At this moment, Rane looked exactly like a dung beetle that had just spotted countless piles of fresh dung, his eyes glowing an unmistakable green.

He couldn’t even be bothered to keep holding his little sister’s hand, giving it a few rough shakes before tossing her onto the jade platform, then striding forward with an unstoppable aura straight toward the twisting shadow tentacles.

Right after that, he swung his arm out wide, grabbed all the tentacles lunging at him in one go and refined them on the spot.

Streams of warmth nourished Rane’s increasingly weakened body, making opening his mouth to let out a soft hum almost unavoidable.

It felt so good it was like rampaging deer, mad deer, violent deer running wild in a steam room.

“Gua!”

‘Could this be the legendary Star-Absorbing Art? With power like this, how could mere tentacles possibly withstand it, let alone have the strength to resist it? The current me is terrifyingly strong. Calamity Goshimt? Nothing special.’

Rane didn’t know whether his golden finger had finally arrived, he only knew that if he didn’t seize this chance to suck the calamity dry now, there might never be another opportunity like it.

The power Goshimt had seeped into the Pixie Hall was ultimately limited and after being sucked back and forth by Rane several times, the appearance rate of the shadow tentacles slowed noticeably.

Kaka and her little companions were completely dumbfounded, a short-lived species chasing after a calamity and gnawing on it, how could they possibly be having a dream like this?

Is this even reasonable?

“Whose subordinate is this kid? To be this brave?”

“He’s changed my view of short-lived species!”

“Could this be a talent of short-lived species, unleashing unparalleled combat power after training?”

“Then what’s with that woman lying on our coffin lid?”

“She was definitely sucked dry by him!”

“He’s so handsome, I love him!”

Listening to the pixies spouting nonsense, Kaka planted her hands on her hips, her grin wider than an AK could suppress.

“That’s right, this person is exactly my subordinate. It was your Lord Kaka who turned the tide, selecting this fierce man at the critical moment and resolving this catastrophe!”

“So strong! My Kaka!”

“I think you’re more suited to being our boss than the Pixie King!”

“How did you turn into a woman and even wear such floaty clothes? So weird.”

“I used to think you were the only pixie with something wrong in the head, but now I’m starting to wonder if it’s our heads that are the problem.”

Some pixies were envious, some worshipful, some taking the chance to be sarcastic and some even reflecting on themselves.

The atmosphere that had been filled with despair instantly turned cheerful.

Kaka suddenly felt that the ten-point feral dog slaughtering everything ahead actually showed a hint of turning into a wolf.

It was just that Rane’s starving-ghost reincarnation eating posture made Kaka shake her head repeatedly.

‘Go ahead and suck, short-lived bastard, who can out-suck you anyway? Sigh, even if he’s a bit sloppy, the covenant is already set. Living with a short-lived species, who wouldn’t it be the same with anyway? It’s only a few decades at most, I’ll just muddle through it.’

…At this moment, Rane was already close to killing himself into a frenzy, his red eyes sweeping the area carpet-style in search of any remaining calamity power that had narrowly escaped his grasp.

No shadow tentacle could survive more than three seconds in front of him, touched and instantly collapsing.

He could feel his physical condition improving by the second, the hollowed-out sensation inside his body being filled with warmth as his pale complexion gradually turned rosy.

Rane suspected that if he kept absorbing like this, he might even cure his so-called ‘frail and sickly’ condition outright.

Unfortunately, there was very little calamity power left seeping in. Rane regretfully lifted his head toward the dome, the desire in his eyes laid bare.

* * *

While facing off against the Pixie King, Goshimt suddenly felt a chill on his back. Even though he didn’t even possess a concept like a physical body, he still felt as if some lecherous gaze was secretly staring at him from behind.

‘Damn it! Why does it feel like something weird is going on inside the Pixie Hall? Why did the power I infiltrated suddenly lose contact with my main body?’

With the Pixie King’s silver-thread barrier in place, Goshimt couldn’t see the situation inside the Pixie Hall, much less know that there was an old glutton hiding inside furiously shearing his wool.

‘Could it be that a few king-tier individuals have appeared among those pixies?’

The power Goshimt had infiltrated into the Pixie Hall was at most ring-tier. If there really were several king-tier individuals inside, it would indeed be easy for them to sweep away his power.

Thinking he had figured it out, Goshimt gave the Pixie King a cold smile.

“Old thing, I didn’t expect you to hide so deeply. Those few king-tier individuals must have cost you quite some effort, right?”

The Pixie King was utterly baffled.

‘What king-tier? What on earth is this pitch-black thing talking about? Why can’t I understand any of it?’

But losing in presence was not an option. The Pixie King steadied his spherical form and flashed with inscrutable brilliance.

“You think I’ve really just been wasting away inside the Pixie Hall all these years?”

‘So it really is so.’

Goshimt’s heart sank.

If he continued splitting off power to infiltrate the Pixie Hall, his overall combat strength would drop too much, making it difficult to take down the Pixie King in a short time.

If he launched a frontal assault instead, there was a good chance this old thing would go all out and drag the Pixie Hall down into the depths of the Spirit Realm together with it, which would be more loss than gain.

The safest approach was still to infiltrate power first, seize control of the Pixie Hall’s core and then slowly deal with this old thing.

“I underestimated you. But do you think a few mere king-tier individuals can stop me?”

Goshimt decided to split off about twenty percent of his power, roughly peak king-tier strength and in one go erode the inside of the Pixie Hall.

This would break the stalemate between him and the Pixie King. Losing a portion of peak king-tier power would make Goshimt’s main body even weaker than the current Pixie King.

But as long as the power entering the Pixie Hall could successfully take control of the core, Goshimt would then be able to use the Pixie Hall itself to suppress the Pixie King and crush him in one fell swoop.

Goshimt did not believe that a few ordinary king-tier pixies could be his match. Even if their power levels were the same, the suppression from rank alone was enough to make king-tier pixies tremble.

‘A pixie’s king-tier is just king-tier strength, but my king-tier is king-tier power split off from calamity-tier strength.’

Brimming with confidence, Goshimt separated a mass of dark green shadow from his main body. Like a meteor, it streaked past the Pixie King and swiftly drilled into the silver-thread barrier riddled with cracks.

“Pixie King, you are far too weak. You can only watch as the pixies inside the Pixie Hall crawl and tremble under my rank suppression!”

* * *

…Inside the Pixie Hall.

Rane stroked his chin, looking at the huge lump of nutrients that had fallen from the sky and was now shivering at his feet, falling into deep thought.

‘I think this calamity is especially considerate, isn’t this just being helpful?’

This lump is bigger than all the snacks Rane had absorbed earlier put together.

‘Too polite, Old Calamity. I’ll treat you to a meal someday. If you could throw down another lump so I can pack it up and slowly eat it later, that’d be even better…’

Rane thought happily, grabbed this lump of nutrients in one go and refined it instantly.