After Adam finished explaining everything to Xuan, he was left speechless.

"So... You’re telling me all of that was for show?" Xuan rubbed his temples. "And you did this for what exactly? Just to poke fun at me?"

"Deception breeds resentment, but growth seldom blooms without pressure," Adam replied philosophically, then coughed.

"I apologize, I seem to have stumbled in my old ways. But yes, your companions are all fine. They are, however, going to be mad at you for being out for so long."

Xuan stared at him for a moment, then sighed.

Before Xuan could reply, Adam continued:

"On another note, congratulations. You’ve earned my acknowledgement."

Xuan tilted his head.

"What can I do with your acknowledgement?"

Adam crossed his arms and grinned.

"You may become my disciple."

A faint hum escaped Xuan’s lips.

"So will you teach me some overpowered techniques?"

"If you prove yourself more capable, of course," Adam replied. "As it stands, I am willing to teach you a body tempering technique, which you can use to—"

"I have the Black Sun Body Tempering Technique," Xuan interjected, causing Adam’s eyes to widen.

"You have... How?"

Xuan smirked. "Not important. But on that note, you said this place is a part of the Void Realm, right? Where’s the black sun?"

"..."

"You shouldn’t talk about that technique with anyone else... Understood?" Adam said coldly. "It’s a forbidden technique, used by the Void Demons. You are..."

He narrowed his eyes, and then stepped back in wariness.

"You have Demonic Qi?"

Xuan just stared at him, deciding to be honest.

"Time Qi, Death Qi, Space Qi, Demonic Qi, and Poison Qi. I’m a bundle of Qi," he said, stepping closer. "Now then, Master. Would you care to tell this curious disciple more about the black sun?"

Adam’s face scrunched up.

"Ugh... Just what did they see in you?"

Before Xuan could ask about who he meant, Adam let out a bit of Qi, silencing Xuan.

"Very well, since you have called me Master, I shall impart you with some knowledge. After that, you will only be allowed to visit this realm every time you’re going through a breakthrough to another realm. Understood?"

Xuan nodded with a smile, and with that, Adam began explaining.

"The black sun is..." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

.

.

.

Xuan reopened his eyes, and found himself in the center of the four pillars, with exactly four people around him, all sporting irritated expressions.

Yuelan in particular wasn’t happy, so she walked up to him and pinched his cheek.

"One week, Xuan," she said slowly. "You were gone for one week! You didn’t even tell me anything, and our connection felt faint. I thought you had died!"

Despite her harsh words and tough demeanor, Xuan felt the vulnerability in her voice, and so he stood up and hugged her, assuring her it was fine.

"My bad... There were some circumstances that kind of didn’t let me leave earlier. But I’m back now."

Yuelan froze for a moment, and then returned the hug, while also cursing him under her breath.

Even so, when they separated, Xuan decided to give each person here a rundown of what had happened.

And after he was done, they simply stared at him with complex looks.

"The top factions deal with tribulations...?" Hanbi muttered, rubbing her chin. "So if we break through to another realm, they’ll always have influence on us?"

Sierra nodded.

"It seems like it. But still... Xuan, do you trust that person? He lied to you."

Xuan shrugged. "He’s powerful, and I’m not. He gave me a lot of information about what I was looking for, so I’ll just have to see how it plays out from here."

Turning toward Yuelan, he patted her head.

"We can keep going now."

"You’re not going to tell us what you talked about?" Yuelan asked with a slight pout.

Xuan shook his head. "Maybe when we’re in private. But you don’t have to worry about me for now. I’m sure with my current amount of Void Qi, I would probably easily win against a Spirit Lord if it came down to it."

After all...

Name: Xiao XuanCultivation: First Level Spirit MasterQi: 6.553 / 65.536 Billion [Spiritual Qi (Purity: 34% → 68%)]<Void Qi | 858,822,955,110 / 1,000,000,000,000>|Legacy: NoneBloodline: NonePhysique: Boundless Void Physique (Stage 3 → 4)Physical Strength: 1,190,200 → 1,355,200Mental Strength: 598,900 → 644,200Physical Defense: 1,380,000 → 1,890,000Mental Defense: 825,500 → 955,500↳ Qi Type Comprehension:[Time Qi - Beginner - 2% → 14.9%][Space Qi - Beginner → Intermediate - 4%][Death Qi - Beginner - 44.2% → 55.48%][Demonic Qi - Intermediate - 58.2% → 75.5%][Poison Qi - Intermediate - 8.52% → 12.89%]<★ Xiao Yuelan - Seventh Level Spirit Master>

Despite only being in there for a little while, the amount of Void Qi I have now is just insane. Plus, my Qi Type masteries went up by a lot.

But now, Xuan needed to prepare a few things.

After the talk with Adam, he found out that the black sun was not something just anyone could access. His Black Sun Domain idea also turned out to be a dud.

That was because, according to Adam, he would need his neutrality to tilt over to evil, essentially becoming an evil cultivator. That was when the Void would recognize him as evil and shine black rays of light down on him every time he was in the Void Realm.

As it stood, Xuan was a chaotic neutral cultivator, leaning slightly to the evil side. Therefore, he had his work cut out for him.

But at the end of the day, he didn’t care whether he was good or evil. He genuinely cared about those around him, and no one else. If that made him evil, so be it.

Plus, Adam said the Black Sun Body Tempering Technique is a Supreme Ranked technique. It just won’t reveal itself fully until my neutrality changes.

Nonetheless, this was something he would hold back on telling Yuelan for the time being, and instead...

"Where’s the next shrine?"

Yuelan tilted her head, falling in thought.

"Just a few minutes away. Are you sure you don’t want to hunt for some food? I know I would be hungry if I hadn’t eaten in a week."

Xuan smiled.

"There’s no need for that, Yuelan. I just want to get the boring stuff out of the way so we can enter that dungeon."

"Mm..." Yuelan hummed in affirmation, and after exchanging a glance with the other girls, she nodded at him.

"Okay, let’s go."