Julius stared at the destroyed horde of ants with a complicated expression and glanced over at Elder Huan.

“This was you?”

Elder Huan had a somewhat proud look on his face, though he was desperately trying to hide it. “Yes.”

Julius had already been amazed by Elder Huan’s ability to hold back several Tier 5s at once, but this was on a different level entirely. This wasn’t simply holding back, this was total annihilation.

“You really messed them up, didn’t you?”

Elder Huan shook his head. “Not as much as I should have. A lot of them got away. I won’t be surprised if they come back.”

“Well, at least you gave the rest of the sect some breathing room. I don’t think they could have lasted for much longer. People were already—”

He staggered as a sudden wave of vertigo hit him. Elder Huan was instantly at his side, holding him up.

Julius remembered Jasper’s words about the aftereffects of his body and his suicidal explosion. It would appear they were true, and he could already feel it. His body felt weaker, as if a massive ripple of fatigue slapped him over the head with a bus-sized hammer.

His soul wasn’t in much better shape either. It wasn’t cracked or shattered like it’d been in the past. But it was quite dim compared to normal. The normal brilliancy was gone. There was a deep fatigue in his body.

His new skill was already showing its use though. It was barely activated, but he could sense that it was the only reason he was back in one piece. Without it, he would still be a pile of ash. Though he could tell that he was in no position to use the skill any more than that.

He didn’t think it was even possible for him to use it properly. His soul was in such a delicate situation that he couldn't properly activate it.

Only when he got better would he be able to see how much the skill had changed. At the current moment, he needed some time to recover.

“We need to get you to Gui, he needs to check up on you. I don’t care what kind of skill you have; your aura is so weak, I’m surprised you are still on your two feet.”

Julius waved him off with a chuckle. “I’ll be okay. I’m sure Healer Gui has more important people to heal at the moment. I’ll get checked by him after he’s done.”

"Swallow your stupid pride and see him."

Julius smiled sadly. "There's not much he can do for me. And I'm somewhat stable now, as long as I don't fight again."

Elder Huan realized he was being truthful and backed off slightly. “Okay, but once he's free, make sure he checks on you, okay?”

“Trust me, I will make sure he does,” Seraphyne added from his spot on his shoulder. The one opposite from the one Drasil liked to hang from.

“Thanks, I’m counting on you,” Elder Huan said with a shallow nod and a grin.

“When did you two get so close?”

“When you were nothing but a pile of ashes buried in the sand,” Seraphyne scoffed.

Julius chortled and took the time to try and establish a connection with Drasil. That was one of the first things he’d done when he’d awoken, but the connection felt weird. It was there and Drasil was certainly alive, but it was slightly distant.

Honestly, it reminded him of the time when Drasil evolved. Hopefully, that was the same case this time around. The little spirit deserved some spoiling after all the help he’d given Julius over this past week or so.

He also took the time to review his notifications.

[Calm Before Ruin lvl 1 -> lvl 3]

[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 21 -> lvl 22]

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 28 -> lvl 29]

[Void Step lvl 20 -> lvl 21]

[Void Strike lvl 18 -> lvl 19]

[Spirit Fortification lvl 27 -> lvl 28]

[Field of the Shattered Will lvl 16 -> lvl 17]

On one hand, he was surprised that he didn’t get more levels, but also admitted to himself that he hadn’t done much fighting. He’d gotten his ass kicked pretty handily. That skill or domain technique from that Tier 5 had really caught him off guard and once that happened, it didn’t allow him a second to recover.

Plus, he needed to remember that Jasper mentioned something about his soul experiencing a period of stagnancy, whatever that meant. He suspected it was similar to when he injured his soul and was unable to level his skills like usual.

He also reminded himself that he shouldn’t be concerned with levels, instead be more grateful that he wasn’t dead for real. Or even worse, become a mindless monster like Jasper mentioned.

Shaking his head and needing to change the subject, he peered over at Elder Huan and his still faintly glowing body.

“So did you advance to Tier 6?” Julius asked. He could feel that something had changed about him, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. The aura and power were similar to those of other Tier 6s he’d met, but were also very different. He wasn’t quite on their level, but there was a quality about him that made Julius believe that he wasn’t far off if he wasn’t already.

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Elder Huan contemplated for a few moments before he finally responded. “I’m technically still Tier 5, but right on the edge of Tier 6. You might hear some people call it the Semi-Lord Realm. Or a Half Step Lord. But when you meet the requirements, as I did, it’s only a matter of time before one reaches Tier 6.”

“So you’ll officially become a lord when you reach Tier 6?”

“Correct.”

Now that he thought about it, many of the Tier 6s he’s met had some kind of lordly title. Even Aubrey’s mother was called the Crystal Tyrant. Cain was called the Lord of the Shattered Throne. Even Elder Han had been called the Curse Lord.

Julius had always wondered why this was the case. He just assumed it was because it sounded cool, but perhaps there was more to it than that.

“What kind of requirements did you meet?”

“That’s not something you need to worry about. You’re not even Tier 5 yet, focus on your authority and acquire a domain first. Then you can put your focus into it, if you try to get it before your domain, you will only hurt your foundation and future.”

He must have seen Julius’s disappointed pout and slapped him on the shoulder encouragingly.

“Don’t worry, you will get there one day. You have a bright spark, as long as you follow it, you will be okay.”

Julius rolled his eyes and smirked. “It’s fine, you keep your secrets.”

They were walking back into the camp, and the arrays were still active, but they were holding on by a thread. Each gust of wind had them flickering. Julius suspected that they would have fallen apart given several more minutes of fighting.

He didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if that occurred. It was already bad enough as is. Everyone in sight had some kind of injury, people with missing limbs and covered in bandages were more common than people without.

Sensing the huge number of people around the medical tent, he immediately teleported over there, not even bothering to tell Elder Huan.

The smell was the first to hit him. It smelled like blood and death. There wasn’t a single empty spot on the ground, injured disciples were everywhere. He could also sense that an array of life mana was placed around the tent. Apparently, conserving mana wasn’t as much of a concern anymore now that Elder Huan had taken care of most of the ants and the rest had retreated back into the wastelands.

But this array could only do so much. It infused everyone within it with life mana, but it didn’t do as much for fatal wounds, only ensuring they didn’t get worse. He could sense Healer Gui’s aura pulsing out brightly, his domain encompassing the entire tent as well. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The number of wounded was an issue, but the more pressing issue was corruption. Almost all of the wounded were infected with corruption and it was killing them. The corruption wasn’t easy to get rid of. It was why Healer Gui had only focused on a small number of disciples at one time. It took exceptional control and the right skill to get rid of it.

There weren’t many people like that around either.

Though he spotted Kora off to the side and winced. She looked truly awful. She was covered in blood, half of her head must have been burned pretty badly, because she was missing most of her hair and one side of her face was scarred over.

The rest of her body wasn’t in much better condition. It was clear that someone had tended to her most pressing injuries, and so she wasn’t in danger of dying.

However, that wasn’t stopping her from helping out. Her aura, which was uniquely suited for dealing with corruption, was doing its best to purify the nasty energy. She wasn’t a healer, but was doing her best to support the fight against the corruption despite swaying unsteadily, sweat beading down her face.

Seeing that he couldn’t afford to stand there and waste any more time, he dropped down on one knee to the nearest disciple in critical condition. She had several empty healing potions next to her, but she was still coughing up a lot of blood.

He examined her with his senses and quickly discerned that she had severe internal bleeding. If that wasn’t bad enough, a broken-off piece of an ant’s forelimb had lodged itself in her lungs. The corrupted flesh was releasing its deadly energy straight into her chest, rapidly deteriorating her condition.

He immediately gathered his life mana and let it infuse in her just to stabilize her while he thought about a way to remove the piece of corruption. But to his concern, it didn’t react in the way he thought at all.

In his haste, he’d completely overlooked the impact his newly evolved healing skill would have on him. The surge of power from his new legendary skill almost overwhelmed him; it took every ounce of his willpower to restrain it.

Only when he wrangled control over it did he let out a sigh of relief. He had almost killed the girl, realizing her body would have exploded from sheer overload of life mana. That wasn’t the only issue either.

It was hard to tell when he first awoke, but now that he used his healing skill, he realized his body was really in a volatile state.

It was being held together by his willpower and stubbornness alone. His body was in a more fragile state than he had ever experienced. The issue was that his new healing skill was so powerful. And that meant the backlash of it failing was stronger than ever. He knew that if he made a single mistake, everything would unravel.

Fortunately, he had a lot of experience with healing himself. And so he’d already subconsciously managed it with the help of [Calm Before Ruin]. But then he almost ruined it all when he tried to use the skill on another person.

And that was an issue, because he really needed to help all these people at the moment. His skills and abilities were too valuable at the moment, especially with so many injured disciples.

What was he going to do?

He really wanted to help these disciples. The issue was how he was going to fix this? How was he going to be able to contribute?

He was frantically thinking of various ways while he used simple, plain life mana to heal the young woman. He was keeping her stable, and he’d already started to expunge the corruption from inside her. The broken piece was still stuck in her lungs, but he was more concerned about the corruption and handled that first.

He contained it and rid it of the negative energy. Only then did he feel safe enough to remove the object from her chest. She coughed out more blood and he used a little more life mana to heal the damage. Without his skill, it was hard to heal injuries of this magnitude. He could heal simple wounds, but fatal wounds were a lot more complicated.

However, just as he was running out of ideas, he felt something warm in his chest. He quickly realized it wasn’t coming from his chest, but his soul. He made sure to distance himself from the injured girl, just in case it was something dangerous.

It didn't feel that way, though, and in a burst of vitality, he felt his dulled and wounded soul brighten up.

The reason for this was the little tiny figure tearing out of his metaphysical cocoon. It would appear that Drasil had come out of his self-imposed coma, and Julius watched with wide, saucer-like eyes when the little spirit appeared on the chest of the girl.

He was stunned for multiple reasons. For one, Drasil felt a lot different. The density of his essence was so thick that it was almost hard to push his senses through. It was clear that Drasil had evolved once again, and this time, it was even more dramatic.

But the most startling thing was the physical transformation Drasil had undergone. He was still the same adorable little spirit, but one thing stood out among all the other changes.

It was the pair of delicate wings gently flowing out of Drasil’s back, made of flaming feathers. Julius couldn't help but notice the supremely pleased expression on Drasil’s face as he showed them off.