“Did you notice the flaw in Nan Shazi’s wording earlier? He said that he’s staging a comeback in the Alpha Universe. Doesn’t that mean that he’s left this place before…” Xia Fei went into deep thoughts and then said this.

Fuchen nodded. “That’s a very likely possibility. The existence of our universe itself is already beyond common sense, and countless Cosmic Gates connect each of these universes. Some of the gates aren’t entirely secure. Take for example your case; didn’t you come from another universe? There’s also Aquamarine. She’s yet another individual from a different universe that we from the Alpha Universe have no knowledge of.

“In any case, this time, Nan Shazi must have powerful backing, or else there’s no way he could make that vow to restore the Dark Spiritualists’ glory with much confidence, not to mention their plan to challenge The Collapsed Expanse of Founders. After all, the moment that place opens, every force will move, so without powerful backing, even their very survival won’t be guaranteed in the face of universal opposition. What more of launching an assault to that strange star region.”

Xia Fei smiled and spat out a smoke ring. “The Collapsed Expanse of Founders… What a mysterious-sounding name. It seems to be a very interesting place.”

Fuchen was startled and soon asked, “Xia Fei, you’re not thinking of crashing the party, are you? Honestly, while the Aurora Clan is fairly prestigious, it won’t be easy for it to gain entry to The Collapsed Expanse of Founders; it’ll, more or less, depend on the whims of Chaos Society’s higher-ups. You, meanwhile, are a Spiritualist of Healing; as long as you reveal this identity of yours, you’ll surely earn your rightful place in the Alpha Universe. There’s no need for you to take the risk.”

Fuchen regarded Xia Fei with a complex look before saying, “A seventh brain region with 200% openness, it’s rare even among the exceptionally talented cultivators and practitioners. This shows that your talent is already as high as the heavens. If you end up losing it all, turning into a regular folk, it’ll be too late for you to regret it.”

Fuchen’s words were heavy with concern, yet Xia Fei responded breezily with a shrug. “It’s not me who’ll decide if I should go; rather, it’s whether the trip will be worthwhile or not. It’s not as if you didn’t know of my belief in the price theory. I’m willing to take any amount of risk, provided that the benefits are worth it.

“Of course, I have a few things I must take care of before attending to this matter. First things first; I need to establish the Aurora Clan’s academy as soon as possible. I really can’t stand those Mr. Nice Guys being bullied daily. No matter how one puts it, they’re still family at the end of the day. There’s also the Inverse; I need to wipe them from the face of the starmaps. You want their Golden Eyes, while I want to provide a safe environment to my old home. Being eyed with much malevolence isn’t the solution.

“Besides all the things I just mentioned, I must take precautions against Orchid Chime and her family. I looked up information about that woman, and the recently widowed Mrs. Chime isn’t just anyone. Her son-in-law died at my hands, while her husband was killed by you; we basically took two lives from them when all’s said and done. No doubt their family won’t give up on cutting off our heads.”

Fuchen froze slightly and grumbled in dissatisfaction, “How was I to know that Rock Chime would show up at that time? He could only blame his bad luck, getting in the middle as Shu Yuhe and I were fighting. He’s ineligible to cry injustice when he died that way at our hands.”

Xia Fei quipped, “I almost forgot about Shu Yuhe. The Dark Spiritualists may be assaulting The Collapsed Expanse of Founders, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t try to deal with us any time. I must guard against their possible attack, too. Man, what bad luck. To think trouble would come knocking at my door.”

Fuchen sighed. “They’ll be coming for you, that’s for sure. As for me, I’m an innocent party that has been implicated because of your crazy actions.

Xia Fei laughed as he asked cheekily, “What? Are you starting to regret having met me now?”

“Hmph! I’ve long been regretting it. You twerp, you’re nothing more than an evil-doer!”

Following this exchange, Xia Fei, Fuchen, and Zesyr Night all could not help but share a laugh together.

This was one of Xia Fei’s talents. What was originally a rather tense atmosphere had been significantly eased by him.

….

At the Aurora Clan’s headquarters on Garde 83, a planet located in one of the Alpha Universe’s core star regions.

Halfway to their trip back, Xia Fei sent off Zesyr Night. He had not spared the Venus of Eternal Night’s young lady much thought and was even a little curt with her during their time together onboard the Silver Specter.

As per his modus operandi, Xia Fei warned Zesyr against revealing his secrets to others and committing any forms or acts of betrayal.

Toward that end, Zesyr was completely helpless. This was because Xia Fei had only ever viewed her as someone expendable; alas, the less he cared about her, the more interested in him she became. She felt indignant. Just what rights did Xia Fei have to treat her so poorly!

This was a question that many women had asked themselves time and again. It could not be helped; this was just how Xia Fei was wired. He had never been the sort to humble himself before the fairer sex. When it was time for him to act, he had no qualms on doing anything, even if it was to kill others, regardless of their sex and beauty or lack thereof. It was the one thing that men who only thought with their loins could never imitate.

…

Garde 83 was bustling as always, looking hardly any different from before, but as soon as Xia Fei arrived in the Aurora Clan’s external compound, the great pressure of a coming storm suddenly weighed on him.

‘Why are there so many people out and about?’ Xia Fei wondered as he continued forward without breaking his pace.

His trip to and from Aquamarine’s lair took a dozen days or so, and at this time, the compound was practically overcrowded. He had no idea what had caused every young descendant of the Aurora Clan to come; there were even some seniors with heads full of white hair among them.

Just as he was wondering about this, Wistful Northgaze came walking toward him from afar. He motioned for Xia Fei to join him in a quiet room, and when the latter entered, the former said, “The external compound is already at maximum capacity. I’m aware that you don’t like staying in the old mansion, so I arranged for you a new lodging on the city outskirts. Though it’s smaller compared to your room here, it’s rather quiet there.”

Xia Fei nodded. “I don’t really mind where I stay. By the way, why does it seem like everyone is suddenly so interested in the academy? I had a look around; there appears to be tens of thousands of people present.”

Wistful Northgaze waved his hand. “More than that. In total, there are 123,177 people, and that’s only after our patriarch carefully filtered the people. The reasoning behind this is very simple: Your academy has promised to give people soul weapons if they pass. Who doesn’t want to own a soul weapon? Naturally, the Aurora Clan is no exception.

“You probably already know about the Dark Spiritualists making a comeback and how they’re on their way to The Collapsed Expanse of Founders. It’s a sign that the Alpha Universe will soon enter a chaotic period! Right now, every organization and clan throughout the Alpha Universe is gearing up for it.

“Though we are a Tier 2 clan according to Chaos Society’s latest clan evaluation, our ranking is enough for us to receive soul weapons from the Spiritualist Association, and we’ll be going there in a few days’ time. Alas, while we can get a slice of the pie, it’s no more than a drop in the bucket. The patriarch and I discussed it, and we decided to call over all our clan’s promising youngsters. Adding those who’re willing to join, we ended up causing the situation at hand.

“We’re sorry for making things difficult for you. We don’t know how many soul weapons you can obtain from your master, but if possible, please set aside some for the clan’s reserve.” Xia Fei’s great-grandfather, Wistful Northgaze, made this somewhat solemn request.

Xia Fei frowned. Naturally, he was the Spiritualist in question; if he did not stick to forging only high-grade soul weapons, making common soul weapons as well, it should be fairly doable for him to provide everyone a soulweapon, but the problem was he did not have much Spirit Energy!

Previously in that intense battle, to induce his fiendish blade’s, Nirvana’s, promotion, Xia Fei had used up a large amount of Spirit Energy, and now he only had 120 standard units left in his seventh brain region. How could he forge several tens of thousands of soul weapons with only that much? Besides, even if Xia Fei had the intention to do that, he lacked the necessary mental strength, so accomplishing would definitely exhaust him to death.

Soul weapons were like guns in the hands of warriors. At this moment, Xia Fei had finally understood just how terrible the Aurora Clan’s current state. There were so many clansmen, yet none of them had a soul weapon!

Thinking up to this, Xia Fei stated, “Don’t panic just yet. I’ll, of course, do my best to help the clan, but I’ll have to discuss this with my master first.”

Wistful Northgaze nodded. “We’ll have to trouble you with this matter. On another note, thee patriarch wants you to represent us when our clan receives soul weapons from the Spiritualist Association. After all, you have a Spiritualist for a master, while the others in the clan are absolutely clueless about this field. It’s because we lack the eye that we’ve been losing out a lot.”

This was a problem. Xia Fei and Fuchen’s relationship was unusual. The Spiritualist Association happened to be what Fuchen hated most. If Xia Fei made the rash decision of going, Fuchen might feel unhappy. He was already aware of the man’s feelings toward the old monsters in the Spiritualist circle, and there were still many things Xia Fei would have to rely on Fuchen in the future, so it would be unwise to offend him.

However, the Spiritualist Association had always been a huge temptation to Xia Fei. Being able to interact with countless Spiritualists was surely better than Xia Fei progressing behind closed doors.

“I’ll need to talk about this with my master, too,” Xia Fei said after giving the matter some thought.

“Of course, it’s important to show respect to your master. This is our Aurora Clan’s practice as well…”

People who were too kind-hearted tended to be very long-winded. Xia Fei’s comment to defer this decision actually got mistaken by Wistful Northgaze as a show of respect to his master, eliciting verbose compliments from the old man. How was Wistful Northgaze to know that Xia Fei’s stomach had been doing flips at the moment? Hearing such universal truths annoyed Xia Fei to no end, so he quickly found an excuse to escape from hearing anymore.

He took some time to pay Iron Tiger and his comrades a visit, instructing them to start preparatory work: Make sense of what these people were made of and, more importantly, identify if they had hearts of steel, which were suited for combat. As for those people who were too soft-hearted, it was better to send them back home sooner rather than later.

After he was done with his instructions, Xia Fei left to go see Fuchen and relayed to him the Aurora Clan’s current situation.

“That’s really quite a problem. Equipping the entire Aurora Clan… Even I can’t do that, much less you. The lowest requisite to forge a soul weapon is three Spirit Energy standard units; how many tens of thousands of Spirit Energy would that be?! It’s impossible. No one can obtain that much energy all at once.

“Besides, forging so many soul weapons at one go will require hundreds of Spiritualists working day and night. There’s just you alone. Even if you exhaust yourself to death in the process, you still won’t be able to complete that many soul weapons.” Old Fuchen waved his hand dismissively.

“As for you representing the clan during its visit to the Spiritualist Association, I don’t really have an opinion. It’s good for you to see more of the Alpha Universe, for you can at least eventually understand the Spiritualists that now populate it and the state that they’re currently in.”

Xia Fei smiled. “I’m glad that you’re not against me taking a look at the Spiritualist Association. As for the requirement to forge a soul weapon… I do have a solution.”

“What solution?” Fuchen asked, curious.

“Since we can’t forge that many soul weapons, let’s just steal.” Xia Fei shrugged as he said this matter-of-factly.

“*Cough!*”

Fuchen nearly collapsed to the ground. Steal? How was that a solution?!

The next day, Xia Fei secretly went to the Heavenly Treasure Firm and sought Suzu Treasure. When that was done, he took a token from the Aurora Clan without resting first and headed straight to the rendezvous point that Chaos Society had set: Ibis Galaxy.

All the clans that had qualified to receive soul weapons sent representatives to the local sites of the Spiritualist Association to pick up those.