Li Zhai looked down at the dusty seed.
When he focused his attention on it, he could almost hear a rushing ocean.
But knowing its name, Li Zhai understood that it was actually the sound of surging blood.
He clenched his fist, desperately unwilling to fuse with this thing of unknown origin.
"Imperial Father," Li Zhai said, trying one last time. "I have been preparing to fuse with the Hundred Refinements Bell. If I rashly switch to this, I'm afraid the fusion will fail."
The Realm Emperor frowned, clearly having considered that possibility.
There was only one Blood Demon Vine. If the fusion failed and it turned into a waste element—
"Fuse with it when you're told. Speak more nonsense, and I'll kill you."
A remarkably pleasant voice suddenly rang out in the rear hall, where there absolutely should not have been a third person.
A man draped in black robes had appeared out of nowhere, standing beside one of the rear hall's black pillars.
His features were entirely unremarkable. The moment Li Zhai looked away, he could barely remember what the man looked like.
Li Zhai stepped in front of his father to shield him. He gripped the seed in one hand and held the other defensively across his chest.
"It is fine." Surprisingly, the Realm Emperor grabbed his arm from behind. "Do not be disrespectful to the Lord Priest."
"Priest?" Li Zhai repeated in disbelief. Suddenly, he looked up. "Black Robe?"
He froze in place.
Although black-robed priests rarely showed themselves, Li Zhai vaguely knew that white-robed priests and black-robed priests were completely irreconcilable.
As for the exact reason, it seemed to stem from conflicting cultivation ideologies. Furthermore, the Black Robes disregarded life, slaughtering and destroying wantonly. To the Wizard World, they were the root of all disaster.
No matter who it was, anyone who discovered traces of a black-robed priest and reported it would receive rewards from the various white-robed factions.
But now, a black-robed priest had actually appeared right here in the Imperial Dynasty's Zichen Hall!
And his Imperial Father had actually addressed the man as—Lord Priest?
Before Li Zhai could even recover from his shock, he blinked, and the black-robed priest from the corner was suddenly standing right in front of him.
The man snatched the Blood Demon Vine seed right out of Li Zhai's hand and pressed his slender index finger against the center of his brow.
"You will fuse with it right now, or I will press it straight into your brains."
Having said that, the black-robed priest smiled faintly, looking as though he would be quite interested in that second option.
Li Zhai wanted to speak, to cry out to his father for help.
But in the moment he hesitated, a sharp pain shot through his brow. The thickest part of his skull felt as if it had just cracked open.
"I will fuse!"
Realizing the man truly meant what he said and would not give him any room to hesitate or negotiate, Li Zhai shouted in resignation.
The man's index finger stopped pushing, but the pain continued to spread.
"Only after the fusion will he officially advance to the 8th Tier," the black-robed priest said to the Realm Emperor, pulling his hand back as he watched the gray seed sink seamlessly into Li Zhai's brow. "At the 8th Tier, we will be able to see the results."
The Realm Emperor took two steps forward, standing between the black-robed priest and Li Zhai, his eyes full of worry.
Li Zhai slowly closed his eyes. Having long grown accustomed to palace life, he knew perfectly well that the Realm Emperor's concern was not for him.
Sure enough, he heard the Realm Emperor say, "Little Six has not yet undergone the adaptation process for the Blood Demon Vine. Will the fusion fail? You have only successfully cultivated this single blood demon element."
The black-robed priest said nonchalantly, "If he fails, or if he proves useless, then I will just go and bring Li Ban back."
The Realm Emperor's eyes immediately lit up—even brighter than when he saw his Little Six return with the curse broken.
He said impatiently, "Lord Xiao Suo, why don't we just bring Li Ban back right now? He has the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor on him anyway, which is enough to disrupt the monitoring of the other priests."
He had even thought it all through. "You can mask his presence and bring him back in secret. As long as the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor continues moving north, the White Robes will assume Li Ban is still heading north!"
The Realm Emperor clenched his fists. "He just advanced to a Spirit Awakening Priest; his wizard embryo fragment must be very weak, so it can definitely be used. Haha, he even happens to be surnamed Li! I will just make him my Little Eleven directly!"
The Realm Emperor spoke gleefully, getting more and more excited the more he thought about it, but Xiao Suo flatly rejected the idea.
"No! Li Ban always has that thing by his side. Whenever I run into him, my luck always turns sour. Unless this Little Six of yours proves disappointing and lacks any hope of nurturing a wizard embryo fragment, I don't want to go capture him."
The Realm Emperor stiffened.
He knew that even though Priest Xiao Suo did not put on any airs when talking to him, once the man made a decision, it was not easily changed.
Even though he was the Realm Emperor, the artificial priest that Xiao Suo had actively chosen to cultivate.
"Alright then." The aged Realm Emperor turned to look at Li Zhai. "Zhai'er, your father was not lying to you. If the fusion fails, you really will die. Focus. Do not waste your energy eavesdropping."
A massive bead of sweat rolled down the temple of Li Zhai, who was enduring the agony of the fusion.
Xiao Suo stood to the side, his incredibly moving voice laced with temptation. "Focus on the fusion. If you succeed, you could become a priest, or perhaps even a Great Wizard."
Li Zhai did not understand why his "success" would make him a priest, but Xiao Suo's temptation was indeed far more compelling than his father's warning.
With the arrow already drawn, Li Zhai discarded all his chaotic thoughts and wholly focused on the fusion.
The Shadow World.
Priest Huangzhi had not seen Li Ban in days, so he anxiously made his way over to Li Ban's camp.
"Has your Priest Ban still not woken up?"
The team members guarding the camp exchanged glances and said cautiously, "We aren't too sure, but it's true that we haven't seen Priest Ban these past two days."
"Then go ask!" Facing members of the Alliance, Priest Huangzhi was not polite at all.
One of the guards hurriedly slung his rifle over his back and ran inside.
A short while later, Captain Luka strode over. "Priest Huangzhi, Priest Ban's body requires long periods of sleep to recuperate. If you have an urgent matter, I can wake him up. But if it isn't urgent, I can take you to see Priest Zhong Ye."
Huangzhi narrowed his eyes.
The fractured Realm-Breaking Stone still had not shown any reaction, meaning no small rifts had appeared recently.
He wasn't actually in a rush, but considering how important this cooperation was, the fact that Li Ban hadn't given him an answer for days—acting as if he wasn't very interested in collaborating—left him somewhat worried.
Though Priest Huangzhi claimed he could find others to work with, he secretly hoped Li Ban would agree.
The man knew the art of Shrinking Ground to an Inch, which could vastly increase the success rate of their operations.
Knowing that forcing Li Ban awake right now would only breed resentment, Huangzhi held back his impatience and managed a faint smile.
"Forget it. I merely wanted to ask how the development of your 'Trojan Horse' bullets is coming along, and whether you would mind expanding our cooperation."
The "Trojan Horse" bullets were the ammunition Li Ban created using the Virus element.
When Ah She and the others went out to test them, they were discovered by Priest Huangzhi's subordinates, who had been deliberately tailing them. Li Ban had simply decided to make the information public, adding to the bargaining chips of Priest Zhong Ye's team.
Luka turned sideways and raised his hand in a gesture of invitation. "Apologies, I cannot make that call. Would Priest Huangzhi like to chat with Priest Zhong Ye?"
"That works," Priest Huangzhi said with a smile, following Luka inside.
It had already been over a day since Li Ban left the Capital City with Shi Ming, Yan Jiu, and Deng Jun.
Yan Jiu was still clutching her small bundle, occasionally glancing at the scenery outside the window.
Even though she used to travel all over the place, she still seemed to view everything as a novelty.
The original agreement had been to drop her off as soon as they left the Capital City.
But after they exited the city gates, Yan Jiu quietly begged them to take her to the next town.
Upon reaching that town, Yan Jiu looked outside and pleaded with them to drop her off at the next large city instead. Otherwise, it was still too close to the Capital City, and she feared running into acquaintances and being captured again.
Watching all this from the sidelines, Shi Ming simply stared in disbelief. He had assumed that, given Li Ban's temperament, he absolutely would not indulge her.
Yet Li Ban merely pondered it for a moment before nodding in agreement.
Shi Ming immediately grew indignant.
At first, he just disliked Yan Jiu because she had joined their team to replace the Cat Girl who had left.
Cat Girl had left in such a hurry that Shi Ming hadn't even had the chance to give her a proper farewell, and now they were suddenly stuck with Yan Jiu.
Although she had a prettier face, she was usually taciturn and always acting coquettishly toward Li Ban.
It made Shi Ming feel as though something inside his brain had shattered.
After Li Ban delayed Yan Jiu's departure from the team yet again, Shi Ming began to find him to be an eyesore as well.
"Hmph!" Shi Ming scoffed coldly. He pushed the carriage door open and simply ran outside to sit with Deng Jun and drive.
Deng Jun glanced behind them and tried to comfort Shi Ming. "Don't overthink it. They are all just passing travelers."
"You're a passing traveler too, so why haven't you left?" Shi Ming snapped without a shred of politeness.
But Deng Jun merely smiled shamelessly. "I'm not a passing traveler; I am a returning one."
Shi Ming let out another cold scoff and sat right there, hugging his knees.
But just as he turned his head, not wanting to pay Deng Jun any more attention, he suddenly spotted a black figure by the side of the dirt road.
He froze, quickly grabbing the frame to lean out and peer behind them.
Yet when he looked again, the figure by the roadside was gone.
It was as if the figure he had just seen was merely an illusion.
"I think I just saw a familiar figure."
While Shi Ming hadn't wanted to talk to Deng Jun, Deng Jun couldn't just ignore Shi Ming. Hearing him speak up, he thought Shi Ming's attitude was softening and quickly replied, "Who did you see?"
No longer caring about his recent anger toward Deng Jun, Shi Ming hastily turned around, wanting to push the carriage door open and call for Li Ban.
But the moment he turned, a cold sweat instantly broke out across his back.
Behind him, right on Deng Jun's left side, the black-robed man who had just flashed out of sight was now sitting beside them.
He was staring straight ahead, his hands resting casually on his thighs, looking as though he had been riding along with them for a long time.
Noticing Shi Ming's terrified gaze, the black-robed man turned his head and slowly raised a hand in greeting. In a voice as smooth as jade, he said, "We meet again. I've given it some careful thought, and since some things cannot be avoided, it's better to simply face the difficulty head-on. Don't you agree?"
Inside the carriage, Li Ban, who was sitting with his eyes closed in cultivation, immediately raised his hand and summoned his Self-Seeking Mirror the moment he heard that familiar, terrifying voice from outside.
But before he could even lift the mirror, his wrist was seized by another hand.
He turned his head to look. It was Yan Jiu.
Except, Yan Jiu's grip was immensely strong right now, completely unlike that of a crippled 6th Tier Spirit Cultivator.
In the next second, the black-robed figure of Xiao Suo pushed the door open and entered the carriage.
Meanwhile, Shi Ming, who was sitting in front of the door, turned around just in time to see the scene inside the carriage. He immediately pointed at Yan Jiu. "I knew you weren't a good person!"