Bai Jue broke through again.
First-tier, early stage.
The surge of Prayer Power within his body was massive, and it only made his slaughter more exhilarating.
At the same time, he could clearly sense that within Yama's Underworld, the number of contained evil entities had already surpassed two thousand.
What did that mean?
For a Mid-Autumn Festival Awakener, the more evil spirits they contained, the stronger they would become in the future.
Because all of this was directly tied to the final Mid-Autumn ability—
Yama Domain.
And even before awakening that domain, merely summoning these entities was already a terrifying combat force.
A pure numbers advantage.
Among peers, who could possibly stand against Bai Jue?
Aside from those equally monstrous prodigies, there was likely no one.
[Notice: You have slain a large number of evil entities. Reward obtained: Spatial Ring.]
[Notice: You have slain a large number of evil entities. Reward obtained: Jian Transformation Pill.]
[Notice: You have slain a large number of evil entities. Mid-Autumn Recognition +5%.]
[Notice: Due to your extermination of evil entities, you have attracted Qingming's attention. Qingming feels a trace of curiosity toward you.]
[…]
The system notifications continued to echo in his mind.
Bai Jue's eyes widened slightly before he broke into a grin.
The rewards were excellent.
Especially the Jian Transformation Pill—it left him genuinely shaken.
[Jian Transformation Pill: Used on a ghost. The ghost will perish—then be reborn as a Jian.]
A terrifyingly powerful pill.
And one perfectly suited for him.
It meant he could add yet another Jian under his command.
He had already witnessed firsthand how frightening a Jian was.
Before one, ordinary ghosts and evil spirits instinctively retreated.
Unless their strength vastly exceeded it, they wouldn't even dare approach—
even when being devoured, they wouldn't resist.
That kind of fear was etched directly into their souls—
something that simply could not be erased.
And for Bai Jue, the most tempting part was this—
He could give the pill to the Ghost Bride.
She was already a Ghost King.
If she were to transform into a Jian…
Just imagining it made Bai Jue inhale sharply.
Terrifying.
The other rewards were also impressive.
The Spatial Ring, much like those described in novels, allowed storage of items.
Such items did exist in this world, but they were extremely rare.
The Federation had no means of manufacturing them—
most spatial rings came from other civilizations within space gates.
Di Yao's ability to grab items from thin air earlier was thanks to one.
The increase in Mid-Autumn recognition further fueled his excitement—
he was drawing ever closer to 100% recognition.
As for Qingming's curiosity…
Bai Jue's gaze sharpened slightly.
He didn't fully understand it yet, so he chose not to dwell on it.
Instead, he swung his scythe again.
"Yin Fire—Burn!"
The scythe swept across.
Several charging undead instantly turned to ash.
The battle ended quickly.
In less than five minutes, the undead scattered completely.
Di Yao's combat power was terrifying—
she had beaten the two Ghost Kings to death with raw, brutal force.
Punch after punch.
Savage and overwhelming.
With all Ghost Kings slain, the undead naturally fled.
When everything was over, the two Prayer Power recovery potions Di Yao had given Bai Jue were completely used up.
Each bottle cost around ten thousand Federation credits—
far beyond what most Awakeners could afford.
"Hah…"
Bai Jue exhaled deeply, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and put away the Soul-Reaping Scythe.
He raised his hand and said solemnly,
"Return."
A vortex formed in his palm.
Evil ghosts and undead streamed back in.
He finally took stock of his Underworld.
Three thousand eight hundred entities.
An absurd number.
Of course, with his current Prayer Power, he couldn't summon them all—
at most, around five hundred.
Even so, it was already terrifying.
Just hearing that number would make most Awakeners lose the courage to fight him.
"Not bad at all, Xiao Bai."
Di Yao's voice suddenly rang out.
Bai Jue felt his foot get lightly kicked and turned to see her standing beside him.
Her previous blue-faced, fanged form had vanished, replaced by her childlike, adorable face.
A strawberry-flavored lollipop was still in her mouth.
"Teacher, eating that many lollipops—aren't you worried about cavities?"
Bai Jue teased with a grin.
"Relax. Cavities are nothing,"
Di Yao said casually, then blinked and smiled.
"Hehe, so? Pretty good, right? One chance to enter Sky Gate—that's extremely valuable. Normally, Awakeners don't even qualify for that."
Bai Jue scratched his head and asked, puzzled,
"Teacher… what exactly is Sky Gate?"
"Right, you wouldn't know yet."
Di Yao explained,
"Sky Gate is a space gate guarded by Sky University in Sky City. Inside is another civilization's world filled with precious resources. But the most valuable thing there is something called the Sky Fruit."
"Eating one gives you a chance to awaken a Divine Ability."
"It's a completely different power system from ours. Most systems don't work well with Awakeners—but Sky Fruit does."
"Just one decent Divine Ability can massively boost an Awakener's combat strength."
She sighed regretfully.
"Unfortunately, each person can only eat one. Eating more is useless. Otherwise, I'd love to have a second."
Bai Jue asked curiously,
"So… Teacher, you succeeded?"
"Of course."
Di Yao lifted her chin proudly.
"What ability did you awaken?" Bai Jue asked.
Di Yao shot him a sidelong glance and grinned mischievously.
"Want to know?"
"Hehe—figure it out yourself. I'm not telling you."
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