None of the elders in the Angel’s Justice sect looked happy. They all knew what this particular alarm represented. A strong cultivator appeared on the planet Lucifer had been sealed on, right after unusual occurrences, and went out of their way to destroy the Immortal Mountain sect. How could this strong cultivator be anyone but Lucifer?

The greatest threat to the existence of their sect had been due to Lucifer. Not because he had tried to destroy it, but because he had killed so many of their elders when they came to kill him. Their sect had lost nearly 80% of their elders and all of the grand-elders, as well as the sectmaster had been fatally wounded. They would all die within 10 years of the battle, regardless of what treasured herbs or pills were used to heal them. This had almost indirectly caused the sect to be replaced as hegemon of this world.

Some elders looked gloomy, others anxious, and the rest, fearful. In the over 700 years which Lucifer had been sealed, many new generations had been raised in the sect. Those who were in the sect when 80% of the powerhouses were killed remembered the pressure they faced from enemy sects, or even fighting Lucifer and were gloomy at the prospect of a similar occurrence they remembered very well, after all, they had experienced it. Their cultivation allowed them to live since then. The anxious ones were the ones who had not experienced the aftermath but were strong. The fearful ones made up the majority and were the somewhat weaker elders who had not been alive 700 years ago, but had heard stories.

All the elders were very clear that even their grand elders and sectmaster which were required to have solid core cultivation had been fatally wounded in the battle.

Solid core cultivation is the realm after liquidated core, which is after the gaseous core, which comes after the body tempering realm. Normal elders, which made up the vast majority of elders at the sect, would only have reached liquidated core! Before a normal solid core cultivator, they would be akin to twigs. And Lucifer was not a normal solid core cultivator, he was considered a genius!

Generally, after a breakthrough to a new realm of cultivation(a different level is breakthrough within a realm. Ex.golden marrow to invigorated blood would be a level, but body tempering to gaseous core would be a realm), a cultivator could immediately fight ten equally talented cultivators who were peak of the realm, but had not broken through to a new realm. So 10 pure body cultivators could fight 1 gaseous core cultivator, provided they had just broken through. Additionally, the fighting prowess of a cultivator doubles when they break through a level. Gaseous, liquidated, and solid core realms all had nine levels, so a ninth level cultivator would be able to fight 256 first level cultivators of the same realm.

The title of genius would generally require having 10 times the battle strength of the average cultivator at the same cultivation level. A genius ninth level solid core cultivator would be able to fight 2560 first level solid core cultivators, or 25600 ninth level liquidated core cultivators. Before this ridiculous strength, the normal elders would stand no chance.

Keep in mind that battle strength equal to ten others of the same cultivation level does not mean that they are literally ten times stronger, ten times faster, etc. It means they can fight the ten others at the same time. At some point, additional cultivators get in the way of their teammates, and will no longer all be able to attack a single enemy at the same time, provided that the enemy is not massive in size. So in reality, 25600 ninth level liquidated core cultivators would not be a match for the genius ninth level solid core cultivator.

However, this also means that if all the cultivators are able to combine and form an array, which would allow them to pool spiritual energy, this array would have many times the spiritual energy of the enemy cultivator, and would therefore be much stronger than the enemy.

While the array would not have strength benefits from their physical bodies, at high cultivation realms, bodily strength would pale in comparison to the power provided by spiritual energy. Essentially, if the body could punch with 100 pounds of force without using spiritual energy, using spiritual energy would allow a force of 1,000 pounds. So by forming an array, they sacrifice the strength provided by the physical body, but it would not be a large decrease(it would be 900 pounds of force). But by forming an array, they can combine the 900 pounds of force from the punch of multiple cultivators.

When the elders arrived at the clearing, they could not see inside the transparent barrier. The barrier had turned golden, and shockingly, the cubes of transparent rock were swiftly turning grey.

“The spiritual stones won’t last long! Somehow Lucifer is sucking out all the spiritual energy!”

The cubes, known as spiritual stones, are essentially stored spiritual energy. The spiritual energy can be used to power formations, for alchemy, and also for cultivation. When they turn completely grey, they have lost all spiritual energy.

One Bao Gang had seen the barrier, he knew he had to escape. Even though he did not know he had arrived at the Angel’s Justice planet, he knew that it had not been good intent that prompted the Immortal Mountain Sect to send him here.

Thus, he immediately moved all the God’s blood which he consisted of, to the barrier, and began siphoning away the spiritual energy.

Once he had done so, the spiritual stones began turning grey at a much quicker rate.

The elders arranged them self into a circle around the barrier, took out crosses, and following the lead of an old, white-haired man began to draw black runes in the air.

Black chains began to appear out of thin air as many of the elders began to look slightly pale, and a little more haggard.

By this point, the spiritual stones had almost turned completely gray.

“HURRY!”

The old, grey haired man estimated how long it would take for “Lucifer” to escape the barrier and didn’t like it. It would take less than 30 seconds. The black runes which he drew shimmered in the air. He had obviously drawn up many times more runes than the normal elders.

Hearing him, all elders sped up their pace of drawing runes in the air, and the chains became more and more corporeal.

“Sectmaster, we won’t make it!”

Another old man, but this one was bald and bearded, had realized what the sectmaster, the old, white haired man, had also come to realize, that their sealing array would not be finished before the barrier disappeared.

“Damnit! How did Lucifer’s absorption ability get so strong! When we fought him before, it was nowhere near this level. And what’s up with his new body! It looks like a liquid!”

Then the barrier could hold back Bao Gang no more. A flood of golden sparkles shout out in all directions.

Bao Gang knew that he had to absorb the cultivation of the people trying to seal him. Like Lucifer, he could not be easily killed, but he had no idea of whether or not the sealing spell would work on him.

The bald and bearded man stopped drawing symbols and raised him arms in the air. A second barrier appeared in the air, stopping the flood of golden.

But it was short lived, the bearded man could not absorb enough spiritual energy from the air to keep up with his usage, and began using his cultivation base to fuel the barrier spell.

To cultivate, spiritual energy is absorbed and becomes increasingly more pure and powerful as it is filtered and compressed. It is turned into a core in the dantian, essentially spiritual energy which the body can use if needed. As the spiritual energy becomes more dense and pure, it increases their affinity to spiritual energy and they can absorb it faster. In the dantian, the core is separate from absorbed spiritual energy. The core is cultivation, and the absorbed spiritual energy must be transformed through a cultivation method to turn it into cultivation. In a normal fight, only absorbed spiritual energy will be used(spiritual energy from the air which has not been processed by a cultivation method). This way, cultivation is not lost in a fight, but in a life or death battle, how could the elder care about this? He also used his cultivation to fuel the spell.

This allowed the seal to be finished just in the nick of time

As the elder slumped to the ground, devoid of cultivation, the black chains combined to form an impenetrable net, covering the ground and sky and began closing in on Bao Gang.