Crossing into Domain Lord Rank

In his Consciousness Sea, five nearly transparent roots had appeared at the tip of the pitch-black seed.

"Such a pity. I started out with only one root. I missed out on so many World Lord Rank beetles..."

"Is there a time limit on devouring souls?"

Bai Muye was greatly surprised. This had never happened before.

"Of course," Xiao Si said regretfully. "It's not just Universe Rank beings and Domain Lords. Even those World Lords' souls will dissipate very quickly if I can't devour them right after they die... Your life-or-death battles used to be one-on-one, so every time you killed an opponent, I devoured their soul immediately."

"The biggest pity was that Immortal. Sigh..." Xiao Si sighed. "Even if there'd been just a little left, I could've devoured it. But that woman completely ground his Divine Body to nothing in the end. She didn't leave me so much as a scrap..."

Bai Muye suddenly remembered something. When someone broke through from World Lord to Immortal, their soul would disintegrate on its own and merge into every cell—

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

"Of course that's how it works while I'm still a seed," Xiao Si said matter-of-factly. "Once I've grown into a sapling, I'll be able to devour ordinary Immortals..."

"How long will it take you to grow?"

"Sigh!" Xiao Si sighed for the second time. "Normally, it'd be very quick. For an existence like me, the seed stage doesn't last long. As soon as I begin the cycle of reincarnation and absorb Hunyuan energy from the Infinite Hunyuan Space, I can grow into a sapling in no time. But now I'm trapped inside the Cage, and more importantly, I'm bound to you..."

"Outside the Cage, there are infinite possibilities. But now that I'm inside you, there's no soil for me to take root in. I'll have to wait until you become a World Lord and form an Internal World before I can take root and sprout... So hurry up and reach World Lord Rank!"

"I'd like to," Bai Muye said, rolling his eyes. "But you stole my Yulang Liquid. Otherwise, I'd probably be at the peak of the ninth tier of Universe Rank by now..."

"Heh..." Xiao Si was a little embarrassed, but quickly added, "Well, things have worked out now. I devoured quite a few World Lord souls this time, as well as some Domain Lord souls. Look, I've grown several roots..."

"By the way, didn't you say last time that your roots could draw in energy for me to cultivate? Where is it?"

"I've got it, I haven't forgotten. But..."

"But what?"

"It's like this. When I draw out energy, the bodies I drain undergo obvious changes once they lose that energy. I'm afraid the World Lords will notice, so I can only look for bodies that have already been blown apart. That means there isn't much energy to draw in, and after refining it, there's even less..."

"It's right to be cautious," Bai Muye said with a nod. "The best thing is to avoid being discovered. So how much energy do you have this time?"

"Definitely more than the Yulang Liquid I ate before. It should be enough to get you to the peak of the ninth tier of Universe Rank. But I'd better give it to you while you're cultivating. Otherwise, the energy fluctuations around you will be too strong, and that could cause trouble..."

"Fine." Energy was secondary. Given enough time, he could always cultivate more. What he cared about most was the insight he gained through cultivation. "You devoured so many souls this time. You still have their memories, right?"

"Of course. But if you want to deeply integrate them, it'll take quite a while. You should wait until you're cultivating to go through them."

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

There was a military camp inside the mountain, with far more space than the spacecraft. Every soldier could have a Training Room of their own.

After settling in, each World Lord gathered their subordinates in the Virtual Universe to review the battle they had just fought.

After exiting the Virtual Universe, Bai Muye took out the Space Ring Zhan Qiu had given him and searched through it. He shook his head, disappointed.

Aside from having more space than the ring he already owned, it contained nothing of value.

Putting his disappointment aside, he sent his consciousness into his Consciousness Sea.

"One of our World Lords was killed in the battle, too," Bai Muye asked Xiao Si. "You devoured his soul as well, right?"

"Right."

"Show me his memories first..."

Xiao Si flicked one of its roots, and a vast mass of memories appeared.

In this battle against the Mo'er Race, the human side had been stronger on average. But when the Mo'er World Lords made their desperate final counterattack, one of their own World Lords had still died.

The World Lord was named Tan Youming. He had broken through to World Lord Rank less than five hundred years ago and was only at the fourth tier. He was the weakest of all the World Lords under Dongluo, so the Mo'er World Lords had targeted him as their breakthrough point, hoping to escape through his position.

To complete the mission of wiping out the enemy, Tan Youming had held them back with his life. Though the mission had been accomplished, he had been attacked simultaneously by several ninth-tier Mo'er World Lords. Zhu Ang and the others had done everything they could to save him, but he had still fallen.

Several thousand years ago, he had arrived at the Outer Battlefield as a ninth-tier Universe Rank fighter and joined the Dongluo Legion.

After taking part in several battles, he had successfully broken through to Domain Lord Rank. Five hundred years ago, he had advanced to World Lord Rank.

"It's a shame he never gained the recognition of a Law. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have fallen..." After reviewing the memories, Bai Muye sighed inwardly.

Tan Youming had entered World Lord Rank after reaching the ninth level of the Earth Domain. His insights into the realm wouldn't help Bai Muye much, but what Bai Muye valued most was his thousands of years of combat experience on the Outer Battlefield.

"Deeply integrating the memories will probably take quite a while. We might be setting out by then. I should absorb the energy first and strengthen myself..."

After making up his mind, he communicated with Xiao Si. The latter slowly extended a root and sent it straight into the area of his dantian.

At the center of his boundless dantian was a gigantic black hole. Eight dazzling, magnificent spiral galaxies surrounded it. A tiny black hole sat in each of the eight spiral arms, slowly revolving around the central black hole.

A transparent root reached in from the void. Energy of incredible purity began to pour from its tip. Xiao Si had drawn this energy from World Lord Rank fighters, then refined it further with its own power.

The energy flowed into his dantian. The central black hole and the black holes along the eight spiral arms shuddered, their gravitational pull suddenly growing stronger as they devoured, absorbed, and digested the incoming energy...

The energy flowed from the root at an almost constant rate. It was so pure that Bai Muye hardly needed to refine it at all. He absorbed it with ease, turning it entirely into his own Origin Energy.

A day later, a sense of fullness came over Bai Muye's dantian. He checked his cultivation and found that he had finally reached the upper limit of Universe Rank—the peak of the ninth tier!

He felt an urge to seize the moment and attempt a breakthrough, but after taking a moment to calm down, he put the thought aside.

He had only just reached the peak by absorbing energy. The power inside him hadn't fully settled into harmony yet. It would be best to let it settle for a few days and thoroughly refine it before pushing through in one go.

He put aside all other thoughts. He didn't even connect to the Virtual Universe, focusing entirely on circulating the energy inside him. Five days later, when the power within him had finally settled into perfect harmony, he began his attempt to break through.

Beforehand, he repeatedly reviewed the part of Tan Youming's memories that covered his breakthrough from Universe Rank to Domain Lord. Once he had it clear in his mind, he began.

"Rumble—"

The central black hole in his dantian suddenly exerted a far greater pull. The small black holes along the eight spiral arms did the same, drawing in the brilliant stars around them.

The central black hole's pull grew stronger and stronger, devouring everything in the dantian that it could absorb. Even the eight smaller black holes were swallowed, leaving only the gigantic black hole in the entire dantian.

Once the black hole had expanded to its limit, it suddenly began to collapse inward at tremendous speed.

The collapse happened almost instantly. The black hole disappeared, but in the next moment, a dull gray sphere appeared where it had been—the Singularity!

Once the Singularity stabilized, it suddenly generated a powerful pull, sweeping away all the energy left over from before the breakthrough.

Then it poured out an endless stream of energy. The energy surged into Bai Muye's body, and his body began to undergo earth-shaking changes...