Chapter 976: Garl
The mana flooded the entire s.p.a.ce endlessly, and even the golden light emitted by the palace turned into a peculiar color because of the mana that almost condensed and turned into a substance. The amazing mana tide lasted for a long time before fading away.
At this moment, the originally ferocious and menacing Lord Devourer’s bloated and huge body had completely slumped to the ground, looking like a revolting puddle of rotten meat. It looked nothing like what it was before. Upon sight of this, the members of the expedition finally breathed a sigh of relief. Clearly, Lord Devourer had already been killed.
When Lin Li put away the light and darkness barrier, and the others in the expedition had received signals that told them that they were safe, they sat on the ground one after another. Even peak Legendary powerhouses like Donald and Archbishop Martin could no longer be bothered about their image and gentlemanliness. They just wanted to sit down and catch their breath.
The pressure from Lord Devourer’s attacks just now was so ma.s.sive that it caused the expedition to feel like breathing freely was an enjoyable privilege now. However, while they were resting, Archbishop Martin and the others couldn’t help but look over the team. They couldn’t imagine what Lin Li had done to Lord Devourer. Could it be that he had really killed Lord Devourer which had power that was comparable to that of a Sanctuary powerhouse with just a small bottle of potion?
However, at this moment, Lin Li did not land on the ground. Instead, he moved quickly and arrived next to Lord Devourer that was no longer showing any signs of life.
Seeing this scene, Archbishop Martin and the others were even more puzzled. They wondered, Could it be that there is some special value in the corpse of Lord Devourer?
Although Archbishop Martin and the others knew nothing about the origins of Lord Devourer, it was, after all, a horrifying existence that was comparable to a Sanctuary powerhouse in terms of strength. Putting aside the value of its corpse, its magical crystal that contained infinite mana alone was probably far more valuable than ordinary Legendary magical crystals!
However, at the thought of this, they couldn’t help but think about the scene that happened just now. According to the amount of mana that was released, even if Lord Devourer had left its magical crystal behind, the mana in it had probably been depleted long ago.
Of course, they were just curious. Regardless of the value of the corpse of Lord Devourer, there was nothing about Lin Li’s behavior that the members of the expedition were displeased with. After all, Lord Devourer was destroyed by Lin Li’s potion.
When Lin Li arrived in front of Lord Devourer’s corpse, a Light and Darkness Sword immediately condensed and appeared above Lin Li’s head as expected. Next, he pointed at the pile of rotten meat, and the Light and Darkness Sword landed on it with an earth-shattering whistle. Lord Devourer’s body, which initially could withstand attacks from the Light and Darkness Sword, had already lost its defensive ability at this moment. It was split in two under the attack.
In fact, Lord Devourer’s powerful defense came from the crystal armor that was formed outside its body with magical crystals, which the mana that Lord Devourer had devoured had been condensed into. However, after being fed the Heart-piercing Potion by Lin Li, the mana in his body lost its restraints, and the layer of magical crystals naturally disappeared too.
Seeing that Lin Li had actually dissected the corpse of Lord Devourer, Archbishop Martin and the others from the expedition scurried over curiously too. However, in order to avoid letting Lin Li get the wrong idea, they did not directly surround the corpse, and instead kept a certain distance from it. Faced with Lin Li, a Sanctuary powerhouse, they wouldn’t dare to covet anything despite the temptation of the artifact. In fact, they even had to worry about whether or not they would be able to get their hands on the target items of their exploration.
Lin Li was not bothered by the arrival of Archbishop Martin and the others. Instead, he hung the Light and Darkness Sword over Lord Devourer’s corpse, after which he coldly said, “If you still refuse to come out, I’ll grind you and your corpse up!”
Hearing this, Archbishop Martin and the others were even more confused. They thought, Hasn’t Lord Devourer already died? Who is Master Felic speaking to now, then!?
However, when they were confused, they suddenly saw an orb the size of a human’s fist writhing in the dissected corpse. However, it looked just like an orb compared to the sheer size of Lord Devourer’s body. After it writhed for a while, a ball of blood and tissue emerged from the hole, followed by a strange thing.
That thing was not much bigger than a human fist, and was about the same size as the young Elemental Wyrm Xiao Hua, though not as adorable. It had a large head, but that was of course only relative to the rest of its body. Its head alone took up half of its figure.
It had a pair of beady eyes. It did not have a nose, and its mouth took up half of its head, on which there were two short horns. The skin on its body was wrinkly and stained with the blood of the corpse. It looked extremely disgusting, and its limbs were still as dry and thin as twigs. They looked like they could not support its fist-sized body at all.
Archbishop Martin and the others would never have thought that such an ugly thing would emerge from the body of Lord Devourer. However, the origin of this thing was unknown to them, just like that of Lord Devourer.
However, when that thing appeared, Archbishop Martin and the others still kept their guard up, and got into a vigilant stance unanimously. After all, it had come out of Lord Devourer’s body, and G.o.d knew what dreadful dangers were hidden beneath its hideous appearance.
It was Lin Li’s second time seeing that thing, so he naturally did not have any special expression. He pointed a finger, and the Light and Darkness Sword which cut open the body of Lord Devourer moved above the head of the ugly creature, hovering around it like it would slash downwards at any moment.
The moment the Light and Darkness Sword approached, the thing let out an ear-piercing shriek, and a portion of consciousness was transmitted into Lin Li’s mind at the same time.
“D-don’t kill me, I’m just a parasitic demon on the body of Lord Devourer. Don’t you want treasures? I can tell you where the treasures are hidden in this place!” The thing begged Lin Li for mercy, and offered a deal that almost no one would be able to refuse.
Even those who did not know that this gilded and opulent palace used to be the Sun Palace of the High Elves would definitely be able to tell what was extraordinary about this palace. There was probably no one who thought that there really wasn’t a single thing of value here. Moreover, as long as there were treasures, they would definitely not be treasures in the ordinary sense. They would definitely exceed one’s imagination in terms of value.
People would die for money, while birds would die for food, and when faced with the temptation of treasure, it would be hard for both humans and demons not to be tempted. Otherwise, who would take such a great risk to come to such a place? Hence, the deal that the hideous thing offered was irresistibly tempting.
Unfortunately, Lin Li was not one of the vast majority, and although the treasure was just as tempting to him, the temptation would not exist if one knew that the treasure was nothing. Lin Li had explored the Well of the Sun before, so his understanding of it was probably greater than that of the ugly thing in front of him, and if there really had been any treasure here, he would have gone to get it himself long ago.
“Parasitic Demon? You’re indeed a parasite, but I’m afraid Lord Devourer was the one being a parasite to this poor fellow, eh?” Faced with the deal offered by the other party, Lin Li simply ignored it with disdain. There was a tinge of coldness in his consciousness.
“W-what are you saying? I don’t understand…” The ugly thing did not panic because of Lin Li’s words, and showed some bewilderment instead.
Although it might be able to fool others with its behavior, it did not work on Lin Li, who had killed Lord Devourer once. Lin Li was not making any guesses, but rather was extremely certain that the ugly thing in front of him was the true Lord Devourer, and the dissected corpse was actually just a poor fellow which became the host to the parasite.
In fact, it was thanks to the fact that the Endless World was a game. Otherwise, Lin Li wouldn’t have a.s.sociated the ugly thing in front of him with the ferocious Lord Devourer.
When he was exploring the Well of the Sun in the Endless World, Lin Li had killed Lord Devourer, but he did not immediately get the system notification that he had killed it successfully. Initially, he thought that Lord Devourer was feigning its death, and so began bombarding the corpse some more, but to his surprise, he managed to force the thing inside to come out. He finally discovered the true ident.i.ty of Lord Devourer that way.
In fact, that huge, bloated body was just a walking corpse that was a host to the parasitic Lord Devourer, which was the ugly thing that looked like it could be blown away in a single breath. Its original body was actually the Devouring Demon from the Endless Abyss, a parasite that all demons abhorred.
The Devouring Demon itself was actually very weak, and if it didn’t rely on parasitizing the bodies of other High Demons, it would probably belong to the lowest level of existence in the Endless Abyss. They could only gradually take over the bodies of their hosts that were superior demons in order to grow into a Lord Devourer.
However, not all Devouring Demons had the opportunity to become Lord Devourers, as the process involved a lot of coincidences and special characteristics. Otherwise, the entire abyss would have become a world of Devouring Demons long ago. It was definitely difficult to occupy the body of a High Demon. With the Devouring Demon’s strength, it might be killed by the mana waves emitted by the magical crystal of the High Demon even if it occupied a corpse.
However, once the Devouring Demon succeeded in occupying the High Demon’s body, it would begin devouring a large amount of various types of power, from intangible magical elements to various tangible ores, which would be decomposed and transformed into energy as long as they landed in the mouths of the Devouring Demons.
While devouring and absorbing the energy, they would also use the energy to transform the host body by strengthening every aspect of the bodies of the High Demons that were already strong in the first place. It was akin to building its own castle, eventually transforming the body into something completely different that would grow into a terrifying existence that even ancient demons would have to avoid.
Although a Devouring Demon that had lost its host would no longer have terrifying strength that was comparable to the Sanctuary-realm, Lin Li would not waste his time on meaningless things. Lin Li was very clear that even though this Devouring Demon Garl had already become extremely small and weak, it could still regain the power that it had in the beginning.
Although the Devouring Demon Garl could not match the young Elemental Wyrm Xiao Hua in terms of quick spell casting, they seemed to be on par in terms of strength. However, the ability to devour every attack that came its way in one bite that the Devouring Demon Garl possessed was something that Xiao Hua lacked. Lin Li had actually already thought about it back when he first dealt with the Lord Devourer.
However, in the Well of the Sun in the Endless World, Lin Li ended up killing the Devouring Demon with a single arrow after forcing it out mainly because there was no way he could make it his pet as a Hunter. After all, no matter how lax the rules were in the Endless World, it was just a game.
However, things were different now. Anril was a real world that did not have as many rigid restrictions as the game world. Thus, it was possible for the idea that Lin Li once had to come true.
Seeing that the Devouring Demon Garl was still feigning ignorance, Lin Li pressed the Light and Darkness Sword that hovered over its head downwards. The Light and Darkness Sword even cut a small slit in the top of Garl’s head. Afterward, Lin Li coldly said to Garl via his mental strength, “Cease your tricks. You only have two options. You either submit or die!”
Sensing the cold killing intent transmitted through the mental strength, the weak Devouring Demon Garl shivered slightly. However, the choice that Garl made was the exact opposite of what he feared. It was as if he would rather die than give in. He said, “You just kill me, I, the Lord Devourer, will never be a slave to a human.”
Since he had already been exposed, Garl naturally did not have to hide anything. However, that did not mean that he was not really afraid of death. In fact, he knew very well that when someone was given the choice between death and something else, the person who issued the choice actually wanted the other option to be chosen. The reason and logic were simple, but it also showed how valuable he was in Lin Li’s eyes. The fact that Lin Li was not actually willing to kill him easily meant that there was room for negotiation.
However, it was obvious that Garl did not understand Lin Li’s means. He showed his unwillingness to submit to increase his value, but he did not realize that he was actually facing a human who was more terrifying than a demon.
After hearing Garl’s answer, a look of mockery appeared on Lin Li’s face. He said, “It’s not that simple to die. As a demon, you should know that in fact, in many cases, death is actually a relief instead.”
Garl was just about to say something to show that he had a backbone, but he sensed a wave of power being violently infused into the top of his head. The power did not seem to have any effect on his body, but it surged directly into his soul.