Twelve Years

After killing the Domain Lord Rank Pixui Beast, Bai Muye stored its entire corpse in his storage space, then turned and rushed back. Zhan Qiu was now in grave danger, facing the attack of a Domain Lord Ninth Stage Pixui Beast.

Zhan Qiu had been cutting through the Universe Rank fighters with ease, but one of their captains had been gravely wounded by a Domain Lord Ninth Stage Pixui Beast. Seeing that Zhan Qiu had no beast to hold it back, the Pixui Beast hurried over.

As soon as they clashed, Bai Muye could tell this opponent was far stronger than the last. It was at the peak of Domain Lord Rank Ninth Stage, and Bai Muye even suspected it had crossed the threshold of the laws. Every attack it unleashed was absurdly powerful.

Fortunately, Zhan Qiu was no weakling. Together, he and Bai Muye managed to hold the Pixui Beast at bay, preventing the Universe Rank fighters behind them from having to face the beast at the peak of Domain Lord Rank.

After more than ten minutes of fighting, the Immortals' battlefield was the first to produce a victor.

The Pixui Beast Immortal sacrificed one of its forelegs to break through Dongluo's Golden Sword Domain. The shockwave blocked her pursuit, and it then gave the signal to retreat.

The human forces pursued them for a while, then returned to their ships on the World Lords' orders.

After Zhan Qiu was held up by the Domain Lord Ninth Stage Pixui Beast, their squad was temporarily left without a Domain Lord Rank fighter. Two ordinary Universe Rank fighters died in the battle.

With only seven Universe Rank fighters left under their command, Zhan Qiu and Bai Muye flew side by side toward the mountaintop.

"Your strength now... I'm afraid it's no worse than mine." A trace of unmistakable disappointment crept into his voice.

Then, apparently realizing his feelings were out of place, he quickly added, "Of course, the stronger you are, the safer our squad will be. We have you to thank for this one, too. That Domain Lord Ninth Stage Pixui Beast would've given me a real fight."

"I just broke through. How could I compare to a seasoned Domain Lord like you, Captain?" Bai Muye shrugged. "I still have plenty to learn from you."

Hearing that, Zhan Qiu felt a little better. He smiled and said, "Don't be modest. The one you faced alone just now was at Domain Lord Eighth Stage, right?"

At first, he had been dominating the Universe Rank battlefield with ease, so he had naturally kept an eye on Bai Muye's fight.

When Bai Muye nodded, he asked through voice transmission, "How much Military Merit?"

"One thousand," Bai Muye replied through voice transmission.

"Too bad it wasn't an elite. Then we'd have gotten ten thousand Military Merit outright. That would've been great..." Zhan Qiu said with some regret.

Bai Muye rolled his eyes. "If it had been an elite, I'd probably be the one who died. By the way, was the one we fought together an elite?"

"Most likely." Zhan Qiu nodded. "I suspect that Pixui Beast had crossed the threshold of the laws. Otherwise, it shouldn't have been that powerful..."

He sighed softly. "I wonder when I'll cross the threshold of the laws..."

Bai Muye fell silent. That was something he had to accomplish on his own; no one else could help him.

A World Lord's voice rang out from the mountaintop. "Move faster!"

That was how the Outer Battlefield was. Battles broke out and ended quickly. Whatever the outcome, they usually had to be over within half an hour, and then everyone had to leave at once.

The Seventh Battlefield was vast, but the number of forces from each faction that fought there was just as astonishing. Every battlefield held an unknown number of warriors from the Four Great Factions. You never knew what kind of enemy you'd encounter next.

The shockwaves from battles carried a long way in a place like this. And humans weren't the only ones with the Virtual Universe to call for allies; the other three factions had similar Virtual Networks to contact one another, though they weren't as powerful as the Virtual Universe.

The Pixui Beast force they had encountered this time was a particularly powerful unit in the Monster Race faction, with considerable fighting strength.

The human forces had suffered heavy losses in the battle as well. One World Lord had died, three were gravely wounded, and many more had suffered minor injuries.

Among the Domain Lords, thirteen had died, seven were gravely wounded, and countless others had minor injuries.

If Bai Muye hadn't quickly killed his opponent and come to help, Zhan Qiu would have been gravely wounded at the very least. He was therefore grateful to Bai Muye.

Still, it was hard to accept that someone he had once looked down on—a Universe Rank fighter—had not only broken through during a single battle but had become nearly his equal afterward.

Inside the cabin, the squad's seven remaining Universe Rank fighters sat in silence. Their comrades, who had been fighting alongside them just a few days earlier, now lay forever beneath this black earth. They felt some sadness, but even more, they felt the dread of knowing they could be next.

Bai Muye and Zhan Qiu exchanged a glance. Neither said anything.

The ship cautiously took a wide detour and returned to the military camp inside the mountain.

As usual, the World Lords held a post-battle meeting to review the fighting. This time, their opponents had been far stronger than the Mo'er Race they had faced before, and their losses had been correspondingly greater.

When a World Lord died, his captains and Universe Rank fighters were redistributed among other World Lords whose forces were below full strength. But that had little to do with Bai Muye.

Back in his Training Room, Bai Muye found a storage bracelet with a fairly spacious interior on the Pixui Beast's corpse.

After inspecting it, he shook his head in disappointment, grumbling that everyone on the Outer Battlefield was a pauper—there wasn't even a decent treasure to be found.

"Aren't you a pauper yourself?" Xiao Si couldn't help teasing him. "Your storage space used to be smaller than theirs..."

Bai Muye was left speechless. But when he thought about it, it made sense. In a squad like this, Domain Lords were merely captains above the Universe Rank fighters. It was hard for them to obtain anything valuable as spoils.

Generally speaking, the most valuable spoils would be on an Immortal, followed by a World Lord. After all, World Lords had an Internal World where they could store more things, and retrieving them was more convenient.

"How many did we kill this time, and how many did the Monster Race lose? We lost a World Lord and more than ten Domain Lords, right?" Bai Muye asked.

"Five World Lords, forty-seven Domain Lords, and I think more than four hundred Universe Rank fighters..."

Xiao Si proudly showed off the few extra tendrils it had grown. After absorbing the souls of World Lord Rank and Domain Lord Rank fighters, it had little interest in Universe Rank souls anymore. That was why it knew the numbers for the World Lords and Domain Lords so clearly, while it could only estimate the number of Universe Rank fighters.

"How much energy did you absorb?" Bai Muye asked expectantly.

"Our opponents were bigger this time, so I absorbed quite a bit more energy than last time. There's enough for you to cultivate to Domain Lord Third Stage as you are now..."

"What do you mean, 'as I am now'?" Bai Muye asked, puzzled.

"You haven't started cultivating the Hunyuan Body Refining Technique, so your genes haven't evolved yet," Xiao Si explained. "Once you cultivate the first layer of the Body Refining Technique and your genes evolve, you'll need more energy to cultivate..."

"All right. We'll take it slow and steady. Once we return to 049 Barracks Base, we can cultivate without holding back. We'll just tell them we used Military Merit to exchange for treasures that aid cultivation..."

The squad's current pace of fighting wasn't ideal for Bai Muye's cultivation, but there was no choice. Here on the Outer Battlefield, with his current Domain Lord Rank strength, he still wasn't confident enough to act alone.

He first went through the memories Xiao Si had preserved from the World Lords and Domain Lords, then began to cultivate.

Xiao Si was already inside his Singularity. As he cultivated, its tendrils trembled, and incredibly pure energy surged from their tips for Bai Muye to absorb and refine.

After resting for more than a month, Dongluo led the squad out again to continue hunting in the Black Meteor Mountain Range. They fought one or two battles, then returned to the temporary camp to rest.

Rest periods varied in length depending on how fierce the fighting had been and how badly they had been injured. After a fierce battle, those with more injuries needed a longer rest.

Keeping up this rhythm of battle, Bai Muye spent twelve years in the Black Meteor Mountain Range.

Over those twelve years, he fought dozens of battles: some were easy victories, others were evenly matched, and some were brutally fierce. Fortunately, he made it through them all without serious incident.