Sheng Feilong continued to absorb the energy within the pool of blood for a long time. He stopped paying attention to the state of his physical body, trusting that whatever change occurred would only benefit him and instead focused on the change in his spiritual consciousness completely.The fragile balance between the "light" part of his spiritual consciousness, which is the silvery white world, has taken on a strongly visible golden hue, so much so that calling it a silvery white world didn"t do it justice any longer.
While everything, including the gra.s.sy fields and clouds above, still gave off the same pure and calming feeling as before, there was now something different thanks to the golden hue; The whole place now also shrouded in a pleasant, radiant atmosphere, one that could almost be called holy.
At the border between the radiant world and the desolate wasteland, the fighting had stopped. Where there was a constant fight between the desolate wasteland trying to erode the radiant world with the radiant world fighting against it, trying to push the wasteland"s evil back, there was now a state of equilibrium.
Once he reached this point, Sheng Feilong decided to stop absorbing any more energy and started actively resisting the energy contained within Sheng Wuyong"s blood pouring into his spiritual consciousness. Instead, he wandered off into the desolate wasteland, towards the castle ruins where the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon resided.
Everything on the way had seemingly calmed down; The pungent smell and ravines in the ground, filled with corrosive acid at the bottom, had calmed down, the acid only lightly bubbling at the ground, while the pungent smell had greatly diminished.
The Netherworld Putrefaction Demon sitting on its black throne was entirely lifeless, not reacting to Sheng Feilong in the slightest. It seemed that it had been sealed for good after the latest outbreak with the Chains of heaven binding suppressing it, at least for now. He also found the 100.000-years-old Doomstinger Dragonfly"s External Soul Bone; Instead of hiding behind the black throne, it now calmly floated at at the side of the room, no longer being suppressed by the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon.
For the first time in what felt like ages, Sheng Feilong slowly opened his eyes. He stood up inside the pool, so that his head was above the pool"s surface. The radiant blood of Sheng Wuyong in which he was submerged had lost most of its colour, now having taken on a murky, brownish red colour.
He could clearly feel that the energy within the blood had mostly been dried up, leaving only bits of it behind. Meanwhile, he himself has truly absorbed most of that energy. Sheng Feilong stepped out of the pool of blood, standing naked by its side and clenched his fists. Only now was he able to truly feel how much stronger he had become; Crushing boulders and bending steel with his bare hands would be as easy as cutting b.u.t.ter with a hot knife by now.
Moreover, his Spirit Power must have increased exponentially as well; While he was unable to see into the pathways of the cave before, he could now clearly see every nook and cranny in the natural formations of stone, his vision even un.o.bscured by the dome of light.
"...How much time has pa.s.sed?" Sheng Feilong pinched the hair hanging down from his forehead, pulling it straight down. Before, he had relatively short hair, but he could now pull it down to beneath his chin. "It"d take at least a few months for my hair to grow that much, right..?"
Sheng Feilong frowned and continued to fiddle with his hair for a few more moments while thinking about what had happened. After a while, he simply shook his head with a wry smile. "Whatever; I"ll find out as soon as I talk to the old lion king, or Jialong and Yehui. For now, let"s get out of here."
His Soul Power flared up, pushing the blood on his skin away, cleaning and drying his body. Sheng Feilong was taken aback for a short moment and looked at his own arms. "My Soul Power has increased that much..?" He carefully started circulating his Soul Power with his eyes closed, before snapping them open again with an excited expression. "I"m already at rank 68. This is incredible!"
He evaluated his own strength again for a moment before remembering that he was still stark naked. Scurrying over to the stone with the small box on it, he grabbed his s.p.a.cial Ring and put it on his finger again, before pulling out the clothes he had stored inside and got dressed. "It"s still here. And there was no dust, so I guess I wasn"t inside the pool of blood for too long."
Fixing his clothes, he began walking out, pressing through the curtain like dome of light and looking around. Again, he could see everything and clearly make out details even in the dark, far off places of the cave"s pathway; Not wasting any more time, he began walking it down, back into the chamber of the lion king.
"It"s not here?" Sheng Feilong raised an eyebrow, surprised that the old, fragile lion king seemed to have left its cave. He didn"t think too much about it, though, and simply made his way out of the cave. Coming closer to the exit, he could already head voices and low roars in the distance. "Probably a few of the younger Golden Lions fighting each other."
No one was paying attention to the cave when Sheng Feilong walked out, but he quickly spotted a few familiar faces and beasts; Including the crimson-maned lion, the old lion king and even the strongest of the 1.000-years-old Golden Lions with the scar like formation on its forehead. He couldn"t find either Huang Jialong nor Yuanen Yehui, though.
"Senior!" Sheng Feilnong called out after a.s.sessing the situation, prompting the crimson-maned lion and the lion king to turn towards him as he made his way over to them. He bowed to the lion king with his hands clasped in front of his chest. "Senior, junior has returned."
The old lion king laid calmly on the elevated platform in the middle of the afternoon sun and loked Sheng Feilong up and down. He could feel the lion king"s Spirit Power washing over him, as well as the crimson-maned lion"s, but didn"t resist either of them, letting them study his him freely.
The crimson-maned lion seemed taken aback after retracting its Spirit Power while the lion king had less of a reaction; Looking satisfied at most before speaking to Sheng Feilong. "You have made great progress, descendant of Sheng Wuyong. You bloodline... is incredibly pure. And your strength is even more surprising. It seems my dear brother"s inheritance was not wasted."
While its words sounded critical, its voice was filled with pride, obviously pleased by Sheng Feilong"s current state, to which the latter bowed again. "Thank you for your praise, Senior." He straightened his abck again, looking over the plateau, still unable to spot Huang Jialong or Yuanen Yehui. "Senior, do you know where my companions have gone?"
"They are out hunting." The lion king replied calmly, lazily resting its head on its paws again. Sheng Feilong tilted his head, looking at it with an incredulous expression. "...Hunting?" Again, the lion king only responded calmly. "They are accompanying a few of our young in their hunt. They should return before the sun sets down."
"I see..." Sheng Feilong was confused as to why they would go with them, but didn"t question it further. Still, the lion king seemed to notice his confusion and spoke up again. "They have nestled in with our pride quite well. Most of the young have already accepted them as part of the pride. Though I have to admit that it was my order for them to be of use to the pride if they wanted to remain here until you claimed my dear brother"s inheritance."
With this, a lot of Sheng Feilong"s questions had been answered directly, but one was still burning under his tongue. "Senior, how long have I been inside the cave?" From the growth of his hair, he already guessed an approximate time, but he still wanted to know. The lion king glanced at him. "By the time you humans use, it should have been five months, maybe a bit more. Ask your companions later, if you want to be sure."
"Five months?" Sheng Feilong"s eyes widened and he looked at the lion king for a while, not knowing what to say to that. Before he could find the right words, though, a few roars came from the foot of the mountain, announcing the return of the Golden Lion young"s hunting party.
The other lions in the surrounding came over to where the king and Sheng Feilong were after hearing the roars, many of the 10.000-years-old ones surprised to see Sheng Feilong, but didn"t probe him as he was standing next to their king.
Moments later, the first few Golden Lions could be seen jumping over the edge of the plateau, landing on it with prey in their maws as their made their way over to the group, presenting their harvests to the king. Sheng Feilong hadn"t seen this kind of ritual before and was curiously looking at the young Golden Lions.
"Feilong..?" A familiar voice came from the cliff, causing Sheng Feilong to look over, only to break out into a wide smile. Yuanen Yehui was half kneeling on the edge of the plateau as she froze while climbing up the last hurdle, staring at Sheng Feilong with wide eyes. She jumped to her feet, rushing over to Sheng Feilong stopping in front of him and grabbing his face. "It"s really you! You"re finally out of that cave!"