Chapter 586 - The Evil God’s Destruction (Part 1)

Lu Ran and Dark Crow were in the middle of an ascension realm, so they didn’t have any idea of the urgent developments happening in the outside world. Dark Crow was simply trying to use Spiritual Prophecy to revive Ji Yuan, who fell at the hands of the Evil God.

The result was that not only did it resurrect Ji Yuan's projection in the ascension realm, it even resurrected Ji Yuan in the real world from a drop of blood he left behind. Once Lu Ran found out about what happened, he would definitely have to reassess the terrifying nature of the Prophecy Realization talent.

The Evil God Sea was calm on the surface, but it was roiling with malice beneath the dark waves. Those waves rolled gently across the sea as if whispering of ancient curses and saturated by a wicked power.

Lu Ran floated over the viscous sea of blood and observed the suffocating deathly aura that wafted up from it.

“Enjoy the feast, Dark Crow. We’ll move on to the next stage of the hunt once you’re done."

All life had long since vanished from this sea, with only some ghastly remains still in the water. Not even Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King had a digestive system that would allow them to eat a heap of rotten flesh.

Those with a suitable digestive system might not survive either due to the Curse power within the Evil God’s flesh and blood. Eating any portion of it would inevitably lead to some serious food poisoning. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea would be the minor symptoms. Worst-case scenario, the flesh and blood could infect the creature and convert it into an Evil God creature.

Thankfully, this wasn’t an issue for Dark Crow. It lived off of carrion and garbage from a young age. It was also adapted to Curse energy. The flesh and blood were actually nourishment for it.

However, it would still be a mistake to underestimate the Evil God’s flesh. Lu Ran didn’t know how long it would take for Dark Crow to consume everything. Not even the stomach of a Low-Legendary Taotie would be able to offer any support, so Dark Crow had to rely solely on its own abilities.

"As you command, my king!"

Dark Crow slowly flew off Lu Ran's shoulder. Its green eyes glimmered, and it wiped the drool from its mouth as it stared at the flesh floating in the sea.

"Soldiers, come out and eat!"

With a shout, and hundreds of its Superior-Overlord war soldiers materialized. Before they could start eating, Dark Crow pointed at the first seven war soldiers it created.

"You seven start with these," Dark Crow instructed as it summoned the Seven-Sins Evil Gods from the Soul-Restraining Bottle.

"Devour their souls and consume their power. You will replace them as the new Seven-Sins Evil Gods!"

"Yes, sir!" The seven war soldiers replied as they saluted Dark Crow.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

The gruesome sea quickly became a buffet. Lu Ran shook his head before turning his attention back to Captain Doofus, who was meditating in its three-headed werewolf form.

I wonder if it can extract more power out of the soul evolution in the limited amount of time that we have. It’ll all depend on Captain Doofus’ comprehension ability.

Compared to it, Dark Crow and Baby Cloud were experiencing more stable growth since all they needed was food.

"Damn it! If I can't lift the curse, then I have to find a way to adapt."

Lu Ran raised his shortened arms and clenched his fists. He could feel that his body had significantly deteriorated. While beastmaster skills like Soul Clone weren't affected, skills that had physical requirements like Soul Amplification and Time Acceleration were severely impacted.

Before he knew it, several days had passed by. Thanks to Ghost Mother, the Divine Deer and the others quickly found out about the Divine Dragon Envoy’s arrival. The Divine Dragon Envoy held authority over the Divine Dragon kin, so in the absence of the Divine Dragons themselves, no one dared to defy him.

Ghost Mother had already confirmed his identity as the second God of the Other Shore. Combined with the absence of any other information and his incredible strength, everything pointed to Lu Ran being a time traveler who came under the blessing of the Time Dragon.

Given the circumstances, the kin offered their full cooperation and searched the continent for any clues involving the Evil God's reincarnation. They completely cut any ties with the Evil God to participate in the Evil God extermination plan.

Only the Squirrel God had a separate mission, which was to follow Baby Cloud around the world to unseal the Elemental Gods. Now that Baby Cloud reached Superior Legendary, it could easily devour the weakened Elemental Gods of this era without assistance.

Meanwhile, with Dark Crow’s support, its clones completely devoured the souls of the Seven-Sins Evil Gods and became the Seven-Sins Clones. This gave them far greater power than they ever possessed.

However, despite the powerup, the clones were only able to reach Quasi-Legendary, and they seemed to have developed some serious personality flaws.

"Captain, when are we going to trash that dog and dragon to take over the team?" the Crow of Pride asked.

"Hey, stop stealing all of my food! Leave some for me!" the Crow of Gluttony complained.

"I think that Evil God has such a handsome face. We should keep him for breeding!" the Crow of Lust suggested.

"Shut up and eat your food! Gluttony, you’re the only one who needs to stop eating! Your stomach will explode if you keep eating like that!" Dark Crow chastised.

Lu Ran sighed as he listened to Dark Crow and its clones clammer about. Just like that, another half a month or so passed. After much effort, Dark Crow’s war soldiers finally devoured nearly all of the Evil God’s flesh and blood.

"Even after consuming so much of the Evil God's flesh and blood, Dark Crow is still a Low Legendary. It looks like the discarded flesh and blood aren’t that nutritious. Well, it’s not the flesh that’s lacking. Rather, Dark Crow just hasn’t been able to fully absorb its nutrients.

"We need something else to convert the Curse energy into energy that it could actually use."

"We can't eat any more! No more!" a pile of engorged crows cried.

They emanated ominous Curse energy while limply flapping their wings about. Even though Dark Crow used its spiritual power to accelerate their digestion, the power of the Evil God's flesh was still too overwhelming.

Seeing this, the round Lu Ran shouted up at the sky with a trait crystal in his hand.

“Hey, Dark Crow. We've more or less accumulated enough nutrients. It’s time to attempt the next evolution!"

"

Hmm?

" Dark Crow looked at the Death Sacrifice trait in his hand. Before it could reply, Lu Ran already chucked the trait crystal at it.

[Death Sacrifice: Allows the user to sacrifice its life force in exchange for a proportional amount of soul power.]

When Dark Crow came into contact with the super trait crystal, its entire body was immediately engulfed by a terrifying aura of death that pushed it toward its third evolution.

Crack, crack, crack.

Black energy materialized as arcs of lightning around it and tore at the skies. The evolution provided a significant buff to Dark Crow's digestive abilities. The undigested Evil God’s flesh it ate was immediately turned into energy that raised its power even more.

More importantly, the power Death Sacrifice bestowed upon Dark Crow subtly altered its constitution and granted it a deeper understanding of life and death.

"Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice!"

Dark Crow's cries echoed through the air, and its life force dwindled as it was offered up as a sacrifice. Its once-gleaming black feathers turned pale and withered. If things continued to progress, Dark Crow would turn into a plucked chicken.

In contrast, its soul power violently surged.

Low Legendary... Intermediate Legendary...

Its soul power continued to climb as it blossomed from Dark Crow’s body. Dark Crow almost appeared as if it turned into a possessed corpse. Its soul power far surpassed its physical limits, and it could no longer be considered a normal creature. It resembled the undead more than it did a living animal.

Although its evolution was still incomplete, Dark Crow sensed that its growing soul power strengthened its Spiritual Speech attribute. Its words could directly strike the enemy's soul with even greater precision and power.

Whoosh!

Dark Crows continued to erupt with Curse energy that churned the heavens and the earth, creating turmoil in the already chaotic Evil God’s Sea. Countless whirlpools of death appeared as the murder of crows circled around Dark Crow.

If Six-Path Flower didn’t seal the area with its domain, the entire continent would have sensed Dark Crow’s evolution and thought that the Evil God had been reborn.

[New Species Talent: Death God (Curses requiring soul sacrifices are twice as effective.)]

"Excellent!"

The new species talent indicated that Dark Crow’s evolution was successful and was about 90% complete. With this talent, they had a chance at reaching Primary Divine as long as they could gather enough souls and rank up using the Curse attribute.

If he sacrificed every soul on Stellar Moon World, then he should be able to annihilate even the Chaos Dragon God. Of course, Lu Ran wasn’t demented enough to do such a thing. Conversely, there weren't any moral reasons that prevented him from harvesting souls from the ascension realm he was in.

Boom!

With a flap of Dark Crow’s wings, the energy around it dissipated, and its new form appeared before Lu Ran. The biggest change was that some of the golden runes on its body had turned into dark gold. Other than that, its appearance remained largely the same.

[Species Rank: Intermediate Legendary]

Lu Ran couldn't help but smile. Dark Crow's normal state was already at the Intermediate-Legendary rank. Once it activated its various buffs, it should peak at the pinnacle of Superior Legendary.

"Did the evolution replenish your vitality?" Lu Ran asked Dark Crow. "How do you feel? Should we proceed with the plan?"

As Lu Ran said that, a system notification sounded.

[Ascension mission evaluation...]

[You didn't cooperate with Mythical Beastmaster Ji Yuan to destroy the Undead Cult.]

[Ascension mission failed.]

[You did not meet the breakthrough criteria.]

[The ascension realm will shut down in 9 days.]