Weapon seller in the world of magic

With the battlefield quietened, and Commander informed him that they would continue camping there, on the side of the world, Mark took this opportunity to explore.

Of course, due to using anti-matter mines, which caused complete annihilation, their bodies didn't leave behind anything, except for a disgusting piece of flesh with bones protruding out. However, inside those pieces of flesh, he could sense a tremendous amount of energy.

Big ones. Small ones. Some of the sizes of melons. And some are even the size of a house.

"Didn't expect this," he muttered.

Despite the chaos, thousands of spirit cores had survived the bombardment. Their owners? Obliterated. But the cores? Just sitting there, waiting for him to claim them.

Mark paused, holding one in his hand, confirming that it was indeed a spirit core, but its slimy blood smeared his hand. "Okay, that's disgusting," he said under his breath, throwing it into his inventory and wiping off his hand with his sleeves.

More importantly, Mark couldn't help but wonder. "The antimatter mines… destroyed their bodies, but not their cores?"

He tapped his chin. "Is it because the core contains life force? Ugh… I missed out on a potential 13-circle spirit core…"

His eyes narrowed. "But then again, why should I even bother? I can't use the spirit cores anyway. My cultivation method is different from the norms, none of my beasts could digest a 13-circle beast spirit core at this moment, and it might take a while for them to be qualified. Moreover, I also can't kill a 13-circle beast without going all out. That's a powerful beast. If I focus on not letting its spirit core get damaged, who knows what would happen? And there is no guarantee that it won't get blown up itself to take me down, letting everything go to waste and…. And… and…"

And a sigh escaped his lips.

"Who am I kidding? I obviously screwed up. I didn't think this would happen."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "A 13-circle realm spirit core…" he groaned. "And I vaporized it. Just exchanging it with any powers will give lots of stardust… ugh… Anyway, can't do anything about what's already happened…"

After picking up cores, all of them at the same time, and tossing them into the inventory, Mark counted their numbers.

28,564 cores were collected in his inventory.

Just as Mark was smiling big with the collected loot, fine ashes, still warm, lifted into the air by a gust of wind that passed by.

The scorched ground where the White Lion King had perished shimmered.

And then, something caught Mark's eye.

"Where in the hell did this pop out from?"

Ark replied to him with a notification.

*Ding! Master, the object seems to be under the ashes all along. Nothing previously detected. Object is now visible.

"How thought? We were literally standing on top of it, just a while ago."

*Ding! Unknown anomaly. Divine concealment is possible. Visual barrier possibly lifted by White Lion King's death.

Mark narrowed his eyes and walked forward.

Half-buried in the cracked ground… was a small seven-story pagoda, no taller than his chest. Its eaves were tipped with silver, its base carved with intricate celestial runes. Each floor had a unique symbol etched on it, glowing faintly.

It pulsed with… authority.

He activated Eyes of God, scanning its details.

The Eternal Pagoda

Grade: Celestial

Status: Soul-Bound Item – No current owner

[Would you like to claim ownership?]

"Hell yes."

[Binding with the soul. Please put your hand on it.]

The pagoda trembled slightly as the AI processed the soul-binding process. Mark felt a sharp pulse go through his hand, as if it recognized him.

Then the interface popped up:

The Eternal Pagoda

Grade: Celestial

Size: Expandable (palm-sized to fortress-scale)

Functions:

Imprisonment Dome

Ethereal Storage Vault

Beast Chaining Prison

Combat Arena

Library

Energy Conversion Furnace

Spatial Relay Gate

[Enter]

*

Mark stared at the glowing interface for a full five seconds.

Then blinked. "Okay… Let's see what this baby holds…"

He bent down and gently lifted the pagoda, which shrank down and floated obediently into his palm.

"And here I thought the beasts don't own any treasures…"

The moment Mark clicked Enter, he disappeared and appeared in the first floor. A suffocating silence hit him like a wall.

It was massive—like the interior of a city-sized dome. A dull, grey emptiness stretched in every direction. There were no cages, no restraints, no visible guards.

However, it wasn't empty. If anything, there are thousands of bodies here.

He froze. "They are alive…" He gasped. "But looks dead…"

All those 45662 bodies, spread all over the place, were all women. All young. Of all shapes and races. Elves, beastkin, druids, even some pure-blooded humans from foreign star systems. Some had horns, some had tails, some had feathers or glowing skin. And all of them… were naked and bruised. Covered in dried blood, or worse.

Their eyes were glassy. Their gazes were empty. No one flinched. No one looked up. They simply sat or lay on the cold ground as if their souls were already broken.

A cold fury coiled in Mark's gut. "This…"

He didn't even need to ask questions about what happened to them. He was familiar with those purple lotus marks glowing faintly on every one of their foreheads. He read about those in the Lan Sect records. They were standard divine-grade slave brands, although he remembered them being scarlet lotus marks though, not purple.

"That bastard…"

Mark didn't even realize he was clenching his fists in anger. "Ark, we need to break those seals. Can you select all of them and use the Seal Breaker skill?"

*Ding! Denied.

"Eh?"

"Master, the seal is unleashed by the pagoda. It cannot be broken. As the master of the Eternal Pagoda, Master can only disable it. Please go to the panel."

"Open the Eternal Pagoda Panel."

He clicked on one of the functions, the Imprisonment Dome, following its instructions.

There was a set of skills that opened.

The Divine Slavery: The prisoners of the Eternal Pagoda are automatically branded with the Divine Slavery and are at the whim of the pagoda's master.