Chapter 345: O’Neill

The value of this Book of Purgatory exceeded Donald’s earlier estimates. Just the precious materials that could be extracted from it were sufficient for crafting divine artifacts in the future, making them comparable to even mediocre lower-tier divine artifacts.

The space of the Glorious Purgatory would not be wasted either; it could be integrated into his own demi-plane, but first, it needed to be modified using the Planar Cube. Otherwise, such an extreme environment would likely destroy all life in the demi-plane upon integration!

There was another prerequisite for doing this: Donald intended to rescue the Heart-Thief Demon, which was trapped in the Glorious Purgatory and suffering torments. Otherwise, once he took action, the demon would disappear along with this large demi-plane.

Fortunately, they were in the Land of Truth, so Donald wasn’t worried about the demon plotting something after gaining freedom. With a higher-tier divine artifact protecting his soul, even an upper god couldn’t control his mind instantly, let alone a Heart-Thief Demon that seemed only at the Golden rank!

First, Donald used the projection of the Book of Truth to emit a divine beam, gently probing into the Book of Purgatory. No matter how well the divine rays of the Dawn Lord hid, they had to be drawn out of this lower-tier divine artifact.

Although the Dawn Lord’s divinity was subtle, it was extremely radiant. When it appeared before Donald, it felt as though another sun had appeared before him.

Donald didn’t dare delve into the divinity to spy on its master’s memories. Though his own divinity seemed much stronger than this glimmer of divine light, the other party’s was that of an upper god. The sheer difference in power level was enough to send him reeling!

Of course, things like suns were just illusions created by the manifestation of divine power. This glimmer of divinity could at most unleash a force equivalent to a half-god’s full-power strike, and it would dissipate soon after—far from comparable to a sun.

Yet for Donald, this glimmer of divinity was still quite valuable. The Law of Light was one of the most advanced and powerful laws, and his Codex of Gods had not included this law.

In the world where the Book of Truth’s former owner lived, one of the sun gods was a powerful being second only to the supreme god, ranking first among the three divine kings. He was even slightly stronger than the Book of Truth’s former owner. Though it was just a slight difference, at that level, it could determine the fate of both sides!

With that Sun God in existence, almost all domains related to light, fire, the sun, and similar concepts were under his control along with those of his subordinate gods. How could any other true god dare to interfere in such a being’s domain unless they wanted to invite disaster?

As for Ivan, the Lord of Dawn in this world, though powerful, he was still far from achieving the level of dominating the upper realms and commanding all gods. He only controlled a few domains such as dawn and light, so he was merely a God of Dawn, not a Sun God or a God of Light—beings who were clearly among the most supreme and powerful true gods.

As for the title of “Lord of Dawn” given to him, it was merely flattery from some weaker true gods who recognized his strength and the help of two mid-tier gods. It was nothing but an empty title.

This was because no being of the supreme god level had appeared in this world for tens of thousands of years. The ones from the past seemed like legends, and even some lower-level true gods believed they were nothing but illusions.

Otherwise, just the title of “Lord of Something” would be an act of usurpation sufficient to earn punishment from the great supreme god!

Donald had no intention of probing the secrets of the Lord of Dawn, so he didn’t plan to absorb the memories contained within that fragment of divinity himself, to avoid giving the other party an opportunity to exploit the situation and cause further complications.

Instead, he ordered the Book of Truth to erase the consciousness within that fragment of divinity, retaining only the essence of divinity and the laws it contained, then storing it temporarily until he could integrate it later!

Without the support of divinity, that sub-divine artifact had completely fallen to the status of a legendary item. Although its capabilities far exceeded those of other legendary items, it was still at the level of a mortal object. If not for its materials being high-grade divine objects with powerful rule-based attributes, the Glorious Purgatory demi-plane within it might have already begun to collapse!

As a result, that Purgatory Book had lost most of its functions. Aside from still glowing brightly due to the powerful energy it contained, it no longer had its two main functions: resisting external attacks and using its endless light to purify internal life!

Even without the Book of Truth, such a legendary item was completely under Donald’s control.

So he immediately rescued the prisoner from it and handed him over to the Book of Truth to begin the process of decomposition and integration!

As soon as that Heart-Thief Demon appeared, it acted like a polite human noble. It simply scanned the surroundings before thanking Donald, the only being who clearly held authority.

“Respected mage sir, are you the one who saved me? O’Neill thanks you for your help!”
The appearance of this Soul Devourer wasn’t as terrifying as described in legends. If one ignored the six faint, transparent tendrils on its face, it looked almost exactly like an ordinary human youth.
Donald knew this was due to the way Soul Devourers survived. There was a reason why such creatures were classified as demons.
According to the books, Soul Devourers had no pupils like normal creatures; their eyes were milky white. There were also four tendrils near their mouths, giving their heads the appearance of an octopus. Their bodies were pale purple, with skin like cold, elastic rubber covered in a reflective mucus, making them look extremely disgusting!
This was the normal appearance of ordinary Soul Devourers, but some were different.
Among ordinary Soul Devourers, there existed powerful individuals known as Soul Devourer Monsters, with different abilities and talents.
Although adult Soul Devourers resembled human-like creatures in appearance, they reproduced by laying eggs, just like fish and frogs.
This was very similar to the initial form of demons—demon larvae—but also completely different. Demons could undergo multiple metamorphic evolutions throughout their lives, while Soul Devourers lived like parasites.
First, they laid eggs. Soul Devourers were hermaphroditic and could lay eggs twice in their lifetime through asexual reproduction. Each sticky egg sac contained thousands of eggs, all glued together with their viscous secretions. After about a month, these eggs hatched, and the emerging Soul Devourer larvae resembled tadpoles, which is why scholars named them Soul Devourer Tadpoles.
These tadpoles had to grow for at least a year before entering the metamorphosis stage. Before that, their length from head to tail was no more than three inches, resembling small octopuses. They lacked a complete sense of self and had no resistance to external threats.
In fact, the vast majority of Soul Devourer Tadpoles that hatched from the egg sacs never reached adulthood. Most of these unfortunate larvae became food for the main brain lurking deep in the pools.
Adult Soul Devourers believed that the surviving tadpoles must be the best offspring from the egg sacs and thus qualified to undergo metamorphosis and become useful members of their group.