Chapter 375: Allocation
The purple cloud of life vitality finally dissipated. Everyone's gaze traveled from the sky to the ground, and finally stayed on Zen's face.
Unlike the other people present, Rocher and Patrick were not so surprised. They had witnessed Zen's magic many times before and knew how outstanding Zen's strength was. Zen had used the demonic life vitality to swallow Dick's Righteousness Song on the fighting field. However, at that time, the scale and impact weren't as big as they were now. Therefore, they didn't expect that Zen's demonic life vitality could absorb those Dark Devil Phantoms.
Not many people had seen the unusual strength of Zen's demonic life vitality, so it was no wonder that they had underestimated him. The leaders of the imperial army such as Yolande and Hugh were the first ones to know it. In addition, Seymour and some other cultivators who had entered the fairy palace before were deeply impressed by Zen's demonic life vitality. However, those soldiers weren't interested in spreading that news. And those cultivators like Seymour had died in the fairy palace and they even didn't have a chance to share it.
Therefore, except for Rocher and Patrick, Lewis, Frank, Lois, and that disciple of Cloud hall were quite shocked by what happened. Their hearts hammered loudly in their chests as they couldn't believe their eyes. They had never expected for a nature creature to cause this scene! They all lapsed into silence to digest what they just saw. After they had gotten over the initial shock, they started to think about Zen's question.
“We do not have a magic weapon to store this extra life vitality. I am afraid that we have to waste it,” Lois commented. She knew that there was a magic weapon called the Cup of Life Vitality, which could temporarily store life vitality. However, even when they had one at hand, it wouldn't be of much help since it had a very limited capacity and couldn't store the mass life vitality in front of them. Lois observed the cloud-like life vitality and thought again.
“In that case, just let it explode,” Zen said lightly with a smile on his face, as if he didn't feel pity about the life vitality being wasted. “Close your eyes!”
As soon as he stopped talking, the little stars within the demonic life vitality burst one by one. They radiated fierce and dazzling flashes of white light. The speed of the explosion then accelerated, and more than one star exploded at the same time. Such massive life vitality explosions generated bright white light which was shining in the small dark world and made the world as bright as daytime. The white light was so bright that no shadows could be seen.
Everyone immediately closed their eyes by reflex because of the strong light. The intense light was even brighter than the sun. Even Zen himself couldn't bear it and shut his eyes as well. The others were shocked again, unlike Zen who just remained calm. These people couldn't help but marvel at the powerful explosion of life vitality. They were afraid that if this kind of power were all channeled to one cultivator, even the cultivator of the Internal Elixir Realm wouldn't be able to resist. 'How can there be such an abnormal and powerful cultivation method in the world? Is Zen refining a tier 5 cultivation method? However, Cloud Sect is not a top-level sect. So, how could they obtain a tier 5 cultivation method?' Frank and others thought in their hearts. They had so many questions but decided to keep them in their minds.
At that moment, only one person did not close his eyes. It was that disciple of Cloud Hall. It seemed that he wasn't affected by the intense light. On the contrary, he even widened his eyes and carefully stared at the starlight in the sky. His face had an unreadable look on it. 'No, the explosion power is not from the demonic life vitality itself. I can sense the power of stars. Has Zen comprehended the power of stars? How did he get the power of a star and play it to such extent? How did he do it?' he thought. Before he could get any answers, he fell into a deep thought.
He was right. If Zen relied only on the demonic life vitality, he wouldn't make such big explosions. He did not burst the demonic life vitality like what the others assumed. Instead, he exploded those stars inside the demonic life vitality. Even though the disciple from Cloud Hall had extensive experience and refinement knowledge, he could never know that Zen had obtained the Sun Moon Stars Picture in the fairy palace.
No matter what they thought in their minds, the light gradually faded. They opened their eyes when they sensed that the light wasn't that harsh anymore. After that, they noticed that some patches of black objects had appeared on the ground.
Those black objects were as soft as cake and were about the size of a human fist. They were scattered everywhere.
“What are they?” Lewis yelled. He immediately stepped forward and picked one up to examine it. A surprised smile crept up on his lips. “These black objects are the same with those in the red treasure boxes in the hidden trial! They can enhance the strength of the soul!” Lewis said with thinly veiled excitement in his voice.
“What? These can enhance the soul?” Frank cocked one eyebrow and asked in surprise. Even someone as proud as he couldn't ignore these black objects if they could really enhance the soul. However, he still had some doubts because these things had spread everywhere here. 'Are they really so useful as Lewis said?' He wondered.
Aside from Lewis, Zen also noticed the appearance of these black objects. And he knew more than Lewis. It seemed that these black objects appeared after he had killed the black phantoms. They were almost the same with those in the red treasure boxes.
Lewis was very clear about the value of these black objects. They could strengthen the human soul, which was hard to be refined by normal refinement methods or by taking magical pills. Just swallow them and then the people would obtain enormous benefits. It was not hard to imagine how precious they were! However, there was a slight difference between these objects and those in the red treasure boxes. When the black objects in the red treasure boxes appeared, they automatically entered the brain and took effect as if they were living creatures and had their own thoughts. But these black objects now did not automatically do these things.
Meanwhile, Lewis had gotten a bit impatient to find out the reason, so he tried to swallow one. 'Idiot!' Zen scolded in his heart. When he was about to stop Lewis, the disciple of Cloud Hall coldly said, “These are the poisonous essences of the Dark Devil Phantoms. If you swallow one directly, it will corrode your organs in one second. Try to taste it if you want to die.”
At that point, the essence of Dark Devil Phantom was already on Lewis' lips. After he heard what the disciple of Cloud Hall had said, he immediately spat it out without hesitation. “Oh, really? How come?” He turned to the disciple of Cloud Hall and asked.
“The black object you obtained in the hidden trail is the soul essence. It did come from the same source as these black objects here. The soul essence is the reason why the Cloud Road has the Dark Devil Phantoms. But they have used a secret special method to remove the toxin from the essence of Dark Devil Phantom to make the soul essence,” the disciple of Cloud Hall explained coldly.
“Does it mean that the hundreds of essence of Dark Devil Phantom here could be refined to around ten pieces of soul essence?” Zen asked. He was caught by the disciple's words and decided to question him after a quick thought.
If a piece of soul essence could have a little increase in the soul power, it meant that if they could refine ten pieces of soul essence, they could have a considerable increase in the soul power.
The disciple of Cloud Sect nodded, which indicated that Zen's assumption was correct.
All the people's eyes lit up with pleasant surprise after they had heard these comments.
The Death Road was the biggest hidden barrier on the Cloud Road. The most important reason why people chose to enter it was that they hoped to get great opportunities and benefits on the road, even though it might be very dangerous. They knew that the danger and benefits always went hand in hand.
Therefore, they started to fight and sometimes, even almost died on the road. However, they hadn't gotten anything good or seen any opportunity, which was the saddest thing for them.
Thus, they were ecstatic to see so many pieces of essence of Dark Devil Phantom in this place. What a big opportunity for them! Hope filled them like how the sunshine finally shone in a long, dark night.
Although the essences of Dark Devil Phantom had not been refined, their value after being refined was invaluable because of their effects on the soul strength! Even in the Central Region, pills which could strengthen the soul were rare and mostly were extraordinarily expensive.
These pills also had heavy side effects. They would increase the soul strength, but they would bring burden to the human body after being swallowed. Some would even generate toxic objects in the human body which were hard to be cleared of.
However, the soul essence in this place could directly increase the strength of the soul by a big volume. If this was not a big opportunity, what else could be called as a big opportunity?
A strong soul was good for oneself and did not bring any harm. Those with strong souls could even directly suppress their opponents by their power from the soul with just a thought, even without any movements.
“Then, how do we allocate them?” Frank asked the most essential question. The disciple of Cloud Sect shook his head without any hesitation.
“I don't need them,” he said nonchalantly.
Frank glanced at the disciple of Cloud Sect. 'This guy knew himself very well. I did not plan to allocate anything to him. It is good that he said that first, ' he thought.
Lois, Patrick, and Lewis remained silent. Everyone would like to have as many as possible of these good things. However, they didn't help just now. So, they also wondered how they would allocate the black objects.
A smile suddenly appeared on Frank's lips when he noticed that everyone kept silent. “I have a proposal. How about 30% to Zen? He made great efforts to get the essence. Then 20% to Rocher, and Lois, Patrick and I evenly split the rest?” he said
“How about me?” Lewis asked as his face visibly darkened. Even though he wasn't that brave, he wasn't bad when it came to strength. Frank's proposal left him out, which made him angry.
However, Frank didn't seem to notice his dark face.
“Except for running away, what else did you do? Why do we need to give anything to you?” Frank sneered coldly.
“Are you serious? Do you think that because you're Frank, you can talk nonsense?”
Lewis' voice suddenly changed. It looked like he was replaced by someone else in a split second. His voice became muffled and powerful, and his eyes shone like two glittering rubies.
Lewis' strength wasn't bad, because he had the dual soul in his body! The second soul was much stronger and did not appear in most of situations unless awakened. If Lewis had called out this stronger soul in the second layer of the hidden trial, he would have gotten the treasure box there. However, he chose not to do that, and he didn't have the chance to go back to the second layer after he had fallen from the cliff.
However, Frank sneered again when he saw the change in Lewis. His white spear suddenly appeared in his hand. “It seems that you have concealed your actual strength before. That makes sense. Anyone who dares to enter the Death Road should have some special strengths. Otherwise, you would've died like Zade,” he said in an icy tone. He added, “Anyway, what you did before doesn't matter. Now, do you want to challenge me?”
He was surprised by these people here. They had all showed their optimum strength before him one by one. Rocher was the first, followed by Zen. Now, even the timid Lewis had his own secret power. It seemed that Frank had underestimated them before. There were no weak people here!
“If you do not change the allocation plan, of course I would challenge you!” Lewis declared. After he said those words, he pulled out a wide machete with a thorny back from his black cloak.
When Rocher saw that they were about to fight, he quickly went to stop them. “That's enough! Frank, your allocation plan is ridiculous, not to mention that Lewis isn't satisfied. Even Zen and I do not agree with you!”
“What do you mean?”
It was Frank's face that had darkened now.
He thought that he was the authority in the team, but now he felt that he had lost control of this temporary group. Or maybe, they had never considered him to be the leader in the first place. They simply didn't think there was a need for one. It had been Frank's own thought all the way.
The loss of control made Frank uneasy. As far as he was concerned, such kind of supreme talent like he should be the born leader. He was the one who made decisions every time when he took adventures with other disciples of Cloud Hall.
However, two people had expressed their disagreement when he said his plan. That had never happened before!
The air was tense among them. Zen glanced at Frank and said, “Rocher and I have eliminated the Dark Devil Phantoms here. I only need 50% of them.”
“And I need 20% of them. You can split the balance among yourselves,” Rocher followed.
Meanwhile, Patrick didn't say anything. However, he agreed more with Zen's plan. Whoever contributed the most efforts should be given the most. They would all have been killed if it weren't for Zen and Rocher. In that case, nothing was to be allocated.