Liam focused on the cauldron and sent his first avatar in. Enormous white-golden flames gathered around it. Incredible pressure bore down on it from every direction, compressing the avatar until even Liam could feel the strain through their connection.

Fuck no. He just got these out after going through hell. He almost pulled it back out when the old man's voice strictly forbade him. "Don't."

"Senior, what are you doing to it?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Trying to cook me?"

The old man snorted. "If I wanted to cook you, brat, you would already be cooked."

"Fair enough."

Liam forced himself to wait. The pressure continued increasing. His first soul avatar sat cross-legged within the cauldron while white-golden flames repeatedly passed through its body.

Every time they did, tiny specks of murky energy were forced out, so small that Liam hadn't even been able to detect them before.

Some were remnants of the countless souls it had processed, others were fragments of foreign emotions and memories, while a few were impurities that had accumulated naturally as the avatar underwent one absurd breakthrough after another.

The flames burned all of them away. Again and again, the avatar was compressed, purified, and compressed once more.

Liam gradually stopped worrying. The process was painfully familiar. "This is pill refinement."

"Close."

The answer surprised him. Liam focused more carefully, and then he understood. "Body tempering?"

"Closer." The Cauldron Ancestor chuckled. "You keep thinking of these things as souls."

Liam frowned. "They are soul avatars."

"At the moment."

Liam's eyes narrowed. The old man didn't explain further. Instead, the pressure inside the cauldron abruptly increased.

BOOM!

The first avatar's white-golden flames exploded outward before being violently compressed back into its body. Its Fire Dao core trembled, and Liam immediately felt the enormous amount of power accumulated within the avatar being forced deeper into its structure.

Every cycle reduced its size by an almost imperceptible amount while making its body increasingly solid.

Before entering the cauldron, the avatar had already looked almost indistinguishable from Liam because of its Dao Grand Master cultivation, but that solidity had still been an illusion created by extremely dense soul energy.

Now something was changing. Liam reached toward it with his perception. His eyes widened. The avatar's hand no longer felt like an impossibly dense collection of soul energy.

There was something else beginning to form beneath it, although Liam couldn't understand what that something was. Then the system chimed.

[Ding! Your First Soul Avatar is undergoing Primordial Refinement.]

[Ding! Soul impurities are being removed.]

[Ding! Soul foundation is being tempered.]

[Ding! Your Soul Avatar has started forming a Dao Body.]

Liam stared at the last notification. The cauldron was actually giving him a kickstart in Dao Body formation! This was insane!

DONG!

The lid opened and the first avatar shot out.

The moment the avatar stabilized within his soul space, white-golden flames erupted around its body. Liam could immediately tell that their power had increased.

"Your doll has grown too quickly. Dao Lord, Dao General, Dao Master, Dao Grand Master... all in what? A few seconds?" The old man snorted.

"Something like that."

"Ridiculous."

Liam couldn't disagree.

"Power accumulated quickly is still power, but its foundation needs time to settle. What I did was save you some of that time."

Liam nodded, immediately turning toward his second avatar.

Black and crimson energy rolled across its body while faint traces of golden light occasionally appeared along the newly stabilized soul thread.

The avatar seemed to notice his stare.

Liam smiled. "Your turn." He tossed it into the cauldron.

The cauldron shook again.

Liam winced. Through his connection, he could feel the second avatar being subjected to pressure several times greater than what the first had endured.

The demonic and vampiric Dao cores rotated violently while the golden soul strand stretched between them, and for a terrifying moment Liam thought the Soulweaver Thread was going to break apart.

However, the three strands held. Then the refinement truly began.

After a while everything was completed. The two soul avatars were stable and all the loot were collected. There was no longer any need to stay here in this world. Besides if someone was tracking the guy it was only a matter of time before they get here to look for him.

But Liam already knew from the memories that no one was. After a certain rank almost everyone choses to be secretive so even after the archon died it would take a while for others to realise that. This was why he decided to stabilize his soul avatars first before leaving.

"Are we going back to our world Liam?" Alex asked. They had clearly survived a major disaster but Alex did not look happy at all. She looked listless and fragile, her mind clearly on Mia.

Liam let out a sigh and pulled her into his arms. "Do you trust me?"

Alex couldn't hold it back anymore. The composure she had somehow maintained throughout the battle finally shattered, and she buried her face against his chest as tears began streaming down her cheeks.

"Liam, I think she's suffering." Her voice broke. "How long has it been? She must have suffered so much."

Liam tightened his arms around her. "Mia is strong. All this will only make her stronger. We need to be strong too. She is waiting for us to come and rescue her. I promise you. It will happen soon."

He turned to Luna and nodded at her. "Why don't you take Alex back home? I have some unfinished business I need to take care of."

Luna quickly obeyed, and the two of them teleported back. Liam stood with his two soul avatars on his side and took one last look at the devastated world before he teleported as well.

However, he did not go back home immediately. He sent his two soul avatars back to his soul space for them to slowly process all the millions of souls while he teleported.

Coincidentally, the moment he arrived, Liam found himself staring directly into a familiar face, the draconian creature, Dralura.

For the briefest instant, memories of his previous encounter with the creatures flashed through his mind. Back then, even one of them had been enough to make him cautious, forcing him to consider whether fighting was worth the risk.

This time, Liam didn't even slow down. The Dralura's eyes widened as it recognized him, but before it could speak, move, or gather even the slightest bit of power, Liam raised his hand.

Shing!

A thin arc of white-golden fire flashed through the air.

The Dralura froze. A line appeared across its body before the creature separated cleanly into two halves, the lingering flames consuming whatever resistance remained. Liam reached forward almost absentmindedly, caught the escaping soul, and tossed it directly into his soul space.

Liam was about to inspect it when he felt someone glaring at him. He turned.

Nyx stood only a short distance away, and judging by the expression on her face, she was considerably less impressed by his return than he had expected. "Why did you come back?"

Liam raised an eyebrow.

Nyx marched toward him. "Haven't you done enough already?" Her anger rose with every word. "Because of you, a lot of our sect juniors are trapped inside the Treasure World! We're completely sealed off from it. We can't enter, the seniors can't enter, no one can do anything. They're just stuck in there!"

Liam let out a sigh of relief. He had expected a lot worse, but if it was just this much, then he should probably be able to fix it.

Looking at the relief on his face, Nyx became even more triggered. "Do you have any idea how many people are trapped in there because of you? Their families are panicking, the elders have been trying everything they can think of, and nobody even knows whether the people inside have enough supplies to survive. And you come back after disappearing for who knows where and look relieved?"

Liam blinked. When she put it that way, his reaction probably did look a little fucked up. "Sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just expecting something much worse."

Nyx stared at him incredulously. "What could possibly be worse? Oh, did you actually want our entire sect to be destroyed? Bastard, did you come here to pick our corpses for loot?"

Liam exhaled and turned away. He did not bother talking to her anymore. There was no point in wasting time arguing when he could simply solve the problem. Without any delay, he immediately identified the portal from which the Dralura he had killed had emerged. It was still open.

Liam walked toward it.

Nyx stared at his back. "Where are you going?"

Seeing Liam step into the portal, her panicked voice rang out. "You cannot go in there. You will end up right in the middle of their settlement."

"I hope so." Liam smiled. Space twisted around Liam.

The next instant, he emerged on the other side.

And Nyx had been absolutely right.

Liam found himself standing in the middle of an enormous Dralura settlement. Hundreds of Dralura surrounded him, with even more spread throughout the sprawling settlement beyond. Massive stone structures rose in every direction, their walls carved with strange draconic symbols, while several enormous creatures soared through the sky.

The moment he arrived, every single pair of nearby eyes slowly turned toward him.

Liam looked around. "Huh."

The nearest Dralura reacted first. "Human!" Its roar echoed across the settlement. Weapons appeared everywhere.

Dozens of Dralura launched themselves toward Liam almost simultaneously, their powerful bodies tearing apart the ground beneath their feet as various bloodline abilities erupted. Fire, lightning, wind, and several attacks immediately filled the air.

However, the next second, these same creatures trembled as a powerful aura swept over them. The first soul avatar silently emerged beside Liam. It only took a single attack from the soul avatar to slaughter the entire dozen.

However, Liam knew that the fight wasn't going to be an easy one. He could already sense many powerful auras stirring in the distance. Without hesitation, he ordered his second soul avatar to fight as well. He did not want to underestimate his opponents.

Leaving the fight to both his soul avatars, Liam proceeded to the spire, the same place where he created the first soul avatar. There was another reason why he had come here. It was time to see it through. He had waited a long time for this, and there was no point in waiting anymore.

The time was here and now. This was also why he did not return to Earth. What he was about to do now would determine everything from here on out. Did he really change his fate or not?

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