As countless small dark-gold swords effortlessly pierced his joints, Arad felt utterly despondent.
It wasn't that he hadn't tried to transfer his consciousness to another body again just now.
But every time his consciousness attempted to shift, it was firmly blocked by an invisible wall.
The ground beneath his feet turned pitch black. What had been an office just moments ago had transformed in the blink of an eye into a continuous stretch of black mountains and cliffs.
Countless dark-gold greatswords either hung high in the sky or were deeply stabbed into the earth; everywhere he looked, sword qi surged.
Pinned to the ground by countless greatswords and unable to move, Arad muttered to himself, “A Domain...”
As a peak transcendent, he quickly realized what realm Director-General Shen had reached.
Above the Transcendent Rank was the Domain Lord!
By transforming thousands or tens of thousands of strands of Origin into a domain, they possessed their own independent mini-world and ruled over it as its master.
They could construct the sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers in the palm of their hand, and even move thousands of living beings into it.
And that invisible wall was precisely the barrier of the domain Director-General Shen had just deployed!
Seeing her figure slowly approaching with a dark-gold greatsword in hand, Arad's face filled with horror.
So what if he was at the peak of the Transcendent Rank? Before a Domain Lord, he was utterly defenseless.
No matter how strong an individual was, how could they contend against an entire world?
Director-General Shen flicked her finger, sending a small sword piercing into Arad's head. “Tell me your plans.”
Arad's face contorted in pain as he spoke uncontrollably.
“My full name is Arad Kitaru. I come from the Thousand Machines Association, a secret society in the territory of the human species. My ID number is 673727185672445672x.”
“I am a practitioner of the 【Blood-Refining】 Pathway, one of the dual pathways of the 【Divine Weapon】. The reason I came to the territory of the human species this time was because I found a very excellent mechanical vessel, Awuna, in the undercity where the lower-class people of the machine civilization live.”
“I pretended to take him as my disciple, but in reality, I had long since used the secret blood-refining technique to half-refine him into my alternative body. I also secretly searched for geniuses of other races who had not yet ascended to the Transcendent Rank, preparing to hold a ritual to refine a formal transcendent. I wanted to use them to test the waters for my first ascension to Domain Lord.”
“I was originally observing an Elf, but her realm was too high and did not meet my criteria, so I intended to leave. But on a whim, I wanted to follow her to see what the humans call their lounge, only to unexpectedly discover a silver fox-kin with decent talent.”
“I listed him as one of my observation targets. I didn't expect that in just half a year, he would rise to prominence, and his performance satisfied me greatly. So I took action. I disguised myself as a bodyguard to stir up trouble, tricking and controlling a young male vampire to feed to him as an experience pack.”
“I originally planned to make a few more packs, but I didn't expect this silver fox-kin's talent to be so outstanding. He completed Rank 0.9 much faster than I had budgeted.”
“Unwilling to let these six months of effort go to waste, I had no choice but to pull in the net early and hold the ceremony to let him advance, preparing to refine him into my clone.”
“At the time, I felt everything was going too smoothly, which was a bit suspicious. I had no choice but to use my own funds to recruit two early-stage transcendent thugs to act as cannon fodder, but they never showed up even after the fight was over. The information I received was that they were stopped by that female vampire, and then all contact was lost.”
“And Awuna was utterly useless, so I had to take the field myself. But I never expected that he would use a remnant sword of unknown origin to pray during the ascension ceremony. He even summoned a remnant spirit named Kalugar, who slashed and heavily wounded me with a single strike.”
“I used my trump card, District Chief Liu Yide, using his life and Origin to block the fatal damage. I prepared to flee back to the Thousand Machines Association's outpost to recuperate and plan anew. Even if I couldn't kill that silver fox-kin, I was going to slaughter everyone close to him to vent my anger.”
“And then, I ran into you.”
Next, his mouth uncontrollably blurted out several outposts of the Thousand Machines Association and the location of their headquarters in human territory.
Arad's face was already ashen.
The person before him finally made him understand why that silver fox-kin's cultivation had gone so smoothly.
Just as Awuna was his consumable, Bai Xiaodu was precisely the consumable of the Domain Lord before him.
At the time, he had wondered why someone with such outstanding talent hadn't been discovered yet, secretly rejoicing that he had struck gold.
Little did he know, Bai Xiaodu had been someone else's bait all along.
He, a peak transcendent cultivator who fancied himself a fisherman, was actually the fat fish lured in by the groundbait!
A faint smile played on Director-General Shen's lips.
“I really must thank you. Wiping out this so-called Thousand Machines Association will be credited as a major achievement for me.”
Arad gasped in pain.
“High-tier cultivator, did you discover me from the moment I began controlling Liu Yide?”
“Why didn't you just capture me back then? Why wait until now? Didn't this cost you another of your human transcendents?”
Slowly driving the dark sword deeper, Director-General Shen remained expressionless.
“Typical low-tier thinking.”
“Since you were willing to help Bai Xiaodu raise his rank to the Transcendent Rank, why would I bother doing it myself and disturb my peace of mind?”
“Besides...”
She closed her fingers, and Arad shattered completely into countless fragments, his life force instantly snuffed out.
“What does Liu Yide's death have to do with me?”
After completing all of this...
Director-General Shen's figure flickered, and she appeared in a basement of her residence.
Unlocking the door, she stepped inside.
A kind-faced, white-haired elderly woman looked up at her, seemingly surprised by her visit at this hour.
“Lady Shen, you're back.”
Director-General Shen nodded.
“Bai Xiaodu's ascension ceremony is complete. He has become a formal transcendent. You are no longer in danger, so I will let you go.”
Facing the open door, Grandma did not leave immediately. Instead, anxiety crept onto her aged face.
“I see. Thank you for taking care of him. But what about the other children in the orphanage?”
Director-General Shen looked surprised.
“A transcendent this young is worth thousands, tens of thousands of ordinary people. Bai Xiaodu loves you very much. Focus on him first. Perhaps his path of cultivation can go even further.”
Grandma shook her head in pain.
“I love him, but I love the other children just as much. Director-General Shen, please tell me the truth. How are the other children doing?”
After a brief silence, Director-General Shen spoke.
A trace of helplessness showed on her face.
“Why do you sound so much like him? No wonder Bai Xiaodu turned out the way he did.”
“They are all safe. Bai Xiaodu moved them away beforehand. Rest assured.”
“That's good, that's good...”
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