In his sleep, Po Jia lost all sense of time.
He just felt like he was splitting apart mentally, with two consciousnesses constantly merging, each trying to seize control of his body.
When the battle of wills ended, Po Jia realized he had absorbed a lot of fragmented knowledge, along with the soul power from that other lingering consciousness inside him.
As he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a beach.
The crackling of a campfire burning wood echoed in his ears. Turning his head, he saw Feng Qi also turning to look at him.
He instinctively tried to sit up, but a wave of intense pain shot through his body.
It felt like he'd been beaten from head to toe while he was unconscious.
"You're awake. How do you feel?"
"Boss, I'm fine."
Gritting his teeth through the pain, Po Jia forced himself to sit up, saying nothing in thanks.
But he knew for sure that it was Boss who had saved him from that hopeless situation.
Being protected like that left him feeling lost and uncertain inside, but more than anything, he felt deeply moved in a way he never had before.
"Good thing we've trained you all in resisting possession with the Negative Persona. Otherwise, your mind would've been crushed and your body taken over... Anyway, what matters is you're back."
Feng Qi smiled as he spoke, handing Po Jia some food.
"Eat. There's no more blood energy inside the Demon Blade to help you recover. Eat more, you need the nutrition."
Taking the steaming food, Po Jia nodded firmly and bit into it.
After finishing, he suddenly stood up, looking at Feng Qi.
"Boss, after merging with that consciousness, I think I've gained some special abilities."
"Oh?" Feng Qi, who was feeding Xiao You, turned to him curiously and stuffed the roast meat into his own mouth.
Xiao You, who had just opened her mouth wide, puffed her cheeks in protest, clearly annoyed.
Not far off, Po Jia nodded, stepped back a few paces, and clenched his fist.
Crimson energy mist seeped from his body, wrapping around him and gradually forming into a fierce soul beast.
"Boss, the soul beast I devoured left behind power that became my avatar. It can cloak me in spirit form during battle, boosting my combat strength."
After explaining, Po Jia suddenly swung his arm at the sea.
The soul beast surrounding him did the same, swiping at the waves.
A crimson spirit claw shot out, slashing into the oncoming waves and parting them.
Maybe he overdid it, because the movement tugged at his wounds, making him grimace as the soul beast around him faded.
"Not bad, turning misfortune into a blessing," Feng Qi praised without holding back.
"Nice job, Xiao Jia. Keep it up, and you'll have roast meat with Boss every day," Xiao You added, standing with her hands on her hips, mimicking Feng Qi's look and nodding in approval.
When Po Jia sat back down by the fire, Feng Qi pulled out the crimson soul orb Taihang had found after the battle.
It was only the size of a baby's fist, its material unknown, but inside it held countless dormant soul beasts.
Clearly, those soul beasts they fought must have come from this orb.
Still puzzled, he asked Po Jia what he knew about these soul beasts.
Po Jia went silent, gathering his thoughts, then started to describe the fragmented images he'd seen during the possession struggle.
Ancient wars, the death of their clan king, and soul remnants cast out of the domain field carrying the last hope for their race's survival...
From Po Jia's words, Feng Qi pieced together a rough picture in his mind.
It was clear that the beings sealed in this orb had once belonged to a powerful ancient race.
But even they had been wiped out in an external war.
Thanks to their king's sacrifice, some of their souls had managed to survive to this day.
Thinking about souls, he was reminded of the Mist Clan.
But compared to the Mist Lord's followers, the beings in this crimson orb were far stronger.
The Mist Lord's clan's souls were more like mindless ghosts, unable to think before being revived.
But the soul beasts in this crimson orb, even without their flesh, could still think and fight fiercely—they were in a completely different league.
Luckily, these ancient beings had been asleep for so long that they'd lost much of their power. Otherwise, even in his Asura Demon form, he might not have won.
Understanding the situation, Feng Qi patted Po Jia on the shoulder.
"Xiao Jia, now that you've gotten this chance, train hard and master it. Don't lose yourself in this sudden power surge. I told you before, as your strength grows, so should your mindset. Or you'll suffer badly."
Po Jia nodded at Feng Qi's concern.
Just then, Xiao You flew over, mimicking Feng Qi, and patted Po Jia's shoulder with her tiny hand.
"Xiao Jia, grow strong, and Boss's roast meat will never run out."
Po Jia's face showed a hint of helplessness, then he softly said,
"Xiao You, I'm out of hidden weapons. When can you make me a new batch?"
Hearing that, Xiao You yawned instinctively.
Like a student in class, just hearing the teacher's voice made her feel sleepy.
Watching Xiao You slowly drift backward, resisting the request with her whole body, Po Jia looked even more helpless.
Now that he was sure Po Jia was alright, Feng Qi finally relaxed.
He turned his gaze toward the shoreline, where Lei Ting and the Negative Persona were bickering again—one zapping the other, the other hitting back with a mental blast. Their usual way of tormenting each other.
Off to the side, Taihang lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, lost in thought.
Feng Qi decided they would stay on this island for a while to let Po Jia recover.
After all, they still had to cross the sea, and unexpected things could happen on the way.
With Po Jia's injuries, forcing the sea crossing now could be fatal.
As for how to speed up Po Jia's recovery, Feng Qi already had a solution.
The blood energy stored in the Demon Blade was used up, so he couldn't offer Po Jia any to heal his body.
But Xiao You's bracelet space held plenty of healing spiritual herbs they'd collected during the journey.
These rare herbs would help Po Jia recover quickly.
But more than Po Jia's physical injuries, what worried Feng Qi more was his mental state.
During the devouring of the soul beast, Po Jia's mind clearly suffered damage, and it might leave lasting effects.
That also needed careful care.
If not handled right, Po Jia might end up like Lei Ting—falling into dementia, or worse, madness from mental breakdown.
They stayed on the island for half a month, then the next journey began.
It took five months for Feng Qi to lead everyone across the Black Sea.
During that time, they encountered many strange sea creatures and forces.
The structure of this Black Sea domain was unlike any Feng Qi had seen before. There wasn't a single dominant power here, but rather a loose alliance of many small clans.
But even in alliance, these sea clans fought openly and in secret over resources.
Only when outside threats appeared would all forces in the Black Sea domain unite to defend themselves.
This might be why these weak clans hadn't yet been wiped out by outsiders.
Crossing the Black Sea, Feng Qi's horizons widened.
He saw mythical beings like sea sirens that only appeared in fantasy films, and enormous domain sea beasts as large as islands.
Most intelligent forces in this domain had a special skill—taming sea beasts.
Some of these clans were naturally adept in water, able to move freely through the sea, and had strong underwater combat abilities.
Others had clearly migrated here from elsewhere, outsiders who had blended into the domain.
Maybe they'd lived here long enough to adapt, evolving some water abilities, but they were still no match for the native underwater forces.
To better fight these aquatic clans, the outsiders learned to tame sea beasts for battle.
Feng Qi saw with his own eyes tens of thousands riding sea beasts, charging through the waves.
It looked like a tidal wave of sea beasts crashing forward—truly a sight to see.
Though these clans were weak, constantly fighting over resources, Feng Qi's arrival had briefly upset the balance.
All the forces were on high alert when he appeared.
They even launched a joint hunt for him for a while.
But after realizing he was hard to deal with, and not a scout sent by some external force to seize their domain, they gave up and left him alone.
Besides the strange power structure, the Black Sea was also full of rare spiritual materials he'd never seen before.
Like a kind of spherical spiritual plant floating on the sea.
It was similar to barnacles, a special plant that loved to latch onto domain sea beasts.
Once attached, it quickly covered the beast's body, draining its blood and flesh until it died.
These plants were extremely bloodthirsty, but their taste was amazing.
During the sea crossing, Feng Qi collected a bunch of them and stored them in Xiao You's bracelet space, to use as food for the journey.
There were many other interesting plants too.
Like those that grew deep under the sea, lying in wait like anglerfish to catch prey.
Or ones that lived symbiotically with domain sea beasts, helping them convert food energy.
But what fascinated Feng Qi most was a special kind of structure found in the Black Sea.
These were buildings made from the bones of a type of domain sea beast.
They worked like ships—floating platforms that moved across the sea, traveling fast and carrying many lives on board, even diving to the seabed and moving quickly underwater.
And these sea structures were incredibly tough, hard to destroy.
But their most impressive feature was the wide range of weapons built into them.
The forces that possessed these kinds of structures usually built them into mobile sea fortresses, combining the functions of carrying life, waging war, and resupplying.
Compared to human ships and warships at sea, these mobile structures made from the bones of mysterious sea beasts had one particularly special ability—they could grow.
Even in death, the bones of these mysterious sea beasts could still devour various metals, allowing damaged areas to repair themselves, even increasing in hardness.
This type of war structure gave Feng Qi a lot of ideas.
What humanity had lost wasn't just land—it was also the seas.
Once humanity took back its land territories, they would surely push toward the seas.
Take Old Day City for example—it developed on two fronts.
Besides the northern land supply zone, it also had a sea supply zone leading to the East Sea, focusing on expansion into sea-based domain fields.
Back when he followed Old Mist's sacrifice path, he and Old Mist often carried out missions at sea.
The Black Absolute Island, which housed the Miracle Bracelet, also stood in the East Sea direction.
But humans' ability to cross the seas was really weak compared to domain creatures.
Warships made of steel were like paper when faced with powerful sea beasts, easily destroyed and sunk.
And human warriors underwater couldn't compare at all to domain sea beasts.
So developing sea-based combat capabilities was something he had to think about for the future.
This kind of metal-devouring, self-growing special structure made Feng Qi very eager.
If humans could mass-produce these mobile sea structures, they'd gain a huge advantage in sea battles, and their strength would grow significantly.
Because of this, he sought out the races who had these sea structures to talk.
From what they told him, these sea structures were made from the massive bones left behind by a certain mysterious sea beast.
But as for what exactly this beast was, they couldn't say.
By the time their ancestors arrived in this sea, the mysterious sea beasts seemed to have already gone extinct. None of them had ever seen one alive.
All the bones they used were scavenged from the seafloor, and once used, they were gone.
This left Feng Qi feeling very regretful.
If the bones of these mysterious sea beasts could be produced in bulk, he would have marked this domain's location and come back later to harvest it for sea combat development.
The journey across the Black Sea finally came to an end.
This trip was full of strange discoveries and clashes of knowledge and culture.
The more he saw, the more Feng Qi realized that seeing things only from a human perspective and using his own views to interact with other races was really stupid.
Like how some races practiced polyandry or polygamy.
These systems came from their environments and cultural customs—things outsiders just couldn't understand.
Once, during their journey, he encountered a weak race with a strange custom. Anyone over two hundred years old, no matter their status, had to commit suicide.
If they didn't, someone else in the tribe would make sure they died.
At the time, Feng Qi couldn't understand it at all.
But after learning about the tribe's situation, he suddenly got it.
They were a servant race in their domain, with extremely low status. The higher races gave them very limited resources, barely enough to keep a set number of people alive.
For a low-level weak tribe like them, population growth was a disaster.
To make sure their people had enough to eat and the younger generation could grow, this strange rule emerged.
The elders would die once they reached a certain age, leaving the resources for the young to survive and reproduce.
So human knowledge and values didn't always apply in the vast world of domains.
What seemed right to you might seem like total nonsense to another race.
You think eating dung is disgusting, but to a dung beetle-like race, not eating dung would be sick.
That's why using arguments and persuasion was the worst way to solve problems between forces.
Trying to reason or touch others emotionally—that only happened in cartoons.
Even the humblest low-tier forces would show their fangs when they encountered something weaker.
In this world full of countless races, there was only one shared truth.
Strength is everything.
With a big enough fist, you'd earn respect and fear wherever you went.
When the Black Sea journey ended,
Feng Qi led his group across the domain field barrier.
The sight before him made Feng Qi freeze.
What lay ahead was no longer a domain field world—they had returned to the human world.
This time, there was no domain field barrier on the horizon.
Which meant they had finally entered a vast human territory.
Feng Qi's heart surged with excitement.
Such a huge area not covered by domain fields meant that there was likely a human force here, resisting the spread of outside domain fields, preserving a space for human survival like the one around the five major cities.