The hunchback corpse had inexplicably disappeared.

Once he was done listening to Xia Guanghai, Xia Fei turned in surprise to where the corpse had been lying. What was left were some dark bloodstains, the corpse itself having vanished.

Grand Ancestor Xia Gucheng was there, and he sighed as he said, “I was so focused on having everyone gather the spoils that I forgot about that hunchback corpse. When I finally remembered it, it’s already gone.”

Xia Fei squatted and. using a transparent bottle for storing medicine. gathered a few drops of the hunchback’s blood. Once he was back in the warship, he would test it in the lab. He asked. “I also found those hunchbacks to be weird. I feel like I’ve seen them somewhere before. You guys fought against them; did you notice anything particular about them?”

Xia Gucheng replied, “They had an unusual aura and didn’t seem like humans at all to me; in fact, they’re more like exotic beasts.”

“Yes, they did seem more like beasts, but they’re different from the exotic beasts we’ve seen before, for they’re more savage. Plus, I’m thinking that they’re not using a hundred percent of their power. It’s as if some power was suppressing them.”

“As if they hadn’t matured yet?”

“Right. That’s the perfect description. They really did seem like some sort of juvenile exotic beasts.”

“Only in their juvenile yet already that formidable? What would they be like as adults then?!”

The Skywing wolves chattered on and on about the weird hunchbacks; Xia Fei listened and noted in his memory everything his brothers had experienced.

“Forget it. If the corpse is gone, then it’s gone. It’s no big deal. Anyway, how was the harvest this time?” Xia Fei asked with a smile.

Xia Gucheng laughed. “We’re rich! I counted, and we managed to get 274 soul weapons this time! The vast majority of them are Intermediate grade or above, too! I’m planning to keep half of them and let our brothers in the Aurora Clan take the other half.”

Xia Fei nodded; Aurora Clan Patriarch Wistful Heizus quickly gave his thanks.

With the battle over, the Auroras and Skywings had managed to establish a strong connection with each other.

The Aurora Clan specialized in long-range attacks, while the Skywings specialized in close combat. The two of them together created quite the powerful combo.

The Aurora was Xia Fei’s paternal clan, whereas the Skywing was his maternal clan, so neither of them could be considered outsiders. It was just that Xia Fei’s personality caused him to prefer the Skywings. The fact that these two clans were now getting along was naturally a good thing for him.

Moreover, Xia Fei had come to understand something after this battle. As if they were putting on a show, the Aurora Clan acted like they were nice people, treating everyone kindly, but they had actually buriedtheir knives very deeply under the ground. Meanwhile, the Skywings put on a fierce appearance, being incredibly unreasonable and willing to fight against anyone, but they were actually very shrewd and unlikely to fall for any schemes.

One could not say that any method was better. It was difficult to make one’s way through the universe, and both the Aurora Clan and the Skywing Clan were very shrewd when it came to leaving a few backup plans to preserve their strength.

After today’s battle, the Auroras and the Skywings had both raised their reputation in the Alpha Universe. As for Xia Fei, there was no avoiding infamy for him, but he had never much cared about reputation. It was not like he could eat it.

Once everything had been settled, they all decided to leave. The Aurora Clan would return to Garde 83, while Xia Fei and the Skywings would head back to the Cosmic Gate. With one in the border region and the other in the core region, the two clans had agreed to look after each other, communicating at set intervals.

What made Xia Fei even happier was that the Aurora’s hermits had agreed to readjust the clan. The universe had become difficult to live in, and there was no advantage to continuing to play the nice guy. Moreover, in these last few years, the Aurora Clan had been keeping to the teachings a little too well. All of the warriors of the clan were like scholars, lacking any ruthlessness, which had some of the old ancestors feeling very unhappy.

Xia Fei had gathered a batch of low-grade soul weapons, more than two thousand, in the Collapsed Expanse of the Founders. He used this chance to split the batch in two, giving both clans a half to make them stronger.

A hundred-some Intermediate-grade soul weapons and more than a thousand low-grade soul weapons! The Aurora and Skywing clans were as well-equipped as Tier 1 clans of the Alpha Universe! After all, soul weapons had been a rare commodity as of late, and one would have to compromise just to get a few, negotiating with various Spiritualist lineages of the Spiritualist Association. It was all very convenient, so Xia Fei had helped them out a lot this time.

At some point, the two clans had both started to regard Xia Fei as an irreplaceable part of them. There was no choice; the two clans had a lot of people, but Xia Fei was their only Spiritualist.

…

After saying goodbye to the old monsters from the Aurora Clan, Xia Fei and Skywings stayed for one day, as the matter with the two custodian slaves had not been settled. As for Xia Geng’s force, they had received the order to go back. Their warships were slow, so though they had left first, they would probably still need a few days to get back home.

Once the Aurora Clan was gone, Xia Fei went to the Unrestricted Spirit Pavilion. While the Skywings were like brutish people, they had rather sharp eyes. They could tell that Fuchen was very sad, so they went over to chat with him, treating him like a brother. Fuchen could not bring himself to be happy, for the unity of the Skywings was truly heaven and earth apart from that of those beasts of his sect.

Night fell and the Skywing wolves went to rest. They could not grow more energetic the longer they pondered unlike Xia Fei; plus, the battle had tired them all out.

After treating the two custodian slaves, Xia Fei returned to the Silver Specter’s command deck. Seeing Fuchen drinking tea, he went over and filled the other’s cup, asking, “Where have you been all this time? How did you restore your seventh brain region? I’m very curious about the answer to this question.”

Fuchen awoke from his stupor. He looked at Xia Fei and replied, “I went to see a very skilled person. That person had some relationship with my master, and he’s the one who passed down that food treatment to my master. Alas, my master wasn’t willing to learn it, and it’s only with me that it finally saw some use. It was thanks to this senior that I could recover my cultivation.”

“Oh, he’s that impressive? You have to let me meet him in the future.” Xia Fei chuckled.

Fuchen thought about how Xia Fei had agreed to challenge the Ten Great Blades and felt somewhat apologetic toward him, so he said softly, “Relax. You will definitely meet him.”

Xia Fei could tell that Fuchen was unwilling to talk much about that person, so he changed the topic. “As long as I get the chance! In any case, you’ve recovered your power, which is a wonderful thing. Right. You seem to have become a weapon specialist all of a sudden. You recognized Nan Shazi’s Silver Cup Triple Nine at a glance, and you even noticed that my fiendish blade Nirvana was on the edge of advancing. This new ability of yours is truly formidable.”

Fuchen sighed. “It’s also all thanks to that senior’s guidance. Now that I’ve thought about it, his venerable self is rather similar to you, learning an assortment of things and seemingly capable of doing anything. Right, he seemed to have a very high opinion of your fiend blade, too.”

“How high?” Xia Fei asked curiously.

Fuchen answered, “Extremely high. From what that expert said, your fiend blade is not in the domain of soul weapons; rather, it’s on par with them, even superior in some aspects. More importantly, it can improve on its own. An average soul weapon certainly can’t do that. If you care for it well, it’ll have limitless potential. Don’t be fooled by those high-level soul weapons that can’t evolve. This is a universe of energy, and a fiend blade that can devour energy is extremely rare. Plus, it can even give you some of this energy, benefitting you as well.

“I was only gone for a few days, but you managed to jump by two levels! You forced such a rapid advancement with energy, right?”

Xia Fei nodded. “Of course. I used up four thousand units of spirit energy.”

Fuchen said in gratification, “That’s what I like about you. When you need to use energy, you don’t hesitate. Though it’s four thousand units, you still did it to raise your level! Also, you understand how to control your progress. Stopping at level 6 is something many people can’t do.

“Though levels 6 and 7 are only separated by a single tier, crossing that gap is like trying to overcome an abyss. If you try to force your way through, you may end up using up all seven thousand units of energy yet still come short; if you’re not careful, you can even injure yourself. It’s just not worth it.

“For now, learn something else. Once your Soul Mark is stable enough, you can make the charge for level 7. Don’t forget to practice your forging skills of soul weapons when you have the time, too. You’re the sole Spiritualist of Healing. Now that you’re at level 6, you should be able to forge a superb healing-type soul weapon. Don’t squander your natural skills.

“Right, let’s talk about treatment; how’s the situation of those two custodian slaves?” Fuchen asked suddenly.

Xia Fei shook his head. “Their wounds aren’t on their body but rather their hearts. I treated them and also told them a lot of jokes, but I could tell that their hearts were truly stabbed through. The despair was obvious in their eyes.”

Fuchen gritted his teeth. “D*mn*d beasts! While the custodian slaves don’t have souls, they’ve been guarding the Unrestricted Spirit Pavilion for countless years. Though they didn’t have any meritorious achievements, they at least worked hard! They… actually dared to attack them!”

Xia Fei sighed. “Don’t even bring up those accursed things. Why don’t you leave them be for tonight? You can go and see them tomorrow. I’m sure that while they don’t have souls, they have hearts. Their nature is extremely pure, and it’s too cruel to just leave them guarding the Unrestricted Spirit Pavilion forever.”

Fuchen nodded. “Alright. I’ll go check with them tomorrow if they wanna follow the Skywings to the border region.”

Fuchen felt rather tired, so he went to sleep after he finished talking with Xia Fei.

That night, Xia Fei had the blood from the Dark Spiritualist’s hunchback tested in the Silver Specter’s lab, hoping to see what made up their DNA.

The Silver Specter had rather high-class equipment, but after a night, Xia Fei had still not made any progress. The progress bar was stuck at less than 40%, which left Xia Fei very confused. Normally, someone’s DNA would not take this long to get analyzed. Moreover, the supercomputer seemed to be having a tough time with the calculations, buzzing and whirring in a constantly overloaded state.

‘What is this thing? Is it really that hard to calculate the DNA’s evolution?’ Xia Fei remarked inwardly.

Around noon, Fuchen returned from the Unrestricted Spirit Pavilion, and the Skywing wolves quickly went to ask him how things went.

The Skywing madmen, who had taken a liking to those two soulless zombies, were elated to hear that Xia Fei planned to ask both to come with him. The Law Realm had just put down its roots; if it had those two ultimate weapons, which did not fear dark energy, to keep a watch on things, it would be incredibly powerful!

Fuchen shook his head sadly. “They just ignored me, and I wasn’t able to do anything.”

“Haaa~”

Everyone sighed in disappointment and looked at Xia Fei. He was the one in the clan with the most ideas. If even he had no ideas, they would have to give up.

However, Xia Fei was surprisingly straightforward. “Since they’re not willing to leave Spirit Mountain, we’ll just bring Spirit Mountain back with us!”