Chan Wei knew what was supposed to happen, but he felt conflicted—should he give the spotlight back to Nie Li or just crush Chu Yuan quickly to keep his sister's attention from turning toward him again? Too tired to decide, he simply shot a look at Nie Li, who immediately understood it as a request for help.
"Brother Chan Wei, no need to waste your time on him. You should go back and chat with your big sister," Nie Li said with the most innocent smile Chan Wei had ever seen. Behind him, Ye Ziyun held her sleeve up to her face to stifle a laugh.
Chu Yuan sneered, finally sensing the opening he wanted. "And what business is it of yours, brat? Do you even have the qualifications to speak to me?" he scoffed openly.
Nie Li didn't react in the slightest to Chu Yuan's scorn. His words didn't affect him at all. After his rebirth, Nie Li couldn't be bothered by scum like Chu Yuan. As far as he was concerned, Chu Yuan didn't even have the qualifications to speak to him.
"Chu Yuan, what's with your attitude?" snapped Huyan Lanruo, frowning. Her brother was friends with Nie Li, and she had finally stopped viewing Nie Li with romantic interest after his relationship with Ye Ziyun became clearer, thanks to her brother's interventions.
"I'm just laughing because I don't see what right this little noble thinks he has to talk to me! Someone with only a red soul realm—what kind of future could he possibly have? Trash like that doesn't deserve to associate with us," Chu Yuan sneered.
His relationship with Shen Yue's brother, Shen Fei, wasn't bad, and he already held some resentment toward Chan Wei, so he vented all that frustration on Nie Li.
"You've gone too far!" Ye Ziyun exclaimed, frowning deeply. She felt genuinely indignant on Nie Li's behalf. Unlike the original version of events, she now harbored only good feelings toward Nie Li.
However, Nie Li had kept a low profile, so many people were still unaware of his true talent.
Nie Li's gaze grew cold. While he never gave Chu Yuan a second thought and couldn't care less about him, that didn't mean he would tolerate a clown dancing in front of him.
On the other hand, Chan Wei was barely holding himself back from flattening Chu Yuan over the repeated insults. His words stirred painful memories—humiliation, public beatings, insults. Those images flashed again and again through Chan Wei's mind... until something inside him snapped.
His soul realm began to tremble violently, and an overwhelming wave of glacial cold radiated from him. His eyes glowed with an eerie blue light, and the shadow beneath him stretched unnaturally wide, casting a suffocating pressure over the area.
Chan Wei's body ignited in pure white flames, producing a searing brilliance that starkly contrasted with the darkness around him. As Chen Linjian rushed over, the final spectacle unfolded.
Chan Wei's body became clad in an ink-black spectral armor—without a helm. His eyes and hair transformed into white fire. Around his armor, icy etchings began to form, creating a complex inscription that conveyed a single sentence in a long-forgotten tongue.
Only Nie Li understood its meaning, as it was the core phrase from the cultivation method he had given his brother:
"The darkness bore me and holds me bound, while light frees me and shatters my chains. I am the scourge of armies, the annihilator of legions. I am the darkness."
Nie Li, Huyan Lanruo, Ye Ziyun, and even Chu Yuan stepped back in alarm as the rest of the group began turning toward the sudden disturbance.
Chan Wei vanished from where he stood and reappeared in Chu Yuan's place—who was nowhere to be seen. Only a loud impact was heard, forcing everyone to turn and look. Chu Yuan's battered body lay slumped against a tree twenty meters away.
Chan Wei's body returned to its normal state just as he collapsed, but Nie Li caught him before he hit the ground.
"How are you?" Nie Li asked, quickly checking his brother over but finding no signs of internal damage.
"Just really tired. I felt something snap in my soul force, and I lost control of my body for a moment," Chan Wei replied weakly.
"You're seriously impressive, little brother. If I'm not mistaken, you just reached the Soul Forming state. I think your grandparents are going to be thrilled," said Huyan Lanruo with a smile.
"Thanks for the compliment," Chan Wei replied before sitting down in a meditation position to recover from his weakened state. It didn't take more than a minute before he felt a sudden surge in his soul force, and his body radiated a brilliant cyan light.
He had finally reached the Gold rank, though to outside observers, it simply looked like he had advanced to a new tier.
"Interesting," Chen Linjian murmured, glancing toward Chan Wei with keen interest.
After a few people confirmed that Chu Yuan's injuries were only physical and that he would recover with some medicine, no one paid much attention to him. Instead, their focus shifted entirely to Chan Wei after the display of his power.
Only Shen Yue and his lackeys bothered to help Chu Yuan recover, thanks to their friendly ties. In his heart, Shen Yue decided it would be wise not to provoke Chan Wei again, lest he end up in the same condition. However, he still didn't know that Chu Yuan ended up like that because he insulted Nie Li.
Chu Yuan remained unconscious, and even medical treatment only managed to stabilize him. One of Shen Yue's lackeys carried him on his back when it was time to move out. Chu Yuan would've been even more devastated if he knew that Chan Wei had unknowingly extracted part of his soul force—just like he had with Shen Yue. However, instead of absorbing it, the shadow kept it at Chan Wei's command, intending to offer it to Nie Li as a gift.
"Brother, I have a present for you," Chan Wei said as he passed the wolf shadow to Nie Li and retrieved the other. He had discovered that anyone besides him could only control one shadow at a time.
"What is this, brother?" Nie Li asked as he observed the shadow exchange.
"When you cultivate tonight, refine that soul force—it belongs to Chu Yuan," Chan Wei answered with a smile. "When we get back, I'll need your help with an experiment. If it works, I'll be able to help you and the rest of our group cultivate faster."
"What kind of idea?" Nie Li asked, intrigued by his brother's generous gift.
"I'd rather keep it a surprise until we're back in Glory City."
Later that night, after stopping to rest, Chan Wei and Nie Li set up their tent and began cultivating.
Now that Chan Wei had reached Gold rank, 1-star, he could command up to a hundred Silver-ranked beasts. Unlike before, he now noticed that he could choose which creatures to upgrade. Without hesitation, he advanced 23 Flame Lizards and around 20 Grey Monkeys from Bronze 5-star to Silver 5-star, feeling his own physical strength skyrocket to new heights.
After his meditation and stabilization of the upgraded creatures, Chan Wei pulled out an advanced crystal to measure his soul force. In this crystal, one glowing point equaled 1,000 soul force.
Typically, a Gold-ranked soul force user could measure their realm with a simple technique, but Chan Wei hadn't learned it yet.
He injected his soul force into the crystal, and 11 glowing points slowly drifted inside—clearly indicating that his soul force had surpassed the threshold for Gold Rank, 1-star.
Chan Wei could easily measure his physical strength thanks to an inspection technique the Vice Principal had given him. As he concentrated, he sensed that his physical power now matched that of a Gold 3-star rank, likely due to the fact that he now possessed 100 Silver 5-star beasts, which are naturally more physically powerful than humans.
In the tent next door, Nie Li wasn't slacking off either. He cultivated calmly, steadily absorbing the soul force gently released by the wolf shadow residing in his own shadow. He could sense that the shadow was somehow linked to his soul realm.
Nie Li felt the rising power within his soul realm. Unlike the original path, all the soul force was absorbed smoothly.
His eyes gleamed with light as his soul realm suddenly burst into a blinding cyan glow. The light grew stronger and more radiant.
Nie Li had clearly broken through to Bronze rank, 2-star. At this point, if he were to test his soul force, he estimated it would already be above 212. But his cultivation technique didn't stop there. The wolf within his shadow began to be absorbed completely by his soul realm, vanishing without a trace. This refinement triggered yet another breakthrough, pushing him to Bronze rank, 3-star.
A flicker of light flashed across Nie Li's eyes. He still didn't know what was hidden inside his soul realm. In his previous life, while cultivating, he never felt that anything was concealed within his soul realm. But this time, it felt different. Could it be related to the Temporal Demon Spirit Book? He hoped Chan Wei would understand that he didn't devour the shadow on purpose.
With the breakthrough in his cultivation, even with all the experiences of his previous life, Nie Li couldn't help but feel excited. This marked an important first step down the path of cultivation. He had already embarked on a different destiny than in his previous life!
What would Shen Xiu think if she found out how quickly Nie Li was advancing in cultivation?
"Chu Yuan was defeated?" someone said in astonishment.
"I never expected such a result!" said another.
"Didn't you see the powerful aura that burst out of Chan Wei? Chu Yuan didn't even see what hit him—barely anyone did. He was way too fast!"
Everyone was shocked by the outcome and began talking amongst themselves.
Chu Yuan regained consciousness briefly during the night. He wanted to understand the situation—but his body couldn't move. Checking his soul realm, he immediately blacked out again.
His soul realm had suffered severe damage, and because he hadn't had time to repair it before passing out, he would forever be stuck at Bronze rank, 2-star.