The gray-robed walker's screams continued for a considerable time before ceasing as his entire body melted, his death a gruesome spectacle.
Davies gained the gray-robed walker's experience, leveling up from twenty to sixty in one go. Her entire aura underwent a seismic shift.
However, Davies was not immersed in the joy of her own advancement. Her mind was filled with the screams and wails of the gray-robed walker before his death, her whole body trembling.
Although she didn't understand what had happened, the gray-robed walker's brutal demise had a profound psychological impact on her.
Barton, on the other hand, found nothing strange about it. He immediately congratulated Davies, "Congratulations, young lady, on reaching level sixty. To have such a high level at such a young age, your future is boundless!"
Ye Ling looked at the fawning Barton and said, "You don't seem surprised by the gray-robed walker's death."
Barton blinked, "My lord... what do you mean?"
"The gray-robed walker's health bar was empty, yet he didn't die immediately. Instead, he continued to suffer from your poison... Is that normal?"
"My lord, don't you know... those defeated by divine skills don't die instantly. They only truly die after the divine skill dissipates. This is common knowledge in this world."
Barton was very confused, wondering why someone as powerful as Ye Ling didn't even know the characteristics of divine skills.
"Are all divine skills like this?" Ye Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. He could tell Barton wasn't lying.
Barton nodded, "Yes..."
"Then how do you identify a divine skill?" Ye Ling asked again.
"Any skill that comes with a divine artifact, as well as the skills of gods, are divine skills," Barton replied, growing increasingly puzzled.
"It seems the gods in this world are a special kind of existence..." Ye Ling murmured, organizing the information about the gods in this world in his mind.
In this world, although gods generally held a higher status than humans, their strength was not proportional to their status, nor was it solely related to their level.
For example, the god who protected the新手村 (novice village) was feared even by a level twenty cyclops. However, a level seventy gray-robed walker could kill a god who protected a medium-sized city and possessed a mid-tier divinehead.
Previously, Ye Ling had thought of gods as just a special race in this world, not much different from other races. But from his current perspective, gods were the most special beings in this virtual world.
Perhaps, the gods in this game were a special link connecting the virtual and the real!
With these thoughts, Ye Ling's gaze towards Barton completely changed.
After all, Barton also possessed divine blood. If he could thoroughly study Barton, Ye Ling felt he could gain a preliminary understanding of the Primal Wisdom King's plan.
Sensing Ye Ling's subtle gaze, Barton trembled. He suddenly had a bad premonition.
He looked at Ye Ling tremblingly and asked cautiously, "M-my lord... i-is there anything I can do for you?"
Ye Ling casually sized up Barton and asked, "I heard you are the child of the Violet Luo Arch-God. Then you must be a god too, right?"
Barton's heart skipped a beat. He secretly cursed his misfortune. Pleading appeared in his huge snake eyes. He replied with a choked voice, "My lord, I used to have a divinehead. However, after being expelled from the divine temple by my father, I no longer have one. Even if you kill me, you can't use my divinehead to become a god!"
In this world, powerful adventurers often hunted weaker gods to seize their divineheads in order to become gods themselves.
Before coming to hunt Barton, the gray-robed walker had already obtained a mid-tier god's divinehead. Barton, as the child of an Arch-God and a former high-tier god, although stripped of his divinehead, still had a portion of his divine power sealed within his snake gall.
With a mid-tier god's divinehead and Barton's divine power, the gray-robed walker could directly ascend from human to a mid-tier god!
Now that Ye Ling suddenly said this, Barton clearly mistook Ye Ling for someone who wanted to seize his divine power.
"I'm not interested in your divine power," Ye Ling said, seeing Barton's worry, and casually reassured him. Then he asked, "How many divine skills do you know?"
Barton didn't believe Ye Ling's words, but he had no other choice at the moment. He could only honestly reply, "Besides the冥蛇之牙 (Nether Serpent's Fang) for that girl, I also know a skill called雷霆之怒 (Wrath of Thunder), both inherited from my parents... I've forgotten all other divine skills because my divinehead was stripped."
"It seems that half of your divine power comes from your divinehead..."
"More than half... Eighty percent of a god's power comes from their divinehead. If I hadn't been stripped of my divinehead, that gray-robed walker wouldn't have been able to hurt me!"
Barton proudly raised its head, clearly still retaining the arrogance of its former divine status.
Next, Ye Ling asked Barton many more questions about gods. After confirming that there were still many secrets about the gods in this world that needed to be unearthed, he said to Barton, "Next, Davies and I are going to the royal city of the Violet Luo Empire. You will come with us."
Barton's face instantly turned pale. It trembled and said, "M-my lord, I was banished and exiled by my father and forbidden to ever set foot in the royal city. If my father discovers I went to the royal city, I will surely die!"
"If you don't go, you die now," Ye Ling threatened mercilessly.
Feeling the killing intent in Ye Ling's eyes, Barton immediately shut its mouth. It no longer dared to defy Ye Ling and nodded obediently, "U-understood... I will go to the royal city with you."
"That's more like it!" Ye Ling nodded in satisfaction. "Don't worry, just follow me faithfully, and I won't treat you unfairly."
"Thank you, my lord," Barton replied dejectedly, thinking Ye Ling was just placating it.
Without much struggle, Barton's massive form quickly returned to its normal size. It crawled ashore and closely followed Ye Ling.
For it, living one more second was one more second. Even the gray-robed walker was no match for Ye Ling. If it didn't obey Ye Ling now, its fate would be even worse than the gray-robed walker's!
After confirming Barton's temporary submission, Ye Ling looked at Davies, who was terrified by the gray-robed walker's death, and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Mmm... I-I'm fine."
Davies came back to her senses and nodded at Ye Ling. However, from Davies' trembling hands, it was clear she was not in good condition.
To be honest, she was just a sixteen-year-old girl. She had only dealt with slimes before, and had never witnessed such a scene.
The fact that she could still speak was a testament to her strong will.
Ye Ling didn't have enough time to help Davies calm her emotions. After confirming Davies could persevere, he said, "Well... it's good that you can hold on. We've wasted a lot of time here. It's time to go to the royal city."
After all, Ye Ling was merely a passerby in Davies' life. She would face countless more difficult challenges in the future.
If she couldn't overcome even this small difficulty, she would die at the hands of others later, and Ye Ling would have no reason to nurture her.
Davies also knew that she couldn't rely on Ye Ling for everything. She had to be able to stand on her own.
Taking a deep breath, Davies suppressed what had just happened. She tightly gripped the Nether Serpent's Fang and looked at Ye Ling, saying seriously, "Mmm... I will lead you north to the royal city!"