"Huh, that was a lot easier than I expected." Li Ling commented with a look of pleasant amusement.
The Mountain Splitting Sword zoomed back to hover beside him after taking care of the demon beast mounts, its blade edge untainted by the blood of those it had slain. Li Ling collected it into his storage ring and glanced at the corpses, using the Object Control Technique to pick up their storage mediums and bring them over.
Li Ling hummed as he looked through them for anything interesting, but sighed when he only found banal things like clothing, pills, spirit stones and talismans. While none of these things were bad, the nature of his growth in terms of not needing external resources made it such that the value of these things—critical and fundamental to most—was useless to him.
Still, he could use them to exchange for more important things like stronger artifacts, better daoist arts and even cultivation techniques.
As Li Ling walked back to the campfire, he noticed that Cai Dong and the Steel Feathered Raptor were both shivering as if they were freezing cold. After all, what the two beings had witnessed had completely overturned their worldview, on top of being exceedingly brutal.
Cai Dong understood that Li Ling was definitely practicing the Blood Asura Descent, which was likely the reason for his sudden growth. She could not sense the nature of his raw qi with her power sealed, but she assumed his qi cultivation method was also demonic, which was why his nature was so twisted.
It would also explain why his power was great, because demonic cultivators were far stronger than righteous cultivators at the same level, having stronger combat abilities but flawed mentalities and weaker souls. She also guessed why Li Ling kidnapped her, either for her racial specialty or for carnal reasons, but either one was not good.
Meanwhile, the Steel Feathered Raptor did not have so many considerations. It just saw Li Ling butcher the nobles it used to carry on its back with extreme care, because it had seen the fate of its compatriots at the transit station that displeased them.
Its fear of Li Ling, which had begun to wane through the night, soared once more and hit its peak. It definitely discarded any thoughts of rebellion and escape, because it simply did not want to die and be cooked in a stew.
Li Ling guessed their thoughts but did not acknowledge them. Rather, he focused on the newly gained 47 Slaughter Points and decided to invest them in other abilities since he was already here. Even though he would not be able to raise his Body Refinement level for now, he knew that more pursuers would be on the way to feed him.
Coupled with the previous 18 points, he now had a nice 65 Slaughter Points. Right away, Li Ling brought the Qi Restraining Control technique to Perfection, swallowing 25 whole points, his most costly investment so far in terms of daoist arts.
However, he immediately felt it was worth it, as the perfected version of the technique allowed him to suppress his cultivation to any level, even appear as an uninitiated mortal, perfect for blending into mortal kingdoms as a common martial artist.
He then invested 15 points into the Qi Seeking Technique, bringing it to Perfection as well. Now, when he activated the technique, there was no darkness overlay in the real world, allowing him to maintain his vision, while the qi signatures were extremely detailed and notable, even able to show him qi signatures from up to a week ago.
Feeling pleased, he looked through and invested 10 points into the Earth Escape Technique to bring it to the Advanced level. A short test of the technique showed him that it cost half as much qi to use compared to before while the maximum depth he could go underground had increased to 10 meters.
His maximum speed while moving in a straight line horizontally had increased to 12 meters per second, or 43 kilometers per hour. This was slower than the running speed of even some martial artists, much less cultivators or demon beasts, but the key was that you were untraceable while moving underground.
Well, unless they had spirit sense or detection methods like the Qi Seeking Technique. Apart from those, this escape technique was truly one of the best, if not for its limitation that you needed to be specifically touching the earth with a part of your body.
So if you were locked in an airborne chase and appeared over a body of water, you were in deep trouble unless you had a water spirit root and could learn the Water Escape.
Of the 15 remaining Slaughter Points, Li Ling invested them into the Disguise Art, taking it to Perfection, leaving exactly 5 points behind. Immediately, knowledge of anatomy, muscle groups, and ligaments flooded his mind, granting him the ability to not only shift his facial features, but also his height, weight, and even his blood's aura.
Even for a mere martial technique, it was truly quite magical. Then again, that would have to be the case, as it was one of the few martial techniques that specifically required one to have at least Internal Breath in order to learn.
Done with the upgrades, Li Ling put out the fire and rose to his feet. Without speaking to her, he simply cast the Object Control Technique on Cai Dong and tossed her onto the back of the now fully rested Steel Feathered Raptor, jumping up as well.
Cai Dong pursed her lips and settled on the back of the beast peacefully, curling her legs inward as she wondered what exactly this fellow's plan was.
In fact, Li Ling did have a plan. The Qing Shan Sect's region was one that he was familiar with, as during his years of roaming, he eventually heard about this place and targeted it after much research, traveling through its various cities and towns until he painstakingly arrived at the number 9 marketplace.
The Tianming Continent was large, far bigger than any continent on Earth, but because of that, the richness of resources, the number of life forms and the amount of domiciles were extremely plentiful.
Each area was split into regions based on the ruling sect or strongest force there. There were more than a hundred regions across the continent, all of various sizes and with various biomes that housed all kinds of unique species or creations.
The Qing Shan Region was just one of the smaller ones, ranked below the seventies. It was perfect for the previous Li Ling because it was barren enough to not stunt his growth while not being strong enough that every third person was a Core Formation powerhouse.
However, with the awakening of the Infinite Slaughter System, Li Ling had to travel to stronger regions because that was where stronger cultivators resided. Right now, he was merely at Qi Refinement, but what about when he reached Nascent Soul or Soul Formation? He would definitely need many more Slaughter Points, and killing mere Qi Refinement cultivators, while easier and plentiful, would not be able to sustain the high costs at that level.
His initial destination was the region of the Boundless Joy Sect, a demonic sect that focused on the dao of yin-yang, specifically yang plundering. It was a sect equal or slightly stronger than the Qing Shan Sect and bordered it to the north, often entering conflicts with each other.
Li Ling had passed through its domain when coming over back then, and that was his most hellish period. Men in the Boundless Joy Region were treated like cattle by the superior and stronger females, strictly controlled and regulated for their consumption and growth.
Luckily for him, he had been too underage at the time, not yet ripe for plunder, while his cultivation was low enough to slip the radar. It was also his darkest era as a man because he had to crossdress as a woman the entire time to not be abducted into some crazy demoness dungeon to be raised for her to plunder later on.
He had planned to go there, slowly provoke and hunt the female demonesses, making use of their administrative system to gather Slaughter Points and raise his power, but that changed after gaining the Blood Asura Descent. Since he had easily mastered it without any flaws, he saw it as suitable for him to join the behemothic Six Paths Demon Sect.
He already knew that the requirement for joining the Six Paths Demon Sect had nothing to do with talent, but compatibility. The more suitable you were to practice their main techniques, the more of a chance you had to be admitted into their fold.
So his plan now was to travel to the Tianmo Empire and join the Six Paths Demon Sect. The only problem was that this kingdom was located at the far north of the continent, near the very apex.
Li Ling called up information on the Six Paths Demon Sect and the top sects of Tianming Continent.
The Six Paths Demon Sect was number 4 among the top five sects of the entire continent, only surpassed by the three major sects, the Heavenly Mandate Sect at number 1, the Ancient Dao Sect at number 2 and the Bright Sword Sect at number 3.
They were known as the Trinity of Righteousness, the holy land for all cultivators who believed in justice, righteousness, kindness and truth. They were also located at the furthest south of the continent, occupying the same vast empire together called the Tianming Empire, which the continent was named after.
Three top sects with ties to the upper world were located in one area, causing the south to be extremely prosperous. Likewise, at fourth place was the Six Paths Demon Sect and at fifth was the Seven Sins Demon Sect, the two top demonic sects of the entire Tianming Continent.
They also established a grand empire at the very north called the Tianmo Empire, which housed the two of them as its controllers. They often got into bloody conflict with the Trinity of Righteousness, being called the Dyad of Malevolence, their two sides representing the overall moral landscape of the entire continent.
The Six Paths Demon Sect focused on the Dao of Samsara, split into six streams. They were the Human Path, who practiced the art of mundanity and worldliness, the Deva Path, who walked the road of perfection and superiority, the Ghost Path, who practiced the art of soul manipulation and spirit calling, the Animal Path, who practiced the art of beast transformation, the Asura Path, who walked the road of endless killing and bloodshed, and finally the Hell Path, who traveled down the path of demonic insight and karmic punishment.
For Li Ling, the most suitable path for him was naturally the Asura Path, which he had already begun to walk down by practicing the Blood Asura Descent, not to mention the obvious compatibility with the Infinite Slaughter System.
Initially, he also considered the Seven Sins Demon Sect, because they also had great strength.
This sect was split into seven streams: the Sinners of Pride, who were the pillars of the sect and cultivated the extremity of strength and power; the Sinners of Gluttony, who utilized the famous devour techniques that demonic cultivators were known for; the Sinners of Wrath, who cultivated their rage into combat strength, entering crazed berserk modes to beat their foes to death; the Sinners of Lust, who were basically stronger versions of the Joy Sect; the Sinners of Greed, who had more resources than any of their compatriots at the same level; the Sinners of Envy, who were the cruelest assassins and could steal anything they desired; and finally the Sinners of Sloth, who induced others to be lethargic and lazy, causing stagnation.
Initially, the Sin of Wrath would not have been a bad choice, but it was overshadowed by the perfection of the Asura Path, not to mention that the Six Paths Demon Sect was seen as slightly stronger than the Seven Sins Demon Sect.