CHAPTER 145 ASSIMILATION OF THE SPIRITUAL ENERGY

From the moment he touched it, Darren began to assimilate the spiritual energy stored in the cardiac

cores.

As the demonic monster's cardiac core contained an enormous amount of spiritual energy, Darren's

absorption speed was insufficient to assimilate all the spiritual energy quickly. Moreover, he had to

leave a little spiritual energy in the core to retain its shape, or else it would crumble, and his plan would

be exposed.

Once Darren had almost absorbed all the spiritual energy contained in the first cardiac core, he

pretended to be greatly surprised and shouted, "It's impossible! This is a genuine cardiac core of a

demonic monster!"

Jack sneered when he saw Darren's surprised expression. "Such an ignorant buffoon," Jack snorted.

With a feigned look of embarrassment, Darren gabbled, "I have to examine each core. How could you

kill so many demonic monsters? I don't believe that you are so powerful. There must be some diabolic

beasts' cardiac cores mixed with the monster cores!"

Darren's exclamation surprised Jack. Being weak was one thing, but being ignorant? Jack's opinion of

Darren fell more. 'I just killed several demonic monsters. Does my strength frighten you?' he wondered.

"This is my strength. This is how strong I am. Does that frighten you?" Inflated with pride, Jack looked

forward to seeing Darren's stunned expression when he completed checking all the cores.

Ignoring Jack's words, Darren threw the demonic monster's cardiac core from which he had assimilated

almost all its spiritual energy back into Jack's bag. Darren smiled as he said, "Watch closely. I have

returned the demonic monster's cardiac core!"

Darren picked up another cardiac core and pretended to observe it carefully. However, he was

assimilating its spiritual energy as quickly as he could. Jack stood by Darren's side, unaware of what

Darren was doing. For Jack, he wished Darren could waste all of his time checking the cores. By then

he would win out directly because Darren would have no more time to get the cores. Then he would

challenge Darren first and kill him with one blow!

One by one, Darren placed his hand on each cardiac core. Each time, he absorbed almost all the

spiritual energy in each demonic monster's cardiac core. He was extremely careful not to assimilate all

the spiritual energy in a cardiac core as he wanted the cores to retain their shape. Then, he tossed

them back in Jack's bag.

Forty-five minutes passed before Darren had assimilated the spiritual energy from around fifty cardiac

cores.

Now, he felt as though his elixir field was about to burst. There had been no time for him to transform

the spiritual energy into demonic internal force and sword intent.

'I have assimilated spiritual energy from a majority of his cardiac cores. He has about a dozen left. This

will reduce his credits greatly, ' Darren thought.

"Incredible! All the cardiac cores belong to demonic monsters. Well, there is no need for me to check

anymore. You are right, Jack," Darren said, pretending to be very upset.

"Ha-ha-ha, now you know my strength, don't you? I will beat you to death in the upcoming fight!" Jack's

contempt for Darren grew more. 'If Darren is really a powerful man, why would he be so stunned at

how many demonic monster's cardiac cores I was able to collect? His strength is far inferior to mine!'

Jack concluded.

Jack was quite confident that he would be the winner of the hunting competition. He was sure that he exclusive content.

would win the next round in the competition as well.

"You have only one hour left. I suggest you cherish it because it will be the last hour of your life!" A

murderous look shone in Jack's eyes as he spoke to Darren. After that, he turned and walked away.

Darren smiled as Jack began to stroll around.

"Darren, what should we do?"

All the outer disciples of the Holy Land looked worried and depressed. They had lost confidence in their

performance during the hunting competition.

"You need to wait for me here. I will get some demonic monster's cardiac cores. Remember what I said

—do not run around." Darren looked calm—there was no sign of panic or confusion on his face.

Then he flew in the direction where Jack had come from. He was sure there would be many monsters

in that area.

"Alas! Darren's spirit of persistence is worthy of praise. However, I don't believe we will be able to win

the competition."

"Right, I never expected Jack would kill so many demonic monsters. He must be terribly powerful."

All the outer disciples of the Holy Land sighed as they gazed at Darren's receding figure.

Darren released his spiritual sense to explore the space around him. Simultaneously, he exercised his

Shadow Lightness skill to move forward at high speed. With the improvement in his talent, Darren's

scope of detection had expanded to the space within a ten-mile radius of his location.

After traveling for a few miles, Darren sensed something in a cavern. Filled with joy, he headed toward

the den, like an arrow.

'There are so many level one demonic monsters living here. Jack must have acquired the cardiac cores

here! I wonder how many I can hunt and kill in half an hour.'

Without hesitation, Darren rushed into the cavern.

Upon entering, Darren found many corpses of bats, each the size of a calf, piled one on top of the other

like a small hill.

"Ha! Wonderful! This is home to at least hundreds of level one demonic monsters like the bats!"

Armed with the blade and sword in his hands, Darren rushed into the depth of the cave.

The demonic monster bats in the cavern sensed Darren's presence and flew out to attack him. In the

blink of an eye, the once quiet cave turned into a chaotic mess as the bats and Darren began fighting.

"Profound Nine Sword Skills!"

"Grand Thirteen Blade Skills!"

Darren released numerous blade and sword intents at the giant bats.

As the bats outnumbered Darren significantly, he felt challenged.

After a dozen attacks, Darren had only killed a few demonic monster bats.

'Luckily, the abundant spiritual energy inside my body is inexhaustible and will continue to support my

sword intent and blade intent.

As my talent has been improved, I should take advantage of the time to practice my blade intent.'

With that thought, Darren put away his sword and attacked the demonic monster bats with only his

blade.

Meanwhile, he lost no time in comprehending the formulas of the Spectral Chop.

Shortly after, Darren had comprehended the second level of the formulas.

"Ha-ha, talent matters a lot. It's quite easy to comprehend the second level of the formulas of the

Spectral Blade Skill as my talent has been improved by two levels. Now, I have reached the beginning

stage of my blade intent," Daren muttered with excitement.

A little while later, he focused his mind and began to read the moves of the Spectral Chop stored in his

memory.

"The first move, Cracking Attack!"

Darren started to practice the first move while battling the giant bats.

An hour elapsed quickly.

Darren had killed over thirty giant bats.

'These giant bats are much weaker than other level one demonic monsters. Otherwise, Jack wouldn't

have been able to kill so many. But he must have fought them until he ran out of strength, ' Darren

rationalized.

As there was not much time left, Darren decided to practice the Cracking Attack for the last time! His

blade dashed against the depth of the cavern.

"Boom!"

Darren was surprised as tremendous blade intent rampaged through the cavern.

'It turned out that the moves of the Spectral Blade Skill should be matched with its formulas! This stroke

is three times more powerful than before!' Darren was exhilarated.

One blow had helped Darren to kill at least five giant bats.

'Fantastic! This should be called supernatural martial skill. My blade intent might become more

powerful than my sword intent if I can comprehend more levels of the formulas and moves.'

This was the advantage of the supernatural martial skill!

"No more delays. Die!" Darren shouted.

This time Darren dispatched both sword and blade intent. His strength was more powerful than before

—a simple blow had killed over twenty giant bats.

Of course, Darren took every chance to assimilate the bats' talent. Although his talent improved as he

absorbed theirs, Darren was still far from level five of the Earth Degree.

Time was running out. Darren collected all the demonic monster's cardiac cores and rushed out of the

cavern. He needed to get back to where the disciples of the Holy Land had gathered.

Soon, Darren reached the spot where he had left before.

"Put them away. We will be teleported back soon," Darren said in a flat voice.

"How is this possible?"

Seeing that Darren had collected over sixty demonic monster's cardiac cores, the disciples were

stunned. Their mouths opened in surprise.

'Darren's strength is far beyond our imagination. How could he kill so many demonic monsters in such

a short time without any sign of fatigue? Is he more powerful than Jack?' Those disciples looked at

each other, speechless, pondering silently!