Inside the towering structure of Shadow City, Feng Qi quickly realized that he was completely trapped.
According to the narrator's reasoning, helplessness stemmed from a lack of muscle.
Becoming stronger wasn't easy, but in this tower filled with resources, it was a different story altogether.
Feng Qi wanted to see if he could trigger his Dark God Form purely through his own devouring ability—without relying on the sacrifices of the Goat-Headed Demons.
He sprinted towards the sixth floor of the tower, where a mountain of bloodstones lay before him.
Above the room, a cracked formation array flickered, occasionally dropping bloodstones from above, each landing with a crisp clinking sound as they piled onto the existing heap.
Without hesitation, he lunged into the mountain of bloodstones.
Reaching out, he grabbed a handful of bloodstones, shoving them into his mouth and chewing them ruthlessly before swallowing.
His powerful digestive system immediately activated.
The bloodstones dissolved in his stomach, transforming into an overwhelming surge of vital energy that rushed through his limbs and bones.
Soon, his stomach rumbled like rolling thunder, and a scorching heat engulfed his entire body. His eyes gradually turned blood-red.
His heartbeat accelerated violently.
Like an engine with the accelerator pressed to the floor, his body was pushing its limits to digest and absorb the surging energy.
His body temperature soared, veins bulging beneath his skin, which was gradually turning blood-red.
"Huahh!"
As he exhaled, a stream of white-hot mist escaped from his nostrils and mouth, hissing in the air with a sharp "zzzz" sound.
He continued shoveling handfuls of bloodstones into his mouth. The heat inside him became unbearable, as if he was on the verge of exploding.
[Your digestion isn't keeping up with your eating speed. I scanned the tower—there's a medicinal plant on the tenth floor that aids digestion.]
Hearing the narrator's suggestion, Feng Qi shoved another handful of bloodstones into his mouth.
Chewing forcefully, he stood up abruptly, pushing aside the bloodstone pile blocking his path, and dashed towards the top floor.
Moments later, his skin flushed red and mist pouring from his mouth, Feng Qi arrived at the top floor.
Following the narrator's guidance, he spotted a purple, gourd-shaped medicinal plant, grabbed it, and stuffed it into his mouth.
The purple gourd-like plant was extremely bitter—its taste was absolutely awful.
But after swallowing it in just a few bites, the medicinal effect spread rapidly through his body.
It felt like taking a cold drink on a scorching summer day—he shuddered from the refreshing sensation.
The intense heat from the bloodstones started to subside, but his heart rate didn't slow down—it accelerated even further.
Scooping up the remaining purple medicinal plants, Feng Qi rushed back downstairs.
Reaching the seventh floor, he was met with a blood-colored lake.
Suspended above the lake was a floating blue formation array, with energy conduits extending from the walls' dense openings, continuously extracting vital energy from the outside world and condensing it into pure blood essence, which then dripped into the lake below.
The sixth and seventh floors' bloodstone supply was formed from the condensed blood essence drawn from this very lake.
Without hesitation, Feng Qi dove straight into the lake.
At that moment, he was like Kuafu drinking the ocean dry, determined to devour every drop.
Whether overindulging would harm his body was not his concern—what mattered most was maximizing his strength before Little Black arrived.
If he died, he would start over again—there was no need to worry about consequences.
Gulping down mouthfuls of pure blood essence, the heat surged back.
He grabbed a floating purple gourd and took a huge gulp.
As the medicinal effect took hold, Feng Qi plunged his head back into the lake, drinking furiously.
The blood lake churned like boiling water, bubbling violently as air escaped from his submerged mouth.
Before long, he had finished the last of the purple gourds.
The burning sensation flared up again, his entire body aching as if it were being scorched by fire.
"Ah Bai, are there any other medicinal herbs to help with digestion?"
[Yes, there are some on the top floor, but they're not as effective as the purple gourd.]
"That's good enough!"
Feng Qi leaped from the blood lake, landing firmly on his feet before dashing back up the tower.
As he ran, he couldn't help but think of Mu Qing and Suction Cup.
If Mu Qing or Suction Cup were here, this tower would be an endless treasure trove of experience points.
They could eat indefinitely, digest everything instantly, and gain ridiculous power without any bottlenecks.
But he was different.
Without Scarlet Rune Crystals to give him their insane digestive ability, he had to rely on medicinal herbs.
At this moment, he suddenly missed Lin Ran's "Devouring Technique."
Back then, Lin Ran developed the technique because he wanted to eat like Feng Qi and Mu Qing.
In the process, he accidentally clogged the entire dormitory's plumbing system.
The technique was imperfect and had many flaws, but in this situation, it would have been incredibly useful.
[You seem to be forgetting something… In the main timeline, you can't practice any techniques or spells. Might as well give up.]
Feng Qi: "…"
Reaching the top floor, he scanned the area before rushing toward a treasure chest and grabbing it with both hands.
[Look to your 5 o'clock direction—there's a plant that looks like bamboo.]
Following the narrator's guidance, he began looting frantically.
Before long, he had filled the treasure chest to the brim. Then, he lifted it and hurried back down.
As he ran, he casually plucked a golden fruit from a nearby tree and was about to shove it into his mouth when the narrator's voice suddenly rang in his mind.
[Are you seriously going to just eat that? What if it's poisonous?]
Hearing this, Feng Qi froze mid-motion.
The medicinal plants in this tower had ridiculously potent effects—since there were herbs that could revive the dead, there could very well be fruits that could kill him instantly.
"This fruit… is it poisonous?"
[Relax, no poison. Eat up.]
Feng Qi: "…"
Feng Qi rolled his eyes but still bit into the golden spirit fruit without hesitation, swallowing it in one gulp.
As the medicinal effect spread through his body, he carried the treasure chest down the stairs to the Blood Essence Lake and once again leapt into the crimson waters.
He devoured the blood essence while simultaneously consuming spiritual plants to aid his digestion.
There wasn't a shred of guilt in exploiting the resources here—if anything, it felt utterly satisfying.
[You really have Little Black to thank for this. If not for him, you'd probably still be trapped at the top of the tower, having your body endlessly reconstructed by Youying, gritting your teeth in pain.]
"Shut up, dumbass system!"
Even while eating, Feng Qi couldn't help but curse in his mind.
The narrator was invaluable at critical moments, but its poisonous tongue was unbearable at all other times.
Meanwhile, beyond Shadow City, in the vast emptiness of the void—
Countless blue light specks filled the space, as vast and dazzling as a galaxy, before gradually dimming out.
As 1,680 weapons and the Dao Soldier Formation shattered together, Youying finally felt the looming threat of death from the mysterious black shadow.
But even as death closed in, retreating was never an option.
Looking back at Shadow City, veiled within a spatial barrier, a crazed fanaticism flickered in his eyes.
The wealth stored behind him—he was willing to lay down his life to protect it.
He remembered the oath he made a thousand years ago, the very moment this spatial city was completed—he swore to fill it with the greatest treasures of the world.
Through centuries of struggle and relentless accumulation, he had inched ever closer to that dream.
He had sacrificed far too much for this goal.
It was like building a grand wall—once you've poured enough effort into it, its significance surpasses even your own life.
And more importantly...
He had not lost yet.
From afar, Little Black stood in the void, the black hole behind him slowly closing, as he strode forward at an unhurried pace.
Youying prepared for a final battle to the death.
With a wave of his hand, a rift in space split open before him.
He reached into the tear and slowly pulled out a blade—its transparent surface shimmered with a blue glow.
The blade was just over a meter long, appearing small in his grasp, but the moment its tip emerged from the spatial rift, the surrounding space twisted violently.
Space vortices began forming around Youying, spreading outward in waves.
The distortion of space grew so intense that even Shadow City's spatial barrier began violently trembling, on the verge of being ripped apart by the sheer destructive force.
His gaze traced along the weapon's hilt, moving up to the tip as old memories surfaced.
The blueprints for this blade had been the second gift bestowed upon him by the mysterious man who once taught him knowledge—Mo.
If Shadow City was his greatest treasure, then this blade—Voidfang—was his greatest weapon, the very thing he relied on to carve his place in this world.
He had obtained Voidfang's forging method after another chance encounter with Mo in the human world.
Despite Mo saving his life, Youying felt no gratitude toward him.
He knew that Mo's investment had a purpose—they owed each other nothing.
Yet, he couldn't shake his curiosity—why had Mo done all this?
And more importantly—
Why was Mo so confident that he would keep their contract?
Truthfully, Youying never planned on honoring the agreement.
With countless questions in his heart, he once confronted Mo, demanding the truth behind it all.
But Mo didn't give a direct answer.
He only told him:
"Once you've signed the contract, it doesn't matter whether you want to uphold it or not."
"As for the future? You'll understand when the time comes. Right now, all you need to do is grow stronger, expand your influence, and increase your power."
Before parting, Mo left him with a gift—a new set of knowledge.
That knowledge was the forging method for Voidfang.
From the moment he acquired it, Youying had made up his mind—
He would forge this weapon, no matter what it took.
Though Voidfang lacked the miraculous abilities of true divine artifacts,
It was the deadliest weapon he had ever laid eyes upon.
Mo's brief description had summarized its nature in one terrifying sentence—
"Voidfang has the power to cut through space itself. No matter if it's flesh, energy, or even the elements—before Voidfang, everything is like paper."
This weapon had reached the pinnacle of destructive spatial power.
To collect the rare materials needed to forge Voidfang,
He had once ventured alone into the chaotic depths of the void, risking his life to harvest spatial stones, coming back narrowly alive time and time again.
He had also exchanged every last resource stored in the tower's first floor with the Storm Tribe, acquiring a portion of the materials required.
And that was only the beginning of his sacrifices.
Forging this weapon took him over 300 years.
Even now, Voidfang remained incomplete, but its destructive power had already reached the level where it could easily rend the void apart.
Until today, he had never used it against an opponent.
Due to its incomplete state, using Voidfang came with extreme backlash.
Even worse, it could expose him to void erosion, stripping him of his consciousness and humanity, turning him into a mindless void entity.
But now—
Facing this near-invincible black shadow,
Youying had no choice but to unleash his most terrifying weapon.
As the distance between them shrank to less than a thousand meters,
Youying slowly raised Voidfang.
The moment he lifted the blade—
It shivered violently in his grasp.
A terrifying surge of spatial energy erupted, sending invisible shockwaves through the air, forming one spatial vortex after another.
Dark twisted rifts emerged in the void, and faint glimpses of the human world could be seen within them.
The immense power of space rupture surged violently as Voidfang became fully enveloped in a blue glow.
It was clear that Youying was struggling—his body trembled uncontrollably, reacting to the immense force of Voidfang.
At that moment, he slashed toward Little Black without hesitation.
There was no grand display, no sweeping energy wave accompanying this strike.
It was as if time had stopped—everything froze in place, even Little Black remained motionless in the distance.
A moment later, a spatial crack appeared in front of Youying, rapidly expanding outward at an observable speed.
In the blink of an eye, the entire void before Youying was covered in fractures.
Like a shattering mirror, the fabric of space itself was sliced into fragments.
Youying coughed up blood, his gaze dimming.
Yet, a twisted grin spread across his face.
The broken void began collapsing in chunks, revealing the blood-moon-lit human world beyond the fractured space.
The raging spatial currents shredded the torn void into dust.
Even Little Black was no exception, as his body was instantly engulfed by the violent spatial turbulence.
The Eye of Truth activated, scanning everything in sight—not even the tiniest energy nanobot remained.
Seeing this, Youying wiped the blood from his lips, turning to gaze at his beloved Shadow City.
He had fought for his wealth, and once again, he had prevailed.
But this battle had cost him dearly.
The void energy within his body was still corroding his flesh and mind—if he didn't heal soon, his condition would only worsen.
Glancing at the rapidly repairing void, Youying decided it was time to return to Shadow City.
But just as he was about to turn—
His victorious smile froze.
A single black dot flickered in the fractured void.
It began spinning, multiplying, and more black dots sprouted one after another, all swarming toward the center.
Within moments, Little Black's figure re-emerged.
Seeing this, Youying let out a bitter chuckle, shaking his head in resignation.
This mysterious enemy—still so calm and composed.
This battle was nothing more than a game to it.
It clearly had the power to kill him instantly, yet it chose to let him experience the illusion of triumph—only to crush his hopes in the end.
Realizing this, Youying tried to raise Voidfang once more.
But his shaking right hand could no longer lift it.
As Little Black closed in, Youying turned to face Shadow City one last time, his gaze filled with reluctance.
When his body was finally engulfed in black mist, his trembling hand stretched toward the direction of Shadow City, grasping at empty air, his eyes full of sorrow and longing.
This was his life's work… his greatest dream…
His vision darkened, swallowed by the mist.
Amidst the cold and endless void, a faint memory surfaced—
The underground mines of his childhood.
The same damp, suffocating darkness.
The same feeling of helplessness.
Inside Shadow City, atop the tower.
The Blood Essence Lake had been completely drained under Feng Qi's relentless devouring.
Even with spiritual plants aiding his digestion, his body was struggling to hold on.
The boiling essence within him made his skin burn bright red.
Unable to endure the overwhelming influx of blood energy, he activated his Blood Source Form without hesitation.
A surging wave of blood energy erupted from within, wrapping around his entire body.
As fresh tissue formed rapidly over his bones, his size expanded at an alarming rate.
Three meters... Five meters... Eight meters... Ten meters...
In an instant, Feng Qi's height surpassed the usual limits of his Blood Source Form.
His veins bulged beneath his blood-forged flesh, resembling dragons coursing through his body.
The excess blood energy condensed into a cocoon, engulfing his entire form, as dark green flames ignited around him.
A powerful heartbeat echoed from within the cocoon.
It pounded like a war drum, each beat resonating deep within the soul.
Through the flame-wrapped cocoon, a shadowy figure could be seen growing bone wings—undergoing an ominous transformation.
Then, the cocoon suddenly dissolved, dispersing into thin air, revealing Feng Qi's new form.
Now standing over twenty meters tall, bone wings spread behind him, and dark green flames coiled around his entire body.
The moment his eyes opened, his blood-red pupils deepened into an eerie shade of green, and at their core, a phantom of dark green fire flickered.
Feeling the power surging within, Feng Qi frowned slightly.
This time, the amount of blood energy he had absorbed was far greater than when the thousand Goat-Headed Demons sacrificed themselves to him.
Back then, his Blood Source evolution had pushed his height to over forty meters.
Yet this transformation fell short, even though he could clearly feel the vast reserves of blood energy still surging through his veins.
"Ah Bai, what's going on?"
[Hmm… At its core, the Dark God is a being of faith—its power stems from belief. You can tell from how the Dark God race meticulously orchestrated their faith-gathering systems. If I'm not mistaken, when the Goat-Headed Demons sacrificed themselves, they didn't just offer blood energy—they also gave you their unwavering devotion.]
[This time, you've devoured enough blood energy, but you can feel it hasn't been fully processed. That's because you're lacking belief energy. Faith is like a catalyst—it helps you fully manifest your Dark God Form.]
Hearing the narrator's explanation, Feng Qi sighed in frustration.
[By the way, I forgot to tell you—your spiritual sea contains a vast amount of liquid faith energy, likely gathered from the people of Star City, including Wei Wei and the researchers of the Crimson Research Institute, as well as… yourself!]
Just as Feng Qi thought there was hope, the narrator continued:
[Unfortunately, after my analysis, the faith energy in your spiritual sea seems to be incompatible with your Dark God Form, meaning you can't use it.]
Feng Qi: …
[But there's still a way!]
"Can you stop dragging this out and just spit it out already? Damn system, are you trying to mess with me?!"
[The solution lies in the divine coins on the top floor—they contain dark-attribute faith energy, which is fully compatible with your Dark God Form. If you can absorb and digest them, your transformation will reach an even higher level.]
Hearing this, Feng Qi rolled his eyes.
The Faith Bracelet only allowed him to gather his own faith energy—it couldn't absorb others' faith.
So, this information was basically useless.
[True, the Faith Bracelet can't absorb them—but who said you can't eat them directly? Why not give it a try?]
"Fine, I'll try."
Without hesitation, Feng Qi stood up, took a deep breath, and sucked in the last remaining pool of blood energy from the drained Blood Essence Lake.
After swallowing, he leapt into the air.
His fist, wreathed in dark green flames, smashed into the reinforced ceiling.
A tremendous force erupted, but the ceiling didn't break immediately.
Undeterred, Feng Qi channeled more power and continued punching relentlessly.
After a series of heavy strikes, the ceiling finally caved in with a deafening crash.
Using this brute force method, Feng Qi smashed his way up to the top floor.
The collapse sent various resources, spiritual plants, spiritual ores, and the divine coins tumbling down with the debris.
Feng Qi reached out, grabbed a handful of everything, and shoved it all into his mouth, chewing and swallowing.
The moment he digested the divine coins, the surging blood energy within him found an outlet.
It was a strange sensation—
Like a dam breaking, releasing an overwhelming flood of power, and his tense body finally felt relief.
[Oh ho! Looks like I was right—Ye Tian's faith energy is compatible with you! In a way, you're stealing another god's believers! Hahaha!]
As the narrator's laughter echoed in his mind,
Feng Qi's body continued growing.
In an instant, he reached 25 meters—but then, his growth stalled.
"Ah Bai, help me find more divine coins!"
[On it!]
Following the narrator's guidance, Feng Qi hunted down the fallen divine coins and devoured them one by one.
Then, he smashed through the floor beneath, reaching the bloodstone storage level, and began devouring those as well.
His body began a second evolution.
As his height increased, the dark green flames gradually shifted to a deep crimson.
Twisted sinister markings spread across his skin,
And a burning five-clawed symbol emerged on his forehead.
A terrifying power surged within him—
The fusion of Dark God and Ye Tian's faith energy unleashed an unparalleled and terrifying might.
[This is what we call a hybrid transformation!]
"Shut up!"
With a roar, Feng Qi's fingernails blackened and lengthened into claws.
Crimson compressed energy spheres formed in the air around him, slowly orbiting his body.
These energy spheres were directly linked to his consciousness, moving at will as if they were extensions of his own body.
The moment an energy sphere made contact with the tower walls, it instantly shattered its defenses, showcasing its horrifying destructive potential.
In mere seconds, Feng Qi's height exceeded 70 meters.
He grabbed another handful of bloodstones, shoved them into his mouth, and waited for further growth—
But his body refused to expand any further.
Realizing that the divine coins' faith energy was depleted, preventing any further enhancement, Feng Qi knew he had reached his current limit.
[Introducing the all-new Ye Tian Dark God Undead Form! Ready for battle!]
Ignoring the narrator's nonsense, Feng Qi's massive claws struck the tower walls.
The eighteen crimson energy spheres orbiting him suddenly launched forward.
BOOM!
The previously impenetrable walls collapsed instantly under his overwhelming power.
With a few more strikes, the entire tower crumbled.
Hearing the massive commotion, the residents of Shadow City turned toward the source of destruction.
The scene they witnessed would haunt them for the rest of their lives—
At the center of the city, the tower had collapsed.
Amidst the billowing dust, a colossal figure emerged, its entire body ablaze with dark red flames.
Its terrifying, monstrous appearance was like a demon from the depths of hell, radiating an aura of pure evil.
The crimson compressed energy spheres surrounding it vibrated the air itself, sending deep, resonant hums throughout the city.
Then—
A deafening roar, carrying the force of a hurricane, swept through all of Shadow City—
"That green-skinned little dwarf who called me poor—COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!"