Taking Stock of the Spoils

Swept up by the violent spatial storm, the entire region suffered devastating casualties. Many powerful beings, badly wounded, floated amid the turbulent currents, their spatial rings and belongings scattered everywhere. Golden Horn's gaze shifted, and he immediately signaled the Void Beast clone to act.

Using its teleportation ability, the clone moved freely through the storm, collecting every scattered ring along the way. Previously, they had needed to fight bloody battles for just a few fruits. Now, opportunity had fallen into their laps, and they had gained a great deal without any effort. The clone could not help but let out a pleased chuckle.

Along the way, some less seriously injured experts grew greedy and tried to intercept it and seize the loot. But they could barely even lock onto its figure before a cold longsword was already pressed against their throats. The bone-chilling chill instantly extinguished all traces of wishful thinking.

When it encountered defeated survivors barely clinging to life, the clone merely gave them a cold glance. If they wisely handed over their belongings, it raised a hand and let them go. If they resisted stubbornly, it suppressed them outright.

In just a short while, the clone had collected dozens of spatial rings, including the possessions of quite a few Universe level experts. The smile at Golden Horn's lips was nearly impossible to suppress. This harvest far exceeded his expectations.

The storm continued to intensify, the safe zone kept shrinking, and the surrounding space collapsed faster and faster.

Golden Horn knew he could not delay any longer.

He pushed the clone's spatial perception to its limit. Amid those dense cracks were extremely brief "gaps," with safe windows lasting only fractions of a second before vanishing.

"Stay close to me!"

Golden Horn grabbed Giant Axe, had the clone scout ahead, and followed closely with his main body. They teleported continuously, brushing past one crack after another and bypassing expanding black chasms.

At last, they found a relatively safe passage through the collapsing space.

The two of them charged out.

The Secret Realm behind them was still collapsing, its cracks weaving into a net of death. Most experts lacked Golden Horn's spatial perception and remained trapped in the heart of the collapse, their fates unknown.

However, it was said that the Void Vortex Domain automatically expelled outsiders after a certain period of time. They might still have a sliver of hope.

But that had nothing to do with Golden Horn anymore.

The two landed on a floating meteorite, gasping for breath. In the distance, in the direction from which they had emerged, space rippled violently.

Golden Horn sensed the dozens of spatial rings within his internal space, then looked at Giant Axe beside him as he silently calculated the gains from this journey.

The journey through the Secret Realm had finally come to an end.

--

Giant Axe was also filled with emotion. Fortunately, he had not rejected this giant beast's invitation to team up back then. Otherwise, he truly might not have been able to leave the Secret Realm safely.

He glanced at Golden Horn and asked, "What are you planning to do next?"

Golden Horn thought for a moment before saying, "I plan to visit the nearby Myriad Monster Star first."

"Would you like to visit the Human Race? Let me repay you and this friend for saving my life." As Giant Axe spoke, he also glanced at the Void Beast clone beside them.

Golden Horn shook his head and refused. "I look more like a member of the Demon Race than the Human Race. Staying among humans would draw too much attention and make everything inconvenient. I won't have that concern among the Demon Race. I won't attract attention, and I can develop in peace."

"Oh, all right." Giant Axe did not press him. "If you have the time in the future, you're welcome to visit the Human Race. I belong to the Tuman Tribe branch of the Human Race, and my home planet is Tuman Star."

"All right. I'll visit if I get the chance in the future."

Neither of them was one to drag things out. Once they had said what needed to be said, they prepared to leave separately. Giant Axe took out a spacecraft from his spatial ring and was about to board it.

"Wait!" Golden Horn suddenly called out to Giant Axe.

"What is it?"

"Do you have any spare spacecraft? Could you give me one?" Golden Horn asked, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, that's all? No problem. Human Race technology is advanced to begin with. I'll give you two. When you go out exploring, who doesn't carry a few extra spacecraft? Otherwise, if your spacecraft gets damaged, you can only drift through the universe."

With that, Giant Axe casually tossed a spatial ring to Golden Horn.

Golden Horn found that quite reasonable. Once he reached Myriad Monster Star, he would also need to buy a few more spacecraft as backups.

Golden Horn extended his psychic power into it and quickly discovered two small spacecraft inside.

Giant Axe turned around again. This time, there were no more surprises. His spacecraft accelerated and soon vanished from Golden Horn's sight.

Golden Horn did not waste any time either. He took out a spacecraft and entered it with the Void Beast clone.

Although Golden Horn's main body stood a hundred meters tall, after using the "Original Body Heaven and Earth" secret technique, he could compress himself to just over ten meters. The Void Beast clone was only around two meters tall, so both could enter the spacecraft without issue.

"Set the destination to Myriad Monster Star," the Void Beast clone ordered the spacecraft's intelligent system.

"Command confirmed. Route planned. Estimated travel time: five days."

The Void Beast clone remained in the cockpit on watch, while Golden Horn's main body entered the depths of his original nucleus.

The spatial rings he had seized when leaving the Secret Realm were now piled up in the original nucleus space. Golden Horn excitedly rubbed his claws together, extended his psychic power, and opened them one by one for inspection, sorting their contents into categories.

He set aside ores, weapons, and other items he could use.

He placed the things he could not use on the other side. Once he reached Myriad Monster Star, he would find a chance to sell some of them in exchange for resources he needed.

He set the Blue Fruits and Red Fruits aside separately. These were the greatest gains from this trip to the Secret Realm.

There was also a pile of items whose exact uses he could not identify. He would need to find a way to appraise them later.

After working for half the day, he finally finished taking stock.

Blue Fruits: 325. Golden Horn made a rough estimate. Previously, after devouring several dozen Blue Fruits, his cultivation had risen from Stellar level, third order to the fifth order. More than three hundred fruits would be enough for him to reach Stellar level ninth order, with some left over.

That number alone would be enough to make even the Universe level experts outside turn green with envy.

Red Fruits: 82. In the Secret Realm, even one had sparked a bloody struggle among hundreds of experts. Now, he had eighty-two of them. Golden Horn took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the wild joy in his heart.

"How much my genetic level can improve, I'll slowly test once I reach Myriad Monster Star."

There were also dozens of spacecraft of various models. It seemed that aside from a poor bastard like him who had come from a mineral planet, all the other experts had brought spacecraft. If he had known, he would not have needed to ask Giant Axe for any.

Most of them were the most ordinary type of spacecraft, but two looked rather good. They probably belonged to some Universe level expert who had been unlucky enough to die, only for Golden Horn to pick them up.

There was also a batch of extremely high-quality ores, precisely the kinds of metal Golden Horned Beast needed most at his current stage.

Among them was a fist-sized piece of dark golden ore that emitted dense fluctuations of the Law of Gold. Golden Horn sent his psychic power into it and was immediately shaken. This was actually the "Golden Marrow Crystal" recorded in the Golden Horned Beast's inherited memories. It was something encountered only once in ten thousand years and had remarkable effects on comprehending the Origin of Gold.

This single piece was probably worth several Red Fruits.

Golden Horned Beasts grew by devouring metal, and every stage had metals best suited to it. Devouring inferior metals resulted in slow growth and unstable strength; devouring excessively good metals made digestion difficult and caused considerable waste. Only suitable metals could yield twice the result with half the effort.

Golden Horn looked at the mountain of spoils before him and nodded in satisfaction. By rough estimate, his current wealth was equivalent to the combined fortunes of dozens of Stellar level experts and two or three Universe level experts.

"I've finally left that damned place." He let out a long breath, and the tension that had gripped him for so long finally eased.

There were still five days of travel left before Myriad Monster Star. With abundant resources at hand, he naturally would not idle away the time.

Golden Horn took out a batch of suitable ores and Blue Fruits and began devouring them to cultivate.