Chapter 571: Amulet of Bael
"Yes"
"Now, as I served the Heavenly Palace in both of my past lives, you want me to join the Palace as one of the apostles of the Jade Emperor, again? In return, I will get a nice weapon, a place to cultivate, and even immortality of elixir when it matures after 845 years?"
"Yes"
"What a load of bullsh*t. Does it even make sense?"
"Human, whether you accept it or not, you cannot change the truth."
"Fine, even if that is the truth, I don\'t care about it. Because unlike you, I was born out of my mother\'s womb and my identity will be decided by the physical body I\'m inhibiting. The past lives are nothing more than the identities of other bodies. So, their actions have no relation to me."
"Well, that is alright if you wish to think that way. But, I can see that one day, you will face all of your countless past lives. That day, I hope you will make the right choice."
"When such day comes, we\'ll see about it. If there is else Your Grace, you may return now. I have something to do here in this world. Once I finish it, I will return on my own."
Mark, Chang\'e, Bael, and Yuanlong were standing on one of the islands on the Endless Sea of lava, and Mark was arguing with the divine serpent, regarding the so-called past life story she was trying to convince him.
Mark, to some extent, believed the story, as only he knew that his soul was merged with Lu Zhen\'s. If her theory was right, then, he could be Yan Di\'s reincarnate and Lu Zhen must be Houyi\'s reincarnate.
The fact that Jingwei always addresses him as papa, because his aura smells like her father, is something taken into consideration.
But, what if, this divine serpent merely noticed that he is a merged soul through some way and used it to sew a story in order to scout him into the Heavenly Palace?
He just defeated Leviathan in front of her and there is no doubt she will be interested in him too. So, it is likely that this is just her manipulation. Or so, in Mark\'s opinion.
Moreover, if he agrees with his explanation, this Moon Goddess, who was crazy for her husband, might cause disturbance in his private life. If she could go to the depths of the netherworld to save her husband\'s soul even after thousands of years since his death, then, she could very well visit the planet and interfere in his life too.
While he doesn\'t have any qualms about taking another wife, who in fact has powerful cultivation and a beauty that even beats his wife\'s, he cannot give her the love she expects. His heart belongs to only one person and that is Song Yue.
Hence, he cannot marry anyone who could have strong feelings of affection toward him. Because such unrequited feelings often cause jealousy; history has been the witness for many times that a strong woman\'s jealousy in love often brings nothing but trouble.
Keeping all this in consideration, Mark firmly rejected it.
But, Chang\'e, who is already deeply convinced by Yuanlong, has already changed the way she looks at him. And this troubled Mark more than anything.
Hence, he sought the easiest way to solve this issue. Give an excuse to send her away with the divine serpent, not forgetting to request to send his sister back home.
Chang\'e listened to his request and quietly left without bothering him, after handing over her divine essence soul to Bael as promised, leaving the two of them in the middle of the endless sea of lava.
Once they disappeared, Mark finally paid attention to Bael, inquiring him about the divine essence soul.
Mark\'s performance against Leviathan earned him a lot of respect as well as trust from the demon king; he didn\'t leave a single thing out as he explained his goal and how he planned on achieving it.
Upon listening to everything, Mark frowned, "Your plan is okay but according to what you have said, during the integration of the essence, your body will be vulnerable. What if you get ambushed by your enemies?"
"Oh, that\'s not an issue." Bael has already thought of the problem. He replied, "I plan on doing it in an abandoned world, far away from the eyes of the heavenly palace or my fellow siblings."
"Hmm…" Mark went silent for a while and finally mumbled, "Roughly ten years huh…"
Bael understood the meaning behind Mark\'s mumble. During this integration time, he won\'t be answering Mark\'s call for summons, even though that way was already destroyed accidentally by the system.
Without the Orb of Bael, Mark had to depend on the summoning scroll demons usually provide to their contracted mortals, but Bael didn\'t plan on giving him one in the first place, as it is useless.
So, he did the best thing he could do, to please his favorite contracted human, who seemed like he didn\'t like divine beings. To solidify their trust, Bael took an amulet out of nowhere and handed it to Mark, "For the next decade, my legion will be at your beck and call, in my absence. I will inform my generals beforehand. So, no need to worry about disobedience, not that they would."
"Hmm?"
Mark took the amulet and curiously observed it.
At one glance, it doesn\'t look anything special, except for it hideous insignia of Bael\'s true form. But, when he inspected it, Mark couldn\'t suppress the smile on his lips.
Amulet of Bael
Grade: Celestial
Description: According to the Book of Solomon\'s data in the system, the Amulet of Bael is said to be a powerful devil artifact, one that could summon Demon King Bael\'s 66 legions of demons at any location in the universe. Unless it is in an environment where there is a high concentration of divine energy in the surroundings, the summoned demons will retain their full strength.
The summoned demons with not more than one realm above the user will have complete loyalty. Each legion contains 1 demon general (12-circle), 6 demon commanders (11-circle), 60 demon captains (10-circle), and 6000 demon foot soldiers (7-circle to 9-circle).
Note: Summoning legions of demons consumes a large amount of ether energy and mental stamina from the user.
Effect 1: At the current stage, the user can summon one legion of demons under Bael for 60 minutes. Summoning each legion will reduce the time by 10 minutes.
Effect 2: Using the artifact, the user can resurrect all the fallen demons back to their peak state. However, the cost of each demon will consume a corresponding amount of life force from the user.
The user needs 10,000-100,000 years of life force to bring back a demon general, 1000-5000 years of life force to bring back a demon commander, 100-200 years for each demon captain, and 20-50 years for each demon foot soldier.
Effect 3: The Amulet can be used to absorb the life force from the fresh corpses of living beings and store it, which could be consumed by the user to increase his life span or use it to resurrect the fallen demons instead of using the user\'s own life force. At the current stage, the stored life force in the amulet is around 51,446 years.
Temporary Owner: Lu Zhen/Mark Spencer
*
After he broke through to the demigod realm, a lot of existing data that the system left behind has been unlocked. And the return of description without the need for artificial intelligence "Ark" collecting it from conversations has been returned.
He now didn\'t even need to scan the surroundings to know what kind of minerals and rare materials were available in the netherworld at all.
It was one of the things that Mark missed the most in the absence of the system. Adding on top of that, the amulet\'s amazing abilities impressed his mood even further.
He couldn\'t help but vigorously shake Bael\'s hands, "Thank you. With this, my immediate goals will be accomplished in a shortened time."
With great excitement, Mark bid farewell to Bael and used the Return skill, a spatial skill that lets him return to a fixed place, as long as it was within distance limits. Previously, it was a hundred light years, but now, it expanded to 5000 light Years.
Of course, since the netherworld is in a different plane of existence, all of which are stacked upon each other, there is virtually no concept of distance in the first place. From other planes of existence, every place in a foreign plane of existence is of the same distance.
Regardless, Mark returned to his home in an instant, specifically, the master bedroom in his mansion.
"I\'m Home… Hmm?"
He expected to surprise Song Yue, but the room was empty.
Mark got out of the room, only to witness that the corridor was also empty when there should be a couple of robots standing outside. He checked the nearby rooms and found all of them empty too. Even the living room downstairs is also empty. No servants, no robots, nothing.
He couldn\'t but frown, quickly taking out the communication scroll to contact Song Yue.
The reply was quick but Mark\'s frown only deepened further when he read it.
"This… Damn it…"
"Teleportation"
Mark immediately disappeared and reappeared at the Gates of the Palace. "One trouble is over and another one is already waiting at my doorstep. Even when I seek peace, they always force me to pick violence. Fine, let\'s give them that."