Chapter 202: Chapter 141: Professional-Grade Strategy

The Tier classifications for Demons are currently determined by experts from the intelligent races, who categorize them based on their threat level.

In terms of overall power, there isn’t a significant difference between a Tier Five Monarch and a Tier Four Nation Destruction Level.

However, a Tier Four Nation Destruction Level’s destructive capability against groups, nations, cities, and armies is often far greater than that of a Tier Five Monarch Level.

Research on Demons is still far from complete.

To this day, many Scholars and biologists continue to study the characteristics of Demons.

For now, classifying them by name based on their potential for destruction is the most widely used method on the continent.

With this naming convention, one can often discern the scale of the disaster they represent from their name alone.

Tier Four Nation Destruction Level: Capable of causing a nation-destroying disaster in the absence of Level 5 Adventurers.

Tier Five Nation Destruction Level: Capable of causing a nation-destroying disaster in the absence of Level 6 Adventurers.

By that logic, a Tier Six Submerged Land Level is equivalent to a continent-submerging disaster occurring in the absence of Level 7 Adventurers.

The classification is based on the Demon’s own Tier, and what level of disaster an Adventurer’s Guild of the corresponding Level can prevent when facing such a Demon.

...

’By that logic...’

’This unknown Demon in front of me... its threat level is truly horrifying.’

’However, this threat classification is only a rough guideline for the corresponding Levels.’

’The power gap between individual Adventurers is just too vast.’

’Is a Level 3 Lu Cang the same as a Level 3 Xu Zhou?’

’Can a Level 6 Izparut be the same as a Level 6 Feize?’

’The classifications only apply to ordinary situations.’

’Then again, I feel like once you reach Level 6, there are no "ordinary" people left.’

Lu Cang thought back on the Level 6 Professionals he knew.

Iz, Chi Cheng, Kumironi, Obades, Pari...

’Every single one of them is terrifying.’

The impression a Level 6 gives off is completely different from the lower Levels.

Even Meiser, who had been killed by Iz, had left a deeply sinister impression on Lu Cang.

The only one who seemed relatively normal was Ai Jin.

As for Feize, they’d only met once, so he wasn’t very familiar with them.

"How strange. This is so strange..."

"How did this Demon even grow? No matter how I look at it, its structure doesn’t resemble a normal Demon’s."

Chi Cheng was a Gatherer, after all. And while he wasn’t much of a bookworm, he was still an expert in anatomy and Demonology.

The structure of this Demon didn’t follow the fundamental principles of how Demons grow.

To put it simply, it didn’t even seem like a Demon.

"Other than the soul in its innermost core, it has absolutely no weak points."

"It also lacks the basic organs needed for survival."

"It’s just skin layered over more skin."

"But these husks are filled with Curses and evil. They could be used to make some decent cursed items..."

Chi Cheng carefully separated the layers of skin, preserving their properties. He placed them in a box specially designed to Seal Curses, then tossed it to Lu Cang.

"The concentration of the Curse is extremely high... Direct contact without any protection would probably be enough to drive a Level 6 Reincarnator mad."

’Sounds like a pretty good trump card.’

’And if I ever need to poison someone, I now have another material to choose from.’

After they collected the spoils, the area was cleared.

Following the direction of Lu Luwei’s Perception, they chose a path that led deeper inside.

"Lu Cang, how on earth did you kill that Demon just now?" Lu Luwei asked curiously, walking beside him.

After becoming a Warrior, Lu Cang had grown a bit taller.

He wasn’t quite at an adult’s height yet, but he was already up to Lu Luwei’s chest.

"Um... it’s an ability that can directly pull out unstable souls."

"Its soul just happened to be rather unstable. I felt like I could do it, so I just pulled it out."

Lu Cang’s explanation was vague.

In reality, the Demon’s soul wasn’t unstable at all. On the contrary, it was sealed so well within its body that ordinary methods would have been completely unable to affect it.

Too bad for it.

It met the activation requirements for Lu Cang’s [Soul Dominator].

"Oh... You really know a lot of tricks."

Lu Cang smiled. "It’s nothing special."

As they continued deeper, they encountered many Ghost Soul-type Demons.

Whenever Lu Cang met these Demons, he simply extracted their souls.

’Ooh~’

’It seems to be effective against most soul-type Demons.’

’Things like the Undead and walking corpses don’t possess their own souls. And non-corporeal monsters like wraiths don’t even have a body to begin with. I can kill them all.’

’Looking at the monsters in this cave so far...’

’...it seems I can basically just suck the souls out of all of them.’

...

RUMBLE—

Two enormous [Corpse Soul Gatherers] collapsed, and Lu Cang extracted tens of millions of souls from their bodies.

Tier Five Nation Destruction Level.

They were colossal Demons formed from tens of millions of corpses, which had spent countless years absorbing external wraiths into their bodies to grow stronger...

There had been surprisingly few battles on their way here.

’The Cave of Desperate Wails is just full of these kinds of Demons. As long as it’s a creature like an Evil Soul or an Undead, its soul usually doesn’t belong to its body anyway.’

They walked down a long, narrow path.

There was supposed to be a Soul Devouring Spider here, but Lu Luwei had already killed it from beyond visual range before they even reached the path.

At the end of the path was a cliff with a steep drop.

Below the cliff, several thousand [Evil Puppet Soldiers] were roaming about. Each one was at Tier Six Lord Level strength.

Lu Cang raised his hand.

Souls streamed out from the eyes, noses, and mouths of the [Evil Puppet Soldiers], converging in Lu Cang’s hand.

’This ability is ridiculously convenient.’