[ Eastern Region. Lower Kingdom. ]
It did not take long for Yang Ming to find a suitable place to absorb the hero, so he fairly quickly started the process in a small cave that could easily hide his skill, the cave was deep in a forest so the probability of someone finding him here was very low.
As soon as Yang Ming loosened his grip, Bai Lin coughed for lack of air. Yang Ming did not even exert a little force, yet he almost accidentally strangled him.
"Let's begin." - Yang Ming spoke softly, he didn't want to explain anything to the hero, he just wanted to absorb him and close the deal with him.
"Why? Why are you doing this to me!? What have I done to you!?" - Shouted the hero, trying to figure out what the feud between them was all about.
"You are the prey and I am the hunter! That's all you need to know" - Yang Ming said briefly, depriving Bai Lin of the gift of speech, while his eyes, which used to be golden in color, changed to black, it seemed as if an abyss was contained inside if you looked closely.
As if sensing the change in Yang Ming, Bai Lin suddenly began to realize that the light that could previously be seen in the cave seemed to grow dimmer by the second, after which he noticed how Yang Ming began to emit some kind of dark, sinister aura.
At that moment he was numbed with horror, the aura that Yang Ming emitted began to absorb the light, no, it seemed to devour him, after several breaths the light in the cave almost completely disappeared, you could only see a couple of meters away, as everything else was completely black.
"So this is the gluttony skill?" Watching as his aura that he sported changed to a darker one, he now began to understand why he had to hide this skill, yes even if this skill wasn't like the forbidden one, the bottom line would be the same.
There would be a bounty put on his head, as that sinister aura he exuded could scare the hell out of any practitioner of the higher realm, and the first person to attack him would be the Holy Clan.
The Holy Clan from the higher realm is like a religion in which they are supposedly the good side and those who do not accept their faith are the evil. There were many wars over this religion and in the end, the clan of saints became very strong, much stronger than the Yang clan, because of this there were few people who opposed it.
Yes, even if they didn't act themselves, the result would still be death. Of course, the wars were not between the Holy Clan and the people. The people, even though they adapted to their religion, they believed little of it, but still followed the orders that were given by this clan.
The clan of saints had a lot of rules, but the main rule is that if you meet someone they consider a demon you must fight the said demon. And many did as stated in the rules, though after most of the demons perished, they started to retaliate in their own way.
Demons suddenly attacked cities that embraced the religion of the holy clan, exterminating and burning everything in their path, they were furious that their brothers and sisters died undeserved deaths and eventually war broke out.
From Yang Ming's memories, he knew that even after many hundreds of years had passed, the war was not over, but one thing was clear, people hated demons and demons hated people.
So Yang Ming knew that if he ever was exposed, he would be assigned to the demons camp and would have virtually no place left in the higher realm, of course he could ally himself with the demons, but it was unknown if they would accept him or exterminate him. It was too dangerous, and Yang Ming knew how much the demons despised humans.
Despite the fact that this was the first time Yang Ming had to use the gluttony skill he intuitively knew how to use it, so it was rather strange as if he had used it before or the system had instilled in him how to use the skill.
"What, what are you doing!?" - When Yang Ming approached Bai Lin and suddenly put his hand on his head, Bai Lin was even more frightened by what Yang Ming was trying to do. His intuition told him that things were very bad.
"Stop it! What are you trying to...? AAHHH!" - Trying to say something, Bai Lin suddenly noticed that Yang Ming's hand began to emit suffocating black smoke, enveloping his body from head to toe and then he felt pain of such an intensity that he had never felt before.
At first he felt as if hundreds of ants were running around inside his body; after the pain began to fade, he felt his consciousness shut down, everything before his eyes seemed blurred, as if he were slipping into a peaceful but long sleep.
Unlike Bai Lin, who thought he was about to fall asleep, Yang Ming understood exactly what was going on. The gluttony skill did not affect the body, meaning it could not consume it, it was like an evil god that feeds on souls. Yes, the skill sucked out the souls, then absorbed them.
"And how long does the absorption take?" thought Yang Ming while holding his hand against Bai Lin's forehead, and not even a moment after his thoughts, the black aura that Yang Ming was emitting suddenly ceased. In its place came the normal one that he had emitted before.
"It looks like it's over..." As soon as he released his hand from Bai Lin's head, there was a small popping sound, Bai Lin's body, which had been full of energy before, suddenly looked like a shriveled mummy, his eyes turned completely white, his skin completely dried up and his body was as if it lost all it's essence, as if there was not even a drop of blood left in it.
"Horrible!" That's all Yang Ming could think of the effect of the gluttony skill, it was too frightening.
*Ding!*
Suddenly the system alert was heard.
[ Congratulations to the user for the first absorption of a hero! You successfully found the hero and then absorbed him. The system admires your actions. Rewards for the absorption are being calculated! ]
"Yes… yes" - Yang Ming vaguely felt that the system, again, was snide in front of him, trying to insult Yang Ming.
*Ding!*
[ Calculation completed… ]
*Ding!*
[ User receives an award of 5,000 points ]
*Ding!*
[ User receives 1 spin of the wheel of fortune ]
"Um... is that all the reward?" - Yang Ming felt like he had been cheated, he had put so much effort into getting points he couldn't use and 1 spin of the wheel of fortune, it was too small a reward for his actions.
[ User got the maximum amount of reward for absorbing the hero, if the hero would have been stronger, the reward would have been grander! And since the hero is too weak, you get this one! ]
"So the rewards depend on the level of cultivation of the people he absorbed" muttered Yang Ming, when suddenly he remembered that a bonus and a spin of the wheel of fortune was waiting for him. With burning eyes, he took up the rewards.