Dyon wasn't too depressed about this. By the time Junior's soul and death will became powerful enough to command such strong corpses, Dyon believed he would have already located and emptied the remaining 4 hidden corpse army reserves.

Without anymore hesitation, Dyon placed the black unicorn, the surviving 8 corpses, and the fragmented pieces that remained into his inner world.

By now, his inner world had expanded to 40 kilometers after becoming a middle celestial, so there was no issue. As for why he took the fragmented pieces, if he was correct, they could still be useful if used to strength whole corpses. The remaining 8 might potentially break into the Higher Existence Realm as well with their help.

"Hm?"

Dyon's eyes blinked as he looked down at the clear water below him.

Due to the explosion, not only had much of the water dissipated, but what remained was greatly agitated as a result. Because of this, Dyon hadn't been able to see a clear reflection of himself in the water until now, and what he saw made his eyes widen.

Dyon's skin gave off a faint silver-rose light, it made it feel as though he was something beyond human He hadn't grown any taller, thankfully, but the largest change was most definitely his hair. Not only was it longer than it had been, it was now a brown-silver. It didn't make him look old, but it did give him a more mature air than he had had in the past.

Though his hair was longer, that was only in comparison to the past. A single strand wasn't more than an inch or two long, and it was now so difficult to cut that Dyon directly gave up trying to shorten it any more. The effort simply wasn't worth the result.

In the end, his hair had become far fairer than it had been in the past, losing its stiffness and even fluttering slightly in the wind, similar to what happened when he entered his death will state.

Finally, there were his eyes. They were still golden, but now, strings of silver wiggled in from the exterior toward the center of his iris. Coupled with the slight tinge of green, it was yet another feature that made him look less human and more god-like.

Dyon grinned.

...

"Just what's happening"

Damaris stood at the outer edge of the Calming Lake world. About 9 months ago, the world had begun to shake violently. It was so bad that no one else had entered in that time other than Dyon, it simply didn't seem safe.

Others thought it would have lasted for a small time before going away, but it continued to persist. They had no idea what Dyon was doing, but they couldn't imagine what it must have been like to endure such a think for so much time.

Then, suddenly, just a few days ago, when they didn't think things could get any worse, the violent shaking reached a whole new level. If before, it seemed unsafe, this time around, it really felt as though the world would collapse.

Numerous elders of the Agios Clan had tried to stop Damaris from entering, but she seemed to insist on doing so.

It was then that rumbling came to a slow stop.

Time ticked by slowly. As it did, Damaris' agitation only grew.

Minutes became hours, and hours became days. Just when Damaris finally couldn't take it anymore and was about to charge into the depths of the world, a hand firmly gripped her shoulder.

"Let go of me!" Damaris dried to pry herself away, but how could she match the strength of a dao expert? Her Clan's elder had no intention of allowing her to move from this spot.

Calming Lake was dangerous enough as it was, if one entered with an imbalanced mental state on top of that, there was only death awaiting. Of course, everyone knew about the failsafe, but would Damaris quietly accept being teleported out once she reached her limit? Obviously not.

"I can't do that, Princess. How would I face the Master and Mistress? Let alone them, the First Princess would probably kill me before they could get to me."

An old man with a head of long, pale pink hair stood unmoving, holding Damaris back.

"Plus, I don't think you'll be disappointed by the result."

Just when Damaris was about to unleash a string of curses, the words of the old man registered, causing he head to snap back toward the world of clouds and water.

Releasing one's divine sense in a world that preyed on the mind was a level of stupidity only Dyon would take part in. On top of this, Damaris had yet to cultivate a celestial soul even if she was willing to take the risk. In the end, she could only rely on her own eyes to see a slowly approaching man from the distance.

In the cultivation world, something like walking on water was something even an essence gatherer could accomplish, but there was something about the slowly approaching young man who seemed to glide across the pink lake's surface that made her heart stop.

The perpetual frown that had coated Dyon's face for over a year now had disappeared. He had a calm, confident smile that made it seem as though he could make the entire world dance in his palm, as though there were nothing that could ever possibly be out of his control. His charisma was on another level entirely, it made a woman who had never once thought of a man in Damaris feel as though her heart was being stolen from her in real time.

Dyon had always been handsome, and it was true that Damaris wanted to be his beast companion due to his strength, but this was the feeling she had when she made that decision. She only felt that Dyon was a path for her to get stronger. But this Was completely different.

Damaris blinked herself awake.