I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Ji Tian led Lilith to a ravine beyond the Red Dragon's perception range.

The night wind blew in from the wasteland, carrying the dry, dusty scent.

"Are you ready?" Ji Tian turned his head to look at the silver-haired girl behind him.

Lilith paused for a moment before realizing that this was her master asking her if she was ready before activating the "Minor Teleportation" spell.

She instinctively gripped the cloak's ties and took a deep breath.

"…alright."

"three."

"two."

"one."

The scene before my eyes instantly distorted, folded, and rearranged.

The wind whistled past my ears, as if an invisible hand had pushed me from behind, and I was thrown into a tunnel woven from light and shadow.

This time, Lilith did not close her eyes.

It wasn't that she wasn't afraid; it was mainly because her master had given her a heads-up, and she felt she should live up to that respect.

Then, everything returned to calm.

The grove of trees outside the city gates of Kolde. Bright moonlight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Lilith's feet were firmly planted on the soft fallen leaves, her stomach remained in place, and her heart did not leap out of her throat.

She looked down at her feet, then looked up at Ji Tian.

"Master, you... were you counting down just now?"

"Um."

"You're actually last!"

"You've mentioned it many times."

Lilith's mouth opened and closed, closed and opened.

She suddenly felt a lump in her throat, realizing that her master finally had some humanity.

"Master, you are actually quite gentle."

"It's a pity you always take so long to recover, wasting time."

Hmph, what a hypocrite!

Lilith chuckled softly, not exposing his lie.

The two passed through the city gate and entered the main street of Kolde. Moonlight mingled with the magic crystal lamps along the roadside, casting a peaceful and serene glow on the stone pavement.

"Master, where will we stay tonight?" Lilith asked, her voice filled with a cautious anticipation.

Ji Tian thought for a moment: He had taken a demon princess as his disciple, so he couldn't keep letting her stay in cheap hotels forever.

Although he didn't care, his disciple did.

"Let's go somewhere else, the best place is Kold City."

Lilith's eyes lit up, but her next words made Ji Tian pause slightly.

"Master, let's share a room."

Ji Tian turned his head to look at her.

"What does this mean?"

Lilith's gaze darted away. "After being on the run for more than half a year, I couldn't sleep well alone. Last night at the Mole Hotel, you were sitting on the windowsill, and I slept better than I had at any other time in the past six months."

She paused, then added, "Besides, two rooms are too expensive. Your money is needed to support the sect, so you should save where you can."

Ji Tian remained silent for a moment.

He truly didn't expect his little apprentice to take the initiative to save him money.

In the past, his other disciples either had no concept of money and spent whatever they were given, or they would ask him to "Master, give me some gold coins" as a starting point—specifically referring to a certain disciple who took the initiative to come to cultivate immortality.

He replied with a hint of appreciation, "Okay, I'll meditate, and you can sleep in the bed."

"Okay, okay."

The best inn in Kold is called "Stars and Roses," located on the street next to the city lord's mansion.

The three-story stone building had white lime plaster on the exterior walls, stained glass windows, and a red carpet embroidered with gold stars and roses on the steps leading to the door.

Two uniformed waiters stood at the door, their backs ramrod straight and their bow ties perfectly tied.

As Ji Tian walked over, one of the waiters respectfully opened the door, while the other bowed slightly.

"One room, the best one."

The receptionist was a middle-aged woman with her hair in a bun, wearing a well-fitting dark blue dress with a pearl brooch at her neckline.

She glanced at Ji Tian's F-grade nameplate, then at the silver-haired girl behind him, her expression unchanged, and simply took a copper key from behind her.

"The room with the best view is on the third floor, at the end of the corridor."

Ji Tian took the keys, turned around, and went upstairs.

Lilith followed behind him, each step making a soft rustling sound on the carpet.

Pushing open the door, the room was spacious and bright.

A large bed was placed in the center of the room, covered with snow-white sheets and fluffy goose-down pillows.

The window faces the night view of Kold, with the distant city walls and wasteland blending into one under the moonlight.

Lilith stood in the doorway, looking at the bed and then at the windowsill.

"Master, are you sleeping on the windowsill?"

"Um."

"Aren't you cold?"

"It's not cold."

"...Can I share my blanket with you?"

"No need, you go to sleep."

Lilith didn't say anything more.

She went into the room, took off her cloak and hung it on the hanger, then collapsed onto the bed.

The mattress was as soft as a cloud, and the blankets were as fluffy as freshly baked bread.

She buried her face in the pillow and took a deep breath—clean, warm, and smelling of sunshine.

"Master."

"Um?"

Goodnight~

"Um."

Ji Tian walked to the windowsill and sat down cross-legged.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, bathing him in a silvery glow.

Lilith lay on her side, looking at the figure bathed in moonlight on the windowsill, and slowly closed her eyes.

She fell asleep quickly.

Ji Tian sat cross-legged on the windowsill. Seeing that his disciple was already fast asleep, he took the Emperor Banner out of his Purple Mansion space and laid it flat on his lap.

The banner gleamed with a cold, eerie light under the moonlight. The green patterns no longer pulsed wildly as before, but flickered at a steady, slow frequency, like some kind of ancient breath.

He closed his eyes and probed the banner with his divine sense.

boom--

Seven thousand three hundred and sixty-two souls.

These were all monsters that perished in the mountains due to the Red Dragon's dragon might and the fragments of the Dragon Star he shattered.

The aftermath of a battle is far more effective than a small-scale hunt.

When the dragon's might was unleashed, the weak demons within a radius of dozens of miles could not withstand its pressure and their souls were shattered.

Those who were slightly stronger were crushed to death, burned to death, or shaken to death by the shockwaves as star fragments rained down.

The spirits floated and sank in the banner, as quiet as if they were asleep.

They no longer struggled or roared; they had been completely suppressed and refined by the runes in the banner, turning into docile energy bodies that floated quietly in the space within the banner, like a luminous sea of ​​stars.

Ji Tian's divine sense swept across this "sea of ​​stars," and he silently calculated in his mind.

He recalled the scene when his divine sense swept across the entire Xiling Mountains after the battle on the ridge—the mountains were covered with the corpses of monsters, from goblins to rock spiders, from kobolds to rotten wood spiders, large and small, lying haphazardly, as if an invisible giant hand had swept across the mountains.

7,362.

The karmic consequences of the killing will be borne by the red dragon and him.

"Very well, these demons belonged to this land that didn't belong to them. Their death, their souls entering the Emperor's Banner, is another form of 'returning to their origin.'"

The previous six hundred-plus souls, plus today's seven thousand three hundred-plus souls, have brought the total to nearly eight thousand.

The black soul mark on the edge of the Human Emperor Banner has grown from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a fingernail, its color as deep as ink, with a faint luster flowing through it.

At the usual pace, the number of ten thousand souls can be reached in just a few days.

He opened his eyes, looked down at the black banner on his knees, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Once I have finished deducing the 'Inner Demon Tribulation,' I can prepare to break through to the Nascent Soul stage."

He folded the Emperor Banner, put it back into his Purple Mansion space, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his energy.

Soul power flowed slowly from the banner, flowing along his meridians into his dantian, transforming into a warm current that nourished the golden core that was undergoing transformation.

Silent all night.

……

On the other side, apart from the elven archer who went to scout the demon vanguard, the rest of the hero team gathered on the second floor of the Adventurers' Guild.

"The Knights Templar have agreed," Bruno said in a deep voice, tapping his thick fingers on the table.

"The Patriarch read the Pope's letter, his expression changed several times, and finally he said, 'I will obey the Holy Will.'"

Mason raised an eyebrow, surprised that things had gone so smoothly with the church. "That's it?"

Bruno grinned. "That's it. But he's quite generous; he said he'd lend us the relics from the Church of Kold."

Alex looked up. "What sacred object?"

"The Crown of the Sages".