Li Ban's dive into the pool drew the attention of every Priest present.
As one, they looked up at Priest Li He hovering above.
Priest Li He shook his head slightly, signaling them to leave him be.
But once the other Priests relaxed and looked away, Priest Li He turned his gaze toward the Myriad Ancient Pagoda across the way.
Priest Qian Que's silhouette appeared on the roof.
With another flicker, he materialized beside Priest Li He.
"Aren't you going to see what Priest Ban is doing?" Li He asked.
Priest Qian Que gave him a strange look, as if to ask, You aren't going either, are you?
Facing a fellow Solar Priest, Li He could not put on airs. He offered an explanation: "Li Ban trusts you more."
So he had chosen a milder approach to monitor Li Ban's actions.
When he originally decided to let Priest Qian Que follow Li Ban around to track down the Black Robe, Xiao Suo, part of the reason had been the need for someone to keep an eye on him.
He had no desire to nurture a talented white-robed priest only for him to turn into a Black Robe.
While killing a Black Robe would earn merit, the time, energy, and resources wasted along the way would far outweigh the reward.
Priest Qian Que pressed his lips together. He knew exactly what Li He was thinking.
He knew Priest Li He's personality could sometimes be strict to the point of ruthlessness. But ultimately, the man was his compatriot, and the only Solar Priest who had rushed over when things went wrong at the Unreturning Place.
Priest Qian Que respected his decision.
Qian Que vanished once more, reappearing deep beneath the surface of the pool.
Strange insects occasionally manifested in the water, but before a Solar Priest, they couldn't even make a ripple. They popped around him like little firecrackers.
He quickly spotted Li Ban in the depths.
Li Ban was tracking a shattered fragment of a waste element, watching it slowly sink toward the bottom.
"What are you doing?" Priest Qian Que asked, communicating via the mind arts.
Li Ban had noticed Priest Qian Que the moment he approached.
He kept his eyes locked on the sinking waste element fragment. Without looking back, he replied through the same mind arts.
"I was just wondering, where exactly does the trash thrown away by the Wizard World end up?"
Priest Qian Que gave him a direct answer. "Most of it temporarily settles at the bottom of the pool. When the water level drops next, it gets sucked into the crevices at the bottom and plunges into the Dark Side of the World."
Li Ban had not expected Priest Qian Que to know this in such detail.
Were other Priests besides him paying attention to waste elements?
Seeing the surprise in Li Ban's eyes, Priest Qian Que smiled. "During my late Dark Moon stage, I was suppressing my nature. I was incredibly bored."
Much like a bored child counting ants, having nothing else to do had driven Priest Qian Que to focus on details usually completely overlooked.
"And after it enters the Dark Side of the World?"
"The Wizard World is a closed loop. Anything that enters the Dark Side of the World is shredded by chaotic energy into the smallest possible units. Through the methods of the Great Wizards, those units are reformed into stable energy and fed back into the Wizard World."
"In other words, useless energy like waste elements becomes usable energy again?"
"Yes. The Wizard World is actually the core of a massive global cycle. However, this energy loop inevitably causes wear and tear, which is why the Wizard Lord created the Shattered Realm to mitigate that loss."
Li Ban nodded. "The River of Helplessness flows through here to enter the Dark Side of the World. What about the River of Forgetfulness?"
"The River of Forgetfulness ends at the Mass Grave. At the center of the Mass Grave lies a dry well. That place serves much the same function as the deep pool here at the Unreturning Place."
Hearing Priest Qian Que's words, Li Ban could not help but think about how the deep pool at the Unreturning Place connected to the Recycling Station's Northern Continent.
Did the dry well in the Mass Grave connect to the Recycling Station's Southern Continent?
Li Ban reined in his thoughts.
He continued following the waste element toward the bottom of the pool.
Priest Qian Que did not stop him, offering only a brief warning. "Stay safe."
Don't fall in again.
Li Ban gave a reassuring gesture. He followed the shattered waste element all the way down to the deepest reaches of the pool.
The water here was bone-chillingly cold.
The area surrounding the crevices was especially brutal—cold enough to freeze even a powerful spirit practitioner solid.
Even a Priest like Li Ban had to use arts just to keep his body moving normally.
Resisting the tremendous suction from the crevices, he reached out to touch the edge.
The moment his fingers grazed the fissure, the intense spatial forces instantly shredded them.
Blood dyed the surrounding water red, though the bleeding stopped moments later.
The spilled blood was carried by the current into the crevice, vanishing completely.
By the time Li Ban pulled his hand back, his fingers had fully healed.
His 6th Tier Flesh on White Bones was potent enough to regenerate such an injury in an instant.
In that brief moment when his blood had stained the water, Li Ban seamlessly fused the Creation-type element he had obtained in the Recycling Station.
Small Azure Pouch.
It was a Mortal-tier element.
And an exceptionally rare spatial Mortal-tier element, at that.
Most spatial elements started at the Fine-tier at minimum. However, the internal space of the Small Azure Pouch was tiny—only half a cubic meter—and it could only store inanimate objects. That limitation reduced it to the Mortal-tier.
To a spirit practitioner, it was no different from carrying an extra sack.
Yet, when Li Ban decided to continue collecting waste elements, he fused this Mortal-tier element.
He knew that any element he repeatedly used had a high probability of sublimating.
So, ever since fusing it, he had been constantly using the Azure Pouch, stuffing items inside and taking them out again.
On the twelfth use, the Azure Pouch sublimated and acquired a new ability: Mass Aggregation.
It could compress anything placed inside to its absolute limit, allowing the pouch to hold vastly more material.
For the average person, this ability was still useless.
Whenever someone stored items in the Azure Pouch, they generally needed those items kept intact.
If the pouch compressed them with its new ability, the items would be utterly ruined.
Fortunately, all Li Ban needed was the spiritual rhinoceros contained within the waste elements. He couldn't care less about their physical condition.
This time, Li Ban paid very close attention to the element's sublimation process.
Although spirit practitioners generally didn't understand the mechanics of elemental sublimation, Li Ban was certain it wasn't random.
The instant the Azure Pouch sublimated, Li Ban felt a surge of spiritual rhinoceros from his own body flood the entire element.
That burst of spiritual rhinoceros was not something he had absorbed from the Wizard World. It came from the Star River within his sea of consciousness.
The reason I can constantly cause elements to sublimate is also because of the Star River. It contains a tremendous source energy, powerful enough to influence the laws of reality.
That is also why I remain unaffected by Xiao Suo's law-bending influence, allowing me to clearly remember that he has died several times.
Neither Priest Qian Que nor Priest Li He knew that when Li Ban first arrived in the Wizard World, the Star River already existed within his consciousness.
They assumed Li Ban could remember Xiao Suo's deaths because of his bizarre experiences in the Dark Side of the World.
As for what exactly Li Ban had encountered there, they had not pried. Evidently, they possessed some vague understanding of the laws governing the Dark Side of the World.