Within the dreamscape.
Inside a magnificent palace, a black-robed Dream Master stepped through the swirling mist and into the vast hall, his footsteps echoing in the empty expanse.
He soon arrived before the throne, bowing low. "Great Elder, something terrible has happened. Yuanshi Tianzun and Fu Qingyang joined forces to kill Seventh Elder and Eleventh Elder, along with two Dominators from the Southern District Branch of the Spirit Society."
High upon the throne, a cloaked giant three meters tall hung his head, sinking into a long silence.
This was already the fifth Dominator of the Southern Sect to die at Yuanshi Tianzun's hands.
From Sixth Elder at the very beginning, to Third Elder and Ninth Elder, and now Seventh Elder and Eleventh Elder.
Five Dominators. Given how scarce evil professions were, it would take at least ten years for promising newcomers to ascend and replenish their ranks.
No, at least fifteen years, because Yi Chuanmei—the one with the highest hopes of ascending to Dominator—along with several other Dream Masters, had all returned to the Spirit Realm.
Their reserves were practically wiped out.
"Understood!" The Great Elder's voice was layered and ethereal, steeped in suppressed fury.
The Dream Master continued, "This afternoon, the Songhai Branch's official account released an announcement stating they are launching a hunting operation targeting the elders of our Southern Sect, led by Yuanshi Tianzun and Fu Qingyang..."
Perhaps sensing the Great Elder's leaking rage, the Dream Master's voice trembled with dread.
The dream palace shook violently, as though struck by a sudden earthquake.
Only after a long while did the tremors cease. The reporting Dream Master lay prostrate on the ground, terrified to make even the slightest move.
"The Sect Master took part in the destruction of the Wuhen Hotel, forging an irreconcilable feud with Yuanshi Tianzun. Having failed to strangle him in his cradle during the Saint stage, it was inevitable that the Southern Sect would suffer today's retribution." The Great Elder sighed, his voice heavy. "Draft an announcement for me: all Southern Sect members are to keep a low profile in the near future. No going out, no gatherings."
As for the other elders, he would notify them personally.
"Understood," the Dream Master murmured, bowing as he withdrew.
***
At nine in the evening, having indulged in passion from daytime into the night, Zhang Yuanqing comforted his fair-skinned, sweat-glistening girlfriend curled up on the bed. Slipping into a bathrobe, he made his way to the villa's rooftop terrace.
With the assistance of Fu Qingyang and the Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Fledgling of the Taiyi Sect, he had smoothly gathered the materials. Tonight, he planned to enter the guild warehouse and refine the two Nihility Sect elders.
One was Seventh Elder, at level-seven late stage, and the other was Eleventh Elder, at level-seven mid stage.
It was worth noting that in the Nihility Sect's elder rankings, only the top five were ranked by personal strength; from the sixth position onward, it was based purely on seniority.
Consequently, although Eleventh Elder possessed more experience points than Ninth Elder, he ranked behind her because she had ascended to Dominator a few years earlier.
Before entering the guild warehouse, Zhang Yuanqing intended to perform a divination to seek an opening for refining the Three Powers Pill.
He had worked out the leveling plan, but without the core ingredients, it was all talk.
Finding a suitable primary ingredient was far from easy. Hunting a Dark Night Rose Protector was far too perilous, and entering a Taiyi Sect scenario was virtually impossible.
When reason failed, one could only place hope in stargazing.
Retrieving the Daluo Star Disk, he ignited the constellations across its face with astral power. Looking up at the starry sky, his aura grew ethereal and mysterious, pure starlight welling up in his eyes.
The celestial stars shifted like lines of program code, heralding the unfolding of the future and weaving together the course of the river of destiny.
Within that river of destiny, Zhang Yuanqing saw no ending for himself.
This meant he was bound to take part in demigod-level battles in the future; his current rank was insufficient to divine such heavenly secrets.
He looked back along the river of destiny, narrowing the scope of his divination to focus specifically on leveling up. Several indistinct patches of shadow soon surfaced.
Taking these shadows into his gaze, Zhang Yuanqing deduced their meaning repeatedly.
After a full hour, he opened his eyes. The celestial omen indicated that the opportunity to refine the Three Powers Pill would arrive thirty-five days from now.
However, it seemed entangled with high-level powers, preventing him from seeing it clearly; he could only glean a premonition.
"Thirty-five days..."
Stowing the star disk, Zhang Yuanqing vanished from the villa's terrace.
***
Inside the Mohist Mechanism City dungeon.
Zhang Yuanqing inscribed the spirit talisman array to summon the Empress. After waiting a long while, the old crone left him on read, utterly ignoring him.
"Sigh, looks like she doesn't want to see me anytime soon." Zhang Yuanqing sighed in disappointment.
He had been wondering if he could ask her to catch a Day Wanderer for him to consume. Now it seemed modifying the pill recipe was already the stubborn, unyielding Empress's greatest concession.
Wiping away the summoning array, Zhang Yuanqing began sketching the Spirit Refining Array.
Once the talisman array was finished, he exhaled a breath of lunar power, which condensed into an old man and a young man—Seventh Elder and Eleventh Elder.
The two spirits saw the light of day once more, overflowing with resentment, only to be immediately bound in place by the chilling yin aura erupting from the array.
"Honored elders, hand over the items and materials in your inventories," Zhang Yuanqing said with a beaming smile.
"Yuanshi Tianzun!" Eleventh Elder, appearing as a young man, twisted his face ferociously. "We would rather detonate our primordial spirits than become your slaves! The Great Elder and Sect Master will avenge us!"
Yet, suppressed by the array, he was utterly powerless to detonate himself.
Seventh Elder sneered, "You want our life's savings? Keep dreaming. If you have the guts, kill us!"
Zhang Yuanqing sighed. "Is acting tough a traditional skill in your Southern Sect? I can't be bothered to waste breath on you. I'll let Ninth Elder do some ideological work on you instead."
Exhaling another puff of lunar power, it coalesced into a beautiful woman made of black smoke.
Seeing her two former colleagues standing within the familiar array, Ninth Elder froze for a second. Then, with an odd and conflicted look, she said, "Y-you're here too?"
She felt a pang of unwillingness, indignation, and bitterness that two more Southern Sect elders had fallen victim to Yuanshi Tianzun's hands.
Yet deep inside, she felt a sliver of schadenfreude.
Having stood drenched in the rain herself, seeing others get soaked was immensely satisfying.
Such was the nature of evil professions.
The two Southern Sect elders glared coldly at her. "To think you debased yourself to serve Yuanshi Tianzun! Living so devoid of dignity, you'd be better off dead!"
"You aren't worthy of being an elder of the Southern Sect!"
"Have you forgotten how you became a rogue walker? Hah, serving as a slave and maidservant to someone from the orthodox faction—what an utter disgrace!"
Ninth Elder listened with a faint smile. Once they finished cursing, she remarked serenely, "Between life and death, I chose life. What is wrong with that?
"What is so humiliating about becoming Master's spirit servant? Master cherishes old ties more than anyone. Among the spirit servants and yin corpses who followed him early on, the former has ascended to peak Saint, while the latter has even stepped into the Dominator realm.
"If I serve Master well, I might very well reach even greater heights in the future. Far from finding servitude degrading, my only regret is lacking a physical body to serve him with my beauty."
Seeing her two former colleagues seething with fury, she smiled sweetly and continued, "Aside from occasionally assisting in battle, following Master means neither suffering humiliation nor enduring hardship. You have no idea how carefree and joyful it is. Even when my inner traumas flare up, Master can cleanse my evil impulses with solar divine power."
At this point, her tone shifted, turning icy. "Standing in this Spirit Refining Array, you can neither self-detonate nor resist. You are destined to become spirit servants. A wise person submits to circumstance. Since you have fallen into Master's hands, why not abandon darkness for light as I did and spare yourselves some suffering?
"Your items and materials are mere bonuses to Master. Did you really think they were that vital? They're completely dispensable to him. Handing them over now serves as your pledge of allegiance. Otherwise, once you become spirit servants and endure daily abuse and torture, what would be the point?"
The expressions of the two elders shifted.
They were fish on the chopping block; they truly possessed no bargaining power or ability to resist. Once refined into spirit servants, even self-destruction would be impossible.
Zhang Yuanqing clapped his hands and chimed in, "You will still get to use your items. I won't confiscate them, nor do I care for them."
Once a spirit was refined into a servant, it was equivalent to dying; their character cards would automatically return to the Spirit Realm, and the contents of their inventories would naturally go along with them.
He truly looked down on the two elders' gear. From the daytime battle, it was plain to see they had no top-tier equipment, only ordinary level-seven items.
The Item Tianzun no longer had any use for low- to mid-grade level-seven items.
However, rather than letting them return to the Spirit Realm, it was better to keep them for the spirit servants to use. A stronger servant meant greater strength for him.
Hearing Yuanshi Tianzun's promise, the two Southern Sect elders looked at each other, wavering and struggling internally. After a full quarter of an hour, both chose to submit.
In truth, even if they refused, they could not escape enslavement. Rather than enduring that, they were better off handing over their gear and materials, hopping from the Southern Sect to Yuanshi Tianzun's camp.
A new job, a new life.
***
The next day.
Zhang Yuanqing woke from a light sleep with Guan Ya in his arms. After getting dressed and freshening up, he crushed a teleportation jade talisman.
His surroundings blurred for an instant before snapping into focus.
Inside a medieval-style council hall, his figure materialized at the head of a solid wood table draped in beast hides.
A dozen seconds later, several figures appeared out of thin air around the seats.
Xiahou Aotian, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter, the Demon Eye Heavenly King, Xiao Yuan, and Lady JoJo.
The civet leaped from a high-backed chair onto the table, raising its tail and arching its spine with a languid yawn. "Calling a meeting in such a rush, who are we killing this time? Can I request that the curly-haired dog attend on my behalf in the future?"
"No, Lady JoJo!" Zhang Yuanqing chuckled. "Elder Dog isn't a member of our guild."
Turning toward the others, he said, "Today's meeting is an internal assembly of Return of the Dead. I have two things to announce: first, I am about to enter a scenario belonging to the Association of God of Beauty for a thirty-five-day marathon dungeon run. During this time, keep as low a profile as possible and don't stir up trouble.
"Second, thirty-five days from now, no matter what business you have, do your best to clear your schedules. I will assign missions on that day."
Lady JoJo's feline eyes widened. "Are you preparing to sprint toward becoming the Lord of the Sun?"
The expressions of those present varied. Xiahou Aotian was taken aback; in his view, the intensity of their recent dungeon runs had already reached the absolute limit.
Both mentally and physically, he had felt somewhat worn out.
He hadn't expected Yuanshi Tianzun to pursue an even more ferocious, high-intensity leveling regimen. Had he been provoked, or was he feeling immense pressure?
Xiao Yuan was mostly worried, her delicate brows knitting together. "What happened?"
Zhang Yuanqing said in a heavy voice, "I gazed at the stars last night and discovered that the fate two months from now cannot be deduced or viewed. This means that two months from now, the world's situation will plunge into complete chaos, involving powers of an exceptionally high level.
"I have a premonition that something massive will occur in two months."
The Demon Eye Heavenly King's brows shot up. "Will Morality Points disappear again in two months?"
Zhang Yuanqing replied, "Highly likely."
No wonder he was in such a rush to level up! Realization dawned upon everyone. Yuanshi Tianzun, who intended to contend for the throne of the Lord of the Sun, was currently only a level-seven Dominator. Reaching peak Dominator was still distant, let alone the demigod realm.
It was only natural that he felt immense pressure.
"Two months..." the Demon Eye Heavenly King muttered under his breath.
Zhang Yuanqing continued, "For this leveling run, I won't be bringing anyone along. Lie low and stay safe. I will coordinate with the Association of God of Beauty to regularly publish updates on my dungeon progress so you can keep track of my condition.
"If I die in the scenario, Xiahou Aotian will take over as guild leader and become your leader."
For some reason, Xiahou Aotian didn't feel the least bit pleased.
"While I am inside the scenario, I won't be able to offer you any help. I will transfer the items in the guild warehouse to Xiahou Aotian. If anything happens, just look for him." Zhang Yuanqing said, "If there are no questions, meeting adjourned."
"Wait!" The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter raised a hand and asked, "In this guild scenario of the Association of God of Beauty, will there be sleeping with women?"
Xiao Yuan's gaze instantly bore into him, like a lioness fiercely guarding her territory.
As if having heard nothing, Zhang Yuanqing kept a completely straight face. "Meeting adjourned!"
He was the first to vanish from the council hall.
Chapter 920