315-324

Chapter 315 - Timely Arrival

As Balthazar pumped his blood and underwent his transformation, the core disciples had been incredibly shocked while they spectated at the back.

"Seriously, that brat is only at the 9-star Ranked Awakener realm with that much strength? Even if you guys beat me to death, I still would not believe it!" A core disciple commented with disbelief. Even now, he could not wipe the shock off his face.

It was known that no matter how strong Ranked Awakeners were, they were only ants in front of Transcendents. The difference in power was a great chasm; they could never hope to overcome. But right before their eyes, Leon had overturned their world views and shattered their beliefs.

"That's for sure! The strength of that little monster is very close to the threshold of Transcendents! And by the sound of it, he can still become stronger! When was there ever such an absurd existence as this?!"

"But no matter how strong that brat is, he is still no match for the Sect Master when he is serious. That kid is out of luck now. After all, he might have achieved the unthinkable and possess the power to rival Transcendents, but that only applies to newly ascended Transcendents."

"That's right, the Sect Master has been in the Transcendent Realm for so many years. The quality of Sect Master's blood refinement has reached a qualitative state capable of breaking human limits."

As the core disciples observed their Sect Master's transformation, they could feel their own blood boiling. Their bloodlust spiked with the urge to kill forming in their hearts like an itch that could not be scratched.

"Argh, I can't sit still anymore. I need to kill someone! I need blood to quench my thirst!"

"Hehe, my hands are feeling a bit itchy too. How about I join you?" A core disciple spoke while rubbing his hands as his eyes flickered with cold light.

Their violent tendency and evil nature were aroused by the Sect Master's overwhelming bloodlust and began losing their mind. However, some disciples resisted and retained their rational minds.

Pak!

After smacking the head of a core disciple affected by the bloodlust, a senior core disciple spoke, "Help me clear the mind of these fools."

"Yes, Senior Brother!"

Pak! Pak! Pak!

The infected junior core disciples all received a good nudge on the head by their senior brothers. After their minds regained clarity, they apologized, "Sorry, senior brothers. This junior brother's mental state is still lacking."

"Don't forget we still have a mission to accomplish. If we are divided, we will not be able to use our grand technique."

…

Knock! Knock!

The palace guards arrived at the Grandmaster's living quarters and banged on his bedroom's door. They urgently shouted, "Grandmaster Don, Grandmaster Don! Please wake up!"

"Who the hell is calling for this old man at this ungodly hour?! Sleep! Ever heard of it?!" Grandmaster Don roared.

The doors to his bedroom were flung open. Don swept his gaze through the palace guards before his doorstep with an angry look. Being woken up in the middle of the night, his terrible mood was to be expected.

"What the hell do you all want?"

"Our apologies, Grandmaster! The royal prince is requesting your presence in the Upper District!" The palace guards all dropped to one knee in apology.

"That brat is? And he needed to send for all of you to fetch me? Are you all stupid or what? Isn't one of you enough?"

"T-This…"

The palace guards did not know how to reply. They found it strange too, but it was the royal prince's order. They had to follow it.

"Enough. No need to answer."

Grandmaster Don silenced them and turned towards a specific direction. He quickly understood the gist of the situation after sensing the disturbance in the laws.

"Transcendent."

Grandmaster Don's eyes narrowed at the discovery.

"Go alert the palace and protect the king! The Capital is under attack by enemies! I will go help that brat!" Grandmaster Don ordered the palace guards before complaining, "Just what the hell was he thinking? Facing the enemy Transcendent alone."

"What! His Highness is?! Please allow us to assist you, Grandmaster Don!" The palace guards were startled. After being made aware of the situation, they were ashamed for not realizing the prince's intention sooner.

"No need! I, alone, am enough!" Grandmaster Don firmly denied their request.

They were sent away because they could not help. Sending the palace guards back would only get them killed. Not everyone was a freak like Leon.

Grandmaster Don did not bother changing out of his pajamas. He took to the skies and flew in the direction of the disturbance after flames exploded under his feet.

…

Crawford University, main building.

A person was seen sitting on the top balcony outside the principal office of the building. The old dean leisurely appreciated the beauty of the night sky during a time most people are found asleep.

Flashing a glance in a particular direction, the old dean softly laughed, "They don't give up, do they?

"Are you not going to stop them?"

The old dean twirled his wine cup and appeared to be alone, but another voice was heard from an indiscernible direction.

"Why should I stop them? I'm not an Overseer." The old dean spoke indifferently.

"You're not an Overseer, but with your strength, you might as well be one. As long as you are here, the High Council deems it unnecessary to delegate an Overseer to this kingdom." The owner of the indiscernible voice appeared speechless.

"Heroes do not rise in peaceful times, my old friend. If we interfere too much, when will the sparrows ever learn to spread their wings and soar the skies like mighty eagles?"

"Aren't you afraid of the sparrows dying if you don't interfere?" The voice spoke in frustration.

"If it dies, then it dies. Simple as that. It just means that our human race lacked destiny and doomed to perish. We need an overlord, not a pampered chicken." The old dean spoke with an enigmatic view before savoring the wine in silence.

"Never mind. You do you." The owner of the indiscernible voice gave up on persuading the old dean. Before leaving, the voice owner asked, "Are you not going to return to the High Council?"

"This is some good spirit wine. Send the High Master my regards."

Hearing the old dean's indirect response, the voice did not press further.

Shortly after, the balcony regained its original tranquility.

…

"Little bastard, try not to die too quickly, alright?" Balthazar spoke in a warped voice.

In that instance, Leon's pupils shrank.

Balthazar's figured blurred and disappeared from his vision, followed by an impending sense of danger from the side. Without thinking further, Leon immediately lowered his center of gravity and lunge forward.

Boom!

A sword wave swept pass and formed a long crevasse in his original spot. Leon drew in a sharp breath as he gouged the force of that sword wave to be around 150 thousand jins. Transcendents were not to be underestimated.

"Interesting, you managed to dodge that. Try this one."

Balthazar sent out another sword wave of intense energy. The sword wave flew with more incredible velocity and carried a force of 180 thousand jins. Leon had no choice but to utilize his movement technique to evade.

Extreme Vanishing Step!

Swoosh!

"Ah?! Everyone, quickly dodge!"

The sword wave flew past Leon but continued its trajectory towards the core disciples. The core disciples were shocked and immediately scurried out of the way.

The core disciples evade successfully with no casualties, but they were left in a disheveled mess. They looked at the newly formed crevasse in the ground with cold breath before retreating some distance.

When the Transcendents are fighting, the mortals will suffer.

Balthazar wrinkled his brows at Leon's speed in dodging his second attack. He might not necessarily be faster than this!

"Little bastard, you are very quick on your feet! It seems your speed is even more impressive than your strength!"

"Old bastard, watch my spear!"

Leon dashed forward and swept out with his spear from a tricky angle, aiming for Balthazar's neck. Powered by the additional elemental force of fire and metal, Leon's spear strike reached a force of 100 thousand jins.

"Child's play."

Balthazar's blood boiling state increased his physical abilities, but it also heightened his sense. The spear strike's trajectory was easily anticipated.

Peng!

Their weapons clashed, and the excess force of Balthazar's sword swing swept Leon off his feet and sent him flying up with spinning momentum.

The sect master was relentless and was about to give chase with a follow-up attack. But before he could, a timely blazing ball of hellfire shot towards his location from another direction and interrupted him.

After Balthazar retreated, he spat towards the newcomer, "Who are you?"

"Hahaha, old thing. How shameless are you to bully a junior? You do not need to know who I am. You only need to know that your opponent is me!"

Sensing the fire laws surrounding Don, Balthazar flashed Don a disdainful glance.

"You must be the Fire Transcendent in the Capital. Hmph, a newly ascended Transcendent is nothing to me!"

"Hahaha, we will see about that."

Hovering in the sky, Don grasped the air and condensed a flaming lance in his hand before he flashed Leon a glance. "Brat, why don't you go deal with the small fries and leave this one to me?"

"Alright, Grandpa Don. Be careful. He is very strong!"

Leon nodded.

Don's timely arrival allowed him sufficient time to regain his bearing in the sky and saved him from a dangerous pickle.. It appeared he was still not strong enough to take on the Bloodfiend Sect's sect master.

Chapter 316 - Don Vs Balthazar

After Don conjured his flaming lance in preparation for battle, his sunshine and flower-patterned pajamas were illuminated in the night sky. His appearance looked very comical, contrary to his solemn expression.

Pfft!

"Hahaha… Hahahaha… Hahahaha!"

Facing such a joke of an opponent, Balthazar failed to keep a straight face and broke into hysteric laughter.

"What's so funny?" Don questioned in a low tone.

"Old thing, old thing… Aren't you pretty old yourself? Why are you pretending to be young? You look ridiculous! Hahahaha!" Balthazar cackled raucously.

Don's expression became black as charcoal. The laughter was very grating to his ears. Gnashing his teeth, Don spatted.

"…You're dead!"

The flaming lance was tossed with great strength and velocity as it shot towards Balthazar with swirling motion. It seemed like a simple attack, but the destructiveness packed within cannot simply be ignored.

"Hmph!"

Balthazar was full of contempt towards such an attack and swung out with another of his sword wave packed with sharpened blood energy.

Ka-boom!

In that instance, the flaming lance and crimson crescent moon slash collided, and an explosion of fiery blood energy erupted from their clash.

"Hm?" Balthazar frowned slightly, before saying, "Such a simple attack was able to offset my sword slash? Not bad."

"Ignorant fool who does not appreciate the beauty of explosions, try eating another one of my attacks." Don shook his head with a sigh and condensed another flaming lance in his hand.

Despite carrying a sword on him, he did not have any intention of entering close-quarter combat with the enemy.

The second flaming lance took longer to condense, but it was also packed with more fiery energy. After it was compressed to half the size of the previous flaming lance, the fiery energy inside became more volatile and active.

Swoosh!

The flaming lance shot, but Balthazar wore the same contemptuous look and swept out with a stronger sword slash to match the attack.

Kaboom!

A bigger explosion erupted from their slash, and sparks of fiery blood arrows scattered to the surroundings, quickly melting through buildings with its high corrosive temperature.

"Beauty of explosions? How ludicrous. Why would I care for something like that? Strength is the only thing that matters. How naïve of you to become complacent just because you succeeded in stopping my attacks. I've only used half my strength, you stupid fool."

"And I only used a quarter."

Ptui!

"How childish!"

Balthazar became noticeably colder.

This person was only trying to waste his time. There was no need to take him seriously.

"Childish? You are just an ignorant flea who has not seen the true beauty of explosions. What do you know about strength? True explosions are strength!" Don continued his charade.

"You don't even make any sense, you crazy bastard!"

Balthazar tightly gripped on his sword and glared at Don. The sword emitted a bloody light that soon became a crimson brilliance packed with a dense amount of power poured into it.

There was no doubt that this next sword strike will contain the force of Balthazar's full strength. After stomping the ground, Balthazar launched himself straight at the grandmaster alchemist with the murderous intent to hack the person apart in one swing.

"Haiz, why are you in such a rush to end things? It's a rare opportunity to have another Transcendent as my opponent." Don sighed.

A burst of flames propelled Don higher in the sky like thrusters as he retreated from Balthazar with a solemn look. In short instance, he already broke into the sky's suppression zone and widened the gap between them.

Seeing this, Balthazar knew that he would not be able to reach the Fire Transcendent.

Crimson Moon Slash!

Balthazar discharged his crimson brilliance with a mighty swing after his body began to fall from peak altitude.

Swoosh!

The sword wave with crimson brilliance rushed towards Don, but its trajectory erred without Don needing to dodge after it entered the suppression zone. Its course was hindered by the irregular gravitational force within the suppression zone.

Balthazar's expression went from ugly to uglier when he saw this.

"Hahaha, that's too bad. I wouldn't mind showing you the true strength of my explosions if you can come up here." Don taunted Balthazar.

Evidently, Don had been restraining his strength due to concerns. An all-out battle between Transcendents would devastate the Capital.

"Hmph!"

Balthazar was disinterested in dancing to his opponent's rhythm despite being annoyed by the amount of time wasted. He could not fly, but it did not mean he could not force the Fire Transcendent down.

"Stay up there all you want, but I don't believe that you would not come down very soon!" With that said, Balthazar sent out a sword wave and tore down a nearby building complex from Upper District.

The people hiding inside their homes had awoken by the commotion for some time. When the building was struck, everyone was stricken with terror as they helplessly watch the building crumble down upon them.

Even with their slightly stronger body granted by small successes in cultivation, it was no match for their own home's crushing weight. A few hundred jins of strength was not much in the face of several tens of tons.

Unsurprisingly, everyone on the bottom floors was killed in the collapse. The more unlucky ones were directly sliced apart by the passing sword wave. Only the top floor residents had hopes of surviving the crash.

Climbing out from the top of the rubbles, the few survivors thought they had survived a disaster, but they were soon met with more incoming sword waves, cutting off all possible chances of survival.

Their fates were sealed by the inhumane grim reaper.

Balthazar was both ruthless and merciless. He felt nothing for their insignificant lives. After slaughtering everyone, he absorbed the blood from their ownerless corpses and replenished his own strength.

No matter how shameless Don was, he was still a person who stood on the side of righteousness. After witnessing such acts of cruel and evil, he was full of gloom.

The Bloodfiend Sect and their diabolic practices must be uprooted and eradicated from the face of the earth!

"Kekeke, that didn't feel good, did it?" Balthazar rhetorically spoke with glee.

Don closed his eyes and steadied his emotions before they snapped open with a sharp glint.

"It seems this fight is unavoidable. I will take your life to appease all the victims felled by your fiendish claws!"

"That's more like it," Balthazar smirked coldly.

Don knew he was no match for Balthazar in a direct confrontation with his current abilities, but nothing was absolute.

Victory and defeat are not predetermined. Advantages and disadvantages can be reversed under certain conditions, and life and death can be decided in a single exchange.

Glancing at Balthazar's crimson black blood armor, some ideas gathered in Don's mind before taking form.

"I was just starting to like this new set of pajamas too…" Don softly muttered before his entire body erupted into blazing flames.

Balthazar was pleased to sense Don's battle spirit, but he became grossly disgusted when the latter reduced all his clothes to ashes after erupting with more blazing flames.

[Flame Armament]

The fiery flames were compressed into a set of blazing armor tailored to optimize Don's battle power.

After drawing his sword and channeling his remaining power into it, the battle between the two Transcendents immediately commenced in full swing without a single word spoken from either side.

The full-powered clash of swords between the two sent ripples of shockwave across the battleground, blowing away all dirt and rubbles in the area while new cracks formed on nearby buildings amidst shatter glasses.

Don lost the exchange, but surprisingly not by much as he only shot back a few dozen yards. The overbearing and destructive nature of fire was not to be underestimated.

After that, the two continued to clashed swords in several instances under different sceneries. From the grounds to rooftops, rooftops to the skies, and the skies back on land, they fought, causing wanton destruction to the surroundings in their wake.

Such destruction was totally unavoidable. Don did not dare to avert his attention and only focused on finding a single opening to fell the evil fiend.

The entire Capital was woken up by their great battle.

Under the king's order, every available palace guards, city guards, and soldiers within the Capital were sent out to assist the citizens' evacuation from the area of the battle between the Transcendents.

…

In another area not far from the battle between Transcendents, another battle took place between Leon and the core disciples of the Bloodfiend Sect.

With Leon's transcendental battle power, he thought he could quickly wipe out the core disciples and return to assist Don. However, the core disciples proved themselves to be much more challenging than Leon had initially presumed after revealing the ace up their sleeves.

After activating their grand technique, the core disciples of the Bloodfiend Sect were able to transfer all their cultivation to one person.

They did not hesitate to resort to this secret method of passing their cultivation to another after witnessing Leon's might. It was their last resort, but also their ultimate trump card.

Under this grand technique, an 8-star Ranked Awakener was directly elevated into the ranks of Transcendents. Although this cultivation was only temporary, it was the power of Transcendents, nevertheless!

Chapter 317 - Leon's Method

Great Blood Transference Technique. That is the name of the grand technique, the trump card of the Bloodfiend Sect.

As previously explained and as the name suggests, it was a special technique capable of transferring one's cultivation to another and grant them a temporary boost in their own cultivation.

The Great Blood Transference Technique had no limits to the number of participants. As long as the blood cultivator had practiced the grand technique to the small success stage, they can join the group and transfer their cultivation to one person.

If it were only that simple, Leon would not find it troublesome to deal with these so-called 'small fries' labeled by Don.

He just had to kill all the weaker disciples first before focusing on the Transcendent-level disciple, but that was where the problem lay. There were no weak disciples.

Under the Great Blood Transference Technique, the accumulated Transcendent power could be freely passed between the disciples.

This means that any one of the disciples could suddenly gain the power of Transcendents at any given point, making them hard to kill like cockroaches.

The roughly 30 core disciples stood not too far from each other, but not too close either. The distance between them was just sufficient, not to impede the mobility of each other.

At the center of the group was a giant blob of dark blood with number tentacle-like blood threads attached to each core disciple and linked them together like nerves.

It was apparent to Leon that the giant blob of dark blood was the disciples' accumulated power. He had tried to destroy it, but it was not easy. The giant blob of dark blood could freely attack and defend under the will of the selected disciple.

Sometimes it would transform into a hardened large shield. At other times, it would attack Leon with a barrage of hardened blood arrows.

These hardened blood arrows were tougher than steel and shot incredibly fast, not at all inferior to any casual attacks from a Transcendent. Despite that, none of the attacks had successfully landed its intended target, Leon.

After these blood arrows miss, they would revert to liquid form and rejoin the giant blob of dark blood. As such, the core disciples can maintain the same attack level and not lose any power.

Leon had tried to attack from different angles and also attempted targeting multiple disciples simultaneously with silver needles. Still, they were all blocked effortlessly despite only one person being in control of the Transcendental power at any given time.

After testing a few more variations of attacks, he confirmed that the core disciples could not only share their power but also shared their senses to cover their weakness, possibly through the blood link.

"It's useless. You won't be able to break our defense." Zagan said smugly with a warped expression.

After getting his heart destroyed by Leon, Zagan returned to the sect with great difficulties. After that, he got a transplant and relied on his status to consume sect resources to swiftly advance his cultivation to the 8-star Ranked Awakener realm.

The Blood Refining Art was a cultivation technique that granted quick advancement in cultivation, but it was equally punishing when cultivation is rushed. As a result, Zagan's mind was corroded by the negative energy residues hidden in his halfheartedly refined blood.

Leon paid no mind to Zagan's smugness.

A few months back, Zagan was a strong opponent capable of pushing Leon to his limits, but he was no longer fit to be Leon's opponent a few months later.

If there was no grand technique supporting him, killing Zagan would be as easy as lifting a hand if they fought again.

Leon retreated and evaded another flurry of blood arrows with a sharp look as he brainstormed for solutions to break the status quo.

The grand technique of the Bloodfiend Sect was impressive to make up the quality difference in cultivation with quantity. Still, it is also because of this remarkable feat that there should be existing limitations.

Practitioners can be invincible but not techniques. No matter how good a technique is, it still depends on who uses it to show its true worth.

If Leon wanted to break the Great Blood Transference Technique, he had to cut their link and disrupt their excellent coordination.

However, it is easier said than done. With so many pairs of eyes covering their blind spots, their defense was almost impregnable.

There was no difference between trying to cut their link and trying to destroy the giant blob of dark blood. It was all the same, exhausting with a low chance of success.

Did he have to waste so much effort and time to deal with these 'small flies' just because they have an impressive technique? There had to be a more efficient method in dealing with these people.

Leon frowned in thought.

Watching the giant blob of dark blood recovering its droplets of blood arrows for the Nth time, Leon was struck with a sudden spark of inspiration.

Trying to break the enemy's technique from the outside was exhausting, but what about from the inside? It would be remarkably easy.

Naturally he, himself would not be able to slip past their defenses, but other things can. There was nothing more lethal to blood than poison.

Leon's eyes glowed with a nefarious light. He had just the right type of poison in mind for the job.

However, to destroy the core disciples and their technique thoroughly, he had to make some preparations.

Leon distanced himself further from the core disciples and made a mental list of herbs needed for his plan. The list consists of supplementary herbs, while the poison was the main ingredient.

In normal circumstances, Leon would use a pill cauldron to refine his pills, but since he was in the middle of battle, he conjured his flames and extracted the essence from the supplementary herbs directly.

Under Divine Will, the herbal essence was protected being burnt in the fire.

Leon took out the main ingredient, the pill bottle of yin poison with a trace of demonic energy, and emptied the pill bottle's content into the fire to merge with the herbal essences.

Spirit herbs produce miraculous effects when they are fused together. Not only can they become divine medicine, but they can also become dreadful poison. It all depends on the intention of the alchemist.

In Leon's case, he used the herbal essence to fuse with the yin poison and transformed its bone-eroding properties to blood-eroding properties.

Under the usage of Tier 2 to Tier 3 supplementary herbs, the effects of the blood-eroding poison were greatly amplified.

After completing the merging steps, Leon divided and condensed the poison essence into 18 blood-eroding poison pills before coating them in a very thin ice layer.

The pills were only half the standard pills' size, but any one of these pills could kill a person ten times over. It was dreadful beyond compare.

Leon never thought that they would be a point in his life where he would have to resort to refining poison with his alchemy knowledge.

"I don't know what you are trying to do, but don't think for a second that I will just let you do as you please!" Zagan shouted when he saw Leon refining his poison pills.

However, the process was extraordinarily swift and finished in several breathes. This was possibly Leon's quickest record of pill refining. Poison was much easier to refine than medicine. Likewise, it was easy to poison a person but harder to cure them.

After feinting an attack and evaded the next round of blood arrows, Leon spread out his divine sense and shot out all 18 blood-eroding poison pills in different directions. As if this was not enough, Leon had further injected wood energy into the pills before threw them.

After that, he used Divine Will to guide the poison pills into the liquid-state blood arrows beneath the core disciples' notice.

The core disciples saw Leon throwing out some things, but could not guess his intention. After sensing nothing wrong, the current controller, Zagan, recalled the blood arrows to rejoin the giant blob of dark blood floating above them.

"Ha! Have you gone crazy? Where were you aiming?" Zagan mocked in a jovial manner.

"It's too early for you to be happy." Leon said coolly. his lips soon curve up into a cold smile before he added, "In fact, it's too late for you to be happy."

"What do you mean?"

Zagan frowned.

The cold smile filled Zagan with uneasiness, but he could not tell where the anxiety came from.

However, it did not take long before the expression of every core disciple warped with horror.

The thin layer of ice coating melted very quickly, followed by the poison pills dissolving right after. Once that happened, the poison spread like cancerous cells, eroding the blood cells while increasing its toxic mass.

"Something's wrong!"

A core disciple shouted after noticing something. However, even if Leon wanted to stop it at this point, it was impossible.

Under the propagating effect of wood energy, the poison spread at an accelerated rate. Wherever the blood went, the poison would follow.

In a short instance, the entire blob of dark blood lost all trace of its redness. It did not end there. The poison continued to travel through the blood link that connected the disciples.

The quicker ones were able to react quickly and cut off the blood link before the poison entered their bodies, but as for the slower ones? Their bodies rapidly wilted like dying flowers, before black goo oozed out of their orifices and pores.

The scene was especially horrifying.

Being the creator of the venomous poison, even Leon paled at the sight.

This blood-eroding poison… wasn't this a little too effective?! It was outright fearsome!

Chapter 318 - Turning Point

The blood eroding poison was vicious to the extreme. Not only did the poison transformed all the blood touched by it to black gooey substances, but all the core disciples were also either killed or effectively crippled by it.

Blood was the source of their cultivation, and when said blood is eroded by poison, it is naturally rendered useless. The giant blob of dark blood, the accumulation of all their cultivation, had become nothing more than a pool of black goo after dropping to the ground.

"Nooo! My cultivation… it is gone!"

"Argh! This can't be happening!"

The core disciples despaired when they felt the weakness that comes with the loss of their blood and cultivation. They were mortals again!

"It wasn't supposed to be like this! Do you know what you have done?! How dare you use such a despicable method! Arghhh!"

Zagan roared hysterically.

He glared at Leon venomously, along with the remaining half of the survivors, for his underhanded tactic. They were the type of people that enjoyed harming others but cannot accept others harming them.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Maybe this will teach you how to be better humans in your next life IF there is a next life."

Leon said coldly with indifference.

Without giving them a chance to plead for mercy, Leon reduced them to ashes with a horizontal swipe of his flaming spear.

After all the core disciples were killed, Leon turned his attention back on the battle between Don and the Bloodfiend Sect's sect master some distance away.

All the surrounding buildings in the area had been leveled to the ground, and the structures of Lost Isle Alley some further distance away were also not left unscathed from their battle.

Chances were, the energy gathering formations are broken, but Leon did not care too much about this. So long as the Teleportation Array was intact, it was still usable. He had more than enough spirit stones to power up the array.

Leon quickly recovered a portion of the black goo and began smearing his spear and silver needles before storing the remainder into 5 empty pill bottles.

After that, he subtly moved closer to the other battlefield and waited for a chance to catch Balthazar off guard while he was focused on Don.

The battle between Don and Balthazar was very intense.

Due to the level of their battle, none of them paid any attention to their surroundings and only focused wholeheartedly on their opponent. It only takes a single slip of concentration to give their opponent a fatal opening.

Don was riddled with wounds from his battle with Balthazar, but despite that, it was very commendable that he could continue holding his ground against Balthazar for as long as he did.

This was the perks of being an alchemist.

No matter how heavily injured they were, they could just ingest some recovery pills and heal themselves in the midst of battle.

Because of this shameless tactic, Balthazar was almost angered to the point of puking blood. Of course, that would not happen with Balthazar's ability over blood.

Nevertheless, there was a limited amount of recovery pills Don could carry on his body, especially when his pajamas were not designed for many pockets.

After all, pajamas were a type of sleepwear. Why would you even need pockets while you are sleeping? It was strange enough that Don's pajamas had some.

On top of that, Don's Tier 1 recovery pills were not very effective at his level.

He needed Tier 3 recovery pills, but Tier 3 spirit herbs had always been rare, to begin with. Planet Gaia could not nurture many spirit herbs with its lack of spirit energy.

However, that was all in the past. With the presence of the World Tree, Planet Gaia was bound to give birth to a plethora of spirit herbs in the future. Not only that, but Planet Gaia would also become a holy land of divine cultivation.

That is how miraculous of an existence a World Tree is.

Even in the Divine Realm, the number of World Trees that existed across the countless star realms and starfields were not that many. The ones that did exist were all monopolized by Divine King realm powerhouses.

Even so, it was due to the existence of World Trees that the Divine Realm was always rich in a never-ending amount of spirit energy despite the blackhole consistently swallowing everything in existence with its mighty gravitational force.

Going back to the battle between Don and Balthazar.

As they continued to fight, Don was quickly reaching his limit. His recovery pills were finally expended, and his flowery-patterned pajamas were in tatters.

On his body were numerous cuts caused by bloody sword aura, but they were all shallow cuts. None of them were deep, and neither was he bleeding from these wounds. In fact, they had been seared shut by Don's flame.

This was not a mistake on Don's part. He had intentionally seared his own wounds. If he did not seal his injuries, the blood seeping out of his body would be absorbed by his opponent to replenish their strength.

"You're very hard to kill, you know that? But it seems like you are finally reaching your limit."

Balthazar smirked coldly.

"If I had to guess, it would only take one shot to end you. Being the generous person that I am, I am willing to give you the chance to muster all your remaining strength for one final struggle. It's the least I can do to show my respect to you for being able to last this long against me."

"Then keep your eyes peeled open to appreciate what you are about to see. I will be using my strongest move!"

Don said deeply as he stared at Balthazar intently from the sky.

Despite not believing what Balthazar had said, Don had no choice but to hope that it was true. This is because the result would be the same either way.

Don raised his hand and began drawing in all the fiery energy between heaven and earth, gathering them towards a single point on top of his palm.

The fiery energy pulsated as Don compressed the fiery energy each time the fiery energy ball grew significantly.

Don being Don, the nature of his attack was an explosive one. To create a miniature sun and replicate a supernova explosion. Even if his attack is worlds apart from the real one, it would still be his strongest attack.

As expected, Balthazar did not wait for Don to finish charging his attack before launching a sneak attack.

Although Don was hoping this would not happen, he had anticipated such a scenario. Trusting the words of these inhuman blood cultivators is like believing chickens could bark like dogs.

Just as Don was about to execute his attack early to repel Balthazar's strike, Leon, who had been lying in wait, finally made his move.

Throwing his flaming black spear with explosive might, the spear shot towards Balthazar with incredible speed and aimed for his unguarded area.

The crimson black armor did not grant Balthazar absolute protection. If it did, it would limit his movements. There were openings around his neck, armpits, and knee pits. Of these unguarded points, only the neck was fatal, and it was also the target of Leon's attack.

With Balthazar's keen sense for danger, he knew that he would not be able to finish Don off, not unless he wanted a spear logged into his neck in exchange.

Leon's spear attack ended up failing, but he managed to disrupt Balthazar's attack and attention. That split-second distraction was all Don needed.

Don fired his miniature sun straight at Balthazar.

The attack was not fully charged, but if he did not attack now, when? Opportunities were hard to come by.

Being unable to dodge the attack, Balthazar was forced to receive the miniature sun head-on.

Kaboom!

The miniature sun exploded with great fury and rapid expansion, ballooning to thousands of times its initial size!

The force sent Balthazar slamming into the ground, where he would continue to endure the searing heat of flames within the explosion radius.

At the same time, Don was swept away by the aftershock of the explosion.

His body drew an arc in the sky before landing on the ground with a thud some distance away.

Leon quickly made his way over to Don's location, where the grandmaster laid on the ground, battered and devoid of strength. Despite that, the grandmaster was in an excellent mood.

"Hahaha! Brat, you're late!" Don laughed.

"Better late than never." Leon smiled before taking out some Tier 3 recovery pills to offer Don. "Take these. It will help you recover quickly, Grandpa Don."

"Don't worry about me and quickly go finish that person off. My attack might not have killed him, but he would definitely be severely wounded!" Don urged, but still accepted the pills.

"En."

Leon nodded.

After the explosions subsided and disappeared entirely, a huge crater was left behind in the Upper District. Roughly at the center of the crater, Balthazar could be seen standing back up with great difficulty.

His crimson black armor was broken in various parts while his exposed skin was charred black by the hellfire. These were just the injuries seen on the surface. There were also internal damages

As expected, Balthazar was seen coughing up a pool of blood due to the internal injuries sustained. After that, he glared at Leon venomously from a distance.

"It's over for you, old man.. Just accept your death!" Leon said as the black spear flew back into his grasp from using Divine Will.

Chapter 319 - Watch My Needles!

"Hmph! I underestimated you, little brat! To think you were able to deal with my people so quickly! But don't think for a second that I am going to let you off easy! I may have failed, and I may very well die today! But I will at least take down one Crawford Royalty with me if it's the last thing I do!"

"Careful, Leon boy!"

Don quickly warned.

Balthazar all the lost blood back into his body and shot towards Leon with the blood sword in his hand, aiming for his waist.

Leon was prepared for Balthazar's attack and attempted to parry it upwards with the rising dragon stance.

Peng!

Leon was sent flying by the excess force of 50 thousand jins! Evidently, the strength of a severely injured Transcendent was still powerful!

He had learned his lesson from their previous exchanges. Against overwhelming strength, tackling it head-on would only hurt himself significantly from the excess force.

The philosophy of military arts was to use the opponent's strength to their advantage, fighting hard with soft.

Recalling this, Leon immediately applied it by launching himself back during the moment he was struck. Thus, rather than being attacked by the 50 thousand jin of excess force, it was more like being pushed back by it.

Leon was able to reduce the damage to a minimum and come out unscathed.

Balthazar flashed Don at the side a cold look and said, "Busybody, go die!"

Balthazar aimed to finish Don off before the person could recover, but Leon would not allow that to happen, not on his watch.

While he was still flying back, Leon twisted his body midair and threw the black spear with all his might. The black spear shot towards Balthazar's exposed head filled scathing burns.

Balthazar Blood Armament armor had been destroyed by Don's last attack. Various parts were missing on his body.

His armor's remaining parts include half a helmet, one shoulder pad, a pair of gauntlets, and most of the lower half intact, except for one boot. The rest were destroyed.

Balthazar readily deflected Leon's spear. His eyes shrank when he saw the spearhead laced with a black substance.

"Poison?! Sneaky brat! So, this is how you dealt with my men! Hmph! Too bad, you threw away your best weapon! Don't think about getting it back!"

Before Leon could recall his weapon with Divine Will, it was grasped tightly by Balthazar's free hand.

Leon frowned.

He had been using Divine Will to control his spear ever since it was enchanted by runes. This was because the power of runes interfered with his metal control.

Just like how Awakeners could not freely control the elements of another person due to their individual will, the primal law that gives powers to runes had a similar effect to a sentient will that render elemental manipulation of Awakeners useless on it.

If Leon wanted to use metal manipulation on his Tier 3 spirit artifact, he would first need to advance to the first stage of the Transcendent realm, the Preliminary Accession level. But even at this level, the extent of his metal manipulation would still be limited.

Once a spirit artifact develops its own sentience and gives birth to the artifact spirit, it would become entirely impossible to manipulate it with an Awakener's abilities.

However, Divine practitioners did not have Awakeners' abilities, to begin with, but they were still able to control their spirit artifacts freely back in the Divine Realm.

This is because artifact spirits of spirit artifacts can be spiritually connected to Divine practitioners after being bound by blood. Through the spiritual connection, the artifact spirit would freely follow the will of their master.

As such, Leon would no longer need to use Divine Will nor stronger awakening power to control the black spear once its sentience develops.

That being said, Leon did not have time to think about all this. He only frowned for a short moment before shrugging his shoulders.

"If you like it so much, I will let you hold onto it for now. I still have other weapons I can use. Watch my needles!"

Having said that, Leon shot several steel needles laced with blood-eroding poison. These needles were all aimed at Balthazar's vitals.

That being said, whether the needles landed on these vitals or not was not important. What is important is whether any of these needles landed.

No matter how strong Balthazar was, his body would still succumb to the overbearingly vicious poison if it was allowed to pierce his skin and enter his system.

Balthazar narrowed his eyes into slits as he could barely follow the trajectory of the silver needles. Not only was it currently dark at night, but the silver needles were also small and fast.

Even for someone like him, it was difficult to deflect all these needles with just his sword alone under these conditions. Nevertheless, grunted, "Hmph! Paltry tricks!"

A simple blood iron shield was used to block all the needles. The needles were quick, a testimony to Leon's adeptness in throwing weapons, but it still lacked power. Balthazar did not have to exert much effort to defend himself.

Balthazar pulled out the incredibly thin silver needles and inspected them before glaring at Leon.

"Acupuncture needles? First, you use poison, now you use them with hidden weapons?! Hmph! You're pretty insidious, huh?!"

The deformed steel needles were thrown back.

Balthazar was not adept at throwing. Thus, his strength was not correctly distributed into the needles, causing the already deformed needles to stray further from their intended target.

The accuracy and speed were terrible.

The deformed needles found their way back to Leon's hands effortlessly before they straightened back into shape under the manipulation of Leon's metal ability.

Balthazar's expression darkened. That would be the last time he would try using hidden weapons.

"I don't want to hear that coming from someone like you." Leon said with a frown before shouting, "Watch my needles!"

Balthazar immediately defended himself with another blood iron shield, large enough to block his own vision.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Leon did not stay in one spot and began circling around Balthazar and shoot from better angles where the blood iron shield did not cover.

He had given up on close combat.

"Watch my needles!"

Ding! Ding!

As expected, Balthazar was able to shift his blood iron shield and defend against it in time.

With Leon's call exposing his own location, it only served to make it easier for Balthazar. But even without his call, Balthazar would still have been able to defend against his attack.

"I don't know what you are trying to do, but you are making this too easy for me, brat! Did that last hit make you go stupid?" Balthazar mocked before coughing violently.

Leon did not seem to have heard him, or rather he had completely ignored it and continued to repeat the same move.

"Watch my needles!"

Ding! Ding!

"It's useless, brat! Try something else!" Balthazar sneered, but he did not lower his guard and continued to block each needle attack solemnly.

A few beads of sweat trickled down his temples. It only takes one of these smeared needles to kill him in his current condition.

"Watch my needles!"

"Watch my needles!"

"Watch my…!"

…

At some point, Balthazar could still hear Leon's cry, but he no longer felt the impact of the needle attack. After figuring out why, he became livid in the next moment.

"You dare to trick me?!"

"Watch my needles!" Leon shouted once more.

Balthazar immediately hid behind his shield again, but nothing happened. Popping his head back out from behind the shield, he was met with Leon's cynical smile.

Balthazar fell for Leon's trick again! He was so incensed he coughed up more blood. After wiping his mouth, he glared at Leon coldly.

If looks could kill, Leon would have died thousands of times over.

"It seems you are out of needles!" Balthazar stated with a deep voice.

As if to confirm his guess, he saw Leon taking out a sword. His eyes glinted with a greedy light. If he lives through this, he definitely had to find out where the brat was hiding all his weapons!

"Come!"

Balthazar gave a cruel smile.

Leon immediately lunged forward with his sword at his call. As Leon closed the distance and hacked out with his sword, he shouted, "Watch my needles!"

"Do you think I will still believe that?!"

Balthazar roared loudly and hacked out with his own sword to receive the attack.

He did not notice that Leon made a flicking gesture with his other hand shot out multiple needles and retreated abrupted before their swords made contact.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

The needles shot through Balthazar's left knee, right thigh, one straight through the stomach.

"Y-Y-You! You trick me!"

Balthazar pointed at Leon with trembling fingers. He was so angry he could not be any angrier. He was the Sect Master of the Bloodfiend Sect! When had he ever been played like this?!

"That's right, I tricked you! So what?" Leon said nonchalantly while giving Balthazar an impassive look. Once his attack succeeded, there was no saving the Blood Transcendent.

The poison spread quickly.

"You're despicable and shameless to the extreme!" Balthazar roared indignantly as his body grew weaker by the moment. He was unwilling to accept this type of outcome.

"All is fair in war." Leon shrugged, before adding. "I do not mind getting my hands dirty if ridding the world of one evil means saving countless innocent lives."

"Hahaha…"

Balthazar laughed with resignation while shaking his head like he heard something ridiculous. He became so weak that he could no longer stand. No matter how unwilling he was, death was inevitable.

"Trying to be a hero, eh? No matter how much evil you eradicate, this world is already doomed to perish. I am just the beginning, but they? They will be the end."

With that, Balthazar's eyes dimmed and quietly passed away.

Chapter 320 - No Work, No Meat!

Leon sighed after the ordeal was finally over. With the death of the sect master, the Bloodfiend Sect was finished in its truest sense.

However.

Leon frowned when he recalled Balthazar's last words. It was full of hidden implications and did not seem to have been said out of spite.

The origins of the Bloodfiend Sect's techniques were quite dubious. Could they have been colluding with demons? In that case, Balthazar would have been referring to the demons. The demons were planning to destroy the planet?

That should not be the case. Demons slaughter the weak and enslave the strong, but they still needed a habitable planet to survive.

Wiping out the planet would mean wiping out themselves, not to mention they need to have an incredibly strong demon at the level of the Divine King realm, a Demon King, to pull it off.

If there was a Demon King on Planet Gaia that intended to destroy the world, the world would have been fucked long ago.

Leon furrowed his brows and began to ponder deeper, but no matter how much he pondered, everything was mere speculations.

"It seems I need to start looking on the other side if I want to find my answers." Leon softly murmured before he had a look of determination. "Wait for me, mom! I will come save you soon!"

In the distance, Don's laughter could be heard echoing over as the said person soon dragged his body over and patted Leon's shoulders with both hands. "Hahaha! Well done, Leon boy! I—Ahem, I knew you could do it!"

Leon gave Grandmaster Don a sidelong glance and said, "Did you, Grandpa Don? Did you really? You didn't seem all that confident in me when you retreated so far away, though?" Leon doubted.

"I—Er… Of course, I was confident. I was trying not to get in your way, don't you know that? Did you forget how that old thing almost hacked me to death?" Don retorted shamelessly.

Leon shook his head with a soft laugh.

"How are you feeling, Grandpa Don?"

"Great, actually!" Don's eyes lit up before he praised, "The recovery medicine was super effective! Do you have any left? How about gifting Grandpa Don some more?"

Leon did not refuse Don's request and directly passed the grandmaster two pill bottles of Tier-3 All-Purpose Healing Pills.

Don gladly received the pill bottles before opening one of the caps and took a whiff on the high-quality medicinal scent.

"Leon boy, you actually have so many pills of this quality?" Don was pleasantly surprised after finding 10 pills in each bottle, before asking, "Where did get all the high-quality spirit herbs to refine these?"

"If Grandpa Don needs spirit herbs, perhaps Grandpa Don should pay a visit to the World Tree some time and ask some wood-users to help Grandpa Don cultivate them. The spirit energy there is vibrant." Leon answered in a roundabout way.

"Oh? Grandpa Don was planning on travel after this. It seems Grandpa Don must pay a visit to that place first."

"You were? Where are you planning to go, Grandpa Don?" Leon asked with surprise.

After a quick talk, Leon found out where Don was heading and why he was heading there.

The Transcendent realm was not the same as the Awakener and Ranked Awakener realms. If one wants to progress further in the Transcendent realm, one needed a suitable environment to comprehend the laws.

For this purpose, Don intended to head to the Ishaan Kingdom, where it was said to be the hottest place in the Human Domain.

"Alright, Grandpa Don's going to find your father for a talk and ease his worries."

"But before that, Grandpa Don might want to go find some clothes," Leon said with a soft laugh.

The grandmaster alchemist's pajamas were burnt away in the battle. All he had left to cover himself was a layer of flames.

Don was taken aback after a quick glance at himself before he nodded without the slightest shame, "En, that's true."

After Don left, Leon swept at look at the destruction around him before shaking his head.

"It seems the Upper District will also need to undergo some reconstruction. Fortunately, it's only the Upper East District that has been mainly affected by the battle."

Soon after, Leon's eyes fell back on Balthazar's corpse with black goo oozing out of his pores and orifices.

"I should clean up my mess first… father will take care of the rest." Leon mused.

He bent down and carefully searched through Balthazar's half-destroyed clothes with divine sense. Finding nothing of importance, he shifted his focus to the head.

"No Transcendent Crystal?"

Leon was surprised to find nothing, nothing at all.

Elemental seeds quickly disperse all its energy after Awakeners die, but Transcendent Crystals hold the crystallization of their law's comprehension and would not dissipate for a long time.

Therefore, they were able to find so many Transcendent Crystals from the previous era when they unearthed the deeper parts of the underground.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Leon discovered something in the heart region and located onto it with his divine sense. The thing seemed to have also realized that it was found out and quickly shot out from Balthazar's chest and tried to escape.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

Leon made a quick grasp with his hand and controlled the earth's surrounding rubbles to wrap around the thing and restrict its movement. Shortly after, it was brought back in front of him for a closer inspection.

The thing squirmed within the countless rubbles plastered to its body. It resisted and try to break free, but to no avail.

It had the appearance of blood crystal but appeared to be tainted with demonic energy. Two pairs of black pointy legs could be seen sticking out from the bottom and seemed rather creepy.

Leon sighed.

"Even Transcendent Crystals can be demonized. This must be the result of a Demon Seed fusing with the blood crystal. Too bad this blood crystal can no longer be used, but that is fine. This discovery more than makes up for it."

The Bloodfiend Sect was related to the demons.

Leon clenched his fist and crushed the crystal demon, shattering it into fragments like broken glass. After that, he waved his flaming hand and reduced everything to ashes, including Balthazar's corpse.

He cleaned up every trace of blood-eroding poison and proceeded to do the same to the rest of the poison where the core disciples were killed.

It was too irresponsible of him to leave behind such a dangerous thing for others to clean up. It would be bad if it fell into the wrong hand.

Once Leon was done with clean up, he collected his spear and silver needles scattered across the area before making his way over to the tri-building of Lost Isle Alley.

One of the buildings had been cleanly shaved off diagonally from the middle. The other two buildings were also either missing a third or a quarter of their upper section.

None of the buildings were in one piece, and the darkness profound energy escaped after the heaven gathering formation was destroyed, revealing the inside of Lost Alley Isle.

Leon sighed with relief after seeing the Teleportation Array in one piece.

If any of the attacks had been 6 feet lower, the Teleportation Array would have been caught in the attack.

"I should make some preparations and recover some strength first." Leon carefully considered with a frown.

If he chooses to teleport to the other side of the Teleportation Array now and run into a strong demon, not only would he not be saving anyone, he will also lose his life in vain.

After cleaning his body, Leon tossed away the ragged old clothes and took out a new set of common clothes from the Worldspace.

"I'll probably need to buy some new clothes while I'm at it."

Leon recalled the nice tailor shop in the Lower District he visited once. He wondered if the tailor shop's owner had been able to survive the spider disaster back then.

The first ray of sunlight soon shined on Leon's face and started the next day. He ran back through an entire night and fought until morning, but he did not feel tired.

In fact, he felt relaxed. No rest was needed. What is sleep even?

Shaking his head, Leon ingested a few pills and decided to head over to the workshop and fix his weapon, and forge some more items while he was over there.

…

Shortly after Leon left, palace guards arrived at the site and began directing dozens of city guards, hundreds of soldiers, and labor workers. They worked together to clear out the rubbles and patch up the cracks and craters in the ground.

"Move it, move it, move it! We have a lot of work to do today, people! Those who are too slow will not be getting any meat for breakfast!" A stern palace guard shouted.

"Ehhh? That is too cruel, Sir! You can't do that!"

A few people at the 2nd layer of the Body Tempering realm protested while the rest of the labor workers at the 3rd layer of the Body Tempering realm went straight into work without complaint.

"I'm afraid I can! His Majesty has given me free rein to decide what you can and cannot eat!" The palace guard grinned.

"Don't you know? Meat is a luxury now! All beast meat businesses with the Western Frontier had been cut off due to the recent strange events happening in the Wildlands! You should be happy that I am even giving you the option of having meat! If you don't want to lose it, then quickly get to work!"

"Y-Yes, Sir!"

The few ignorant labor workers were immediately shocked with wide eyes. They were not allowed to purchase beast meat from the Western Frontier anymore? What exactly was going on over there?

Chapter 321 - Departure

The Upper East District was soon bustling with activity. Earth-users could be seen moving loads of rubbles and into carts, while sturdy labor workers transport them.

The supervising palace guard pulled over by another palace guard before the person said, "Hey, are you sure you should be telling them that? Are you not afraid of starting a panic?"

"It's fine, it's fine. The King will be making this news public soon anyway. Besides, if I don't give them a heads-up now, wouldn't they starting rioting and refusing to work when they suddenly stop getting meat later? At least, they will find it more acceptable and not complain if they knew in advance."

"Eh? Is that the case? I guess what you say makes sense."

The palace guard agreed.

"En. Alright, if that is all you are asking, then hurry up and move it."

"Huh?" The palace guard was taken aback before asking, "What do you mean?"

"Don't huh me and get to work! Do you think you can have it easy before we know each other?" The supervising palace guard grinned evilly.

"Motherfucker! I am your older brother! You seem to have grown some guts just because you got lucky enough to be placed in charge of this operation, huh?!"

"My mother is your mother!"

"Eh? Oh yeah… You right, you right."

"Hmph! I am just trying to do my job faithfully! There'll be no special treatment from me, so hurry up and beat it! No work, no meat!"

"Y-Y-You… Fine! I will remember this, my dear little brother!" The palace guard scoffed with an embarrassed look before scurrying off to help clear the rubbles.

…

Western Frontier, Great Wall.

These past few days, the frequency of berserk beast sightings and attacks has increased with each passing day.

Usually, this would have been a good source of income for the military. Beast carcasses had always been in high demand by merchant beast buyers.

But ever since the first soldier got infected with the same berserk beast symptoms from eating their beast meat, they no longer dared to sell the beast carcasses to the merchants.

In fact, the chances of the berserk beast problem posing a severe threat to the kingdom were very likely. As such, the consumption of beast meat was strictly prohibited after General Marquis Hendrick returned to the Western Frontier with his son.

Anyone caught selling the beast carcasses outside of the Western Frontier would be meet with capital punishment, death.

General Marquis Hendrick had the foreboding feeling that the berserk beast symptoms were highly infectious and should be treated with all due seriousness like the Black Death.

Black Death was a terrible plague in human history that once wiped out half the population before the Cataclysm occurred.

They must not let the madness spread to the rest of the kingdom!

At the military camp's research facility, a few researchers and over a dozen soldiers held in captivity behind cages of reinforced magisteel bars.

Without a doubt, these captive soldiers are the soldiers infected by the berserk beast symptom.

Whitecoat researchers were seen gathered around said cages. They studied the infected soldier's behaviors and jotted down notes with their pens.

"Alright, don't stick too close to the cages now. If you let them scratch or bite you, we will have no choice but to lock you behind a cage as well." A researcher reminded.

"Yeah, yeah, we know. Who would want to become like this?"

After Hendrick arrived at the facility, the whitecoat researchers all paused their work and saluted.

"General Marquis!"

"Carry on with your tasks." Hendrick acknowledged and waved them off before strolling over to the head researcher. "How's the study going? What have you found?"

"Have a look, General."

The head researcher passed Hendrick a sealed vial of glass. Inside the glass vial, a cluster of red mist twirled like an inverted cyclone trying to drill out of the sealed vial.

"This should have been extracted from the berserk beast, and should also be the root cause of their berserk state, right? Have you found out why?" Hendrick Graham asked.

"Yes, that is correct, General. This is the red energy extracted from the berserk beast. However, it might not be the root cause of the berserk state." The head researcher stated.

"In our studies, we have found that infected people with mild effects share similar traits to the berserk beast state. However, the more extreme cases showed loss of intelligence and a strong thirst for blood."

"This red energy does have the effect of aggravating one's emotions and stimulating the body's potential... but I feel like we are still missing something important. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it shouldn't be this simple..."

Hendrick's brows furrowed at the head researcher's explanation for a moment with a pondering look, but he soon shook his head.

He patted the head researcher's shoulders and said, "You are the most authoritative person in this field. If you believe something is missing, then something is missing. Try to figure out what that is, then report back to me."

"Yes, General!"

The head researcher felt honored by General Marquis Hendrick's unreserved trust in him. He patted his chest, and resolutely said, "I will not fail you!"

"En, I know you won't. Continue the good work!"

…

Back at the Capital.

After Leon finished his business at the Duke's workshop, he dropped by the royal palace to make some prior arrangements with his father before his eventual departure for the other side.

But before he left the workshop, he had handed Duke Ignis the complete method for Tier 1 to Tier 3 runic engravings of the interspatial artifact and spirit artifact making.

Leon did not know how long it would take him to get back from the other side, but he knew he would not be around when his mother returns to the Capital with Aria and Lynne.

As such, he had gifted his father a set of Tier 3 interspatial ring and sword before handing over another three such sets for his father to pass onto his mother, Aria, and Lilith in his stead.

When he tried to leave the palace, his father had attempted to persuade him from going to the other side of the Teleportation Array due to the unknown dangers. When his father suggested sending troops to explore the other side first, Leon firmly rejected the idea.

It was a terrible idea.

From what they had learned from his adoptive father and the other returners, the other side's environment was harsh and not suitable for humans.

The other side was lacking in sunlight and spirit energy. On top of that, darkness profound energy loomed the place among various other elements harmful to humans.

The troops would not be able to adapt to changes in the environment. They would just pass out within the first hour of arriving from the suffocating feeling like his adoptive father had experienced.

If they could not get these troops back, it was basically the same as sending them to the other side to get killed or demonized.

Even if they did manage to recover the troops from the other side, just the fact that he had to remove the demon seeds was very bothersome and exhausting.

The plan was clearly not feasible.

In the end, it was still better that he went alone.

He had a much tougher constitution due to the practice of [Hegemon of Primal Chaos].

Furthermore, Divine Will could ward off the impure energy, while the pure spirit energy from his supreme-grade spirit stones could replace the air he breathes.

Also, he was not exactly going alone. He has a Half Corporeal-state spirit to accompany him on this trip.

There was a reason why Leon did not rely on Lumi's help in his battle against Balthazar previously, despite having the spirit girl lying comfortably in his Worldspace by the little cold biome he set up to cultivate his yin-type herbs.

Soul cultivators are strong against body cultivators, but soul cultivators are also weak against energy cultivators.

Although Balthazar was not an energy cultivator, he had used energy attacks empowered by his blood law and sword spirit. One such attack was enough to kill Lumi.

When Leon returned to Lost Isle Alley, the surrounding rubbles had been mostly cleared. The cracks and craters were also patched in this short span of a few hours since he left.

One could see that the work efficiency of the people was very high. Everything was so much simpler with the Awakener's abilities.

The area was crowded with workers on break, but none of them dare to draw too close to Lost Isle Alley. This is because it was guarded by palace guards.

Leon's arrival drew a few curious glances over. Some recognized him, some did not. Regardless of whether they did or not, no one dared to speak carelessly and kept quiet as they enjoyed their food.

"Your Highness!"

The palace guards all greeted after seeing the prince approached them.

Leon silently acknowledged them with a nod before hopping on top of the Teleportation Array. After he inserted the empty power sockets with 4 supreme-grade spirit stones and activated the array, the spatial portal to the other side opened.

His eyes flickered with a determined look. All preparations were done.

"Your Highness, are you leaving now?" A palace guard hurriedly asked.

"En!" Leon nodded.

"You know what you have to do. Protect this place well for me!"

Shortly after, he disappeared through the spatial portal. A new world was waiting for him on the other side!

Chapter 322 - Black Swamp

The other side. The demon's territory. The land of darkness.

In this world, dark clouds loomed over the skies and blotted out all the sunlight all year round. If not for the red moon's dreary crimson light, the world would be plunged into perpetual darkness.

One could even say that on this land, day and night are reversed. Night is day, and day is night.

"So, this is what lies on the other side?" Leon quietly murmured to himself.

After arriving, his vigilance was raised to the max and refrained himself from scouting with divine sense.

Some creatures were sensitive divine sense. He could not guarantee that using divine sense would give away his location.

[Spirit Eyes]

His blackish-grey pupils began to glow with a silver light.

Smothering black gas filled his vision while the ground felt wet and soft. He found himself in a black swamp with water levels reaching his knees while countless bones littered the place.

Everything he could see was painted black by the boundless darkness profound energy.

"No signs of demons so far," Leon concluded after sensing no nearby lifeforms. Shortly after, his brows furrowed.

"There are so many bones belonging to demons, beasts, and even humans are in this place. A big battle must have happened here long ago…"

Leon suddenly paused.

He picked up a white human skull and rubbed the texture, before continuing his analysis, "…However, a portion of these bones are very fresh. Their age doesn't match the rest of the bones."

At this point, Leon's heart trembled slightly on a certain possibility, but he quickly shook his head out of such thinking.

"No, these skulls greatly resemble humans, but there are also some minor differences. Nothing is conclusive yet. Mom and the others might still be alive."

With that in mind, Leon continued to study the surrounding.

"It's no wonder that adoptive father and the others passed out so quickly after arriving. There is such a high concentration of miasma in this place. Something big must have also happened here recently. Also…"

At this point, Leon slightly lifted his knees and checked each leg. He shook his head when his long pants had transformed into shorts. Wiggling his toes, he found that his leather boots had also disappeared.

In that regard, Leon felt a bit helpless.

He had prepared quite a few spare sets of clothes for the trip, but he did not prepare extra shoes. It appeared that he would barefooted until he finds something to wear.

"…This black water possesses some level of corrosiveness. It is not enough to threaten me in the short term but soak in it for a few days, and I would also be joining the rest of the bones.

The corrosive black water only affected Leon's skin with mild itchiness, but he did not fancy the idea of becoming a pile of bones. Thus, it was better to leave the black swamp soon.

Divine Will rippled out from his body and subtly warded away the surrounding black gas. The black swamp water was also divided, revealing the Tier 4 Teleportation Array below his feet.

This Tier 4 Teleportation Array was different from the one in Lost Isle Alley, but both were absolutely necessary for spatial travel between the two locations.

If someone tries to jump through a teleportation array without having the other one, the chances of being sent into the void were relatively high.

That being said, both teleportation arrays do not need to be activated simultaneously for spatial travel. One was enough, but the other one must be activated for the return trip.

As Leon studied the array, his eyes flashed with an understanding look.

"I see, the array is hidden in quite an unassuming location, and the demon core's energy had also been depleted."

From these clues, he was able to determine the reason why the others failed to return with the rest of the group.

"But… who would build such a profound array in such an obscured location? It's like they don't want anyone to find it."

Leon frowned with a pondering look.

This was contrary to his belief that the demons were plotting something against them.

But whatever the case may be, it was at least certain that the one who laid the teleportation arrays was very familiar with both locations.

However, he did not ponder too deeply. He believed that the answer would come to him eventually. First and foremost, he needed to find his adoptive mother. Everything else comes after.

Leon continued to search for clues within the black swamp.

Amidst the mountain of bones found in the area, he also found some interesting weapons and equipment under the black water. In fact, they were fascinating!

A bone sword was soon picked up for study.

"These weapons are quite primitive, but bone is quite sharp and strong. These are some good bones, but the runic enchantments are even better!" Leon commented as he studied the Tier 2 runic engravings.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Leon noticed something different from the weapon.

"This bone sword had an artifact spirit, but… it's already dead… The runes on this bone sword are all focused on increasing the weapon's attack power and destructiveness. Could this be a forbidden artifact?"

The discovery surprised him.

Forbidden artifacts could not evolve like spirit artifacts, but they had much higher base power than spirit artifacts without their artifact spirits.

There was only one person in the history of the Divine Realm who knew how to create forbidden artifacts.

Furthermore, the Divine Realm was once swept in a great storm because this person refused to share his knowledge with others, leading to multiple powers hunting him down for his runic knowledge.

Eventually, this great master artificer was forced into a dead end after he dived into the Divine Realm's blackhole.

Upon closer inspection, Leon shook his head.

Even if that great master artificer survived, he would not craft such a low tier weapon. Some minor details did not match with what he knew of forbidden artifacts.

Leon felt a faint trace of malevolent aura from the dead artifact spirit.

"No, this bone sword is a bit different from a forbidden artifact, but it's not quite a spirit artifact either." Leon mused while resting his chin on the back of his hand.

"A demonic artifact?"

The sudden thought occurred to him. Although he had not heard of demonic artifacts, it did not mean that they did not exist. Anything was possible. There were many things in Gaia that the Divine Realm did not have.

"In any case, this is a decent weapon. It would be a waste to not keep it. Perhaps, I can pass it onto one of my subordinates."

With that thought, Leon tossed the bone sword into his Worldspace and began pocketing all the weapons he could find.

In the end, he looted over 200 items from the black swamp. These weapons all ranged from Tier 1 to Tier 4.

Leon was very satisfied with his findings. Of the 200 items looted, there was six Tier 4 weapons, and of these six Tier 4 weapons, one of them was a bone spear. This bone spear was much stronger than his current black spear.

Suddenly, Leon sighed.

"Haiz, I ended up getting sidetracked. If mom and the others are still alive, they would have already left the black swamp. I need to look elsewhere." Leon frowned.

"Hey Leon, let me out. I want to see the world, as well." Lumi suddenly transmitted her thoughts to Leon from inside the Worldspace.

"Hm? Alright, give me a sec." Leon agreed.

Shortly after, Lumi appeared from the void and floated beside him.

"Wow, there's so much yin energy in the air." Lumi immediately gasped with a content expression.

"If you are already like this with this little bit of yin energy, then it is hard to imagine what you will be like when you go to Extreme Misty Forest," Leon said wryly.

"Extreme Misty Forest? I've heard of that place, but I've never actually been there. Is there really a lot of yin energy there?" Lumi asked curiously.

"It has yin energy if nothing else," Leon said confidently with a smile. He did not doubt that vengeful spirits many times stronger than Lumi exists within the forest.

It was unfortunate that he could not venture too deep before he chickened out by the terribly ominous vibes it gave off.

But that is fine. Leon still had a long road ahead of him. There are plenty of chances to explore the forest once he reaches the Transcendent realm.

"Really?"

"Really!"

Lumi had her doubts, but her eyes soon glowed brightly after receiving Leon's affirmation. However, her eyes dampened shortly after.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Leon said, "Don't worry. I will honor my words. Once we rescue the people here, I will release you from the Blood Imprint regardless of the results. You'll be free to go explore Extreme Misty Forest all you want when we return."

"Alright!" Lumi said excitedly before adding, "What are we waiting for then? Let's go save the people!"

Leon shook his head wryly at Lumi's excitement. She was easily convinced like an innocent and sweet little girl. When he recalls the story of how Lumi became a vengeful spirit, he found it quite unfortunate.

Being born beautiful was a disaster when you do not have the strength to protect yourself. Aria would have likely gone through the same experience if they had not met.

"Alright, alright! There's nothing here, so we head north to look."

Leon shoved the unpleasant thoughts to the back of his head and focused on the journey ahead of them.

Chapter 323 - The Weeping Forest

"Leon, Leon, have a look! Is this useful?" Lumi handed over a piece of white bone that appeared to have been the tooth of an incredibly large beast.

The tooth was sharpened and enchanted with runic engravings.

After a careful inspection, Leon nodded, "A Tier 3 Bone Dagger, this is good stuff. Nice find, Lumi!"

"Hehe!" Lumi giggled and said excitedly, "I'll go look for more!"

With that, Lumi darted back into the pile of bones and rummaged for more treasures. All this while, Leon continued to split the swamp water ahead of them with Divine Will for easier findings.

He had been looting all the treasures he could find along the way, causing Lumi to become interested in joining him after her curiosity was piqued by his actions.

After three hours of travel, they had looted more than 500 items in total. As for the number of bones collected, it was an even more significant amount!

Some of these bones were incredibly ancient and sturdy, making them relatively good materials for crafting weapons. Since Leon had such large storage space, it was waste not to collect everything he deemed useful.

"We've seen at least millions of bones if not tens of millions since we got here. These bones even range between thousands of years old to as short as a few hundred. Do you have any idea what might have happened here, Lumi?" Leon casually asked.

"Um, um, maybe some sort of big battle?" Lumi answered unconfidently with her head tilted to the side while rubbing it with a long piece of white bone in her hand.

"Hahaha, right." Leon smiled wryly.

Lumi's was a bit simpleminded.

"But it's not just one big battle, but also many battles. Perhaps a great war had broken out long ago, but this Black Swamp isn't just a graveyard, it's still an active warzone."

"Despite that, we have yet to run into anyone or anything since we arrived. Why is that the case? What about you, Maya? What do you think?" Leon asked his artifact spirit instead.

Since the [Divine Book of Life] was bound to his soul core, it was not strange for him to have the ability to share his senses with Maya.

After continuous usage of [Spirit Eyes], his pupils' color has become noticeably more grey.

At this moment, the blackish-grey pupils lit up with a soft golden glow. Through his eyes, Maya was able to see the outside world.

"Maybe you are just lucky to have arrived after the last battle ended." After a quick glance, Maya answered lazily before asking, "Where are the books you promised me?"

"Ahem, soon… soon… You'll get them soon." Leon coughed with a slightly embarrassed expression. He had been so busy he had forgotten about Maya's one tiny request.

After that, he agreed with Maya's view.

"En, the last battle must have happened roughly a few days ago, according to some of these bones' freshness. If we don't want to get caught up in the next battle, we need to quickly leave this area."

"That's enough, Lumi. We are leaving now!" Leon hollered.

"E-Eh? How come? I think there's still a lot of useful stuff lying around." Lumi asked with a slight complaint while holding onto three items in her arms. She was just having fun treasure hunting.

"If we do not leave quickly, it might become troublesome later. Besides, there are so many bones of demons, beasts, and humans, but so little treasures lying about."

"Evidently, there are also people who come to reclaim these things. If we take them all, those people will realize something and come looking for us." Leon explained patiently.

He did not doubt that if they spent the time to scourge through the entire Black Swamp, the number of treasures would likely exceed ten thousand. However, the chances of landing themselves in an unfavorable situation were also highly probable.

It is fine to be greedy but being too greedy was a disaster.

"Hmm... fine."

Lumi reluctantly acquiesce.

After passing two items over for Leon to store away in his Worldspace, Lumi held onto the last artifact and refused to let go.

It was a bone whistle enchanted by Tier 3 runic engravings and appeared to be quite useful in amplifying sound attacks.

The way Leon saw it, the stronger Lumi was, the better off they were in this unknown land ruled by demons. There was already conclusive evidence that demons ran rampant in these lands.

As such, Leon did not quibble with Lumi over this small matter.

The bones of true demons were vastly different from the bones of other races. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge about demons would be able to recognize them easily.

This is because the bones of true demons are not white like other races, but rather jet black in color. Even demonic beasts do not possess black bones.

After spending another 2 hours traveling north, Leon and Lumi finally left the Black Swamp region full of miasma and arrived before a patch of dry land covered with towering trees.

"Wow, what kind of trees are these? I have never seen trees like these before! Look, Leon, look! It's so pretty!" Lumi exclaimed while pointing. Her wide eyes were practically glued on the forest ahead of them.

"I can see that."

Leon smiled lightly.

"Surprisingly, there are plants that could survive in an environment like this," Leon commented.

Shortly after, he softly murmured, "It seems the Divine Realm needs to re-evaluate the way we view darkness profound energy."

Many races in the Divine Realm, also referred to darkness profound energy as death energy. This is because darkness profound energy was found harmful to all life.

Other than demons, only a select few individuals with extraordinary physiques had been known to be able to wield darkness profound energy.

The trees were all roughly 500fts tall, not a very impressive height compared to the World Tree, but its height was never the focal point.

The trunk and branches were all white as pure snow while the leaves were of a floral violet color. The entire tree emitted a soft glow and gave off a devilish yet otherworldly vibe that could be mistaken for being holy.

Leon's eyes became unfocused, and a faint feeling of wanting to prostrate to worship the tree sprouted in Leon's heart. His knees started to bend slightly.

Lumi noticed Leon's strange action, and curiously asked, "What are you doing, Leon?"

As soon as she asked, Leon immediately snapped out of his daze, and cold sweats began breaking out all over his body like he had just be splashed with a bucket of cold water.

"What the hell was I planning to do just now?" Leon asked himself before looking at Lumi with a grateful look. "Thanks, Lumi. You saved me just now."

"Eh? When did I do that? You are talking funny, Leon." Lumi was confused, but she still accepted his gratitude with a bashful look.

Leon shook his head with a smile before glaring at the forest with a sharp look.

"This forest is dangerous! I was too careless and almost got myself ensnared by its illusions. As expected of the demon's territory. Danger lurks at every corner."

Leon began to frown.

Danger that can be sensed is no real danger as they can be avoided. On the other hand, danger that cannot be sensed is indeed perilous.

"I don't think this type of tree is recorded in the [Archive]. What do you think, Maya? Do you recognize what they are?"

He was not too sure if the [Archive] had records of it, but it was simpler to ask Maya since she was the artifact spirit. She had access to everything within the [Divine Book of Life].

Leon's eyes briefly glowed golden again as Maya glanced at the otherworldly trees through Leon's eyes.

Shortly after, she became speechless. What nonsense are you talking about? More like you are too lazy to check! The [Archive] obviously has records of this tree!

"I'm too lazy to explain. Have a look at the information yourself!"

A string of information was shortly transmitted to Leon's mind directly from the [Archive].

"Ahem, I'm just trying to create more chances for us to talk more. Look, we obviously need to rely on each other, so isn't it a good thing for us to learn more about each other to cooperate better?" Leon suggested after issuing a dry cough.

"What utter bullshit. You are just trying to learn more heavenly techniques from me."

"That's not true at all!" Leon tried to deny, but his face was flushed with embarrassment for being called out so quickly.

Maya rolled her eyes inside the Worldspace and asked, "Where are my promised books?"

Leon was immediately silenced.

"Where are my promised books?" Maya asked again.

"Why are you asking about that again?" Leon rubbed his temples. He felt an incoming

"Where are my promised books?"

"…"

In the end, muted the artifact spirit by cutting off her connection to his mind. As the master of the heavenly artifact and his own body, he at least had this power over the artifact spirit.

Inside the Worldspace, Maya realized her connection to the outside was cut off and became annoyed. Did that brat just mute me? Son of a…

…

…

Tranquility returned to Leon. He began to peruse the information with a piece of mind.

"I see, the trees before me are called Weeping Trees, a yin-type plant. They produce a type of traceless and odorless hallucinogen that draws their victims into an illusive sad dream. This is where the origin of its name comes from."

Understanding this much, Leon began to frown deeply.

There was a reason why he does not sleep.. Even if he were to sleep, it would not be alone.

Chapter 324 - There Are Only Two Types Of Techniques

When Leon recalled the death of his father, he was surrounded by a bit of gloomy air. The memory remained vivid like it had just happened yesterday.

He would never forget, never forgive, and never relent! Kill those who deserve to be killed and spare those who deserve to be spared!

The ungrateful and greedy Divine Kings of the three Divine Regions had once received many favors from his father, and the traitorous subjects who broke their oaths to pursue their own self-interest.

If he were to add anyone else to his to-kill list, it would be his so-called 'best friend,' Bartram Maganti, the young master of the Maganti family.

The Maganti family was the most powerful family that resided in their Divine Pill Kingdom. They were only slightly inferior to his royal family back in the Divine Realm.

The [Divine Book of Life] was a tightly guarded secret of his father that even he did not know until much later. How the news found its way to the ears of the Divine Kings was beyond him.

Leon was not sure if Bartram Maganti and Maganti family played any part in their downfall, but he was at least confident that Bartram had once plotted against him, making them enemies. It was also much later that he learned Bartram had been infatuated with Aria.

Leon's eyes flickered with a sharp look, and the surrounding air became oppressive as he recalled the matters of his past.

Lumi had been excited about entering Weeping Forest, but after seeing Leon like this, she behaved herself and kept very silent.

The oppressive feeling did not last for long before Leon reined it in. He was still far from taking revenge. He had to become much, much stronger.

After the oppressive feeling retracted, Lumi became slightly braver and hesitantly asks, "Leon, Leon, are we going to go through there?"

Lumi pointed at the Weeping Forest with a hint of anticipation. The Weeping Forest was richer in Yin energy, something quite beneficial for spirits like her.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Let us go." Leon nodded after temporarily pushing the gloomy thoughts to the back of his mind.

It was fortunate that he had Lumi to accompany him. Even if he were to be affected by the hallucinogens again, Lumi would be there to rouse him awake.

The hallucinogens do not affect spirits because they did not possess any physical bodies. However, it was hard to say whether this would remain unchanged or not after they become fully corporeal.

Leon swallowed a Poison Cleansing Pill to rid himself of the hallucinogens in his body, he summoned an invisible barrier of Divine Will to protect himself.

After they reached the Weeping Forest, Leon flew up and landed one of the Weeping Trees' top branches.

Lumi floated along his side with a curious look and asked, "What are we doing up here, Leon?"

"We are going to wait here for a bit. This should be a pretty good spot, right, Lumi?" Leon asked.

The Weeping Tree branches gave off a cold chilly feeling due to the dense amount of Yin energy residing inside.

"Mm! Mm!"

Lumi nodded as she plastered herself to the Weeping Tree and greedily absorbed the Yin energy. However, she did not quite understand the details. Thus, she lifted her head and asked, "But why do we need to wait here?"

"Although we cannot really see through the Black Swamp's miasma, this spot still gives us a good view. If anyone or anything approaches the Black Swamp, we would know. There is a good chance that we will be seeing some humans if we wait patiently. They might be able to tell us where the missing people are."

Searching blindly for the missing people did not seem like a good plan.

Since he had discovered some relatively fresh human bones among the mountain of bones in the Black Swamp, it meant that there are still other humans living in this godforsaken land.

If anyone was to know where his adoptive mother and the other missing people went, it would be these people.

"Ah, I see~ I understand now—Wait a minute, doesn't this feel like we are hiding up here?"

"That is because we are, Lumi. Sometimes, humans can be even scarier than demons. It would be bad if they turn out to be demon followers instead. But even if they were not demon followers, the possibility of them being hostile to outsiders like us still exists. So, we need to observe the situation first and act accordingly."

"Eh? I never thought of things like that. Why are humans so complicated? Shouldn't humans be united against a common enemy like in the stories?"

Lumi's brows were cutely knitted together.

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately." Leon sighed.

He recalled the times he spent accompanying his father on his tours around the mortal kingdoms in the lower star realms back in the Divine Realm. In those places, humans were always waging war against each other.

"With sufficient benefits, humans are willing to betray their own friends and families for their own interest, while desperation will lead them to betray their own kingdoms. As such, it would not be strange to see humans betraying their own race if their lives are at stake."

Leon shook his head.

"We don't know what we will be facing until we face it. Take this chance to cultivate and get stronger." Leon said before asking, "Lumi should know how to cultivate, right?"

Lumi nodded vigorously and truthfully answered, "Mm! Mm! Little Big-Chested Sister taught me how to!"

"Little Big Sister?" Leon repeated. He gave Lumi an odd look before asking, "Who is your Little Big Sister?"

Lumi panicked slightly, not knowing how to answer his question. After careful consideration, she replied, "Little Big Sister is… is Little Big Sister."

"That… never mind. Just go cultivate."

Leon decided to just drop the topic. It was not important. However, shortly after Lumi began cultivating, he was quickly stunned.

A little whirlpool was formed as Lumi greedily devoured the Yin energy and refined them all at an incredible rate. It was extraordinarily quick!

Vengeful spirits knew how to cultivate subconsciously when they gained awareness, but it was a different story entirely whether they had a good soul cultivation method to use or not.

Leon had expected Lumi to be using the standard soul cultivation method, but Lumi should be using a very impressive soul cultivation method to cultivate from what he was seeing.

His mind was changed quickly. He was now interested in who this 'Little Big Sister' Lumi spoke of. He knew that Lumi should not have been in contact with many people since she was always hidden in Lost Isle Alley.

The soul cultivation method could not have been taught by Lumi's other personality unless it was actually not another personality but another soul residing in Lumi.

"Ahem, say Lumi, where did this Little Big Sister teach you such an impressive soul cultivation method?" Leon could not help but ask. He was too curious.

"Um, Little Big Sister taught Lumi inside of Leon's world."

"Huh?"

Leon was able to draw a conclusion after hearing this much. The one who taught Lumi such a high-grade soul cultivation method was undoubtedly Maya. It must have happened during the short time Lumi stayed inside his Worldspace.

However, he was surprised as much as he was confused. Why was Maya called Little Big Sister?

After a quick peek inside the Worldspace, Leon understood the reason. Maya had transformed into a beautiful mature lady from her usual child form.

He was not aware of what had transpired between them, but having understood that the soul cultivation method came from Maya, Leon no longer found it strange and was even slightly amused.

After some small talk, Leon closed his eyes and began to focus on his own cultivation.

Darkness profound energy was supposedly harmful to the human body, but this did not apply to Leon, thanks to the unique physique from practicing the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos].

If Leon still did not know what the purpose of the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] technique was at this point, then he would be an idiot.

The [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] is used to forge a God Body and not just any God Body but also a God Body amongst God Bodies. True to its name, complete mastery of this [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] technique would allow him to lord over everything with his physical body alone.

He was still far from reaching that stage, but at the very least, the technique had allowed him greater resisters and affinity to all the elements.

Knowing that Darkness profound energy would not harm him, Leon began devouring Darkness profound energy at a leisure pace.

Having reached the 9-star Ranked Awakener realm, Leon was not sure how to advance further. It would take more than just energy to achieve transcendence. He needed to comprehend a deeper level into the laws, but he also had too many laws to comprehend.

If comprehending a law was all it took to reach transcendence, he would have already broken through to become a Fire Transcendent, upon reaching 9-stars with his current Fire Law's comprehension. However, that was not the case.

Leon realized that his path to transcendence was bound to be different from others. But without any solution to the problem, he basically stuck at a bottleneck.

Since it was not possible to advance his Awakening cultivation, Leon shifted his focus to something else.

Leon took out the [Blood Refining Art] manuals he had previously looted from the dead disciples and began to study them in earnest. Perhaps, he could learn something useful.

"There are no evil techniques, only evil cultivators." Leon quietly whispered to himself.

There were only two types of existing techniques in Leon's dictionary: the useful ones and the useless ones.