"Huff, puff!" Pef breathed hard while circulating his qi to recover.

A Void Kraken was a terrifying enemy, and not an easy kill, but eventually the creature still died. The Dimensional Blade skill had almost no effective defense against it, and even Pef himself suffered greatly just from the recoil of the skill.

Swiftly, the glove collected the dead body of the Kraken and confined the beast's soul into a refining formation, keeping it imprisoned.

'Can you make use of this Kraken's soul?' Pef wondered as he collected the remains of the other dark beasts that died all around, just from the shockwaves and reverberations of the fight.

'Not yet. You're only at the third Star of Tier 8, and your skill with the Dao of Formations is still lacking. But I think once you enter the fourth Star, you will be ale to use the Unreal River to wash away the consciousness of this beast and use its soul to craft a potent weapon.' the glove added in a serious tone.

Pef nodded slightly, as he recalled the giant river he had seen inside the Fay Realm, when he first visited Lady Kalima.

'That sounds dangerous, for me.' he mused thoughtfully.

'Anyways, I think I found Hualitep. Beneath those Dark Matter roots.' the glove said while marking a place on Pef's inner screen.

Focusing his senses, Pef tried to locate the runaway golith leader, yet he couldn't find anything.

Ignoring his eyes, Pef moved closer to the spot, and simply released a dozen Voidcutters towards the area.

Surprisingly, the sword beams bounced off an invisible field, and ricocheted off into the void, once more killing millions of innocent void dwellers that resided in the Dark Forest.

A second later, hundreds of eyes opened and lit up the void, revealing the hidden golith.

Pef tapped a foot onto the void, and released an imprisoning spacetime array around the target, then clenched his right hand onto the handle of the Heart Ruler. A simple strike followed, carrying with it a Dimensional Blade skill.

This time, the skill did not bounce off, and directly penetrated the dimensional armor of Hualitep, causing huge damage to the creature.

But still, the monster did not die, even as Tribulation clouds began to form over Pef.

'Chop off the limbs, we may use them later.' the glove advised him wisely, and thus Pef continued slashing away at the wounded golith, amidst terrible

Tribulation Lightning bolts.

One by one, the golith's tentacles were chopped off, and then collected by the glove, while the Heavenly Lightning purified the corrupted limbs and expunged the remains of the golith's essence.

Of course, none of this was for free. Pain and suffering almost overwhelmed our poor hero, as he fought on to remain conscious.

Even like this, he still managed to kill the hated target, and finally complete his previous mission from the Legion's General. Holding out a few of Hualitep's scooped eyes, Pef flared the Icefire flame and began cooking his next meal.

'Hmmm. I never cared about the lamentations of their females, but seeing the enemy broken and cooked before me does give me a sense of pride.' Pef murmured inward as he took a big bite from Hualitep's roasted eye.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

'You're still an idiot...' the glove answered in a careless tone.

Pef didn't bother to keep talking, and continued his meal, and by the time he Devoured a hundred golith eyes, he even formed his fourth Star.

'There are 566 eyes left...might get me the next Star' Pef hummed softly as he continued cooking, and then storing the fried eyes into the glove pocket.

Cooking was quite enjoyable as a hobby, as it calmed his nerves after a big fight, plus he was never one to waste good food.

However, another surprise occurred as he was frying the 666th and last golith eye. A red lightning bolt fell and struck the freshly finished meal, and the dish remained covered with a red-lightning cloud.

'Is that?' Pef asked as he examined the perfectly cooked meal. So perfect that he attained mastery of the Cooking Dao.

'I have just Ascended as well, Lord Pef.' Icefire answered from within his dantian, sounding rather surprised.

Pef blinked in amazement, then shook his head and stored the cloud-dish away. It made no sense to wonder at the marvels of the cultivation world anymore. He completed the Dao of Cooking by frying the eyes of his most hated enemy. There had to be a giant irony somewhere.

'We can raise a new Tier 7 with that fried eye. You've done well this time.' the glove spoke after a few moments, its tone a bit uneven. Perhaps even the all-knowing glove was surprised by this event.

A second later, a light-blue portal appeared in front of Pef, and he stepped through. The long hunt was over.

--------------

Lady Lia stepped out from the Dark Qi realm with shaky and tired legs and arrived at the foot of a perfect pyramidal mountain. In her soul, two perfectly balanced Daos spun slowly, reflecting the same Taoist diagram in her palm. Light and Dark Daos, completed to perfection now, and addressing the problem Lia faced since she Ascended via a Tier 7 pill, and thus blocking her cultivation progress.

She closed her hand, and the ancient diagram folded into her dantian, while the final ninth Star of Tier 7 finally stabilized.

The pain of the recent evolution still lingered in her heart even now, as well as the memories of a hundred illusory lives spent in constant and agonizing pain.

Inside her, the hundred selves that emerged during the transformation all had lived different but cruel lives, all ending in despair and loss. For a Dark Heart would not appear while living a quiet life.

'Suffering, huh? Such a terrible payment method...' Lia whispered in a gloomy voice. Her Oracle skill had simply deduced the cruel reality of this world.

Pain was the currency of Heaven. No wonder her poor husband was always enduring such pain and suffering. His rapid cultivation growth was not for free, after all.

Then she turned and waved her hands, collecting the entire mountain into her inner universe. Pef might have a way to make use of it, and advance the Eight Element method again. A Ten Element cultivation method might even allow her to reach Tier 8 in this Chaos Cycle, not to mention the obvious advantage for the Legion.

"Take me home, Gena Feng. I am quite tired." she asked with a glance at the bright blue sky. As if listening, the sky turned into a grey mirror and Lia vanished as a mirage.