Priest Yao pursed her lips and bowed her head in shame.
She had known about this back then and had even supported it.
Because Du An's native world was already on the brink of collapse, the priests, accustomed to the destruction of minor worlds, had seen nothing wrong with hastening the end of a doomed realm.
But now she understood that this very experience was what had warped Du An, making him increasingly stubborn, extreme, and ruthless.
Zhu Yao had to admit it—she had been wrong.
Perhaps if they had simply let Du An watch as a bystander while his world fell, allowing him to grasp the unstoppable nature of worldly trends, he wouldn't have developed such an absolute, results-oriented personality.
"I will kill him," Priest Yao promised Li Ban earnestly.
Li Ban clenched his fists in silence.
The grudge between him and Du An went far beyond a simple matter of life and death.
However, compared to his feud with Du An, Li Ban was far more concerned about something else right now.
"Priest Yao, given your current condition, how long will it take you to advance to Solar Priest?"
The Zhu Yao in the Recycling Station was a 7th Tier Dark Moon Priest.
This meant the Wizard World had rebooted before she advanced to the Solar tier.
Li Ban needed to use this timeline to gauge how long he had left to stop the current timeline from rebooting.
He absolutely refused to let his friends and family in this world be dragged into the utter despair of the Recycling Station!
Priest Zhu Yao fell silent for a moment before answering with firm resolve, "At least twenty years, but I am confident I can temper my state of mind within thirty."
Li Ban's pupils shrank.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration for a Dark Moon Priest to spend a century advancing to the Solar tier.
But Priest Zhu Yao was indeed a deeply experienced veteran.
Which meant Li Ban likely only had twenty years left to save his world.
Twenty years.
To advance from Star Glow Priest to Great Wizard.
Was it even possible?
Filled with anxiety, Li Ban took his leave.
The three remaining priests exchanged glances; all of them had sensed his sudden spike of apprehension.
"Did something happen?" Zhu Yao asked.
Priest Qian Que shook his head, just as clueless.
This was Priest Zhu Yao's first time seeing Li Ban since his return from the Dark Side of the World. She had noticed the changes in him at a glance, and she couldn't help but worry.
But with Li Ban present just moments ago, she hadn't been able to voice her concerns to the others.
Only after he left did she look to Priest Qian Que for help. "Li Ban advanced too quickly. By suddenly entering the Star Glow stage, his primary character flaws will be magnified. I used to think his amplified traits would be laziness and indecision, but that clearly isn't the case now."
Zhu Yao looked toward the direction Li Ban had vanished.
"I'm afraid his experiences in the Dark Side of the World inflicted massive trauma on him, pushing his personality to the opposite extreme."
Impatient and ruthless.
Zhu Yao thought the reliable Priest Qian Que would offer some words to ease her anxiety, but it was Priest Li He who spoke first.
"I actually think Priest Ban knows exactly what he's doing," Priest Li He said, looking quite relaxed. "We all went through the Star Glow stage where our emotions were magnified. As long as he can control himself, he'll get through it."
Hearing this, Zhu Yao knew Li He wasn't saying this out of absolute confidence that Li Ban would reach the Dark Moon tier. Instead, Li He simply didn't care if Li Ban got trapped in the Star Glow stage or did something extreme due to his shifted personality.
Because if Li Ban ever caused a problem, Li He—as a Solar Priest—believed he could resolve any mess himself.
As to whether "resolving the mess" ultimately included eliminating Li Ban, that would depend on what Priest Li He decided.
Priest Qian Que remained silent.
Seeing this, Zhu Yao grew even more worried.
Was Qian Que staying quiet because he felt the exact same way?
Li Ban rushed back to his courtyard. Glancing down, he saw the Cat Girl basking in the sun.
At some point, she had dragged a lounger out from the side hall and was now sprawled across it, resting.
The tail behind her swished back and forth from time to time.
Completely carefree.
Li Ban landed and lay down on the edge of the lounger, leaning against Little Cat.
Although he still mourned the sacrifice of the Cat Girl from the Recycling Station, he didn't try to look for her shadow when he watched Little Cat.
Perhaps it was because he had known from the start that this Cat Girl wasn't his Little Cat. Yet, even after leaving the Recycling Station, he had still clung to the hope that Priest Yao was his Zhu Yao.
The Cat Girl turned her face toward him, her cheek pressed against the bamboo mat, leaving adorable little horizontal indentations on her skin.
"I'm sunbathing," Little Cat said softly. "Don't plants like the sun? I figured this might help the Cyan Silk Algae settle down faster."
"Makes sense."
Li Ban lay on his side next to Little Cat, forcing himself to relax as much as possible. A final ray of starlight fell upon them, dulling the scorching heat of the sun overhead.
"After all, the sun is a star, too."
Confusion flashed in the Cat Girl's eyes; she didn't quite grasp his meaning.
But Li Ban's own words suddenly sparked a thought in his mind.
The sixth tier was Star Glow. The seventh was Dark Moon.
Star Glow wasn't the star itself; it was the energy radiated outward by a star.
But a moon was a true celestial body.
It was just a smaller body that didn't emit its own energy, instead orbiting a planet.
So, to transition from Star Glow to Dark Moon, one had to accumulate enough mass and compress it.
For a priest, that mass was the fusion of Wizard Embryo Fragments and spiritual rhinoceros.
And the critical step was compression. Moving from Star Glow to Dark Moon meant shifting from unbridled release to absolute restraint.
'Restraint? What am I supposed to restrain?'
It couldn't possibly be his hatred toward Xiao Suo, Du An, and the rules of the world's reboot, right?
If he truly restrained all that, would he still be himself?
What would be the point of everything he had done?
Li Ban couldn't figure it out. This was why, despite having reached full spiritual rhinoceros and gathered enough Wizard Embryo Fragments, he still hadn't broken through to the Dark Moon tier.
Many priests took decades, even centuries, to cross this threshold.
Li Ban sat back up. Seeing this, the Cat Girl quickly scrambled upright as well.
"Little Cat, I'm going to be making frequent trips to the Shattered Realm from now on. When I'm not here, keep a close eye on your condition. If the Cyan Silk Algae acts up, or if you run into any trouble, go find Priest Qian Que."
Since he wasn't actively hunting Xiao Suo, Li Ban didn't need to drag Priest Qian Que along with him everywhere.
He had his own secrets, and having the priest around constantly was inconvenient.
He wasn't afraid of running into Xiao Suo in the Shattered Realm, either.
For one, he possessed a unique ability to detect Xiao Suo, so he had no fear of an ambush.
Second, one of Li Ban's most powerful artifacts had reawakened.
With it in hand, he was confident he could escape even the most desperate situations.
That artifact was the Mobius Ring Necklace he had acquired from Gu Yi's remains.
A divine artifact that allowed an ordinary person—someone far below the level of a Great Wizard—to construct a minor world purely through sheer willpower!