Time passed quickly, and soon it was the fourth day.
Xia Fei pulled out Blood Crystal from a shriveled corpse. This was already his fifth kill, and this strategy of sitting back and waiting for his prey to serve themselves up worked wonders. When all these tired and wounded warriors found themselves caught in Xia Fei’s trap, the ensuing act became a lot simpler.
Hiding the corpses and storing away their identification plates as well as spatial rings, Xia Fei’s expression was fairly solemn.
He had already collected thirteen plates, including the spoils, but none was truly useful to him.
As Xia Fei fought, Blood Crystal, with its insane ability to drain the victim’s energy, directed a portion of what it absorbed into his seventh brain region. This helped him form a colorful energy ball.
After Xia Fei slew that fifth expert with Law Sovereign cultivation, the ball of energy in his brain was already several times larger than before. Very obvious and intense energy pulses were flooding his seventh brain region, like crashing waves from a turbulent ocean. Xia Fei could not help but feel completely energized!
No one could fully comprehend the wonders of the seventh brain region. It could store energy as well as help humans obtain and use special abilities including laws. Now, even energy not belonging to Xia Fei all gathered up and refused to dissipate inside it.
It would have been fine if Xia Fei was able to absorb the energy the Blood Crystal had absorbed; the problem was that the energy refused to be controlled by him and was independent of his brain, forming a third force!
The colorful energy ball constantly beat like a human heart. It must be said that there was a limit to the width of a human’s seventh brain region, and letting it accumulate like that would ultimately result in it completely occupying Xia Fei’s seventh brain region. Once that happened, he would no longer have the space to accommodate any more profound patterns of law! This was what Xia Fei was truly worried about.
“What now? You don’t look so good,” Phantom asked.
Xia Fei was leaning against a tree trunk, his two legs outstretched and his two hands pressing on his temples. He was using his mental energy to once again examine his brain region, worry etched across his face. Both Phantom and Lionheart Emperor Oro queried about this, but Xia Fei did not answer either of them.
“I can’t go on like this; that energy ball in my brain is growing too fast,” Xia Fei said in a deep voice. “It’s like a tumor, and it’s a matter of time before it completely occupies my seventh brain region.”
“So what do we do?” Phantom asked with concern. He had already noted how peculiar that energy ball was; it was just that he had no solution toward the matter.
“Since its energy, it should be absorbable. I wanna try doing just that,” Xia Fei said.
Lionheart Emperor Oro burst into laughter. Oro had not heard a word of Phantom and only Xia Fei. In the beginning, he thought that Xia Fei was suffering from some mental illness, but over time he rationalized it as a force of habit.
“That energy doesn’t belong to you,” Oro said solemnly.
Xia Fei was slightly surprised. His fingers drummed uneasily on his thighs as if he were pressing the keys of a piano. Humans tended to make subconscious actions when they were anxious, and Xia Fei was no different.
“The evolution that Blood Crystal had undergone made it very odd, able to drain the energy others contain. The problem here is that the energy doesn’t belong to you and is someone else’s. You forcibly extracted energy from others, but you can’t alter it to suit you. That’s your biggest issue right now.
“Law and special ability are all based on a foundation of energy. While this is true, that doesn’t mean that you can just take in any potential source of energy however you like. The energy a warrior possesses has its life mark, and honestly, the fact that you can absorb such energy without suffering repercussions is already a considerable feat by itself. It’s a testament to your physical affinity and decent compatibility toward energy, but that’s far from enough.”
“Life mark?” Xia Fei muttered.
“Yes. Origin Energy belongs to the universe, while warriors who make that theirs will of course leave their imprint on it, so unless you have a method to remove that imprint, there’s no way you can make the energy your own, no matter how much energy you possess.”
After a pause, Oro opened his two eyes wide and spoke in a deep voice. “Plus, it’s already beginning to destabilize.”
When Oro said that, Xia Fei had already closed his eyes. He needed no reminder as he was the first to sense the energy slowly destabilizing inside him!
His brain region was filled with frenzied pulses. That colorful energy ball was suddenly expanding and contracting. These were the signs of destabilization, its structure rapidly changing after having absorbed too much energy.
“Law of Primal Chaos!”
Having an energy explosion in the seventh brain region was definitely not a good thing, and the only solution Xia Fei could come up with was the Law of Primal Chaos! At full force!
*Whoosh!*
Two profound images rapidly rose in his brain region, wrapping around that ball of energy. Xia Fei was at the ready. Though he was unsure what to expect from this, this was the most he could do given the situation he was in!
*Bang!*
Sure enough, the energy ball cracked and exploded not soon after it destabilized!
Unexpectedly, the strength of this explosion was not too powerful, though plenty of energy flooded his brain region when it happened.
It was like a very natural occurrence, akin to how dams worked. Once flooded to a point with enough water, the logic being that it needed to open up the floodgates and release the contained water to prevent it from being overfilled, as that would cause an overflow.
“How refreshing!” Xia Fei could not resist shouting.
The situation was nothing as exaggerated as what Lionheart Emperor Oro had described. The force of the explosion was nothing huge, and the feeling of the energy flooding his brain region was as if he was being reborn; Xia Fei felt an immense pleasure wash over him!
A brainwave came to him. Having so much energy go to waste was not his style, and he ought to do something with it now!
…
An hour later.
“I must admit that my judgment of the external energy has been wrong all along,” Lionheart Emperor Oro said awkwardly. To an expert, admitting their mistake was something very hard to do because it was an issue of face.
Xia Fei heaved a long sigh. His entire body felt relaxed, enjoying the momentary clarity he felt after his promotion.
After that energy explosion, not only did his brain region remain unscathed, Xia Fei even gained a great boon of energy, surging so abundantly that he could make a breakthrough to become a level 4 Law Sovereign all at once!
“Honestly, I didn’t expect such an outcome, either,” Xia Fei calmly said.
“I’m taking back my words earlier”—Oro cleared his throat—”as I originally deduced that your speed of promotion would get reduced after you became a Law Sovereign. Now, it seems…”
Lionheart Emperor Oro eyed the Blood Crystal before continuing. “Now, it looks like that’s not an accurate judgment on my part. With that strange dagger, your cultivation can still improve, and the speed won’t falter as long as you continue killing like this.”
With a slight smile, Xia Fei lightly stroked Blood Crystal. This dagger, which devoured the blood essence of its targets, was beautiful, its scarlet color exquisite and its appearance very savage.
“It will form a ball in your brain region after sucking the enemy’s energy as if a method of self-preservation. Once a certain amount of energy accumulates, it will then be released in such an explosive manner.” Lionheart Emperor Oro pursed his lips. “I don’t have anything to say about this, since I’ve never seen such a manifestation throughout my life.”
“Strange. So d*mn strange!” With a sigh, Lionheart Emperor Oro uncharacteristically cursed.
…
Though such a method of energy concentration and subsequent release made Xia Fei nervous, that he managed to promote through it was an undeniable truth.
More importantly, what Xia Fei had experienced was a non-stop improvement all thanks to Blood Crystal.
Plundering the energy of others to improve oneself was no doubt a cruel method, but it was also very effective! Shockingly so!
*Whoosh!*
A black figure darted past the vegetation. The corner of Xia Fei’s lips curled. The arrival of enemies meant a fight and also more energy!
The more enemies he killed, the higher a position Xia Fei would hold!
*Whoosh whoosh whoosh*
Just as Xia Fei was about to make his move, three more figures appeared unexpectedly. Turned out that it was not just an enemy but a group, instead!
It was very common to find candidates working together to clear a round, and adding the strength of several people would surely be more powerful than fighting alone, making it that much easier to clear this merciless assessment.
Xia Fei had just gotten up when he had to crouch again. He was not confident enough to take on four enemies at once. He hid among the trees and bushes and silently observed this group of candidates; in the worst-case scenario, he would just give up on taking these people down. Truth be told, it was easier to bully the weak while trying to squeeze blood out of stone was doubtlessly a fool’s errand.
“This place here should be fine, yeah?” The four were around their twenties, three men and one woman. The one presently speaking was the woman, her voice somewhat shaky, as if she was feeling nervous.
“Xu Bien is a level 2 Law Emperor, far higher in cultivation than us. Now that he’s had his eye on us, we can’t let our guard down even for the slightest moment.” A man with a big red face spoke next. It looked like he was the leader of this group, and the four of them arrived here after being hunted down.
“Qin Bao’er, see if there’s anyone around. We can decide what we’ll do from here on,” the red-faced man ordered.
The woman who went by the name of Qin Bao’er was disgruntled, mumbling, “The four of us only managed to grab three identification plates before we caught the eye of an expert. At this rate, none of us is going to pass this round.”
The other two sighed, while only the red-faced man kept observing their surroundings with unsteady eyes.
*Bang!*
Qin Bao’er’s detection technique was very special. All Xia Fei saw was her flipping over her fair palm and slapping it down on the ground.
“Law of Matter, Earth Web!”
At that instant, she channeled her law force deep into the ground. A huge and dense spider web covered an area well over a hundred kilometers! Every blade of grass and flower was visible under the woman’s eyes!
Xia Fei was stunned. This detection technique covered a huge area, a very powerful technique of the Law of Matter!
He shuddered immediately as an almost imperceptible law force went surging outward from the ground and into Xia Fei’s body like a bolt of electricity!
If this were in the Alliance, Xia Fei’s Breath Control would indeed prevent him from being discovered, but he was in the Law Realm! He had no way of defending against such a method of detection!
‘I’ve been discovered!’ That was the first thought that ran through his head.
Before Xia Fei could move, Qin Bao’er had already pointed in the direction where Xia Fei was hiding, and the three men beside her came pouncing right over instantaneously!
The man in front was a young man with a metal nose sleeve. His noise appeared to be suffering from some problem, which was why he had a metal sleeve holding it in place, using his mouth to breathe. Meanwhile, that red-faced man was a Law of Space Adept, appearing somewhere behind Xia Fei with an instantaneous movement technique to seal off any route of escape for Xia Fei. As for the fatty with the stubby leg, he was panting and lagging behind the two men. Having been running over such a long distance, this fatty was already nearing physical exhaustion.
Qin Bao’er had merely pointed in the approximate direction of where Xia Fei was hiding, and none of these men was actually able to see where Xia Fei was. All they could do was spread out into a circle and search for any traces of Xia Fei.
“Law of Matter, Triple Fortress!”
Qin Bao’er was the only one to know where Xia Fei was hiding, and her palm had not lifted off the ground yet. Instead, she was directly feeding law force in an effort to seal Xia Fei completely!
*Kaboom!*
A tumultuous change broke out around Xia Fei!
The soil very quickly solidified, turning into something that was as strong as concrete!
One, two… three!
Three large circular concrete fortresses successively formed, and they were capable of locking Xia Fei up in a dungeon once shut!
