The Lasting Draconid Essence’s effect was not as strong as Xia Fei expected, so Xia Fei decided to eat all five. Other than the first one, which he had crushed open, he swallowed the remaining four whole.

He continued cultivating, constantly trying to draw his ninth Soul Mark, but he was incapable of doing so and could only ever manage simple lines.

In the blink of an eye, it was the third day. Xia Fei spent twelve hours a day holed up in the cultivation chamber, earnestly and diligently cultivating.

He was expending quite a lot of spirit energy, about one thousand units a day. Fortunately, in devouring Divine Beasts, Xia Fei had obtained three hundred thousand units of spirit energy. Together with his original stockpile of twenty-six thousand units, he had a reserve of 326,000 units.

Xia Fei had used up around forty thousand in his battle with the Evil Shadow Dragoons, and after this stint of cultivation, he still had 280,000 units, enough to sustain him for a long time.

Alas, Xia Fei was currently trying to reach peak Founder! Purely trying to force the issue with energy did not have as obvious effects as before, and his cultivation progress had slowed significantly.

Of course, this was only when it came to Xia Fei. To outsiders, his advancement was still miraculous.

The afternoon of the fourth day, Xia Fei was eating lunch with Avril. Cucumber slices were a necessity when eating zhajiang noodles; Pod even made some oxtail braised in red wine, seafood soup, and steamed grouper fish to accompany it.

This robot was becoming more and more like a housewife, even improving on his cooking. Xia Fei’s taste buds were having a delightful time; even the Skywings would come over to his place to eat from time to time.

His cultivation continued as per usual. There were no shortcuts in cultivation, only persistence. Though Xia Fei sometimes used medicines to aid him, the hard work backing it could not be underestimated.

As dusk approached, Xia Fei suddenly felt a momentous shift within his body. The Lasting Draconid Essences, which he ate four days ago, seemed to have a delayed effect, only activating today!

A powerful stream of energy formed, traveling along Xia Fei’s energy channels, rushing through his body like a tide.

It was clear that this stream of energy was making its way out of his body. A strange wind stirred in the cultivation chamber, and Xia Fei was in the center of this storm.

“Are you alright?!” Radix asked in shock.

“Fast! It’s very fast!” Xia Fei gritted his teeth.

Radix quickly understood that Xia Fei was talking about the wind!

A vicious gale had somehow kicked up in Xia Fei’s body! The wind created by the Lasting Draconid Essences were carrying the impurities out of his body.

Clearing out impurities was very important to warriors, but this was not the only effect of the Lasting Draconid Essences. The Lasting Draconid Essences were like engines as they pushed Xia Fei closer to forming his ninth Soul Mark!

Xia Fei finally understood why Yang Ji had put so much importance to the Lasting Draconid Essences. It was precisely because of their bizarre ability to propel one’s cultivation progress!

Soul Mark cultivation involved using spirit energy to draw complicated lines. Success would come when these lines solidified into a Soul Mark.

This was like using spirit energy as a brush to paint. The process had many obstructions; this was akin to a person grabbing another’s arm and preventing them from drawing.

Right now, two streams of energy had seized Xia Fei’s arm!

The first was the power that obstructed the ninth Soul Mark’s solidification, and the second was the Lasting Draconid Essences’ propelling force!

No doubt that the Lasting Draconid Essences’ propelling power was presently playing a crucial role in his cultivation!

Besides getting rid of the obstructing force, it allowed him to vigorously draw out the Soul Mark!

It was extremely fast!

The Soul Mark’s image constantly shifted, as Xia Fei’s spirit energy rapidly worked, pushed on by the Lasting Draconid Essences!

Charge!

Charge again!

Xia Fei did not know how long this mysterious energy could last, so he put all his focus on solidifying the ninth Soul Mark.

Finally, under the effects of the Lasting Draconid Essences, Xia Fei succeeded in drawing out the final Soul Mark of the Founder level!

Peak Founder, achieved!

*Boom!*

The cultivation chamber shuddered as nine Soul Marks emerged from his body in a dazzling display!

However, there was something different from before: the power of the Lasting Draconid Essences. After propelling Xia Fei to finishing his last Soul Mark, the remaining energy began to pool in his seventh brain region.

After flaunting their might for a moment, the nine Soul Marks returned to his seventh brain region, too. As they revolved, they began to absorb the remnant energy of the Lasting Draconid Essences, converting it into spirit energy that Xia Fei could use.

Xia Fei’s jaw dropped. The process had all been so mysterious that it hardly seemed to be under his control.

Nonetheless, everything had proceeded very naturally as though that was how things should be.

…

“The ninth Soul Mark! Xia Fei, you’ve finally stepped onto the apex of the Founder level!” Radix said the moment he saw Xia Fei open his eyes.

Xia Fei nodded. “This Lasting Draconid Essences were truly something else. They singlehandedly pushed me all the way to the peak of Founder.”

Frowning, Xia Fei began to think things over, as was his habit. Normally, reaching peak Founder should have been something to be very proud of, something worth celebrating, but Xia Fei had, instead, begun to ponder the process and sum up his experience.

Placing a hand under his chin, Xia Fei muttered, “A Lasting Draconid Essence is very powerful and is extremely useful to a warrior’s cultivation. Intelligent lifeforms are the Ancient Dragons’ bitter foes. Is it because high-ranking warriors seek to get these things from the dragons?”

Startled, Radix asked in surprise, “What sort of mindset is that, to consider questions from a dragon’s viewpoint? That’s just bizarre! Don’t forget that you’re human, and dragons are mortal foes of all sapient life!”

Xia Fei lit a cigarette and asked coldly, “What’s wrong with my mindset? I was just wondering why humans and dragons are mortal foes. Is it because dragons are too wicked or because humans are too greedy?”

From Xia Fei’s perspective, this sort of deductive reasoning was a habit.

Furball was devotedly loyal to him, and the custodian slaves had started to talk again because of him, too. None of these was a coincidence, for Xia Fei treated all life equally.

Even a human would be hunted down and killed if they offended him, and even an ugly exotic beast would be treated like a friend if it attempted to flatter Xia Fei.

To him, even the Unrestricted Pavilion’s undead were just like the Skywing wolves: his brothers. As for Furball and Little Goldie, there was no need to mention it. Even the weed Peacock Blue got along rather well with him.

This was why Xia Fei had the most varied group in the entire universe: a human, a grass, a ball, a bug, a soul, and other strange friends.

…

The Lasting Draconid Essences had helped Xia Fei advance and had subsequently deepened his understanding of the powerful dragons. If even the byproduct of their molting had such miraculous effects, the dragons themselves should be even more mysterious.

They truly deserved their place at the top of the food chain.

The Skywings did not know that Xia Fei had reached peak Founder. He only told Avril.

She naturally felt very euphoric. It was a common wish in the Panhuman Alliance for any family to have a daughter like Avril. This was because she was very lucky, having married a good man. Not only was he strong, he also treated her very well, causing countless young maidens to be green with envy.

Alas, there was only one Xia Fei, and as long as he refused concubines, all those girls had no chances of getting close to him.

Time went by very quickly. Peak Founder had never been Xia Fei’s goal. After holding a small celebration with Avril, he went back to the cultivation chamber. His next goal was Annihilator!

At the same time, the mischievous Xia Guanghai had finally succeeded in convincing the undead to pass on theirbody techniques to the Skywing wolves. There was nothing to be done about it. The Skywings had just treated Spirit and Star too well; if the undead could not agree even to something like this, the two would feel that they were too ungrateful.

The body techniques Spirit and Star practiced were different from Xia Fei’s ‘Chilled Ligament Ghost Valley’. Chilled Ligament Ghost Valley was reserved for Spiritualists and needed pure spirit energy to be cultivated. As for thebody techniques passed down to Spirit and Star by their ancestor, they were normal arts suitable for soul warriors.

Such body techniques could not make the Skywing wolves faster, but they could still make their bodies tougher and more resistant to soul attacks. It would no longer be the case where a single soul technique could bring them down.

The Skywings’ studying of these body techniques proceeded in a frenzy, and there was no telling what sort of effects this would have on the wolf pack. After all, thesebody techniques were flawed, and one needed to be cautious when learning them.

Xia Fei would receive reports from White Haze through the Bixia Orb almost every day. Just like Xiu Zetian had said, the Annihilators had begun a merciless purge against both itself and the Alpha Universe!

Xia Fei did not know how far the Annihilators was going to go with this purge, but entire clans were going missing almost every day in the Alpha Universe!

The Annihilation Universe was ruthless, wiping out entire clans, not even sparing the children! It was often a case where a clan of ten million people would disappear overnight, and even the planet they resided on would cease to be!

Amid this storm, the Skywings, Auroras, Venus of Eternal Night, Lone Peak Turbid Shadow—these three clans and one organization that had stood by Xia Fei—were naturally unharmed. This was because they had fought against the rebels, making their stance crystal-clear.

The worse off were those clans that had tried to play both sides. The Annihilator only needed to be slightly suspicious of these clans to wipe them out. The entire universe was engulfed in the shadow of slaughter and blood.

“The Annihilators are truly quite vicious,” Xia Fei muttered after listening to White Haze’s report. “This is why I said that there’s no way those Annihilators couldn’t pacify such a rebellion. They just wanted to use this rebellion to start a purge! Anyone disloyal to them, even those clans that are only possibly disloyal, will all be purged.”

Radix nodded. White Haze had only given general estimates, but this was already shocking enough. The number of people being purged every day was being calculated in the hundreds of millions!

At this moment, Xia Fei’s communication device sounded. He opened it up and saw that Xia Guanghai was calling.

“Xia Fei, that weirdo we ran into at the Red Pine Nebula has come. Do you want to see him?” Xia Guanghai whispered.

“Yang Ji?!” Xia Fei was startled. He then wondered inwardly, ‘Was he really born in the Year of the Dog and followed my scent all the way back to the Law Realm’s forward base?’

After some thought, Xia Fei replied, “I will! That guy is very strange, so send him straight to my home to see me.”