Dyon took a deep breath in, feeling more relaxed than he had in a very long time. He didn’t hesitate to use Devour, greedily sucking up all the qi in his surroundings.

His suppressed cultivation rose quickly. From the lower celestial realm, he entered the middle, then the higher, and finally the peak.

When the surge slowed to a crawl, he had settled in at the lower dao formation realm. Though this was a far cry from his true strength, it was most definitely far better than it had.

The weird thing about this weakening of the suppression was that Dyon’s effective strength was still fundamentally the same. Hardly anything had changed.

One had to remember that the reason Dyon could survive to now was because he had been rapidly comprehending war qi while using the white side of famine qi to heal himself. His qi was functionally as powerful as a peak dao expert currently, thanks to him devouring War’s true form. So, a rise to the lower dao realm didn’t mean much at all. If Dyon tapped back into his enigmatic qi, he would actually become weaker.

However, this wasn’t to say that this was meaningless.

Firstly, Dyon no longer had to rely on burning his soul to resist the suppression. It was now just weak enough for him to fight it on his own.

Secondly, because he didn’t need to rely on this masochistic technique, he could be more free in using it because he wouldn’t have to worry about what would have if his soul stamina suddenly ran out. Even if it did, he would still be able to move now.

‘A little too late though.’ Dyon thought somewhat bitterly.

With War now dead, and Dyon having comprehended his will and qi, there was only the easiest Conquest fight left. So, any boost in strength he received now didn’t mean much to him.

Dyon held onto War’s crimson blade. His arm casually swung it as he changed its size and shape at his whim.

He had shattered his Weapon’s Master Will for the sake of this ability, yet the truly odd part was that there was no new array that appeared within his Mind’s Eye. Dyon didn’t know if it was just how this world’s system worked, or if he was still lacking. But the important part was that he didn’t believe this ability was any weaker than the will he gave up for it. In fact, it was objectively several fold stronger.

‘It’s no wonder I kept subconsciously gravitating toward the use of just one weapon. No matter how great Weapon’s Master Will is, I only have two arms. How could I use 9 weapons at once?

‘Plus, the way in which War applied his bow True Weapon Will is far more suited to my liking. If I added the homing and constant acceleration ability to my weapon’s arrays, especially Judgement, their strength would increase to a new level…’

Dyon was satisfied. Whether he got a fancy Dao Array out of it or not didn’t really matter to him. With his current strength, he was even more confident than before. There was no need to hold back any longer. Once he returned to the Ancient Battlefield, he would start the war to end it all.

War’s, or rather now Dyon’s sword shrunk to his liking. It still kept its broad width, but Dyon shortened it to about a foot and a half. As for its length, Dyon settled for about a meter and a half. It was large for a sword, but perfect in the eyes of Dyon.

‘It’s lost a bit of its strength since War is now dead. But, it’s still as powerful as a Pseudo Treasure of the 33 Heavens.’

Though Dyon knew that weapons of such caliber were actually known as Half Immortal treasures on the Immortal Plane, it was hard to drop what had been a habit in his over century of life.

Without surprise, the creaking of the gears echoed once more as War’s doors closed and Conquest slowly opened.

This time, before even exiting, a slew of arrows flew from the door’s crack.

Dyon couldn’t help but laugh internally.

To now, Conquest hadn’t managed to launch even a single attack against him. It seemed that this sentient version of himself knew this and began to use the door to its advantage.

Dyon tapped into Ri’s comprehension of void will and dodged to an angle Conquest couldn’t aim at through the door’s small crack and waited patiently as the white armored knight slowly came into view.

“I –”

“Just die.” Dyon cut him off.

As Conquest burst into a shower of blood, Dyon finally relaxed. He hardly noticed, but he had already been in this space for over a year. His heart ached when he thought of how much his wives had suffered. If he had known something like this would happen, he wouldn’t have brought them along.

But, remembering their stubborn attitudes, Dyon smiled bitterly. If he had tried to keep them away, would it have worked?

Seeing their perseverance, Dyon’s heart couldn’t help but bloom with pride. This entire time, not a single one of them had so much as moaned in pain. Having such strong women by his side, how could he not feel content?

‘I should give them a treat when we get back… I also haven’t seen my little girl in too long…’ Dyon sighed. He missed his daughter very much.

‘… Hold on…’

Dyon frowned. He had been so lost in thought that he didn’t notice that this trial didn’t seem to have ended. Shouldn’t he be sent back by now?

For the second time in this last year… Dyon suddenly felt a terrible premonition coming on…

The etchings beneath his feet began to glow. As though the grooves were a racing track, the lights sped across, quickly filling the silver lines with a faint crimson color.

The eight pillars began to tremble. As though the last closing of Conquest’s golden doors was a sign, the beasts drawn across them began to awaken as though coming to life from a painting.

Dyon slowly turned toward the fourth set of doors… The only ones to not have opened this entire time…

‘Why can’t I have nice things…’