"What kind of opportunity could allow him to grow to the level of being on par with high-ranking divine officers?" Haoyun asked in astonishment. He was well aware of the power of high-ranking divine officers, so if a Mold Energy fusion could possess combat strength comparable to them—if the Destroyer had truly achieved his goal, the situation would be dire indeed.

"Hmph! Things have come to this point, I'm not afraid of revealing secrets!" muttered Amu Zinen.

Then, seeming to grasp some reasoning, Amu Zinen continued, "To be frank, the Destroyer was our vanguard general in the divine wars. His task was to infiltrate enemy camps before our assaults on cities, coordinating with our main forces to encircle the enemy during the battles. Black Gate arrived in the Realm of the Collective Spirits with this mission and became the ancestor of the Mastanians, those strange creatures. During the divine wars, Black Gate, as the commander of a Mold Energy coalition, possessed catastrophic combat power. Under his leadership, the Mastanian forces were strong enough to contend with your Third Order divine armies of the Realm of the Collective Spirits."

Haoyun was shocked to hear this. He hadn't realized how powerful the Mastanians were back then. No wonder Captain Tie Zhu had mentioned that the Realm of the Collective Spirits had to resort to traps to attempt to annihilate the Mastanian main forces. However, what exactly did "catastrophic combat power" entail? He furrowed his brow, wanting to ask Amu Zinen for more details.

But before Haoyun could speak, Amu Zinen continued, "However, due to the severe injuries Black Gate suffered during the galactic explosion, both he and the Mastanians' strength greatly declined, almost to the point of extinction, which gave the Eternal Star people, without the support of your divine armies, an opportunity to confront them."

At this point, Amu Zinen couldn't help but sigh with envy, "Ah! When I rescued Black Gate by transferring power, despite his severe injuries that significantly reduced his strength, I was shocked to find that his upper limit of power had greatly increased. In other words, if the Destroyer Black Gate could now fill his upper limit of power, he would certainly grow into a top-tier warlord with at least the power of a Sky Wrath."

Amu Zinen then continued with a tone of relief, "However, the good news is that due to his injuries, the Destroyer Black Gate's combat power has plummeted drastically. Even now, despite replenishing much energy, his strength has only just reached the peak of Slaughter class, not yet advanced to Savage class, let alone restored to his catastrophic class power of the past. So, the path to achieving Sky Wrath-level combat power is still long for the Destroyer Black Gate."

"Slaughter class, Savage class, Catastrophic class, Sky Wrath class? Is this how you Mold Energies categorize power levels?" Haoyun asked during a pause in Amu Zinen's speech.

"Exactly. Any problem with that?" Amu Zinen replied simply.

Shaking his head, Haoyun said, "No. I'm just thinking about how your categorization of power levels corresponds to our calculations of your power levels. It'll help me gauge the Destroyer's strength."

"How you categorize our power levels? How would I know how you categorize our power levels? Like I said, if Black Gate's strength reaches Sky Wrath level, he will be able to contend with high-ranking divine officers of your Realm of the Collective Spirits. So, you can use this as a reference to calculate his strength according to your methods," Amu Zinen replied after a moment of thought.

Haoyun fell into thought once again upon hearing this. According to Amu Zinen, if Black Gate could contend with high-ranking divine officers of the Realm of the Collective Spirits once he reached Sky Wrath-level strength, what level of Mold Energy would he correspond to? Would it be a level of seven stars? Eight stars? Or even higher? Just thinking about it made Haoyun feel a bit apprehensive. Because no matter what level Sky Wrath-level combat strength equated to in terms of Mold Energy levels, it was a height he couldn't hope to reach.

After answering Haoyun's questions, Amu Zinen then continued on the previous topic, speaking angrily, "But the bad news is, because I transferred some power to Destroyer Black Gate, I became very weak after participating in the battle to seize the Eternal Star Body. Coupled with my naive decision to forgo opportunities to replenish energy, I needed more time to recover my strength, which left me vulnerable. This gave that bastard Black Gate the opportunity to target me and eventually imprison me here."

"But I don't understand. The Destroyer could have used your loyalty to your people to continue showing weakness to you and then have you help him against the Eternal Star people. So why did he insist on capturing you? Isn't that like cutting off his arm and actively weakening his own strength?" Haoyun asked puzzledly.

Based on what Haoyun had learned in school, in human history, many emperors had purged those who contributed to their conquests in order to consolidate their reigns. However, they had already achieved the great feat of unifying their realms before they began internal purges. The Destroyer, on the other hand, still needed strong support, and whether he could ultimately win was still up in the air. So why did he choose to strike against his own people at this time? Moreover, the target of the Destroyer's attack was Amu Zinen, who strictly adhered to the rules and staunchly supported his fellow Mold Energies. Could it be that the Destroyer's intelligence had seriously deteriorated due to his fusion with the initial seed that gave birth to the Mastanians?

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Amu Zinen replied with a voice full of mixed feelings, "Hmph! Of course, he understood these reasons. However, he understood another reason even more clearly. That is, once he gains all my power, he will have the opportunity for a leap in strength, stepping directly into Sky Wrath-level combat power or even higher ranks. Therefore, rather than letting me become his most reliable assistant, it's more direct for him to make me a part of him."

"What do you mean by becoming a part of him? Are you saying the Destroyer wants to completely absorb your energy?" Hao Yun asked in astonishment.

"What's so surprising about that? Haven't we always been using this method to gather energy with our mold spirit energy? Plus, the unique aggressiveness of that strange plant fused with the Destroyer further enhances this characteristic of ours. It allows Black Gate not only to absorb bad luck energy from living beings but also evolve to extract additional power from their flesh and blood," Amu Zinen explained. His tone suggested he felt proud of how the Destroyer had further developed the racial traits of mold spirit energy.

At this point, Hao Yun understood. The sudden massive increase in the Destroyer's power overnight was likely not just due to how much negative energy he had absorbed from collected bodies but also from extracting a significant amount of mold spirit energy from Amu Zinen. Thinking about this, Hao Yun couldn't help but nervously ask, "So, what about you now—"

"Humph! Lord Hao, rest assured! I won't let him succeed easily! I've been working hard to seal away my energy. Black Gate has been trying to break my seal all this time to steal my energy. It wasn't until recently that he finally managed to breach my seal and draw out a bit of energy. Ah! Honestly, that feeling was really unbearable! So, I have to continue strengthening my seal. But I don't know how much longer I can hold out. At least for now, I'm still alive," Amu Zinen said, his speech becoming increasingly confused as he talked.

It seemed discussing the topic of his energy being stolen triggered some sort of stress response in Amu Zinen. Consequently, after finishing the topic of the seal, he suddenly began muttering to himself as if having a mental breakdown. Seeing this, Hao Yun didn't pay much heed. He wasn't overflowing with saintly compassion to sympathize with a villain who had brought devastating calamities upon the world. Hao Yun simply chose to ignore Amu Zinen and wait for him to finish his episode before continuing their conversation.

At the same time, Hao Yun began to estimate Amu Zinen's strength. Based on Amu Zinen's account, combined with the fact that even the formidable Judge Yan had failed to capture him immediately, Hao Yun had reason to believe that Amu Zinen's true strength was at least equivalent to a six-star mold spirit energy level. According to the classification of mold spirit energy's power, Amu Zinen's strength likely fell somewhere between the Savage and Catastrophic levels.

While Hao Yun pondered Amu Zinen's strength, Amu Zinen, as if recovering from an episode, suddenly spoke normally again. "Oh right, I almost forgot. The mold spirit energy that split off from Black Gate, intending to fuse with King Earl, also took away a lot of his power. This has forced Black Gate onto a long detour in his path to gaining strength. This is something we can both be grateful for, whether it's for you or for me."

Hao Yun agreed with this view. If it weren't for the temptation of King Earl's divine body, the Destroyer wouldn't have split in two, weakening and slowing down his path to becoming stronger. Amu Zinen might not have been able to hold out until now.

"I've heard about what happened at the Elphida Grand Hotel. Humph! It seems Black Gate isn't without flaws. He cares too much about the flesh he cut off from himself, which is why he's too soft-hearted towards the other half split from him inside his body. Otherwise, Earl wouldn't dare to secretly collect so many bodies for his own use! Humph! I've told Black Gate before, Earl is full of sinister ideas. He should have chopped Earl into a million pieces long ago to prevent future troubles," Amu Zinen added.

"Weren't those bodies collected by King Earl earlier?" Hao Yun asked, furrowing his brow.

"Humph! King Earl collected bodies before, and Earl also collected bodies after. That guy really tortured the Destroyer! Now, everything he did behind the scenes has been exposed!" Amu Zinen said indifferently.

"What? King Earl and Earl are both collecting bodies?" Hao Yun couldn't believe it. Did King Earl not tell him the truth earlier?

"Humph! Since you've already met King Earl and another Earl, let me ask you, can you really be sure which one was King Earl and which one was Earl when they were talking to you? Let me tell you! King Earl is Earl, and Earl is King Earl!" Amu Zinen said.

Amu Zinen's words seemed convoluted, but Hao Yun understood his meaning. King Earl and Earl had likely long since merged into one. However, perhaps to deceive everyone around them and achieve his sinister goals, Earl pretended to be in a state of conflict with another Earl, using this to protect himself.

In short, Hao Yun realized he had been too naive in his thinking at the time. He hadn't been able to grasp this truth immediately and hadn't taken precautions against King Earl. Instead, he had been worried about whether King Earl could suppress the mold spirit energy inside him and continued to assist himself in finding ways to escape the enemy's siege. However, it turned out that Earl had been guiding Hao Yun all along, allowing himself to use Hao Yun's armor to absorb more energy from those bodies.

Thus, Haoyun had two more questions in his mind.

The first question was: Since King Erl had become a fusion of Mold Spirit energy and had transformed into a demonized Erl, why could he still continue to use the dagger left behind by Yan Chaoyue?

The second question was: Since King Erl had already completed the fusion with Mold Spirit energy, why didn't he directly absorb the negative energy from those corpses?

Regarding the first question, Haoyun naturally couldn't come up with a suitable conclusion immediately. But he quickly figured out how to answer the second question.

Firstly, Haoyun believed that King Erl was very aware of the abilities of Yan Chaoyue's dagger. He knew that the energy transformed through that dagger not only had higher purity but also could bring him greater power enhancements. This was why he had been trying to convert the energy from the armor through that dagger for himself.

Perhaps that was why King Erl had been sitting inside the royal hall, watching as other Mastanians broke through the protective shield of General Tie Zhu and the others. He wasn't there because he was worried about his subordinates, but rather to be the first to get hold of that armor once the shield was breached. As for why Erl demanded that Haoyun and the others quickly take General Tie Zhu and the rest away, it might have been because King Erl had a sudden realization at that moment.