Lei Dong began to organize his thoughts. To rapidly enhance their side’s strength now, he had to focus on the Soul Devouring Chaos Tower. Take, for instance, the Demon Emperor's design for refining Soul Pills; it was certainly ingenious.

But those were things he had devised privately, not truly stemming from the original lineage of the Nether King's design. To make progress here, Lei Dong needed to delve deep into the whimsical array systems the Demon Emperor had inscribed within the tower and then build upon them. Though this task was necessary, the extensive time it would consume meant Lei Dong couldn't gain significant benefits or advantages in the short term.

Conversely, the Nether King’s original design system, while profound and vast, was almost entirely completed by the time of his death, lacking only one Chaos Origin Essence. The issue of the Chaos Origin Essence, however, had precisely been resolved by the Demon Emperor.

Furthermore, Lei Dong had now subdued Mei Xiang, the Tower Spirit of the Chaos Tower, and Mei Xiang’s memory held the complete design system of the Nether King. It could be said that Lei Dong now possessed all the prerequisites to truly manifest the Chaos Soul Devouring Tower’s actual efficacy.

Therefore, before deciding on cooperating with any faction, Lei Dong decided he must first develop the Chaos Tower’s true function before making any further considerations or decisions.

Because he had subdued the artifact spirit and integrated all components of the Chaos Tower, enabling the hidden profound arrays, the process was exceptionally smooth. In just over ten days, the interior of the Chaos Soul Devouring Tower had transformed completely. The exquisitely subtle arrays designed by the Nether King had been activated, forming a complete, massive array circulation system. When Lei Dong’s divine sense entered, he was momentarily stunned by the profound spatial sense within.

The internal space of the Chaos Tower now seemed real yet illusory, a vast expanse of chaos. Countless motes of dust and points of light swirled in a vortex, moving at an apparent slow speed that was incredibly fast. It felt magnificent and imbued with boundless desolation, yet simultaneously brimming with limitless vitality.

Chaos state—this was the so-called primordial state at the birth of the universe. Lei Dong’s divine sense settled within this near-ethereal scene, feeling as if enlightenment was imminent. Utilizing the Chaos Tower's various designs and the integrated Chaos Origin Essence, the Nether King's concept was to forge a new space, a new world.

This expanse of chaos was the embryo of a new world, representing infinite possibilities. As for what this world would ultimately become, that would be entirely up to Lei Dong to control. The mysteries of the cosmos, the greatness of those ancient and primordial mighty figures, filled Lei Dong with awe and a deep sense of emotion.

Especially the Nether King; to conceive of creating an entire world! What did that imply? It meant the Nether King had nearly ascended to the status of a Creator God. His sole regret was being unable to truly take the reins and create this world himself, not just due to the lack of the Chaos Origin Essence, but also because of the crushing weight of those three great mountains.

The God of the Underworld, the Nether King, the Demon Emperor—a combination of three great powers from different eras, all poured their lives into this construct. Ultimately, it fell into Lei Dong’s hands, creating Lei Dong’s fortunate destiny: to personally witness a realm of chaos. Although this chaos was minuscule compared to the true chaos of the cosmos.

Yet, this was the nascent form of a complete world! Heaven, earth, space, matter, and life would slowly be born within this chaos. For a cultivator at Lei Dong’s level, what honor and supreme experience was this!

“Master, the Chaos Tower is fully activated. Please issue your next instructions,” Mei Xiang said softly. This poor Mei Xiang was now completely under Lei Dong’s control; her life and death, existence and annihilation, rested entirely on Lei Dong’s next thought. Reality and cruelty left her no choice but to dutifully resume her position as the artifact spirit, helping Lei Dong manage the Chaos Soul Devouring Tower.

“Very good. I am very satisfied,” Lei Dong nodded. “Mei Xiang, you have worked hard. I know you envy Zhen Yao. When the time is right, I will also prepare an excellent Nascent Soul for you, giving you the opportunity to possess that Nascent Soul in the form of a purely spiritual intelligence being. Then, you will have a body, able to live freely within the world.”

“Ah? Thank you, Master.” Mei Xiang’s voice suddenly became extremely excited. Based on Lei Dong’s explanation, she was aware of some of Zhen Yao’s past experiences and current state. After being subtly prompted by Lei Dong, Mei Xiang’s desires were stirred. She envied Zhen Yao—and herself—for being intelligent artifact spirits yet gaining the chance to possess a Nascent Soul and become a true life form.

Although Mei Xiang had possessed considerable intelligence all along, she considered herself a form of life. But in reality, this existence possessed only intelligence, lacking even the most fundamental component of life: the soul. In a certain sense, Mei Xiang was merely intelligence, not true life. After being awakened to this concept by Lei Dong, Mei Xiang fell into a period of dejection.

However, Lei Dong immediately presented an irresistible bait: promising to acquire a Nascent Soul body for her. If necessary, he would even help her fabricate a female puppet body possessing the strength of the Soul Transformation level. Only then would Mei Xiang become a true life form—one possessing spirit, soul, and body.

Not just remaining a mere spirit attached to the Chaos Soul Devouring Tower, as she was now.

Lei Dong acted this way purely as a carrot-and-stick policy. Unrelenting oppression would eventually lead to problems; at the very least, Mei Xiang might resort to passive resistance, impairing Lei Dong’s effective utilization of the Chaos Tower. By deliberately cultivating desire in Mei Xiang and then using that desire as bait, Lei Dong substantially increased her motivation. This was extremely beneficial to him. Look—in such a short time, she had fully activated the Chaos Tower. Desire gives life a true direction, didn't it?

After placating and encouraging Mei Xiang, Lei Dong proceeded to the next stage of work. According to the Nether King’s design concept, the Chaos Tower was meant to devour the souls of living beings, decomposing them back into Chaos Spiritual Qi and Chaos Origin Essence—two extremely special and powerful substances—for the purpose of forging an entirely new world. Theoretically, Chaos is the origin of the world, Chaos Origin Essence is the origin of life, and Chaos Spiritual Qi is the foundation for life to continuously grow, evolve, and strengthen.

The first thing to do was to experiment with the efficacy of this fully operational Chaos Soul Devouring Tower. He began feeding the different grades of divine souls he had prepared, one by one, into the center of the vortex, which was the core of the tower’s soul-devouring and decomposition array system.

When a Qi Refining stage divine soul entered, it immediately vanished without a trace after passing through the vortex center, not even stirring the slightest ripple. Mei Xiang, responsible for monitoring the data, immediately reported: “Reporting to Master, Mei Xiang cannot sense any increase in Chaos Spiritual Qi or Chaos Origin Essence. Perhaps the amount added is too minute for me to perceive.”

This was completely normal; in the vast universe, a being at the Qi Refining stage was too weak. However, theoretically, every life form should possess some trace of Chaos Spiritual Qi and Chaos Origin Essence, albeit so minuscule it was virtually zero.

But then, Lei Dong decisively threw in ten thousand Qi Refining stage divine souls simultaneously. These densely packed, faint souls were also instantly shredded into nothingness upon entering the vortex center.

Not long after, Mei Xiang’s surprisingly delighted voice came through: “Master, our Chaos Spirit Gathering Array has captured and collected a wisp of Chaos Spiritual Qi. Look.” She seemed somewhat eager to present a treasure.

Saying this, a transparent crystal ball appeared before Lei Dong. At first glance, Lei Dong saw nothing. He focused all his vision and peered closely, finally discerning a tiny golden thread swimming dynamically within the basketball-sized crystal sphere. But it was so fine, so minuscule, that the naked human eye could not detect it.

Lei Dong frowned. After inputting over ten thousand Qi Refining stage divine souls into the devouring array, they had only managed to extract this single, tiny wisp of Chaos Spiritual Qi? Although Lei Dong was thrilled that they had successfully manufactured Chaos Spiritual Qi, this seemed excessively meager.

“Mei Xiang, what is the standard for this small wisp of Chaos Spiritual Qi?” Lei Dong asked, his brow furrowed.

“Master, if we calculate based on the crystallized form of Chaos Spiritual Qi, the Chaos Crystal, this small wisp is approximately one one-hundred-thousandth. Meaning, if we gather one hundred thousand such wisps, we can use the technique for refining Chaos Crystals to forge one standard Lower-Grade Chaos Crystal,” Mei Xiang replied honestly, simultaneously brimming with excitement: “Master, we have succeeded. Lord Nether King’s design has been fully realized.”

But Lei Dong took a deep, chilling breath. One one-hundred-thousandth of a Lower-Grade Chaos Crystal? Damn it, what kind of concept was that? Did he need to gather one billion Qi Refining stage divine souls, the recovered Chaos Spiritual Qi from which could only barely accumulate one Chaos Crystal? One billion! That was a full billion Qi Refining stage divine souls! And that was for the lower grade. Uh, did he have to go kill a billion Qi Refining level entities, extract their divine souls, just to forge one Chaos Crystal? What would that make him? A slaughterer, a monstrous demon lord?

Perhaps sensing Lei Dong’s gloom, Mei Xiang quickly tried to console him: “Master, this is because the life level of the Qi Refining stage is too low. Perhaps trying Foundation Establishment stage and Golden Core stage might show some improvement.”

Lei Dong nodded, letting go of his momentary frustration, and began the next phase of trials.

The results came quickly, and his gloomy mood began to dissipate slightly. According to Mei Xiang’s estimations, only about ten million Foundation Establishment stage divine souls would be needed to refine one Chaos Crystal. And for the Golden Core stage, the number was even smaller—only one hundred thousand...