With the fall of the Shadow Demon King, everything seemed to return to peace once again.

Naphaya retracted the golden light that filled the sky and brought the small ball-shaped corpse before Zhang Xiaoman, respectfully expressing gratitude:

"Thank you, Star Lord, for bestowing this opportunity upon me, and thank you for your care. Naphaya, on behalf of the entire Holy Angel Clan, extends the highest respect to you!"

He knew that the other party had given up the chance to subdue a Transcendent-level subordinate just to let him have his revenge.

A Transcendent-level being is not some common commodity; having such a subordinate is a rare treasure, and this Six-winged Holy Angel knew this well.

Zhang Xiaoman nodded, acknowledging Naphaya’s gratitude.

If it were in the past, he would have waved it off, saying it was nothing and that there was no need for gratitude.

But as his strength and experience grew, he no longer engaged in such meaningless pleasantries.

He understood his current status and identity; excessive humility was not a virtue, but would only make others more apprehensive. Sometimes, maintaining authority is an indispensable method.

In front of Zhang Xiaoman, the corpse of the Shadow Demon King Nai Wenmo’er floated slowly. Like other spiritual body units, a Shadow Demon leaves behind a corpse upon death, a black ball of pure energy that contains a portion of the monster’s essence. Besides being absorbed by the Eye of the Starry Sky to increase points, it is also an excellent material for crafting various special spiritual power equipment.

Zhang Xiaoman raised his right hand, intending to absorb this black ball. However, halfway through, he stopped.

Because he suddenly felt that the Original Realm seemed to highly desire the essence within this ball, wanting to absorb it eagerly.

This was just like in the First Universe; when an Alien Species from the Second Universe died, if the essence was not absorbed immediately, it would slowly dissipate and be absorbed by the universe, making it impossible to extract points anymore.

Thus, after every kill, if conditions allowed and the corpse wasn’t documented to have higher material value, Awakeners from the Star Alliance would promptly process the monster’s body to prevent any loss of purification.

In other words, it was a case of the universe competing with oneself for spoils of war.

However, now in the Original Realm, the corpse of Nai Wenmo’er was not taken by the universe but remained untouched until now.

There was no choice; after all, Zhang Xiaoman was the Master of the Original Realm. In a sense, he was the world consciousness of this realm; if he didn’t order it, how could the Original Realm absorb the Shadow Demon’s essence on its own?

Likewise, as the Master of the Original Realm, Zhang Xiaoman could now sense how much the world craved the small black ball in front of him.

He hesitated, not immediately absorbing points, but instead pondered deeply.

He weighed his options: should he directly absorb the corpse, converting it into System Store points, or let it dissipate and be absorbed by the Original Realm?

Moments later, Zhang Xiaoman slowly withdrew his hand, and the mark of the Eye of the Starry Sky in his palm gradually dimmed.

He made up his mind to try the latter choice, since as the owner of the Original Realm, he could clearly perceive its yearning for these essences.

Absorbing it himself would just increase some points. Although he didn’t know how many points a Transcendent-level Alien Species would add, points were never too many. However, there were other ways to acquire points.

If he allowed the Original Realm to absorb it... this was an untried path. Zhang Xiaoman decided to follow his inner desire and boldly experiment.

Quickly, with the consent of the Master of the Original Realm, the corpse of the Shadow Demon King began to be absorbed by this world. After about a month, the body was completely digested.

During this period, Zhang Xiaoman returned to Water Blue Star to handle the post-war matters from last time, and discussed the organization’s future development plans with a few others, preparing for the next step.

After completing the Star Pattern Imprint this time, Zhang Xiaoman’s strength leapt to the Pseudo Transcendent Level.

Now, all his attributes had been elevated to terrifying numbers, his Constitution exceeding a thousand points, and his spiritual power soaring to five thousand points. If equipped with the Purple Cloud Divine Sword, it would even reach ten thousand, and his upper limit of Dark Spiritual Power exceeded a million, more than three times the total limit of Ziwei Dark Spiritual Power.

Most importantly, Zhang Xiaoman’s Star Pattern Talent could now be fully applied. With the support of the fourth Star Pattern, he no longer feared using talent abilities due to worries over consumption, undoubtedly granting his combat ability yet another leap forward.

In short, this breakthrough finally gave him the power to contend with the Transcendent level. Although his Pseudo Transcendent Level abilities allowed him to barely manifest the final few sequences of the Divine Domain, these Divine Domains were tremendously consuming, so much that even with Zhang Xiaoman’s current Dark Spiritual Power, he couldn’t sustain them for prolonged combat.

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