A loud slicing sound, like when one cut through flesh with metal, was heard. The earth was cut open by the illusionary sword. The Devil’s race cultivator, meanwhile, was protected by a thin screen of light. The talisman in his hand flickered, and the light on it dimmed.

The Devil’s race cultivator had shock written all over his face. The talisman which he had just used to block Grey’s illusionary sword was a treasure that his elder from the Devil’s race had given him. It was at the Foundation Establishment realm and could block any attack at the Foundation Establishment realm for one hundred breaths.

Although Grey’s attack seemed to have taken a long time when described, in reality, only a few breaths had passed since the Purple Sword was manifested.

Without thinking twice, the Devil’s race cultivator brought out another talisman from his storage bag. Seeing this, Grey’s eyes flickered as he repeated the sword slash again. At the same moment, the talisman in the Devil’s race cultivator’s hand was crushed.

Small sparkles of light suddenly glittered as he was about to teleport away. As he saw his form turning transparent, he heaved a small sigh of relief.

But Grey did not show any expression; he displayed his mood through his actions instead. Without wasting an extra second, he slashed down at the cultivator again. And although this sword strike was smaller than the previous one, it was a lot faster.

In the blink of an eye, it had already reached the Devil’s race cultivator. But right at that moment, his figure turned transparent and he disappeared. However, his storage bag did not disappear with him immediately, so the sword strike hit it and it flew away.

As soon as the Devil’s race cultivator was gone, the wall of spirituality that blocked the senses from the outside fell apart. Grey stood and stared at the spot where he had disappeared. A frown found its way onto his face.

With a small grunt, he picked up the storage bag and left. While running as fast as he could, he brought out his jade slip and immediately contacted the captain, telling her that there was a Devil’s race cultivator running wild in Sky Mist City. The captain responded and told him that she had mobilized the Detective Agency department and had even informed Sky Mist City.

After that, the call ended. But Grey did not go back to the Detective Department; instead, he made his way toward the port where he had docked his magic ship.

After enveloping the ship in a thin barrier made of light, he quickly sat down silently to assess his gains.

The first thing he brought out was the storage bag from the Devil’s race cultivator. It was the only thing he got from him.

Since the Devil’s race cultivator was still alive, breaking the seal on the storage bag was tough. It took him several long hours into the night, but when he did, he finally saw what was inside.

Inside the storage bag were various cultivation techniques that were unique to the Devil’s race, three Foundation Establishment pills, a mysterious cloak, over two thousand spirit stones, and a blood-stained handkerchief that radiated divinity. Carefully setting the handkerchief aside, he inspected the other things inside and found them to be of no value.

The most valuable things inside were actually the Foundation Establishment pills. They were of very high quality, so Grey immediately came to the conclusion that they were the most expensive items. Aside from the spirit stones, the mysterious cloak and the golden blood-stained handkerchief both gave off strange but strong energy fluctuations that made him wary.

He guessed that the blood on the blood-stained handkerchief belonged to a creature that had divinity, while the mysterious cloak was probably a treasure from a high-level cultivator. Both of their values couldn’t be spoken of with words and definitely couldn’t be priced with money.

After assessing the items from the storage bag, he came to a conclusion and carefully placed them back inside it, then kept the storage bag in his own storage bag.

The blood-stained handkerchief at first emitted strong divinity fluctuations, but after putting it in his storage bag, he couldn’t sense it as acutely anymore. But it wasn’t like it had vanished; anybody with a high cultivation level could sense it.

Now that all that was over, he brought out the metal box that contained the purple crystal. A purple light immediately came out from the small box the moment it was opened. Grey suddenly felt the purple crystal within his chest react, and it made his heart skip a beat.

"What is the purple crystal?"

"What are its origins?"

"Where did they find this crystal?"

"Did it also drop from the sky in the Corroded Zone like mine did, or is it from a different source entirely?"

Those were the thoughts that were going around in his mind, but he couldn’t find an answer.

The purple crystal in his chest gave off a bright purple light that nobody could see except Grey. His insides were completely purple at this moment. From the reaction he was getting, Grey felt as if the purple crystal wanted to fuse with the one in his chest.

After pondering for a few seconds, Grey added more spirit stones to the energy barrier and created a wall of spirituality around the magic ship.

"I’m not sure if fusing the purple crystal will have any negative effects on me, but it may not have any positive effects either. And I’m not even sure how to fuse the two crystals. One is in my chest and the other is in my hand. Do I need to cut open my chest and place this crystal there as well?" Grey muttered under his breath.

He deliberated for a few seconds before his gaze turned decisive. He brought out his dagger from his storage bag and opened his shirt.

With a look of hesitation, he then slashed open the place in his chest where he had kept the purple crystal before. Pain instantly assaulted his whole body. He gritted his teeth loudly until they hurt. Blood flowed from his wound and dyed his clothes crimson.

The purple crystal was now visible! But the wound was already starting to close up under the healing effects of the purple crystal. Without further ado, he grabbed the other purple crystal and shoved it into his chest.

A wave of pure pain crashed into him. He felt as if he would run mad at that moment. Inside his chest, the two purple crystals were slowly fusing. The moment they made contact, they began to fuse.

More pain crashed into him as the crystals moved against his inner chest walls.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two crystals fused into one. The overall size did not change much, but the crystal was about twenty percent bigger.

Immediately, the large wound in his chest began to close up. Blood stopped flowing, and the flesh began to merge together. Grey’s pale face had a slightly relieved expression.

In seconds, the wound had already closed up, and the scar started to fade away as if it had been continuously passing through time.

Suddenly, Grey heard a loud muttering that nearly made his head explode. The muttering was incessant and seemed to come from the fused purple crystal. Grey felt as if he was hearing words that shouldn’t be heard by mortals. When he instinctively tried to listen more carefully, he almost went mad.

To his incredulity, his cultivation base and sanity began to unravel slowly under the unceasing muttering. In shock, Grey quickly suppressed the loud muttering that sounded like the ravings of a madman in his ears.

The voice slowly died down, and he felt his sanity return to him again. His cultivation base did not seem to be unraveling anymore.

Grey wiped the sweat that had already accumulated on his forehead. He completely forgot about the pain he had felt moments ago.

"Just what was that raving about? Did it come from the purple crystal?" Grey thought to himself. Using his perception as a barrier, he shielded the muttering sounds from entering his head.

After pondering for a few minutes, Grey’s tired body began to calm down, and at the same time, Grey sat down cross-legged and began to absorb the spirit energy in the surroundings.

I’ll worry about the muttering I heard later. For now, let me worry about my cultivation.

With the large influx coming in through the magic ship, Grey cultivated at a faster speed. The purple crystal also aided him by sucking the spirit energy toward his direction.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, a feeling as if his entire body was full and on the verge of exploding occurred to him. Grey felt as if he had reached the current limit of his cultivation. But the spirit energy fluctuations continued to enter his body without stopping. His entire body felt bloated!

Soon, Grey encountered a problem! He couldn’t stop cultivating! The spirit energy being filtered into his body did not stop but continued to enter rapidly.

I might as well use this opportunity to break through! Grey said inwardly. Then, he guided the compiling spirit energy in his body and focused on opening his spirit sea.

A sharp flicker suddenly gleamed in his mind. He felt as if he was on the precipice of opening a large doorway, but he did not have enough strength. But his spirit energy was still being devoured.

Suddenly, purple lines appeared on his forehead and traced all the way down. Grey looked on in shock as his body suddenly seemed to be covered in a network of purple lines. This was the first time he was witnessing this! The other times this happened, he was either unconscious or in deep meditation. But now that he was awake, he could take in the strange, mysterious sight.

As the purple lines appeared, Grey could not feel any change at the moment, so he decided to ignore their existence for now and focus on breaking through. Grey tried again and again, but the doorway did not even budge. At this point, Grey felt exhausted, but the spirit energy being filtered into him did not stop.

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