A stone bar weighing two thousand three hundred jin, Lanling could lift it, but it was already extremely strenuous.
Suo Mo hesitated slightly, then added a deadwood log weighing one hundred jin on top of the two thousand three hundred jin stone bar, making it two thousand four hundred jin.
Lanling gritted his teeth fiercely and let out a loud shout.
He still lifted it, two thousand four hundred jin. However, he had completely reached his limit, his bloodline feeling as if it was about to rupture.
Lanling’s final cultivation level was now revealed!
Five-star Half Demon Warrior!
And Lanling’s original plan was Seven-star Demon Warrior. At that level, he should be able to fight Du Yan.
Du Yan’s cultivation was Four-star Greater Demon Warrior, meaning without considering qi path, his pure arm strength was four thousand five hundred jin.
This strength, Lanling could still endure, and he could continuously use bloodline power critical strikes, so every strike could reach four thousand eight hundred jin of force.
However, once Du Yan used bloodline power critical strikes, his strength could instantly reach nine thousand jin. And once he gripped his sword with both hands, his strength would skyrocket to over ten thousand jin.
At that time, could Lanling endure it? Probably not.
There was another point. The gap between Lanling and Du Yan’s cultivation was too great. Even if he used bloodline power critical strikes, his speed would be far inferior.
Thus, he might fall into a passive state of being beaten.
Just now in the mirror’s illusion, Lanling had fought that Greater Demon Warrior. His cultivation should be about the same as Du Yan’s, perhaps even inferior to Du Yan’s. Moreover, he was only holding a wooden stick in his hand, yet Lanling still lost. One could say that if he had not seen through the illusion and been startled, plus the near-human woman’s sneak attack from behind, that Greater Demon Warrior could have even killed Lanling.
One must know, he only had a wooden stick in his hand, while Du Yan held a sharp sword.
Of course, in the mirror illusion, Lanling could not use mental power. But in the battle with Du Yan, even if Lanling could not use mental power to attack Du Yan, he could still analyse his attack trajectory.
However, Du Yan could use qi path attacks. This was a fatal killing move!
Qi path attacks had one characteristic: they were silent and swift! Compared to ordinary physical attacks, they were countless times faster, almost impossible to defend against.
“Little Ling, in just over twenty days, you have actually broken through nearly seven levels. And it was not because of devouring the Demon God relic. This is completely a heaven-defying miracle.” Suo Mo said, “But this cultivation level is not enough for a duel with Du Yan.”
Lanling nodded.
For a duel with Du Yan, the minimum baseline for his cultivation was Seven-star Demon Warrior.
“Two days ago, I absorbed the blood of four Demon Warriors and three Greater Demon Warriors. I felt the bloodline within my body filled with powerful energy.” Lanling said, “For the past two days and two nights, I dug an incredibly huge pit and buried several thousand corpses. But even so, I feel the bloodline is still filled with restlessness, filled with power, not yet transformed into physical strength.”
Suo Mo nodded and fell into deep thought.
The most effective way to transform bloodline power into physical strength was true fighting, true combat!
But that was also a long-term process, absolutely not something that could be completed in just a few short days!
“We are still too poor.” Suo Mo said, “In your situation, as long as you take one Beast Origin Pill, then undergo a blood bath, you could break through effortlessly.”
Pills in this world were not the mainstream, but they were also very effective.
Beast Origin Pills were pills condensed from the bloodline essence of several hundred wild beasts.
And blood baths, after taking the Beast Origin Pill, placing a person in boiling beast blood, made it even more effective at integrating the Beast Origin Pill’s energy into the bloodline, finally tempering it into the limbs and bones.
Overall, pills could not raise a person’s cultivation level, but they could prematurely stimulate a person’s bloodline potential.
In this world, whatever cultivation level a person had was entirely determined by bloodline talent. The room for postnatal change was very small.
But Beast Origin Pills could allow cultivation levels to break through ahead of time.
So Nini An was very young, and her training was far less diligent than Dina’s, yet her cultivation level was even higher than Dina’s.
Conversely, Du Yan, at this age having broken through to Four-star Greater Demon Warrior, was entirely through his own talent and diligence.
Because Beast Origin Pills in the Savage Wilderness World were completely sky-high in price, or rather, available at a price but no market.
To give an example, every time the tribe went out hunting, a full three thousand wild beasts was considered very plentiful. But most of these three thousand wild beasts were directly shot and killed, while brewing Beast Origin Pills required bleeding the beasts while they were still alive.
That is to say, one Beast Origin Pill required at least one to two thousand prey to brew a single pill.
So rare, the tribe chiefs would keep them for their own use long ago. How could they possibly put them on the market for sale.
Occasionally some wastrel would take out a Beast Origin Pill to sell, but the price would exceed one thousand gold coins.
And currently, the entire Foreign Legion’s assets did not even amount to one thousand gold coins.
“This great battle, the Foreign Legion exchanged quite a few gold coins, but they were all traded for food. The remaining amount is less than two hundred gold coins.” Suo Mo said, “But the market price for one Beast Origin Pill is at least over one thousand gold coins. We do not have that much money.”
Lanling nodded.
Suo Mo said, “However, if we are willing to sell that little griffin beast, it would be enough gold coins to buy a Beast Origin Pill.”
“No, the little griffin beast cannot be sold. That is Little Yaya’s…” Lanling said, “That is the gift you gave to me and the little girl.”
At this time, the near-human woman felt as if Lanling had become a completely different person.
Before, he had been so vicious and ruthless, yet now he had become so gentle and affectionate. Could that Little Yaya be his daughter?
Without a Beast Origin Pill to raise his cultivation level, he might die in the duel. But even so, he was not willing to sell his daughter’s pet.
And the first time she saw Suo Mo, she felt waves of heat in her body, filled with a warm feeling.
Anyone who saw Suo Mo for the first time would feel the strong masculine aura about him, that uprightness, that courageous temperament, almost hitting them in the face. After seeing him, one would immediately be filled with trust.
“You need gold coins, right?” This near-human woman suddenly spoke.
Previously, Suo Mo’s eyes had only been on Lanling. Only now did he finally notice the woman wearing leaves behind him, and could not help but cast an inquiring glance toward Lanling.
Lanling said, “She is one of the people captured by the Mirror Demon King. However, she woke up the earliest and is willing to join our tribe. For this, she even helped me kill her companions.”
Suo Mo immediately nodded, expressing approval.
The near-human woman said, “The Mirror Demon King has a treasure vault. There are quite a few gold coins inside.”
Lanling could not help but be startled. The Mirror Demon King was just a mass of mental energy, forever hidden inside the mirror. What did it want gold coins for?
However, Lanling recalled the dragon in “The Hobbit.” The dragon had no use for gold coins whatsoever, could not even buy things with them, yet it insisted on hoarding countless gold coins.
The near-human woman said, “After the Mirror Demon King captured each person, the first thing he did was make them throw away the last gold coin in their pocket. Because he said, in his empire, gold coins were the most vile thing. Every one of us was to become a high and mighty Demon General, Demon Marshal, with clouds of maidservants, fine clothes and delicious food. Using gold coins again would be too ridiculous. So, every person captured by him threw the gold coins and silver coins on their bodies into a pool. Over these decades, the people he captured exceeded several thousand. There should be quite a few gold coins.”
Lanling said, “The people who fled here should all be so poor they did not have a single coin to their name.”
The near-human woman said, “The vast majority of people had nothing, but some people were very wealthy. For example, some tribe chiefs, young chieftains, and so on. They fled here with nowhere else to go, with money in their pockets yet still homeless, with nowhere to settle.”
Indeed, in the Savage Wilderness World, gold coins were far from the mainstream.
Because commodities in the Savage Wilderness World were extremely underdeveloped. Grains and meats were all distributed by the tribe. Gold coins were only used to buy clothing, objects, and some scarce items.
If a person lost the protection of their tribe, even with more gold coins they would have nowhere to go.
Lanling said, “Where is that pool?”
The near-human woman said, “I will take you there. It is a very, very deep pool.”
Lanling suddenly thought, the people captured by the Mirror Demon King were far more than just a few thousand. Although he had only encountered a few thousand. But the Mirror Demon King had existed for several thousand years if not more. Over these countless years, who knew how many groups of several thousand it had captured.
The Mirror Demon King continuously captured slaves, but these slaves had lifespans, dying after a few decades.
That is to say, from beginning to end, the full-blooded people captured by the Mirror Demon King might exceed several hundred thousand if not more.
Among these several hundred thousand people, perhaps most had not a single coin to their name. But as long as one-tenth of them carried gold coins, that would still be an impressive amount.
The near-human woman led Lanling and Suo Mo to start climbing over mountains and crossing ridges.
They arrived at a narrow, cramped mountain hollow.
This mountain hollow was entirely rock. Upon entering, they discovered a cave.
Walking into the cave, they quickly discovered an underground lake!
“If my memory serves me correctly, every captured person had to throw their gold coins into this pool.” The near-human woman said.
This was actually an underground lake. On the surface, the water seemed narrow, with a diameter not exceeding three or four metres, but it should be very large inside. This near-human woman did not understand, so she called it a pool.
“Uncle, my mental power is high. I will go down.” Lanling said.
Suo Mo nodded.
Lanling leaped down.
The water here was very cold, very deep deep deep!
Indeed, the further down he went, the larger it became. Lanling kept going down, down, down…
Ten metres deep, twenty metres, thirty metres…
At the very bottom, it was completely a boundless underground lake.
And Lanling’s mental power easily sensed countless underwater creatures, ordinary fish, and other large underwater creatures.
Moreover, these underwater creatures were not afraid of people. Perhaps they had never seen humans before.
Lanling released his mental power, sensing how large this underground lake was. The result far exceeded his mental power range. It should exceed a hundred li in diameter.
He began sensing how large the surrounding underwater creature populations were. The result still exceeded his mental power range.
Perhaps this was an interconnected underground water system.
Lanling was instantly incomparably overjoyed, even more overjoyed than finding gold coins.
Originally he had worried that a mountain range with a diameter of one hundred li, relying solely on hunting, would likely struggle to sustain a tribe.
But now, there was actually an underwater lake here, with countless fish and underwater creatures.
Not to mention sustaining two to three thousand people, even sustaining over ten thousand people might not be a problem.
This place was simply perfect!
Not only was there enough area to construct a tribal fortress city, but there was also sufficient food supply.
In the Savage Wilderness World, food was always the most important thing.
However, this underground lake was also too deep.
Lanling kept diving down, diving down.
Fifty metres, seventy metres, ninety metres…
It was fortunate that Lanling had his heaven-defying golden demon body. Anyone else would have long since suffocated to death. And there was truly no light here whatsoever, completely impossible to see.
But with Lanling’s heaven-defying mental power, he could still see relatively clearly.
Finally… finally he reached the bottom!
Lanling reached out and touched something, immediately grabbing a handful of cool, flat, round things.
He picked them up and looked!
That’s right, they were gold coins of the Savage Wilderness World!
Cast very crudely, but the weight was absolutely sufficient, completely heavy and solid.
Then, Lanling took out a night-glow stone from his bosom.
The light released by this night-glow stone was only slightly stronger than a firefly’s. Ordinary people could not see anything at all.
But with just this tiny bit of light, Lanling could already see clearly enough.
Then…
He was truly completely stunned!
The bottom of this underground lake happened to be a concave terrain, like a funnel, approximately several hundred square metres.
And these several hundred square metres of lake bottom were covered everywhere with gold coins, silver coins, copper coins!
Not just money, but also all kinds of gems, weapons, and so on and so forth!
Whether they were treasures or not, in short, the items here were countless, completely filling the several hundred square metres of funnel-shaped lake bottom.
Truly piled up like mountains.
Then, Lanling thought, this Mirror Demon King’s existence was not merely a few thousand years, but tens of thousands of years.
Over these tens of thousands of years, how many people had entered his mental trap and been captured by him?
It was completely an astronomical number, perhaps far exceeding the several hundred thousand previously estimated.
The Savage Wilderness World was different from the human world. The human world’s post-civilisation history was merely a pitiful three thousand years.
But the Savage Wilderness World, tens of thousands of years ago it looked like this, and now it still looked like this. No progress, no regression, completely standing still.
So how many people had the Mirror Demon King captured? Only heaven knew.
How many people had thrown gold coins and treasures into this underground lake? Only heaven knew.
Just like the dragon in the movie “The Hobbit,” it hoarded countless gold coins and treasures, yet could not spend a single one.
And the Mirror Demon King was the same, hoarding countless gold and silver treasures, yet similarly unable to spend even half of them.
However, now this astronomical number of gold and silver treasures all belonged to Lanling, belonged to the tribe he was about to establish.
Looking at the gold coins covering the ground, Lanling really felt slightly breathless.
Just how many gold coins were there in here, dammit?