2 Chapter Two

Even though staying around the guild did not interest me, some of the items lying around might. I walked through each room one by one and slowly looked through each of them examining them top to bottom. The guild is like a maze created from a cave and remodeled into an evil lair of some kind. There are hundreds of guild members walking around from lowly bronze ranks to black golds. All of the rooms seemed to only contain basic cultivation techniques and a few minor elixirs to help the bronze and silver ranks.

The second to last room I searched made a large amount of memories come flooding into my mind. This is my room decorated with simple furniture and a soft well crafted rug in the middle of the room for cultivation. I start diving through every shelf and draw in search of anything and manage to find a few hundred elixirs, the divine guardian armor that saved him during Nie Li's attack, and a ring that was emanating dark energy. This ring made me raise an eyebrow, my knowledge should be pretty vast since Long Sha was once a martial ancestor realm expert.

But for the life of me I had no idea what this ring is but the dark energy emanating from it would be helpful with my cultivation technique. Instead of wearing the ring I strung a string through it and wore it as a bootleg necklace. I needed to keep my hands free for any other artifacts I may find while exploring the world. That's everything in my room now it was time for the final room at the end of the hall.

I look around to make sure no one is around and go to turn the doorknob but am repulsed by only a few feet. The door has an inscription pattern written on it that works as a barrier of sorts keeping anyone from entering. Crouching down, I examined the pattern closely for a few minutes. What at first looked like an extremely complex pattern actually turned out to be very simple. I pull out a vile of demon beast blood and begin writing my own pattern over it making the effects null.

"Luckily it wasn't anything complex." I mumbled to myself quietly.

Even though I had a decent knowledge of inscriptions it was far inferior to an actual expert. The door creaked open revealing a dark room containing countless books and boxes scattered all across the floor. Some of the books contained detailed instructions for complex cultivation techniques and some just contained information on alchemy. Either way I pocketed the most useful and began rifling through the shelves and boxes. More elixirs filled most of the boxes but one contained hundreds of black gold ranked demon spirits.

I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh since black gold demon spirits were treated like gold in Glory City but here they are just sitting in boxes. It amazes me as well because all of them are at least good in growth rate with the highest being extraordinary. Pocketing all the demon spirits I shrug and move onto the next boxes but they only contain elixirs. After a few more minutes of searching nothing else of interest is found aside from a few more elixirs.

With nothing else to find I make my way out of the guild bumping into a few members along the way. They all show me a large amount of respect with each of them bowing and cupping their hands. As I'm about to leave the guild I notice two familiar faces exiting a room with their cloaks pulled over. They are Liu Qing and Liu Yan, the bumbling assassins who attempted to kill Nie Li at his house. Normally they would be with Yun Hua the deacon inside Glory City but they hadn't been moved yet.

Currently they are only 1 star silver ranks meaning they would find it very difficult to even leave the nether realm without someone helping them. For reasons I don't know I always felt bad for them in the story since they were taken out so easily. With a soft hidden smile I walk towards them and they quickly notice me and bow their heads in respect. Both of them look nervous and keep looking side to side as if trying to remember if they did anything wrong.

"No need to worry." I say trying to keep the smirk off my face.

"I simply wish to make a trip to the surface and want you two to come along."

They both look surprised and look at one another as if asking themselves is this really happening? By all respects these two should mean nothing to a person like Long Sha but he personally asked them to join him. They had no reason to decline so they cupped their hands and bowed.

"Much thanks master."

With that I finally made my way out of the guild and into the nether realm, almost immediately I was hit with the strongest smell of sulfur yet. I couldn't falter and cough, losing face with the two people I brought along so I bore it and pressed on. Though it was a barren wasteland of ash and soot for some reason it was oddly beautiful to me. The architecture for blackrock city was straight out of a fantasy novel with a slight gothic touch to it.

"Master Long Sha, where are we going on the surface exactly?" Liu Qing asked curiously.

"Glory City, I have some stops to make along the way but that will be our ultimate goal."

"But sir the guild master told everyone to leave them alone until the time is right." this time Liu Yan chimed in.

"Don't worry, I have no interest in sacking it."

"Speaking of our trip let's stop up ahead so I can give you two some demon spirits and a cultivation technique that fits you. This journey will be difficult for the two of you otherwise."

We stop by a large rock and sit down, the Liu brothers are getting noticeably excited since they are relatively new members and are already being given cultivation techniques and demon spirits. After a few quick tests I confirmed that they had nothing special for a soul form or attribute but their soul realm was yellow. They were not the greatest of disciples but I could make them work with a bit of blood and sweat.

Liu Qing the heart binding cultivation technique and a black gold rank Icy Serpent with an excellent growth rate. The heart binding technique will allow Liu Qing to die and re-forge his soul into a new body but with each revive his soul would slowly deteriorate eventually leaving a soulless husk. While Liu Yan received the sacred wolves technique and a black gold rank abyssal wolf with an excellent growth rate. His cultivation would soar leaps and bounds while a wolf demon spirit was merged with his soul realm.

I waited as they merged with their new demon spirits and practiced their cultivation techniques. While waiting I took this chance to practice my own cultivation technique to see just how painful it would be. As soon as the technique began my soul force felt as if it was being ripped and torn apart. My skin turned red as blood and veins popped all over my face with beads of sweat soaking it. The pain is unlike anything I had experienced before, definitely worse than being shot. Though beyond painful I could still feel my power growing with every cycle of soul force flowing through me.

Though technically still only a 2 star legend my strength felt as if it had far surpassed that. This feeling of power was already at least at the 4 star rank with every wave of pain making me grow slightly stronger. Although I wanted to cultivate a bit longer I had a goal to finish before I could get dug into fully cultivating. Slowly my soul force settled and I was able to open my eyes without shedding tears. The Liu brothers were watching me intently and with slightly worried expressions.

They gave me a slight surprise when I realized they had already become 3 star silver ranks. Their cultivation and merging seemed to have gone smoothly for them since they looked as if they were completely fine. Each of them wore a worried expression on their face while looking at me anxiously, but I waved my hand and told them not to worry. Even though it was extremely painful the results were no laughing matter since I could probably go toe to toe with lord Ye Mo of Glory City without using artifacts. Granted that thought quickly left my head since I had no reason to attack Ye Mo, he was also among my favorite characters.

Though speaking of him a thought crosses my mind maybe I could help him in dealing with the dark guild. I may be a leader of said guild but I held no allegiances to them and they would become a group of mass murderers given time. Only those who agreed to follow me would be spared the merciless slaughter that I would bring upon the Demon Lord.

After an hour of consolidating our cultivation we began moving again running through the empty barren wastes of the nether. I killed hundreds of demon beasts along the way in order to strengthen my sword and collected whatever materials they dropped. By the time we reached the exit only a little over 2 hours had elapsed and I had killed more demon beasts than I cared to count. The guardian greatsword was now a grade 3 artifact and was stronger than most things on the divine continent.

Standing at the entrance of the nether realm are a group of mixed races with the highest rank being 1 star legend wugui. This would be a good way for me to test out my new found strength. The brothers following me looked ahead nervously; they could feel how powerful the experts were and did not want to cause problems.

"Go hide to the side over there, I will deal with them." I point towards a small mound of ash.

They nodded and rushed off to the side hiding behind the ash even going as far as to cover themselves in it. I shook my head and thought to myself how idiotic these two actually were covering yourself in ash wouldn't help hide you. Telling them to hide behind it was only a precaution so they weren't rushed and killed immediately. I calmly approached with my hands tucked away behind my back and my head held high like some pompous noble.

The wugui flinched as he looked at me realizing my higher cultivation but smirked after realizing I had no one else with me. They all quickly encircled me with the wugui stepping forward and introducing himself. He feigned respect as he bowed and cupped his hands in my direction.

"My name is Wu Yan, a former member of the Wugui family, how may I address you?" He asked, still bowing.

"Long Sha, what can I help you with?" I ask acting ignorant of what is going on.

"Well you see the lands are dangerous you wouldn't want your items taken from you now would you?" As he said that a few of his underlings drew their weapons.

I smirked and quickly drew my sword within the blink of an eye catching them all off guard. Within seconds 3 black gold ranks were dead with their heads detaching from their bodies. The rest though in shock gripped their weapons tightly and charged toward me. Though I was confident I could be them without my demon spirit I wanted to test it and see its capabilities. My body became partially covered in gold scales with a set of fangs protruding from my mouth. Golden wings protruded from my back and began flapping quickly. I'm picked off my feet by the power of the wings and begin quickly slicing in and out of their group.

One by one they all begin to drop and become lifeless until only the legend rank and a few black gold humans are left. Though the wugui also catches flight and draws his sword causing sparks to fly as they collide. His strength was simply no match for mine as I quickly overpowered him and slashed through his thick armor. As blood spurted everywhere the humans dropped their swords and dropped to their knees begging for their lives.

Under normal circumstances I would have simply killed them and been done with it but a thought crossed my mind. As black gold ranks and humans they would be very useful while setting up my base of operations in Glory City. Only three humans were left out of the bloody pile below me but three was more than enough.

"Please sir we beg of you have mercy we were wrong!" One of them muttered.

"Spare us please sir!" Another chimed in.

"You three have nothing to fear. If you listen to my commands closely." I say with a smirk.

"You three will undergo soul shackling and from now on go by the surname Long. Understood?" I state while bearing down on them with my powerful aura.

Sweat began to form on their foreheads but all of them nodded in agreement without a second's hesitation. I pull out three seal stones and draw out a simple inscription with whatever demon blood I had on hand. A drop of each of their blood sealed their fate for eternity, there was no going back now and they were bound to me for eternity. Even Nie Li could not break the seal meaning I was most definitely safe having them around. With a smile we collect the loot from the dead and make our way through the tunnel and past the barrier into the divine continent.