
Sky-Piercing Phoenix Spear (High Earth Grade): The weapon acts as the vector of a deflagration. Concentrates extreme heat to breach defenses.
True Destruction Slash (Long Weapons - Saint King Rank): The strike is not made with metal, but with "Intent of Ruin." Cleaves through divine Laws and folded spaces.
Black Iron Scales (Mid Earth Grade): Absorbs heavy minerals to create a network of subcutaneous metallic fibers.
Iron Phalanx Formation (High Earth Grade): Squad tactic to halt heavy charges through Qi synergy.
"The treasures of this monolith also house control artifacts and embryonic laws," Samael warned. "Pay close attention, because a single mistake in wielding these could devour your very souls."
[Arrays, Laws, and Conceptual Seeds]
Ten Thousand Mirrors Array Art (Mythic Grade): Uses Space as raw material to weave dimensional anchors, wrapping an entire city in a defensive ecosystem.
Eternal Guardian Seal (Heaven Grade): A life-bound mark of authority that awakens an autonomous sentinel when the protected individual faces lethal danger.
Ten Thousand Echoes Sacrifice Array (Forbidden Formation - High Saint Grade): Draws a network using the blood of a hundred sacrifices. The agonizing screams anchor the domain. If the enemy attacks, the sound generates ten thousand physical slashing echoes. It is a parasite that devours the operator if it fails to kill the target.
End of Times Wind (Level 1 Law Seed): Conceptual wind that disintegrates physical matter at the molecular level.
Void Wind Law: "The wind that does not exist." Its Nonexistent Gale Slash sucks matter into nothingness, leaving clean, bloodless voids. Its Void Stream Step merges the user with nothingness, rendering them immune to friction and gravity.
Pure Law Core (Ice): The remnant of Saint Valois, a critical material for mythic forging.
Incomplete Fire Law Orb: The fragmented comprehension of Lord Volcanis.
Domain Awakening x3 and Bloodline Evolution Talismans x8.
The price of every single item on this monolith comfortably exceeded twelve million. Many reached twenty-five million. The hopes of Kael, Violeta, and Ciro crumbled as they realized their point earnings—which had seemed like a mountain to them—were barely a handful of sand in this dark marketplace.
The Fourth Monolith: The Echoes of Chaos (Ancient, Divine, and Mythological Grade)
The hall vibrated. The final monolith, immense and terrifying, erupted in a blaze of gold and blood.
Samael smirked, feeling the immense satisfaction of the System's Cashbacks. His randomized investments (multiplied by x100, x1000, and even x10,000) had plundered the laws of equivalent exchange, granting him treasures that existed only in the lost legends of the higher continents.
"And finally," the Patriarch whispered, his voice laden with a power that forced several Sequences to their knees from sheer pressure. "The treasures of the True Monarchs. The tools to rule, destroy, and rewrite the world."
The list unfurled. Every single object was an insult to mortal mathematics.
[Evolutionary Systems and Primordial Beasts]
Blood Evolution Crystal (High Saint Grade): Burns away DNA impurities to permanently evolve bloodlines.
Demonic Blood Core (Low Heaven Grade): Fuel to supercharge the Void Herald to 500%, or a forbidden alchemical ingredient.
Beating Heart of a Mountain Golem (Living - Peak Heaven Grade) and Intact Skeleton of a Fallen Gravity Titan (High Saint Grade): Raw materials to forge divine siege beasts.
Spiritual Eggs: Void Storm Hawk, Crystal Plague-Weaving Spider, Winter Void Nine-Tailed Fox, Mountain Range Devouring Worm, Dark Gravity Leviathan.
Manual: "Beast God Sutra: Soul Fusion" (Saint Grade): Perfect synchronization.
Law Seed: "Absolute Zero Domain" (Saint Grade).
King Basilisk Poison Gland and Monarch Basilisk Core.
Dying Supernova Heart: Grants the Authority of Ruin, allowing flames to devour other forms of magic.
Heart of Ymir (Frost Giant Core): Conceptual artifact granting absolute thermal immunity and mythological vitality.
Absolute Zero Comet Fragment: Expands the Dantian to freeze local time.
Darius, the youth specializing in mental torture, saw his personal prize and felt his mind cracking from pure greed.
[The Authority of the King and Mental Ruin]
Scripture: Mind Abyss God Domain (Divine Grade): "The Ego Prison." Drags the enemy's mind into a sub-dimension where the operator controls time, pain, and physical laws.
Word of Domination (Sovereignty Skill): "My voice is the Law of the World." Overrides will and forces the target body to obey motor commands.
Chaos Yin-Yang Sutra (Ancient Divine Grade): Teaches how to divide the Dantian into two poles to generate an inexhaustible spark of Chaos Energy.
Manual: Indestructible Body of the War God (Supreme/Divine Grade): Marrow and Law Transmutation. Flesh becomes an unbreakable barrier.
Ancient Codex: Tyrant Dragon Art of War (Ancient Grade - Superior to Divine): "The World is the Body; the Army is its Will." Transmutes a legion into a hive mind, unifying energy seas on a planetary scale.
"Take a good look at the prices," Samael mocked, and the numbers materialized. Fifty million. Eighty million. One hundred million Contribution Points.
But the weapons were still missing. The conceptual pieces the System had vomited out after reaching the mathematical limit of absolute probability.
[Conceptual Arsenal (x10,000 Multipliers)]
Liquid Gravity Domain (Divine Grade): Authority to turn air into super-dense liquid, crushing entire armies. (Price: 150,000,000 CP)
Spear of Longinus (Divine Replica): Pure light that ignores 100% of any magical, physical, or runic defense, guaranteeing existential penetration. (Price: 150,000,000 CP)
Eye of Providence (Myth Grade): Allows seeing and severing lines of cause and effect within a 1,000-kilometer radius. (Price: 200,000,000 CP)
Pupils of the Slain Deity (Extreme Fusion): Petrified eyes that grant the "Vision of Condemnation," inducing Conceptual Death that ages spells millions of years in a blink. (Price: 200,000,000 CP)
Mjolnir Hammer (Divine Replica).
Event Horizon (Divine Domain): Creates a continental zone where time stops and gravity becomes infinite.
Mirror of Destiny (Myth Grade): Reflects any attacking intent back with double the destructive power.
Scepter of the Lich King (Divine Grade): Raises the fallen as loyal wraiths bound to the wielder's will.
The knees of several warriors buckled. The weight of those mythical names and their descriptions overwhelmed them. Vexia, with her eight million points, was a beggar. Violeta, with her seven million, couldn't even look directly at the Eye of Providence without feeling dizzy from its price tag.
But the ultimate torment was reserved for a single youth.
The hologram made one final sweep, and at the absolute apex of the fourth monolith, a tiny, humble green blade of grass appeared. It floated in silence, yet the space around its simulated projection bled black static and dimensional rifts.
Kael's heart stopped. Every drop of his dragon blood and every pulse of his Sword Heart screamed in agonizing synchrony. His soul recognized what his eyes were seeing, even before the description appeared.
[The Blade of the First Chaos Sword Grass]
Grade: Primordial Divine Consumable.
Effect: Upon consumption, the user's Qi is violently assembled into pure Sword Intent. It is the absolute catalyst to condense and awaken a guaranteed Sword Domain.
Price: 300,000,000 CP
Three hundred million.
Kael, the sword prodigy, trembled uncontrollably. Desperation, greed, hunger, and frustration blended in his throat. He was staring at the shortcut to the summit of his existence, the ultimate destination of his Dao... and it was three hundred million points beyond his reach. His immense reward of three and a half million was a cruel joke in the face of this treasure.
Lilith, watching the psychological torture of the youths, let out a charming yet cruel laugh.
"Patriarch..." whispered Ciro, one of the hunters, his voice choked with reverential terror. "All these treasures... are they real? Are they here?"
Samael erased the monoliths with a lazy wave of his wrist. The hall returned to its natural gloom, but the glare of eternal greed had already been burned into the retinas of the forty-five Sequences.
"Every damn scroll, seed, weapon, and drop of divine blood you just read is real, and sits peacefully in the bowels of my Main Vault," Samael affirmed, rising to his full, imposing height. "Do you want those Domains? Do you want those weapons that defy the laws of physics? Do you want to rule instead of merely surviving?"
The forty-five youths looked up, their faces twisted by a ravenous hunger.
"Then earn more points," Samael decreed with a merciless smile. "Destroy more sects. Drag more Saint Kings crawling to my feet. If you need a resource you didn't see here, the Clan will get it for you, but nothing is free."
Samael turned his back, his cape billowing behind him.
"You thought you were rich. You have just realized you are uselessly poor. So... stop weeping over your poverty, because I am officially leaving you under Lilith's training. You will prepare your bodies, you will assimilate the one-million-point trash you can afford today, and tomorrow... we will ride out to devour the world so you can buy divinity."
The Ashen Phoenix cracked her knuckles, her flames igniting in the shadows. Hell had just begun.
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