According to the informants arranged by Brennan Cliff, Ian Song accepted a total of ten missions to slay Lower Heavenly God-level vicious beasts.
Upon learning this, he began to plot.
For Five-Star God-Demons, the God-Demon Corps no longer has mandatory mission requirements, but to advance to Six-Star God-Demon, there are still mission requirements—and you must also reach the Lower Heavenly God realm.
Anyway, Ian didn’t know anyone in Brighthelm Holy City, so after accepting the missions, he just headed out.
he left Brighthelm Holy City and headed straight for Brightmoon Gorge.
Brightmoon Gorge lay three thousand li from Brighthelm Holy City. Inside, a species of soul-eating beasts called Aosouls made their home; these monsters craved the souls of gods. Adult Aosouls had the strength of Upper Heavenly Gods, and their king had reached the Lower Heavenly God realm.
Ian’s mission was to kill the Aosoul King.
Aosoul beasts aren’t especially strong physically, but they possess a unique soul-type divine ability that affects gods’ minds—at best causing hallucinations, at worst driving victims insane.
And you absolutely can’t hunt Aosouls in a team—if you’re hit by their divine ability, you’ll end up slaughtering your own teammates.
But Aosouls love to live in groups—there are over a thousand of them in Brightmoon Gorge. Even Mid Heavenly Gods don’t dare charge in lightly. That’s why this mission is extremely difficult for a Five-Star, and it’s been left unaccepted for ten years.
But the rewards are quite generous.
But for Ian, all those generous rewards were basically pocket change.
Flying the whole way, Ian reached the outskirts of Brightmoon Gorge in just over an hour.
Just as he was about to step into the gorge, Ian frowned, then let a cold smirk creep onto his lips. In a blink, he slipped straight into Brightmoon Gorge—no hesitation.
Soon after, three more people arrived at the canyon entrance.
All three had the strength of Mid Heavenly Gods, and their faces were marked by a fierce, ruthless air.
"That kid already went in. Should we follow him?"
One of the Mid Heavenly Gods asked.
"No need. There are over a thousand Aosouls in there—they’re not easy to deal with. If that kid dies inside, fine; if he survives, we’ll ambush him right here!"
Another Mid Heavenly God said.
Then, the three Mid Heavenly Gods began setting up a formation at the canyon entrance.
Hidden in the void with his spatial godhead, Ian watched and listened to the three, a cold light flashing in his eyes. I just arrived in Brighthelm Holy City and someone’s already trying to ambush me—who could it be?
Three names flashed through his mind: Brennan Cliff, Taber Hawk, and Carter Northcourt.
In the end, he thought Brennan Cliff was the most suspicious.
Taber Hawk may dislike him, but wouldn’t dare go for the kill. As for Carter Northcourt—after Ian crippled one of Northcourt’s servants last time, if Carter wanted to send people, he definitely wouldn’t just send three Mid Heavenly Gods.
Since they were guarding the canyon entrance, Ian decided to deal with them after killing the Aosoul King.
Aosouls are extremely sensitive to divine sense, so you can’t use it to investigate—or they’ll notice you immediately.
He couldn’t use divine sense, but Ian had Clairvoyant Vision.
Using his spatial godhead’s void-shuttling ability, Ian scanned the whole canyon and found over 1,300 Aosouls of all sizes living there.
The Aosoul King was deep within the canyon.
Normally, a Lower Heavenly God would have to fight their way through the outer Aosouls to reach the king, but Ian could just shuttle straight to the Aosoul King’s side.
With a thought, he began slowly shuttling through the void.
After half a quarter-hour, he was close to the Aosoul King.
The Aosoul King was several hundred meters long—even lying down, it was a massive creature.
Just then, the Aosoul King—eyes narrowed in a doze—suddenly opened its eyes in confusion and glanced around.
Hidden in the void, Ian grew cautious. This Aosoul King’s senses are sharp—no wonder the mission’s been hanging here for ten years with no takers.
Ian suppressed his aura, motionless in the void.
After a while, the Aosoul King dozed off again.
Now!
Ian burst out from the void, his black-iron longsword flashing down. With a wet splat, the Aosoul King's head flew off. Ian snatched it up and vanished back into the void.
The Aosouls in the canyon seemed to sense their king’s death and all roared as they charged toward the depths of the canyon.
But Ian was already near the canyon entrance.
Then, he deliberately revealed himself.
Instantly, the Aosouls went wild, charging out of the canyon. Ian sneered, then vanished into the void again, completely suppressing his aura.
Over a thousand Aosouls surged out of the valley, assuming Ian had escaped, so they followed—right into the formation the three Mid Heavenly Gods had set up.
Though the Aosouls only had Upper Heavenly God-level strength, their soul divine abilities were terrifying. As soon as they entered the formation, they instinctively unleashed their soul powers.
A thousand Aosouls hit them with soul divine abilities all at once, leaving the three Mid Heavenly Gods reeling. Ian saw his chance and triggered Phantasm, trapping their minds in illusions.
The three immediately dissolved the formation.
Without the protection of the formation, the three were exposed to the Aosouls.
The Aosouls, thinking the three were their king’s killers, charged recklessly. The three, unable to dodge or resist, were slain within seconds.
Seeing this, Ian quietly slipped away to the second mission site.
In fact, those three were Brennan Cliff’s secret subordinates. He held their soul-jade tokens, so when they died, he sensed it immediately. His face changed, and he quickly sent five more Mid Heavenly Gods to investigate.
After investigating,
the five Mid Heavenly Gods all concluded that the three had been driven mad by the Aosouls’ soul divine abilities and beaten to death by the mob.
When he heard this, Brennan Cliff cursed furiously.
Ian completed ten missions in eight days.
After handing in the missions, he didn’t take on any new ones. Instead, he planned to buy a residence in Brighthelm’s inner city.
Eventually, for two million god-crystals, he bought a medium-sized courtyard in Brighthelm Holy City.
Brighthelm Holy City was packed with hidden powerhouses—God-King-level experts everywhere. Even though Ian's strength matched an Upper Heavenly God, he wasn't about to show off too much.
After settling in,
Ian prepared to visit his neighbors.
This street had eighteen independent courtyards. If a formation was active, it meant the owner was in seclusion. Of his seventeen neighbors, eight had their formations up—clearly cultivating in isolation.
He knocked on the doors of nine neighbors in succession, delivering baskets of divine fruit.
Even without probing, Ian could tell all his neighbors were Upper Heavenly Gods. Two of them, though they looked like Upper Heavenly Gods on the surface, gave off a vibe way deeper—he was sure they were God-King-level experts.