Chapter 214: Fusion of the Divine Seal

Inside the Earth God Temple,

As soon as Su Nan and the Grand Princess entered, they immediately launched an attack on the statue of the Earth God.

Two to three minutes later,

Without any unexpected incidents, a King-level Sacrificial God Demon was slain.

Su Nan quickly picked up the oil lamp from the shrine.

As the Divine Path Sacrificial Method within him operated uncontrollably, the oil lamp in his hand seemed to decay and shattered.

He didn't feel anything special at the moment. If it weren't for the forewarning, he wouldn't have known that an invisible mark had entered his body.

At the same time, the scene from the foresight appeared.

Su Nan saw that the old man was battling a giant figure who stood at least four to five meters tall.

The giant figure had wings on its back, and its flesh appeared like crystal stones, translucent and radiant. When it raised its hand, it emitted a powerful force. Even in the form of a vision, it exerted an immense pressure on Su Nan.

In the battle, Su Nan noticed that the old man's strength during his lifetime exceeded that of the Sacrificial God Demon, at least at the pinnacle of the King level.

"This giant figure doesn't seem like a demon?" Su Nan frowned.

The appearance of the winged giant gave him a feeling that it was neither human nor demon. It was a strange feeling, and he couldn't pinpoint the issue.

The battle between the old man and the giant figure continued, with the battlefield shifting from the ground to the sky. In the end, the old man used something complex and rune-like.

Su Nan noticed that there were six brilliant golden points on the rune, like six dazzling suns. The rune erupted with terrifying power, and in the end, the old man and the giant figure both perished.

Just as the scene disappeared, through the old man's perspective, Su Nan saw many other human warriors like the old man, battling giant figures in the distance.

They battled in the sky, and on the ground, there were temples and shrines every few dozen miles.

Those temples and shrines were not isolated; there were many buildings around them, and these buildings were centered around the temples and shrines. Countless ordinary people lived there.

In the distance, there was a massive city suspended in the air. In that city, a golden tower stood out prominently.

"That should be the central area of this Divine Ruins!" Su Nan speculated.

Through the scenes witnessed from the old man's perspective, he finally had a rough understanding of the past appearance of this Divine Ruins.

Clearly, this Divine Ruins had once been extremely prosperous, with thousands of human beings living here. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a great war.

While the ordinary buildings had turned to dust over countless years, the temples and shrines with special powers had been preserved.

"What have you discovered again?" Seeing Su Nan's unusual expression once more, the Grand Princess immediately asked.

After glancing at the Grand Princess, Su Nan roughly recounted the scenes he had seen.

He didn't hide anything, as he believed that sooner or later, he would control the Grand Princess, and revealing some information now wouldn't make much difference.

Upon hearing his words, the Grand Princess furrowed her brows and mumbled, "Strange, I've never heard before that there would be Sacrificial God Demons like this in these ancient temples. Moreover, I've never heard that anyone could see the memories of Sacrificial God Demons before they died after killing them."

"Never heard of it?" Su Nan was surprised.

He hadn't paid much attention to the Divine Ruins before, and he hadn't thought about this issue. Now that he heard the Grand Princess's words, he realized that there was a problem.

If others entered the Divine Ruins and could discover the existence of Sacrificial God Demons like this, then the Grand Princess, who had entered the Divine Ruins with many powerful demon experts before, couldn't possibly be unaware of it.

"Not only does no one know that there are Sacrificial God Demons here, but also very few people know about the connection between this place and the Incense Worship Divine Path. Perhaps only some imperial-level experts among your human race know about it," the Grand Princess replied.

"Why is that?" Su Nan furrowed his brows.

"I don't know," the Grand Princess shook her head. She then thought of something and continued, "You were entangled by this Earth God Temple earlier. Such incidents are extremely rare. Perhaps specific conditions are required to discover the Sacrificial God Demons."

"Specific conditions?" Su Nan's heart trembled.

He suddenly thought of the mention of "fortune" in the foresight.

Undoubtedly, if specific conditions were needed to discover the Sacrificial God Demons, then it was definitely related to one's fortune.

The Grand Princess looked deeply at Su Nan and continued, "You mentioned that when you touched the oil lamp, the Divine Path Sacrificial Method began to operate uncontrollably. This suggests that to obtain the memories of the Sacrificial God Demon before its death, you need to cultivate the Divine Path Sacrificial Method."

"But based on my understanding of the Incense Worship Divine Path, the Divine Path Sacrificial Method is only used to refine Divine Path Sacrificial Items. I have never heard of a sacrificial method that can enhance one's spiritual force by killing Sacrificial God Demons."

"No sacrificial method to enhance spiritual force?" Su Nan frowned.

This made him consider the possibility that the Divine Path Sacrificial Method he had obtained through completing the "Secrets of the Divine Path" quest might be different from the sacrificial method practiced by the Great Xuan Empire in the past.

"Could the issue lie with the Divine Path Sacrificial Method for refining Divine Path Sacrificial Items?" he thought of a possibility.

Unfortunately, he had too little information to work with, so he could only speculate.

The two of them thoroughly searched the Earth God Temple, which had returned to its real appearance, and confirmed that there was nothing else inside. They then left the temple.

As Su Nan left the Earth God Temple, a notification popped up:

"Congratulations, you have completed the daily quest 'Explore an Ancient Temple.' 45 demon power points have been awarded."

"Current available demon power: 126 points."

Killing a King-level demon granted 45 demon power points! Su Nan thought.

But it didn't end there. When he switched to Wang Nan's character and continued moving forward, another completion notification appeared as he had moved far away from the Earth God Temple:

"Congratulations, you have completed the daily quest 'Escape from the Earth God Temple.' 30 demon power points have been awarded."

"Current available demon power: 156 points."

Two consecutive quest completions had earned him a total of 75 demon power points!

He was now only four points away from accumulating enough demon power for Wang Nan to break through to the Profound level!

And these last four points came quickly.

A few minutes later, Su Nan deliberately didn't avoid a group of Soul-Eating Demons. With the Grand Princess's help, they easily killed them all.

The two hunting quests for Soul-Eating Demons by Wang Nan and Zhang Yang were completed.

A total of 20 demon power points were earned, bringing the available demon power to 176 points.

"Demon power is enough, but I wonder what will happen when Wang Nan's character breaks through. Will there be any

 changes?" Su Nan wondered.

Wang Nan's character didn't have the fusion of ancient demon bloodlines. His bloodline had been enhanced by the Bloodline Spirit Fruit, which made it inferior to the Swallowing Star Demon Bloodline and the Dragon Turtle Bloodline.

This wasn't the biggest issue; Wang Nan's main problem was the erosion of demonic energy.

Fortunately, he had the ability of death foresight, which could be used to see the result of the breakthrough.

"I wonder how I will die using death foresight in this Divine Ruins," Su Nan thought.

With that in mind, he decided to start foresight.

He switched his character to Wang Nan and looked at the death foresight on the panel.

"You realize that breaking through from the Spiritual level to the Profound level is likely to pose unknown dangers. Do you want to consume a certain number of foresight uses to foresee the circumstances of your death three minutes in the future?"

"Yes!"

With a thought from Su Nan, he saw three uses of foresight disappear from the panel.

"You are exploring in the Divine Ruins, and you know that to survive in such a dangerous place, you must improve your strength as much as possible. You choose to have your character, Wang Nan, break through from the Spiritual level to the Profound level."

"Unfortunately, you have failed. During the bloodline fusion process, the dormant demonic energy in your bloodline erupted."

"If it weren't for the timely intervention of the Grand Princess of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe, who helped you interrupt the fusion of bloodlines, you would have eventually been influenced by the demonic energy and lost control."

"Still failed to break through!"

The forewarning immediately provided information about his breakthrough.

Su Nan's heart sank slightly, but he wasn't too surprised; this situation was somewhat within his expectations.

It was just that his fleeting hope had been dashed, leaving him somewhat disgruntled.

The forewarning continued.

"[After narrowly avoiding a disaster, you no longer think about breaking through and continue to delve deeper into the Divine Ruins. Later on, you encounter two more ancient temples. With the help of the Grand Princess, you successfully slay the sacrificial god demons within.]"

"[Finally, you come across a massive temple, and as soon as you see it, the Grand Princess recognizes it as the same temple where she suffered a severe injury.]"

"[You realize the gravity of the situation and immediately want to turn and leave. However, you are horrified to find that no matter which direction you flee, you are getting closer to the temple.]"

"[One minute later, you and the Grand Princess ultimately enter the temple. The moment you enter the temple, you fall into a coma.]"

"[Three minutes later, you wake up and find yourself lying on a stone bed. Strangely, you are dressed in a bright red wedding gown.]" 

"[At that moment, a boy of eight or nine years old enters the room and tells you that the auspicious time has arrived, and it's time to proceed to the wedding ceremony.]"

"[You see that the boy is not a human at all; he is made of red paper, similar to the paper puppets you've encountered before.]"

"[You realize that you are trapped in an illusion, and you dare not stay here any longer. You rush out of the room with all your might, trying to escape.]"

"[Your actions anger the paper boy, and you die.]"

"A wedding gown? A wedding ceremony? What is going on?"

Su Nan was astonished, having considered the possibility of encountering powerful Soul-Eating Demons or being killed by a sacrificial god demon in an ancient temple, but he had never imagined being killed by a paper puppet.

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that the paper boy might be a sacrificial god demon as well.

With a considerable distance remaining before reaching the temple, Su Nan temporarily set aside the matter of the temple and focused on the issue of his breakthrough.

"Princess, if one's bloodline is eroded by demonic energy, is there a way to resolve it?"

"Eroded by demonic energy?" The Grand Princess was puzzled, not understanding why Su Nan would ask such a question.

After thinking for a moment, she answered, "Demonic energy is a very unique force, difficult to resolve. Even the bloodline baptism of your human race cannot eliminate it. I also don't know how to cleanse it."

"You don't know either?"

Su Nan felt somewhat disappointed. He also recalled the bloodline baptism mentioned by the Grand Princess and asked, "What is a bloodline baptism?"

He remembered that as the Director of the Demon-Slaying Bureau, he had access to a benefit known as bloodline baptism.

The Grand Princess explained, "A bloodline baptism is a method used by your human race to suppress bloodlines that are on the verge of going out of control. Through a bloodline baptism, bloodlines that were on the brink of losing control can be stabilized."

"However, I heard that this method can only be used by martial practitioners below the King level. Once you reach the King level, it becomes useless."

"I see."

Su Nan nodded, understanding that this benefit was a tremendous temptation for martial practitioners. It could stabilize bloodlines that were on the verge of losing control, which was an unimaginable allure for warriors.

Unfortunately, it couldn't resolve the issue of demonic energy erosion.

Su Nan felt a heavy burden in his heart. The more he came into contact with demonic energy, the more he felt the terror of this power.

It was an insurmountable force!

Fortunately, the number of demons remained constant. In ancient times, they had undoubtedly been suppressed by the powerful experts of the human and demon races. Otherwise, there would be no place for humanity and demons in this world.

"I wonder if Zhou Lingyin has a solution."

Su Nan sighed, placing his last hope on Zhou Lingyin.

With an incarnation leading the way and foresight into the future, the journey ahead proceeded smoothly.

After about five or six foresights, as expected, he came across another ancient temple.

This one was a Temple of the Kitchen God.

Like the Earth God Temple before it, in the eyes of his incarnation, the ancient temple had been reduced to ruins. But in Su Nan's and the Grand Princess's eyes, it appeared intact.

Even though the forewarning had already informed him that he would kill the sacrificial god demon within the temple, Su Nan dared not be careless.

After confirming there were no surprises with another foresight, he entered the ancient temple with the Grand Princess.

A few minutes later, they successfully killed the sacrificial god demon within the Temple of the Kitchen God.

Similarly, when Su Nan picked up the divine path sacrificial item within the temple, he acquired a Kitchen God Seal and witnessed the final moments of the Kitchen God before its death.

Similar to the previous sacrificial god demon, the Kitchen God faced an enemy with a massive, crystalline body and wings on its back in the vision. At the end of the vision, the Kitchen God used a complex and runic-like symbol, radiating six golden points, akin to six dazzling suns. The symbol unleashed a terrifying power, allowing the Kitchen God to perish along with its opponent.

Continuing forward for about ten more minutes, Su Nan encountered a third ancient temple.

This one was a Temple of the River God.

Just like with the previous temples, Su Nan successfully killed the sacrificial god demon within, obtaining the River God Seal.

However, after acquiring the River God Seal, something unexpected happened.

"Congratulations, you have obtained the Earth God Seal, the Kitchen God Seal, and the River God Seal, three divine seals, greatly enhancing your divine path aura."

"Your divine path aura is now connected to the residual divine path aura within the Divine Ruins. Due to your arrival, the Divine Ruins will undergo unknown changes."

"In the depths of the Divine Ruins, a brilliant golden light soars into the sky. As the golden light ascends, it imprints three unique symbols onto your divine soul. The three symbols each have a hint of golden radiance."

"You do not know that the faint golden radiance represents the grade of the divine path."

"The three divine seals merge and transform into a new divine seal, on which there are two points of golden radiance."

"Congratulations, you have obtained a second-grade divine seal."

(End of this chapter)