Time slipped by, and several days passed.
On the Azure Cloud Sect's Main Peak, a few major figures had each developed their own thoughts over the name "Lu Xiaoqi."
On the surface, though, everything remained calm as still water.
And the man at the center of it all—Mo Fan himself—currently knew absolutely nothing about any of it.
Inside Hundred Forging Peak's abandoned mine pit.
"Pah! Pah!"
Mo Fan, covered head to toe in grime, crawled out of a remote mine tunnel, spat the dust out of his mouth, and wore a thoroughly sullen expression.
"This is pure torture."
He sighed helplessly and glanced up at an experience bar that had barely budged.
These past days, in order to push his level, he'd essentially swept the middle and lower layers of the tunnels he could currently reach absolutely clean.
Unfortunately, at his current level, ordinary demon beasts no longer provided much experience at all.
Especially early-stage Foundation Establishment beasts.
He'd go to enormous trouble to track one down, finish it off in two or three moves, and the System would hand him a pathetic scrap of experience.
Even when he occasionally ran into a mid- or late-stage Foundation Establishment beast, the experience it gave was still a drop in the bucket.
As for the deeper parts of the mine pit?
It wasn't that he couldn't go.
The problem was that after several days of observation, Mo Fan was all but certain the entity lurking in the deepest reaches—the one that still hadn't shown itself—was Golden Core tier at minimum.
Possibly... even beyond that.
I've only got one life. Still not worth risking it.
Mo Fan rationally pulled his gaze back and thoroughly dismissed the dangerous idea of pressing deeper.
Deep down, he understood perfectly well that since transmigrating to this Mystic Realm, his rate of leveling had honestly been a little absurd.
Especially with the conveniences Lin Dong had provided earlier and Hundred Forging Peak's unique cultivation environment, he'd advanced by leaps and bounds, crossing the major threshold of Tier-3 in a remarkably short span.
For reference, Luo Yu—the man he'd once had to look up at—was still only half a step from Golden Core.
But the problem was, every dividend eventually runs out.
His rapid growth up to now had, in large part, come from finding a cultivation method that suited him.
And now, as his level climbed higher and higher, that road clearly wasn't so easy to walk anymore.
"This cultivation path really does get harder the further you go."
Mo Fan shook his head.
Since there was no more oil left to squeeze out of this place, he abandoned the idea of hunting demon beasts in the mine pit for the time being and followed the path back, preparing to head home.
Back at the stone hut, Mo Fan washed up briefly with spring water, rinsing away the day's exhaustion.
Then he sat cross-legged on the stone bed and, with practiced ease, entered the [ Necrotic Realm ] deep within his sea of consciousness.
In the void, death energy rolled soundlessly like ocean waves.
The magnificent palace built from countless white bones still stood silently upon the shadowed earth, radiating a stern, deathly pressure.
Mo Fan descended directly inside the main hall.
Mo You was currently seated cross-legged off to one side of the hall.
He walked over and looked him over carefully.
Compared to the wretched state he'd been in right after absorbing the Nine Heavens Clear Dew—
Mo You's condition had stabilized enormously.
After this stretch of refinement, the three qi of Heaven, Earth, and Man within him had formed a steady circulation.
That formless body had visibly grown more solid, more compact.
Sensing Mo Fan's arrival, Mo You slowly opened his eyes.
"Looks like the recovery's going well?" Mo Fan asked.
"The death energy here is exceptionally pure. The Nether River Bone Lotus's conversion is also faster than expected."
Mo You stood and flexed an arm, answering calmly.
"At the current rate, another month or so and this round of reshaping should be completely finished."
"A month, huh... Fine. I can wait that long."
Mo Fan nodded, fairly satisfied.
The two exchanged a few more words about the details of the subsequent evolution, then Mo You sat back down cross-legged and returned to seclusion.
Mo Fan didn't disturb him further.
He turned around, about to withdraw his consciousness from the [ Necrotic Realm ].
But just as his gaze happened to sweep across the throne at the deepest point of the palace—
His steps came to an abrupt halt.
Mo Fan rubbed his chin as a flash of inspiration struck him.
Wait...
I remember back when I broke through to Tier-3 and this palace first took shape—besides [ Forge ] and [ Recruit ], the System mentioned a few other brand-new functions I never got around to studying properly...
And one of them was called... [ Expand ]?
At that thought, Mo Fan immediately turned and strode toward the depths of the hall.
He arrived before that enormous throne and, without the slightest hesitation, turned and sat down on it.
Hummm——
The instant he sat, an exceedingly profound sensation surged through him once more.
Then four options surfaced clearly in his field of vision:
[ Forge ]
[ Nurture ]
[ Expand ]
[ Recruit ]
This time Mo Fan paid no attention to the other options and locked his focus onto [ Expand ].
The interface flickered.
Exactly as before, the System still displayed several lines of utterly dismissive question marks.
[ Current Necrotic Realm: Nascent Stage ]
[ Unknown regions exist beyond the space's boundary ]
[ Expansion Requirements: ??? ]
[ Expansion Rewards: ??? ]
This garbage system.
Mo Fan looked at those lines and couldn't help grumbling internally.
This time, however, he didn't close the interface like he had before.
Since the System's explicitly telling me there are unknown regions beyond the boundary, then this so-called expansion probably has something to do with that fog surrounding my thousand square meters of territory.
Mo Fan calmed himself and tried extending his consciousness outward in all directions through the bone throne beneath him, stretching it infinitely.
Before long, a hazy panoramic view centered on the entire [ Necrotic Realm ] gradually surfaced in his mind.
Looking down through his consciousness, the thousand square meters of shadowed earth currently under his control were clearly visible.
And along the edges of that land, in every direction, hung an exceedingly thick gray fog—the kind that seemed capable of devouring light itself.
That was the [ Necrotic Realm's ] absolute boundary at present.
Mo Fan drew a deep breath and tried to extend his consciousness outward like a tentacle, driving it hard into that fog.
BANG!
The result was the same as the countless previous attempts.
The moment his consciousness touched the depths of the fog, it ran into a formidable obstruction.
His perception slammed into what felt like an invisible wall, completely unable to probe what lay hidden behind the mist.
But this time, Mo Fan didn't simply give up.
He stopped trying to break through across the whole front and instead concentrated his consciousness on one specific point of the boundary directly ahead.
And that stretch of impenetrable gray fog actually... churned, ever so faintly!
Like a tightly shut door suddenly being pushed open from the inside, leaving a hairline crack.
Now we're talking!
Something clicked in Mo Fan's mind. He immediately shifted his consciousness to another point along the boundary to the right and concentrated for another attempt.
Sure enough!
The same phenomenon occurred again!
After several attempts, Mo Fan began to understand.
So using [ Expand ] required him to select a direction himself first!
The throne wouldn't automatically clear the fog for him—it granted him the authority to open one particular section of the spatial boundary.
As for what actually lay beyond that boundary, he'd have to go explore it himself.
With that in mind, Mo Fan immediately settled on a direction.
The next moment, the previously unresponsive System interface finally changed.
[ Expansion direction selected! ]
[ Open the boundary in this direction? ]
[ Expansion Rules: Break the fog, clear all obstacles, claim the unknown region. ]
"..."
Mo Fan stared at that last line in silence for a moment.
Then a look of dawning comprehension spread across his face.
So that's how it worked!
Want to expand the [ Necrotic Realm's ] territory? Sure!
But it wasn't a matter of flicking a thought and watching the space stretch outward on its own.
He had to go in himself and clear out everything standing in the way!
As for what he'd gain after clearing it...
He'd have to go in and see for himself.
At that, a flicker of barely containable excitement surfaced in the eyes of the Mo Fan seated upon the bone throne.
After all, this [ Necrotic Realm ] had never been just an ordinary storage lot to him.
If there were genuinely explorable unknown regions out along the perimeter, might there be special resources inside?
Or even...
Might there be enemies that gave experience?
At that thought, Mo Fan's mind came fully alive.
Hadn't he just spent the last several days working himself half to death in the mine pit precisely to find suitable leveling targets?
If the [ Necrotic Realm ] itself offered that kind of opportunity, now that would be interesting.
Of course, he hadn't entirely lost his caution over it.
He knew nothing about the conditions out on the perimeter. If something he truly couldn't fight was hiding in there, charging in blindly wouldn't be the wisest move.
Fortunately, though—
Mo Fan glanced outside the hall.
The one thing he had no shortage of right now was help.
He slowly rose from the throne, and a single thought stirred.
Outside the bone palace.
One by one, the undead standing silently upon the shadowed earth lit up, ghostly blue soul flames kindling in their eye sockets.
He strode out of the palace, and looking at these old comrades of his, he couldn't help the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Back in the Azure Cloud Sect, constantly worried about exposing his identity, he'd walked on thin ice in everything he did. Even deep in the mountain wilderness, he'd rarely had the chance to unleash the full force of his undead legion without worrying about who might notice.
But now it was different.
This was his [ Necrotic Realm ].
No one else's prying eyes. No need to hide anything.
He could finally unleash a Necromancer's true power without a single reservation.
"Move out."
At Mo Fan's command, he led the fully assembled undead legion in a grand procession to the section of boundary he'd just chosen.
Before them, that layer of dense gray fog—congealed to near-solidity—churned ceaselessly, as though alive.
As Mo Fan's thought turned, the thick, almost physical gray fog ringing the [ Necrotic Realm's ] perimeter directly ahead of him suddenly parted slowly to either side.
A dim, deep road appeared before Mo Fan just like that.
But even with the passage opened, the depths ahead remained shrouded in a thin gray mist.
Mo Fan narrowed his eyes, standing at the boundary, and tried pushing his perception into the passage.
Only to find his perception blocked by something, utterly unable to reach any further.
In there...
Something really did seem to be stirring awake in the darkness.
The smile on Mo Fan's face gradually faded, replaced by a cool focus.
He slowly turned and glanced back at the undead legion already coiled and ready behind him, soul flames leaping wildly in their eye sockets...
And nodded in deep satisfaction.
Then he looked back at that fathomless expanse of unknown fog, and a keen edge of anticipation gradually surfaced in his deep gaze.
"Alright, boys."
Mo Fan slowly raised a hand and pointed into the depths of the mist.
"Let's get to work!"