Twelve Years

After killing the Domain Lord rank Pixui Beast, Bai Muye stored its entire corpse into his storage space and turned back to join the fray, where Zhan Qiu was currently in a precarious situation against a level nine Domain Lord rank Pixui Beast.

Zhan Qiu had originally been slaughtering his way through the Universe rank circles, but after one of their team captains was severely wounded by the level nine Domain Lord rank Pixui Beast, the beast noticed Zhan Qiu had no "beast" to keep him in check and rushed over.

As soon as they clashed, Bai Muye could clearly feel that this opponent was far stronger than the previous one. It was at the peak of level nine Domain Lord rank, and Bai Muye even suspected it had already stepped across the threshold of the laws; every attack was ridiculously powerful.

Fortunately, Zhan Qiu's strength was not weak either, and with Bai Muye's addition, the two of them barely managed to hold off the Pixui Beast, preventing the Universe rank members behind them from facing this peak Domain Lord rank monster directly.

After the battle had lasted for over ten minutes, the Immortal battlefield was the first to see a victor.

The Immortal Pixui Beast sacrificed one of its front hooves to self-destruct, breaking through Dongluo's Golden Sword Domain. The shockwave blocked her pursuit, and it then took the initiative to signal a retreat.

The human team pursued for a distance before returning to their spaceship under the orders of the World Lords.

When Zhan Qiu had been intercepted by the level nine Domain Lord rank Pixui Beast, their squad temporarily lacked Domain Lord rank combat power, and two ordinary Universe rank members died in this battle.

Zhan Qiu and Bai Muye led the remaining seven Universe rank members of their team, flying side by side toward the mountaintop.

"Your current strength is likely no longer below mine..." There was a hint of undisguised loss in his tone.

He immediately seemed to realize his emotions were inappropriate and hurriedly added, "Of course, the stronger you are, the safer our squad is... We owe a lot to you this time; otherwise, that level nine Domain Lord rank Pixui Beast would have been enough to give me a hard time."

"I just broke through, how could I compare to a veteran Domain Lord rank like you, Captain?" Bai Muye shrugged. "I still have many things to learn from you."

Hearing his words, Zhan Qiu felt a bit more comfortable and said with a smile, "Don't be humble. The one you faced alone earlier, that was a level eight Domain Lord rank, right?"

At the beginning, he had been invincible in the Universe rank circle, and while moving with ease, he naturally kept an eye on the situation on Bai Muye's side.

Seeing Bai Muye nod, he switched to telepathic communication to ask, "How much Military Merit?"

"One thousand," Bai Muye replied telepathically.

"It's a pity it wasn't an elite rank; if it were ten thousand Military Merit, that would have been great..." Zhan Qiu said with slight regret.

Bai Muye couldn't help but roll his eyes. "If it were an elite rank, I'd probably be the one dead... By the way, was the one we fought together an elite rank?"

"In all likelihood, yes," Zhan Qiu nodded. "I suspect that Pixui Beast had stepped across the threshold of the laws; otherwise, it shouldn't have been that powerful..."

He sighed softly, "I wonder when I'll be able to step across the threshold of the laws myself..."

Bai Muye remained silent; this was something one had to rely on oneself for, and no one else could help.

A World Lord's voice came from the mountaintop: "Pick up the pace!"

That is how the Outer Battlefield is; battles happen quickly, and the process is fast. Regardless of victory or defeat, battles are generally controlled within half an hour, after which one must leave quickly.

Although the Seventh Battlefield is vast, the number of participants from all major camps is equally staggering. Every battlefield has an unknown number of warriors from the four major camps, and you never know what type of enemy you will encounter next.

In such a place, the fluctuations of battle can travel very far. Furthermore, it is not just humans who have the Virtual Universe to call for allies; the other three major race camps have similar virtual networks that can contact each other, though they are not as powerful as the Virtual Universe in terms of functionality.

The Pixui Beast team encountered in this battle was a rather powerful unit within the Monster Race camp, possessing impressive combat strength.

Consequently, the human team suffered significant losses during the battle; one World Lord died, three were severely wounded, and many more were lightly wounded.

As for the Domain Lords, thirteen died, seven were severely wounded, and there were countless light injuries.

If Bai Muye hadn't quickly killed his opponent and come to help, Zhan Qiu would likely have ended up severely wounded at the very least, so he still felt grateful toward Bai Muye.

It was just that the Universe rank member he had previously looked down upon had not only broken through after a single battle, but his strength after the breakthrough was already on par with his own, making it difficult for him to balance his emotions for a moment.

In the cabin, the seven remaining Universe rank members of the squad were somewhat silent. The teammates who had been fighting alongside them just days ago now lay forever in this black land, leaving them with a sense of sadness, but even more so, a feeling of "the rabbit dying and the fox grieving."

Bai Muye and Zhan Qiu exchanged a glance, both tacitly remaining silent.

The spaceship carefully took a wide detour to return to the barracks located inside the mountain.

The World Lords held a post-battle meeting as usual to summarize the previous fight. The opponents in this battle were much stronger than the Mo'er Race from last time, so the combat losses were also higher.

In cases where a World Lord falls, the captains and Universe rank members under their command are dispersed and assigned to other under-strength World Lord units, though this had little to do with Bai Muye.

Returning to his cultivation room, he found a storage bracelet with a decent amount of space on the corpse of the Pixui Beast.

After inspecting it, he shook his head in disappointment, unable to help but complain that everyone on the Outer Battlefield was a pauper, without even a decent treasure to their name.

"Aren't you a pauper yourself?" Xiao Si couldn't help but mock him. "Your previous storage space wasn't even as big as theirs..."

Bai Muye was immediately rendered speechless by the retort, though he thought it was normal. In such teams, a Domain Lord is merely a captain above the Universe rank, and it is difficult to obtain any valuable spoils of war.

Generally speaking, the most valuable loot is certainly with the Immortals, followed by the World Lords, as World Lords have internal worlds, allowing them to store more items and making it more convenient to deposit and retrieve them.

"We lost one World Lord and over a dozen Domain Lords this time. How many did the Monster Race lose?" Bai Muye asked.

"Five World Lords, forty-seven Domain Lords, and I think over four hundred Universe ranks..."

Xiao Si proudly displayed its extra roots. With the souls of World Lords and Domain Lords, it had begun to look down on the Universe ranks, so it was very clear about the numbers for the World Lord and Domain Lord ranks, while it could only estimate the Universe ranks.

"How much energy was absorbed?" Bai Muye was somewhat expectant.

"The opponents this time were larger in size, so I absorbed much more energy than last time. It's enough for you to cultivate to level three Domain Lord rank in your current state..."

"What do you mean by 'in my current state'?" Bai Muye asked, puzzled.

"You haven't started cultivating the Hunyuan Body Refining Technique, and your genes haven't evolved yet," Xiao Si explained. "Once you cultivate the first layer of the body refining technique and your genes evolve, the energy required for cultivation will increase..."

"Fine, we'll take it slow and steady. Once we return to the 049 Barracks Base, we can cultivate without holding back. We'll just tell others we exchanged for auxiliary cultivation treasures using Military Merit..."

The current rhythm of fighting with the team is actually somewhat inconvenient for Bai Muye's cultivation, but there is no other way. Being on the Outer Battlefield with his current Domain Lord rank strength, he is not yet confident enough to act alone.

He first browsed through the memories of the World Lords and Domain Lords saved by Xiao Si, then began his cultivation.

Xiao Si was located within his Singularity; as he cultivated, its roots trembled slightly, and incredibly pure energy surged from the tips of the roots to be absorbed and refined by Bai Muye.

After resting for over a month, Dongluo led the team out once again to continue hunting in the Black Meteor Mountain Range, returning to the temporary military camp to recuperate after one or two battles.

The duration of these rest periods varied, depending on the intensity of the combat and the severity of injuries; after a particularly fierce battle, those who were more heavily injured would require a longer time to recover.

Maintaining this rhythm of combat, Bai Muye spent twelve years in the Black Meteor Mountain Range.

Over these twelve years, he experienced dozens of battles—some were easy crushes, some were evenly matched, and others were incredibly brutal, but fortunately, he made it through every one without any real danger.