Stepping into the Domain Lord Rank

Within the sea of consciousness, five nearly transparent rootlets emerged from the tip of the pitch-black Seed.

"What a pity. I only had one rootlet when we started, so I missed out on so many World Lord Rank beetles..."

"Your soul devouring has a time limit?"

Bai Muye was greatly astonished; this had never happened before.

"Of course," Xiao Si replied with a hint of regret. "It's not just Universe Rank or Domain Lord Rank; even those World Lords—if I can't devour their souls immediately after they die, they dissipate very quickly... In your previous life-and-death battles, they were all one-on-one, and I always devoured them the moment you killed your opponent."

"The biggest shame was that Immortal... sigh," Xiao Si sighed. "Even if just a tiny bit had remained, I could have devoured it. But in the end, his divine body was completely ground to nothing by that woman, not even leaving me a scrap of residue..."

Bai Muye suddenly recalled a question: after breaking through from World Lord to Immortal, the soul actively disintegrates and merges into every cell—

"So you can only devour souls below the Immortal level? Once they reach Immortal, you can't devour them anymore?"

"That's how it is in the Seed state, of course," Xiao Si said as if it were obvious. "Once I grow into a seedling, I'll be able to handle ordinary Immortals..."

"How long is your growth cycle?"

"Sigh!" Xiao Si sighed for the second time. "Originally, it would have been very fast. For an existence like me, the Seed stage is quick. As long as I start the cycle of reincarnation and absorb the Hunyuan energy from the Infinite Hunyuan Space, I can grow into a seedling in no time. But now, I'm inside the Cage, and most importantly, I'm bound to you..."

"There are infinite possibilities outside the Cage, but inside your body, there is simply no soil for me to take root. At the very least, I need you to become a World Lord and give birth to an internal world before I can take root and sprout... So, hurry up and cultivate to the World Lord Rank!"

"I'd like to, but you keep stealing my Yulang Liquid," Bai Muye rolled his eyes. "Otherwise, I'd probably be at the peak of Universe Rank nine by now..."

"Hehe..." Xiao Si felt a bit awkward, but immediately added, "It's fine now. I devoured quite a few World Lord souls this time, along with some Domain Lords, and look, I've grown several new rootlets..."

"By the way, you said last time that your rootlets could extract energy for my cultivation. Where is the energy?"

"It's here, it's here. How could I forget that? But..."

"But what?"

"It's like this: when I extract energy, the body being drained undergoes obvious changes once it loses its energy. I'm afraid of being noticed by those World Lords, so I can only target bodies that have already been blasted to pieces. Therefore, I can't extract much energy, and after refining it, there's even less..."

"Being cautious is the right thing to do," Bai Muye nodded in understanding. "Avoiding detection is best. So, how much energy is there this time?"

"Definitely more than the Yulang Liquid I ate before. It's enough for you to reach the peak of Universe Rank nine, no problem. However, it's best to wait until you're actually cultivating to give it to you, otherwise the energy fluctuations on you will be too strong and might cause trouble..."

"Fine." Energy was actually secondary; as long as there was enough time, he could always cultivate it. What he cared about most were the insights from cultivation. "Since you devoured so many souls this time, the memories are still there, right?"

"Of course they are. But if you want to deeply integrate them, it will take quite a bit of time. Why don't you wait until you're cultivating to look at them?"

The saucer-shaped spacecraft flew through the Black Meteor Mountain Range for half a day before entering the belly of a mountain.

Inside the mountain was a military camp with a space far larger than the spacecraft, allowing every soldier to have their own independent cultivation room.

After settling in, every World Lord summoned their subordinates into the Virtual Universe to review the battle that had just taken place.

After logging out of the Virtual Universe, Bai Muye took out the Space Ring given to him by Zhan Qiu and probed it, shaking his head with a sense of frustration.

Other than the ring's internal space being larger than the one he currently had, there was nothing of value inside.

Shaking off the frustration, he turned his consciousness toward his sea of consciousness.

"A World Lord died in our squad this time too," Bai Muye asked Xiao Si. "You devoured his soul as well, right?"

"Yes."

"Show me his memories first..."

Xiao Si flicked a rootlet, and a massive cluster of memories appeared.

In this confrontation with the Mo'er Race, although the human side had a higher average combat power, they still lost a World Lord during the final desperate counterattack by the Mo'er Race World Lords.

This World Lord was named Tan Youming. He had broken through to the World Lord Rank less than five hundred years ago and was only at the fourth stage, making him the weakest among all the World Lords under Dongluo. Consequently, the Mo'er Race World Lords had targeted him as a breakthrough point to escape.

To complete the mission of total annihilation, Tan Youming fought to the death to block them. Although the mission was accomplished, he was simultaneously attacked by several ninth-stage Mo'er Race World Lords. Even though Zhu Ang and the others tried their best to rescue him, he ultimately fell.

Thousands of years ago, he had arrived at the Outer Battlefield with the strength of a ninth-stage Universe Rank and joined the Dongluo Legion.

After participating in several battles, he successfully broke through to the Domain Lord Rank, and five hundred years ago, he broke through to the World Lord Rank.

"It's a pity he didn't receive the recognition of the Laws, otherwise he might not have fallen..." After browsing through the memories, Bai Muye sighed inwardly.

Tan Youming had entered the World Lord Rank through the ninth level of the Earth Domain, so his insights into the realm were of little help to Bai Muye. However, what Bai Muye valued most was his thousands of years of combat experience on the Outer Battlefield.

"Deeply integrating this will likely take a considerable amount of time. By then, we might already be setting off. I'd better absorb the energy first to make myself stronger..."

With his mind made up, he communicated with Xiao Si, who slowly extended a rootlet and probed directly into his Dantian.

In the center of his boundless Dantian sat a massive black hole. Outside the black hole were eight magnificent, swirling galaxies, each with a tiny black hole on its spiral arm, slowly rotating around the core black hole.

A transparent rootlet reached in from the void, and its tip began to spew out incredibly pure energy. This energy was of extremely high purity, having been extracted by Xiao Si from the World Lord level and then refined using its own power.

As the energy surged into the Dantian, the core black hole and the eight black holes on the spiral arms shuddered, their suction force increasing dramatically as they devoured, absorbed, and digested the incoming energy...

The energy from the rootlet flowed out at a nearly constant rate. Because the energy was so pure, Bai Muye barely needed to refine it; he absorbed it easily, completely converting it into his own origin energy.

A day later, a feeling of "fullness" surged from Bai Muye's Dantian. He sensed it and realized he had finally reached the upper limit of the Universe Rank—the peak of Universe Rank nine!

He had an urge to strike while the iron was hot and attempt a breakthrough immediately, but after calming down for a moment, he extinguished the thought.

Having just reached the peak by absorbing energy, the power within his body wasn't perfectly harmonious yet. It was best to settle for a few days, completely refine the power within, and then make a breakthrough in one go.

He cast aside other thoughts, not even connecting to the Virtual Universe, and focused entirely on circulating the energy within his body. It wasn't until five days later, when he felt his internal power had become perfectly unified, that he began to attempt the breakthrough.

Before breaking through, he repeatedly reviewed the experiences of Tan Youming regarding the breakthrough from Universe Rank to Domain Lord. Only after he fully understood the process did he begin to work toward his own breakthrough.

"Rumble~"

The suction force of the central black hole within his dantian suddenly intensified, and the small black holes on the eight spiral arms also continuously increased their pull, drawing in the surrounding brilliant stars.

The suction force of the central black hole grew ever stronger, devouring everything within the dantian that could be absorbed, even swallowing the eight small black holes until only that massive black hole remained in the entire dantian.

When the entire black hole expanded to its limit, it suddenly began to collapse rapidly toward its center.

This collapse happened at an extreme speed, and soon the entire black hole vanished. Yet, in the very next instant, a dull, grayish sphere appeared where the black hole had been—a Singularity!

Once the Singularity stabilized, it suddenly generated a suction force that swept away all the energy remaining from before the breakthrough.

Immediately afterward, it spewed forth endless energy. As this energy surged into the body of Bai Muye, his physical form began to undergo a earth-shattering transformation...