"Yes, Big Brother, I will get familiar with it quickly." Lei Hu had only recently taken human form, and his speech was still stumbling, but the sense of closeness to Lei Dong in his eyes was incredibly strong. In fact, Lei Dong was right; the bond between Lei Hu and him was exceptionally deep. The time they had spent together even surpassed the time Lei Dong had spent with Wan Yan.

Throughout Lei Dong's growth, Lei Hu, who was still a Shadow Tiger that Devoured Souls, had helped him countless times. The two of them—man and tiger—had fought enemies together and fled together. Along the way, the Shadow Tiger's contributions were innumerable.

The transformation of spirit beasts and divine birds also followed certain patterns. Generally, species born with higher innate intelligence and superior bloodlines would begin considering transformation upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage. Examples include various types of Dragons and Phoenixes. From a human perspective, the Nether Phoenix is also a spirit beast, but their clan transforms relatively early; they can choose the external form they desire as early as the Nascent Soul stage.

But for some unknown reason, many in the Dragon and Phoenix lineages preferred adopting human forms.

Even for spirit beasts not inherently intelligent, their intellect would gradually develop through the long process of cultivation and growth. Typically, by the Spirit Transformation stage, their intelligence would be fully mature, no less than that of humans. At the Spirit Transformation stage, some choose to transform, while others find it unnecessary and never do.

In a sense, what restricts transformation is not strength, but intelligence and one's own will. Some spirit beasts never wish to take human form. Conversely, some beasts, even reaching the Spirit Transformation stage, won't transform if their intelligence hasn't fully matured. Of course, those who can transform often mimic higher-tier species like Dragons and Phoenixes by taking on a human guise. It seems that because Dragons and Phoenixes transform this way, others instinctively follow suit, perhaps feeling that not doing so fails to reflect their status.

Naturally, Lei Hu's transformation was more self-directed. Deeply influenced by Lei Dong, the form he chose to adopt bore a strong resemblance to Lei Dong. At a glance, anyone would assume they were brothers, and with the somewhat similar Lei Long, they appeared as three siblings.

Although divided into ten small teams, each squad was only separated by about twenty li. This arrangement not only allowed for a carpet-style search but also facilitated mutual support. Should any danger be detected, they could offer aid at the fastest possible speed.

The teams moved slowly, searching with extreme thoroughness. Spirit Transformation stage experts projected their divine sense hundreds of zhang into the earth. In one day and night, they covered only about ten thousand li. Even so, this equated to two hundred thousand square li. Regrettably, although some mineral deposits were discovered on the first day, there was no need to mine them immediately; they were simply marked on the map. As for spiritual herbs, not a single one was found. This entire area, apart from the Heart-Devouring Demons, seemed utterly barren of anything else.

Yet, no one was discouraged; no one expected to find treasures on the very first day. This pattern continued until after the tenth day, when Dongfang Fu’s squad achieved the first breakthrough. In an unremarkable subterranean fissure, about seventy to eighty zhang below the surface, Dongfang Fu detected what appeared to be a deposit of Chaos Crystal minerals.

Dozens of zhang of ground, entirely composed of extremely hard rock, were made effortlessly penetrable by a Spirit Transformation stage expert like Dongfang Fu. Condensing an ice blade around herself, she carved down to the required depth as easily as cutting tofu, extracting a strange, dark-gold object. Neither stone nor metal, it clearly exhibited extraordinary qualities, radiating an intensely rich Chaos Spiritual Qi.

Such a discovery naturally caused all the squads to converge. Everyone watched with keen interest as Dongfang Fu began cleaving the material. With her fingers moving like knives, she meticulously peeled away the outer impurities, revealing a fist-sized, crystal-clear golden Chaos Crystal within. This piece was three to four times larger than the Chaos Crystals Lei Dong had artificially refined.

Lei Dong took the crystal and examined it closely. The Chaos Spiritual Qi within was abundant, no less potent than in a standard Chaos Crystal. A piece this whole, if cut, could yield approximately four Chaos Crystals. This prompted Lei Dong to lavish praise on Dongfang Fu for her good fortune.

With the first harvest secured, everyone grew excited. A few days later, another small chunk of Chaos Crystal was found, though the resulting yield amounted to only about one Chaos Crystal. However, this did not diminish the group's enthusiasm; they were now eager to uncover an entire vein of Chaos Crystal ore.

Lei Dong knew, though, that instantly gathering massive quantities of Chaos Crystals was merely wishful thinking. Given the presence of the Heart-Devouring Demons here, the great powers of the Demon Realm must have visited long ago. They might disdain small, scattered Chaos Crystals—much like a billionaire ignoring a dollar or two on the ground—but if they discovered a major vein, they would have no reason to leave it unexploited.

Lei Dong was quite content with occasionally striking accidental fortune, picking up the Chaos Crystals the ancient powers considered beneath their notice. Furthermore, the materials encasing the Chaos Crystals appeared valuable themselves; with some refinement, they might yield Primordial Metal, an excellent material for forging Innate Spiritual Treasures.

This process continued for a full month. As Lei Dong had predicted, they encountered no patrol teams belonging to the Dark Night Emperor. He surmised the Emperor himself understood that sending subordinates controlled by Heart-Devouring Demons out on patrol would be akin to searching blindly. Moreover, in an area so vast, even a cultivator at the Void Refinement stage, let alone the Integration stage, could not keep tabs on everything.

After a month, Lei Dong and his party had explored hundreds of thousands of li. Besides mining approximately several tons of Primordial Ore, their haul amounted to the equivalent of thirteen artificially refined Chaos Crystals. This was hardly a meager result. A fierce battle where Lei Dong annihilated a million strong warriors and decomposed their souls yielded only about this much in Chaos Crystals, minus the Chaos Essence.

Furthermore, Lei Dong and the others were fortunate enough to discover a miniature, high-quality spiritual vein, from which they extracted some Top-Grade Spirit Stones and over a dozen Celestial Spirit Stones. These too were likely considered worthless by the ancient titans.

Lei Dong didn't mind; the less they valued these items, the better. What was worthless then is valuable now. While Chaos Crystals possessed endless utility, Celestial Spirit Stones were a crucial strategic resource for Lei Dong. After probing hundreds of thousands of li, even Lei Dong felt hesitant to venture further forward, considering the Dark Night Emperor had only promised to withdraw a million li—he might even renege on part of that agreement.

He decided to deviate several hundred li and begin making his way back. After another month of sweeping searches extending a hundred zhang deep, Lei Dong and his group returned to the main camp, dusty and road-worn. This time, however, they brought back thirty units worth of Chaos Crystals. Twenty-three were found in the wilderness, and the remaining seven were refined from the Chaos Spiritual Qi gathered from the Chaos Spirit Gathering Formations that Ghost Thorn had secretly buried.

With the addition of these thirty Chaos Crystals, Lei Dong’s resources felt substantially more secure. He once again selected highly outstanding and loyal experts from the Submerged Dragon Army, distributed resources among them, and urged them to rapidly advance to the Spirit Transformation stage.

Two months passed, which equated to twenty months inside the Grotto-Heaven Paradise. Some Ghost Generals and Submerged Dragon Soldiers who were already at the peak of the Golden Core stage began to show results, with a small portion successfully breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage. After all, the ambient quantity of free-floating Chaos Spiritual Qi in the air wasn't insignificant. And Chaos Spiritual Qi offered unparalleled benefits to cultivators, surpassing even the strongest elixirs.

While the scattered Chaos Spiritual Qi offered less benefit to very high-level experts, it acted as a potent tonic for those at the Golden Core level.

This outcome further bolstered Lei Dong's confidence. The only slight surprise for Lei Dong was that the Dark Night Emperor was indeed so idle that he actually dispatched patrol teams to scout the area.

Lei Dong encountered one such patrol on his return journey—a contingent of over a hundred men led by a Spirit Transformation stage expert. Unfortunately for them, they were detected well in advance by Lei Dong's overwhelmingly powerful divine sense. To avoid alerting the enemy, Lei Dong chose to bypass them rather than engage in extermination. Although Lei Dong was confident he could have eliminated every one of them, the disappearance of an entire squad would undoubtedly cause the Dark Night Emperor to become suspicious and launch a massive investigation. Provoking the Night Emperor was not a desirable outcome. Moreover, Lei Dong's primary objective was simply to gather as many Chaos Crystals as possible to enhance his own strength and survivability.

This fellow remained tight-lipped, revealing nothing about the source of the danger here. His current predicament—being sealed within this chaotic otherworld—was likely due to immense frustration, as he hadn't calculated that the opposing leader was the Dark Night Emperor, who also possessed the ability to seal the spatial rift's entry and exit points. Otherwise, even under threat of death, he would never have dared step into this Chaotic Inner Space to court disaster.

The appearance of the patrol team made Lei Dong extra cautious. Fortunately, those scouts lacked high-level tactical intelligence; once detected by his superior divine sense, they were bypassed without conflict.

In just half a year, while Lei Dong made gains in the wilderness, the frequency of the patrols increased. Whether the Night Emperor had grown suspicious or was simply losing patience and beginning to take action remained unclear.

The previously calm situation suddenly turned delicate once more.

When Lei Dong returned to the camp this time, Ding Wan Yan immediately sought him out, her expression grave: "The Holy Radiance King and the Abyss Master have jointly sent a message, requesting a meeting with you—a conference."

A storm was brewing...