Gui Ming gleaned everything from the fluctuation of Lei Dong’s divine soul. Originally, he himself had ascended to the peak Ghost King level under the Master's grace, just a breath away from Ghost Emperor. Theoretically, his cultivation was almost identical to Gui Ci’s, and given Gui Ming’s superior talent in combat, his actual fighting capability was slightly better than the current Gui Ci.

But none of that meant he could lord it over Gui Ci. Because Gui Ci had followed the Master from an unremarkable little cultivator to his current status, having earned countless merits and endured immeasurable hardship.

Gui Ming harbored no expectations regarding the Chaos Crystal, as his achievements were insufficient. He never expected that Gui Ci, the elder brother figure, would treat him with such consideration, preparing to share a rare Chaos Crystal with him.

“Elder Brother Gui Ci, I… I cannot accept your kindness.” Though his heart ached with desire, Gui Ming gritted his teeth and refused. He then knelt on one knee before Lei Dong: “Master, Gui Ming earnestly begs to join the Fierce Ghost Army, starting as a common soldier to kill enemies for you. Gui Ming also hopes to become a powerhouse like Elder Brother Gui Ci, capable of holding a front for the Master alone.” While staying by the Master’s side had always been safer, it now lacked opportunities to earn merit.

“Gui Ming, if you go to the Fierce Ghost Army, how can it compare to staying right behind the Master?” Gui Ci frowned deeply. “Although the Fierce Ghost Army is the Master’s direct guard unit, their status is beneath us Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servants. Wouldn't it make you a laughingstock to go as a mere private? If you truly wish to earn merit, you should instead implore the Master to grant you a command to lead an army.”

“Thank you for your concern, Elder Brother Gui Ci.” Gui Ming was indeed very persistent on this matter (ShuShuWu).

“Very good. I clearly haven't misjudged you.” Lei Dong summoned Gui Ming precisely to test his disposition. After all, although Gui Ming was his Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servant, he was an independent entity. And unlike Gui Ci, he hadn't walked the most arduous path alongside Lei Dong from the very beginning. To some degree, Lei Dong remained cautious. Historically, though rare, there had been instances where Ghost Servants, having developed independent consciousness, sought to rebel against their masters.

For personal Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servants, quality trumps quantity. Undoubtedly, Gui Ming possessed excellent aptitude, standing out among the numerous Supreme Spirit Ghosts. Furthermore, due to their relationship, he was naturally much closer to Lei Dong than the generals of the Fierce Ghost Army.

With the large quantity of Chaos Crystals Lei Dong now possessed, he naturally intended to seize the opportunity to advance to the Deity Transformation stage. However, Lei Dong, having cultivated the Ghost Taming Art, was a cultivator whose strength lay not in close combat, relying instead on his subordinate Ghost Servants in battle.

It was impossible for him not to cultivate his Ghost Servants to their fullest potential when capable. After this test, Lei Dong felt much more assured regarding Gui Ming. At the very least, this individual was not someone who would abandon righteousness for profit; he possessed his own pride.

“Gui Ming, the matter of joining the Fierce Ghost Army must be postponed for now,” Lei Dong smiled faintly. “Gui Ci, Gui Ming, you are both my personal Ghost Servants and thus receive special consideration. But do not let this special treatment cause you to lose yourselves.”

“Yes, Master.” Gui Ci and Gui Ming immediately knelt solemnly on one knee, quickly proclaiming, “Your subordinates dare not become conceited or lose focus.”

“Because in this coming period, I need to enter seclusion to break through to Deity Transformation. And if I achieve Deity Transformation while my Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servants remain only at the Nascent Soul level, that is simply unrealistic,” Lei Dong stated with a serious expression. “Therefore, as integral parts of my personal fighting strength, you two should naturally also advance to Deity Transformation. I foresaw and planned for this matter long ago. In this next phase, both of you, along with Ying Hu, will cultivate alongside me and prepare to charge toward Deity Transformation.”

“Yes, Master.” Gui Ci and Gui Ming were both beside themselves with joy. The Master’s words clearly indicated his intention to pursue the Deity Transformation realm at any cost. Gui Ming’s excitement stemmed from realizing that things he initially believed were beyond his reach were unexpectedly within his grasp. Being the Master’s personal Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servant indeed conferred a different status. Gui Ming increasingly accepted his identity, and his respect and gratitude toward the Master blossomed.

“Reporting to the Master, however, Elder Brother Gui Ci, Elder Brother Ying Hu, and I have our aptitudes capped at the Nascent Soul level. The resources required to break through to Deity Transformation might be excessively large, might they not?” Gui Ming offered his advice cautiously.

“While that may be true, whether I organize an army or build a power base, in the final analysis, it is all for the sake of gathering resources to strengthen myself,” Lei Dong admitted, feeling no need to conceal much from his Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servants. “No matter how many resources are consumed, I must raise my own strength.”

In this world, the levels of the vast majority of living beings are constrained not only by insufficient spiritual energy but often by bloodline. Humans, however, are somewhat of an exception. Judging purely by bloodline, they are exceedingly inferior, so much so that the majority of mortals lack spiritual roots and cannot cultivate.

Yet, humanity is also a highly peculiar race. Because aside from a portion possessing spiritual roots who can cultivate to a strength not inferior to the powerful races, the sheer massive base population occasionally produces peerless geniuses.

These peerless human geniuses seem to be the favored children of heaven and earth; given sufficient resources, time, and a sliver of luck, they can grow to extraordinarily high levels. Indeed, a very small number can directly threaten those supreme, sovereign existences.

Clearly, Lei Dong did not belong to the peerless genius tier. Nevertheless, he was fortunate enough to possess the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda, a masterpiece painstakingly crafted over generations by Supreme-level experts. This artifact is truly heaven-defying, capable of decomposing powerful energy lifeforms back into pure Chaos Spiritual Qi and Chaos Origin.

The latter, Chaos Origin, is the most miraculous substance in the universe, rumored to be the very source of all life. Even a single trace of this substance can cause earth-shattering changes in a lifeform.

Previously, the reason the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda could enhance the rank of Spirit Ghosts was in fact by extracting small amounts of impure Chaos Origin from other souls to evolve the quality of the Spirit Ghosts.

Of course, those impure Chaos Origins, due to excessive harmful substances, could only be endured by Spirit Ghosts in their pure life-energy form. For races like humans, using it was not only unhelpful but would cause injury or death due to the harmful components. Lei Dong had conducted experiments regarding this point, and more than once.

This also negated his plan to use Soul Pills to improve his own relatively mediocre aptitude.

But now, the situation was drastically different. With the true function of the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda fully unearthed, it brought about a monumental shift in Lei Dong’s future path. The most immediate impact seemed to be the incredibly precious Chaos Crystals.

Yet, in Lei Dong’s view, the substance that would truly alter his destiny was the Chaos Origin. Lei Dong had long understood that this was something even Supreme-level experts coveted, leading them to wage wars that annihilated countless lives just for it.

And the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda could refine this substance.

Ultimately, this comes down to the crucial role Chaos Origin plays in enhancing the essence of life—not merely elevating the cultivation level, but improving the quality of life itself. It is akin to transforming a low-grade ghost into a lower-grade Spirit Ghost, or even a supreme-grade Spirit Ghost.

The more precious something is in the world, the scarcer it becomes—this is an ironclad law. Chaos Origin is also extremely pitifully rare. To this day, Lei Dong had actually refined twelve Chaos Crystals through the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda. The lifeforms decomposed within it ranged from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation and even Nascent Soul levels, numbering over a million in total, including an incalculable amount at the Nascent Soul stage.

But if there were twelve Chaos Crystals, logically there should be quite a bit of Chaos Origin, right? In reality, after feeding in so many lives, the crystal ball collecting the Chaos Origin only held about ten wisps—finer than hair, almost imperceptible, emanating a low, dark golden luminescence.

According to Mei Xiang, the artifact spirit of the Devouring Pagoda, at least three hundred times more Chaos Origin was needed to condense a single true Chaos Origin.

This result left Lei Dong quite speechless. How many lives had been consumed? These lives were amassed from a major war involving three factions across two domains. To truly refine one Chaos Origin, would he have to throw every powerful lifeform from the Six Domains and Nine Continents into it for decomposition and refinement?

Fortunately, Lei Dong had also attempted to try that wispy Chaos Origin. As expected, just a single trace seemed to have washed his marrow and cleansed his essence, elevating his fundamental quality by a small margin. Although this certainly did not elevate his aptitude to the level of Dongfang Fu or Ding Wan Yan.

But as long as his aptitude could be improved, this was a boundless blessing for Lei Dong. If he had one major regret in his life, it was his relatively inferior aptitude, which fell far short of being called genius.

Immediately, Lei Dong had Wan Yan try it as well. She also experienced some effect, making her aptitude appear to grow by a tiny amount, though the effect was far less significant than Lei Dong’s.

This led Lei Dong to deduce that the higher one’s existing aptitude, the less effective the Chaos Origin would be in evolving their life essence. Because those deemed geniuses already possessed outstanding spiritual root aptitude, the potential for improvement was extremely limited.

Lei Dong was different; his aptitude was only mid-to-high tier, so a single trace of Chaos Origin was enough to allow him to feel a very noticeable change in his aptitude.

For more novels, visit storyread.net.