The End

Just as Protector Xuan was imagining his wonderful future, a six-winged figure he had been "longing for" appeared ahead of the surging black mist.

Seeing Liu Yu suddenly appear before him, Protector Xuan froze within the black mist. A flicker of panic rose in his heart, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.

"Who are you? How dare you block this protector's path! If an honored elder of the Hall of Souls hadn't summoned me, I would scatter your soul to the winds today! Get lost!" A hoarse, chilling voice rang out from the swirling black mist, grating on the ears.

"Heh!" Liu Yu laughed despite himself. Who was he trying to fool with this act? How hilarious!

"If you don't get lost, don't blame this protector for showing no mercy!" The voice emerged from the black mist again, tinged with anger, as though he really would strike if Liu Yu failed to appreciate this chance.

"Oh? I'd rather like to see just how you intend to show me no mercy, Protector." Liu Yu sneered, his gaze teasing.

Protector Xuan's expression darkened within the black mist. He had intended to intimidate this man with the names of the Hall of Souls and its honored elders, but Liu Yu was not buying it at all. He could not tell whether Liu Yu was ignorant of the Hall of Souls' terror or merely playing dumb.

"You may have the strength to reign supreme in this Black-Corner Region, but in the Central Plains, you're nothing! As the foremost power in the Central Plains, the Hall of Souls possesses strength beyond your imagination. Do you truly wish to court death and make an enemy of us?" Protector Xuan blustered, fierce on the outside but fainthearted within.

Liu Yu merely smiled contemptuously. "What does the Hall of Souls' strength have to do with an Earth-Grade Protector like you? If I kill you out here in these desolate mountains, who would ever know?"

"Do you really think I'm afraid of you? Since you're courting death, I'll oblige!" Faced with Liu Yu's repeated provocations, Protector Xuan's face twisted into a savage expression. He glared viciously at Liu Yu, madness seeping into his hoarse voice.

Protector Xuan quickly withdrew a mass of black mist from within his black robe. Astonishing soul fluctuations emanated from it.

Liu Yu naturally sensed Protector Xuan's actions. He was quite pleased with the soul fluctuations contained in that mass of black mist. With Protector Xuan's own soul form added to it, would he not have all the souls needed to refine a Heavenly Demon Puppet?

Just as Protector Xuan formed seals with both hands and prepared his next move, Liu Yu forcibly interrupted him. Vast soul power swept toward him, blotting out heaven and earth. An enormous invisible hand took shape and seized Protector Xuan whole. A strange force radiated from the hand, and before Protector Xuan could even cry out in alarm, he instantly lost consciousness.

Liu Yu then suppressed Protector Xuan and that great mass of soul power together within his spiritual world.

In Black Seal City, after the blood clouds disappeared, Tie Wu quickly led his people back to the Feather Pavilion. Yun Yun and the others also returned after finishing off the Black Emperor Sect and Demon Flame Valley.

Tie Wu then truthfully reported everything that had happened. Yun Yun did not hold him accountable. Instead, she issued a series of orders that shocked the Feather Pavilion's members: gather the personnel from its branches in Rakshasa City and the other cities, then have them follow her, the Grand Elder, and the Second Elder respectively to annex Maple City, the Black Emperor Sect, and Demon Flame Valley!

Deep within the Feather Pavilion, a lush grove was suffused with brilliant purple light. Within that light stood an enormous purple cocoon over ten feet wide.

The purple radiance on the cocoon's surface alternately brightened and dimmed, pulsing rhythmically like a beating heart. Meanwhile, energy from the grove and the sky above was continuously drawn into it.

At that moment, a patch of space within the grove rippled, and Liu Yu stepped out of the void. His gaze inevitably fell on the purple cocoon before him.

A few days before he prepared to break through to Dou Zong, Zi Yan had accumulated enough energy in her body to advance by constantly "popping pills." She had transformed into this cocoon shortly afterward.

More than a month had passed since Zi Yan became a cocoon. Yet judging by the aura he sensed, she still needed quite some time to complete her advancement.

As though sensing Liu Yu's arrival, the cocoon shone a little brighter.

Liu Yu chuckled and shook his head at the change in the cocoon, then began taking stock of the gains he had "unexpectedly" acquired during his advancement to Dou Zong.

First was Earth Demon Old Ghost's storage ring. Aside from the four antique wooden boxes he had already removed, it contained various other treasures from the storehouse, including cultivation methods and combat skills, as well as rare medicinal ingredients. Among those ingredients were quite a few needed to refine seventh-grade pills, and even a complete set for a Transformation Pill. Someone would probably need that very much...

Next was Han Feng, who had possessed no shortage of treasures. There was a high-grade storage ring—the Nether Sea Storage Ring. Deep blue throughout, it glimmered with a soft blue radiance. Together with the fiery-red high-grade storage ring obtained from Earth Demon Old Ghost, Liu Yu now owned two. Such rings were rare treasures. Even in a place like the Black-Corner Region, where precious illicit goods circulated, they were seldom seen, let alone owned. Mo Tianxing, the sect master of the Black Emperor Sect, for instance, had never possessed one.

The Nether Sea Storage Ring held a remarkably rich collection. Its various cultivation method and combat skill scrolls were secondary; what pleased Liu Yu more were the many medicinal ingredients that were exceedingly rare in the outside world.

"Murderers and arsonists wear golden belts!" The ancients truly did not lie! The corners of Liu Yu's mouth lifted slightly. His current wealth was now barely befitting his status as a "false" Seventh-Grade Alchemist and a "true" eighth-tier alchemist.

Liu Yu then drew a mass of deep-blue flame from Han Feng's corpse. Watching the restless flame before him, he summoned an ice-blue flame into his hand and wrapped it around the other...

Day after day, spring gave way to autumn, and before anyone knew it, a year had passed.

Throughout that year, upheavals repeatedly rocked the Black-Corner Region. Two hegemonic powers, Demon Flame Valley and the Black Emperor Sect, had been destroyed. The renowned Maple City had changed hands, and numerous first-rate factions had disappeared.

What did this mean? The Dou Zong experts Earth Demon Old Ghost and Mo Tianxing, Medicine Emperor Han Feng, and many of the Black List's Ten Great Experts were almost certainly dead. That was why the Feather Pavilion had taken over their factions and territories in their entirety!

For a time, the Feather Pavilion's prestige reached its zenith. It became the undisputed hegemonic power of the Black-Corner Region, standing in a class of its own. In public discussions, even Jia Nan Academy was relegated to a tier below it.

Although the Feather Pavilion never explicitly declared, "We rule the entire Black-Corner Region," everyone there tacitly acknowledged that it had unified the region and become its de facto ruler.

Nor had the Feather Pavilion changed the Black-Corner Region simply because it had "unified" it. The region retained its original character, remaining the most chaotic place on the continent. Only by preserving that state could all manner of "illicit goods" continue flowing into the Black-Corner Region, allowing the Feather Pavilion to reap the greatest profits.

Having gradually annexed and absorbed the major factions of the Black-Corner Region and monopolized the resources of the entire region, the Feather Pavilion's strength had begun to swell.

Its Dou Zong experts included Pavilion Master Liu Yu, the Grand Elder and Second Elder of the Snake-People Tribe, and Guest Elder Old Man Eagle Mountain. Its Dou Emperors included Yun Yun, Yuan Yi, Su Mei, Tie Wu, Old Man Yin Gu, Hei Tian, and others. As for its Dou Wangs, there were too many to count. Combining the Feather Pavilion's original stewards with the Dou Wangs recruited from every corner of the Black-Corner Region, their numbers totaled around a hundred—a truly astonishing force!

At that moment, in a grove within the Feather Pavilion's headquarters, the enormous energy vortex slowly rotating in the sky suddenly began to grind to a halt. Vast energy then poured down like a torrential rain, becoming a massive torrent akin to a mountain flood that plunged straight into the cocoon shrouded in purple radiance.

This disturbance caused Liu Yu, who was seated cross-legged on a lotus seat beside the cocoon in quiet cultivation, to slowly open his eyes.

"Is she about to emerge from the cocoon?" Liu Yu murmured. Throughout the past year, aside from refining pills, he had usually cultivated in this grove. Because the cocoon constantly gathered the energy of heaven and earth, the cultivation environment here far surpassed that of other places.

Of course, he had not simply been freeloading off Zi Yan. When the energy vortex appeared, he had sealed off the space encompassing the entire grove, preventing unnecessary trouble.

Thanks to Wo Deng Guren Jiu and GeieA for the two monthly votes.

Thanks to 跟我走-ea, Shidai Zhi Zhu, and Wuliao Da Guaishou for the monthly votes.