Chapter 423: Parasitizing the Trash Realm

The five black holes rapidly expanded, devouring everything on the ground.

Driven by terror and rage, the people desperately fired their guns and cannons at the black holes.

But to the black holes, these intense reactions only served as energy to fuel their expansion.

In just three days, the five black holes completely devoured everything in the Trash Realm.

During that time, no matter what heavy weapons ordinary people deployed or how many priests cast spells at all costs, no one could stop the black holes from swallowing them up.

Finally, the entire Trash Realm continent vanished from within the world barrier.

If another rift opened to dump trash now, it would simply fall into the gloom of deep space.

Not long after, two black-robed priests hiding near the edge of the Shattered Realm arrived.

They both froze at the sight of the vanished Trash Realm.

"What's going on? Has the Trash Realm been destroyed?"

The other black robe immediately rejected the idea. "Impossible. If the Trash Realm had truly been destroyed, there would have been a massive commotion. We definitely would have noticed. Haven't we lingered here all these years just to scavenge a few wizard embryo fragments when the small worlds at the edge of the Shattered Realm are destroyed?"

The first black robe said in frustration, "What's the difference between us doing this and the White Robes? Why did we rob others of their wizard embryo fragments back then just for a tiny bit of progress?"

The second black robe shot him a cold glance, though the first man didn't notice.

"Why? Because the three great White Robe factions monopolize all the resources in the Wizard World. We priests who seek freedom have no space to survive independently."

In truth, this second black-robed priest had once visited the Nine Heavens Sea, hoping to join the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.

However, Priest Li He, who was at the Nine Heavens Sea at the time, saw through him at a glance. Knowing the man merely wanted to use the Myriad Ancient Pagoda as a stepping stone for promotion and had no intention of fighting in the Nine Heavens Sea, he rejected him.

Seeing he had no chance, he recklessly decided to break a broken pot and let it smash. He simply murdered the priest traveling with him and became a black robe, which finally gave him the opportunity to advance to Cloud Hidden Priest.

Unfortunately, after becoming a black robe, he discovered that while they seemed free, the constant pursuit by the White Robes actually left them with even less room to grow.

Moreover, the Great Wizards here all adhered to the order established by the Ultimate Shaman Lord.

For the black robes, even the path to becoming a Great Wizard was completely blocked off.

But regret was useless now.

He looked at his companion again.

Even if he couldn't part the clouds to see the stars, boosting his strength a little would still be good.

"Since the Trash Realm is no longer here, let's go check somewhere else," he suggested.

"I guess we have to." Having vented his frustrations, the first black robe lacked any real interest now and turned to leave.

Just as one turned sideways and the other faced forward, they suddenly struck at the exact same moment. They each cast shields over themselves, while frost and a poisonous mist materialized in front of their counterpart.

However, because both had instinctively shielded themselves right away, neither was injured.

The two men immediately pulled away from each other, their eyes wide with furious glares.

They were enraged that the other had launched a sneak attack, and equally furious that the other had managed to block their own ambush.

"Hmph. I knew it. There are no true companions among black robes. We're always just a source of fragments for someone else."

"The feeling is mutual. Let's see whose methods are superior, then."

Just as the two were about to start fighting right there, two beams of starlight appeared out of thin air. Like a pair of cages, the light instantly imprisoned them.

The black-robed priests jumped in fright.

Starlight of this caliber was a method only a Star Glow Priest could use.

The second black robe made a prompt decision, preparing to detonate his Plain Ring to escape.

But he soon discovered that the starlight—which should have only suppressed them—bound them so tightly they couldn't even twitch.

This was already beyond what a Star Glow Priest could achieve.

He had no time to think further. A hand had already reached into his skull and directly crushed his wizard embryo fragment.

Almost simultaneously, the other black robe was killed.

From beginning to end, neither of the two black robes ever knew what kind of entity had ended their lives.

Shortly after, the two corpses vanished as well.

Only an empty world barrier remained.

Li Ban slowly opened his eyes.

This was already his second year parasitizing the Trash Realm.

His current state was highly unusual.

His actual body was currently hidden away in the Shattered Realm.

Meanwhile, the black robe clone he used as a vessel had merged with the entirety of the Trash Realm. The vanished Trash Realm had become his new vessel.

Normally, an ordinary Dark Moon Priest absolutely could not fuse with an entire world.

However, Li Ban had achieved this feat by relying on the Zhuangsheng Ring and the starlight that had accompanied him ever since he crossed over.

After merging with the entire Trash Realm through the black holes, Li Ban easily located the wizard embryo within it.

The wizard embryo was covered in cracks, and the energy inside was constantly leaking out.

If the wizard embryo hadn't been naturally drawing in external energy like it was breathing, it would have died completely long ago.

Upon finding the wizard embryo, Li Ban set it aside for the moment and instead began observing the remaining life forms and objects in the Trash Realm.

They were also a part of his vessel.

Much like the hair, flesh, and bacterial flora on a human body vessel.

Therefore, when Li Ban parasitized the Trash Realm, the life on it did not perish.

It was just that Li Ban, for the sake of concealment, had been forced to bring the Trash Realm into the Dark Side of the Universe.

Furthermore, his own body was still hidden in the Shattered Realm, so he didn't need to worry about being unable to return.

Shaman Ming had intervened once again, helping Li Ban locate a relatively safe place within the perilous Dark Side of the Universe.

However, in the Dark Side of the Universe, the concepts and rules of space were chaotic.

This meant that even if there was no one within thousands of miles of you, in the next second, someone could traverse immense distances and arrive right in front of you with a single step.

Fortunately, there were very few conscious entities dwelling in the Dark Side of the Universe, and space was incredibly vast. As long as Li Ban didn't run around recklessly and kept himself anchored to a single coordinate, he could peacefully stay there for a while.

Once he was certain he had stabilized, Li Ban first observed the life forms in the Trash Realm.

After entering the Dark Side of the Universe, they had fallen into a state of complete stasis.

Counterintuitively, this state guaranteed their survival.

Li Ban planned to leave them here for now. Once he became a Great Wizard, these people would become the first batch of life in his wizard embryo's new world.

Having confirmed the status of the inhabitants, Li Ban began stimulating the complete Trash Realm wizard embryo he had obtained.

He couldn't directly fuse with a complete wizard embryo just yet.

Because the worldly rules contained within it would reject a priest like him who couldn't yet control those rules.

Only by thoroughly destroying the wizard embryo and shattering it could he slowly absorb it piece by piece.

It took Li Ban an entire year just to complete this first step.

And that was only because the Trash Realm's wizard embryo originally had merely three to five years of life left. By attacking the wizard embryo day and night, Li Ban managed to finish breaking it down in just a year.

Had it been any other wizard embryo, who knew how many years it would have taken.

"Next up is to fuse with it, piece by piece." Li Ban closed his eyes and began absorbing the first fragment.

At the same time, a beam of starlight shone down upon Li Ban's head in his Trash Realm incarnation, helping him erase the lingering power of rules within the wizard embryo fragment.

Another three years passed.

Li Ban had successfully fused with two larger wizard embryo fragments.

Now, he possessed the qualifications to become a Solar Priest.

However, Li Ban didn't think this was enough.

He wanted to bypass the Divine Offspring Priest stage and directly become a Great Wizard, and the quantity of these wizard embryo fragments was insufficient for that.

Just as Li Ban was about to continue the fusion process, he suddenly sensed something approaching.

A soft-bodied creature closely resembling a jellyfish suddenly loomed over Li Ban.