"Here it is."

Davion saw the detached head of Aiden laying on the ground with his dead body on the side. There was a spirit ring attached to his ring finger.

Davion tried to touch the spirit ring but found that his hand would pass through it.

"Although I can use spiritual energy with my soul, it seems like I can't touch physical matters yet," he thought.

"Not only that, my spiritual energy is constantly being depleted right now. This means that my soul might disappear and I might die after my energy runs out." He realized many things about the soul.

He also found that he couldn't restore his spiritual energy in this soul form.

"So, one undoubtedly needs a body even after they reach the Nascent Soul Stage." Previously he had thought that one could abandon their physical body and live in the soul form as one would be able to do many things that a physical body couldn't do. But it looks like he was too na?ve.

"If only there were information about the souls in the library..." He sighed. He knew that only in the Core Disciples Peak he could find them.

"Maybe I can find some ways to obtain them in the future. But first of all, are the girls and Ryland, ok?"

Since they were being controlled by Aiden previously, he wanted to see whether they had come back to their senses or not. So, he returned back to his body and stood up. Then he took out the spirit ring from Aiden and looked through it.

"My God! What are these?" He saw many black-colored pills and stones.

"Are these stones the currency used in the devil world like the spirit stones here?" he pondered. The same goes for those pills. Yet, he didn't dare to try it right now.

"I should check them after returning to the sect. Now let's see how I can deactivate the barrier." He took out the golden skull and thought, "According to Aiden, this formation can even block the senses of the Domain Realm experts. Along with it, it can trap every Nascent Soul Cultivator."

"This should at least be a higher-grade devil artifact. The emperor is quite generous enough to give him." Davion felt somewhat jealous.

"Although only someone above the Nascent Soul Stage could use such artifacts, Aiden was able to display some of its power. Is it due to being a formation-based artifact or someone had already prepared for him to use it?" he was completely clueless.

"I really lack knowledge," he gave a wry smile.

"It's useless to think about this for now. Let's see what happens when I send my devil essence here." He closed his eyes and sent some part of his devil essence inside the skull.

"Pftt-" Suddenly he coughed out blood and backed a few steps.

"Damn, what a strong rebounding force!" he exclaimed.

"As I thought, it is already refined by someone." He wiped the blood on his mouth and muttered.

"Wew, seems like I will never be able to use it." Disappointment could be seen on his face.

"So, should I exchange it for contribution points or refine it in the future after becoming strong?" He was in deep thought.

"No, no. How could I be so foolish? That emperor would definitely track me down with it."

Although he had never seen a devil emperor, he had some faint guesses on how strong he might be.

"I will think later what to do about it. But it's time to deactivate the barrier." He sent his devil essence again while chanting some devil words this time.historical

The skull glowed and the whole barrier began disappearing slowly. Although he couldn't use this artifact currently, he got some basic information about it earlier. Thus, he easily found a way to deactivate it.

"Now, it's time to leave. But before that let's take this body with me too."

"Hehe, how can I forget about the contribution points?" Davion smiled and put the whole body in his ring.

"Pervert.."

He suddenly heard Mia yelling from behind. He turned back and saw those girls covering their faces and peeping at him through their fingers.

"Damn" He finally noticed that he was currently naked as his clothes had already been torn apart after transforming into a devil. Thus, he hurriedly took out one from his spirit ring and dressed up.

Only then did he approach them and asked, "When did all of you wake up? Are you girls fine?"

"Senior Brother, we woke up just now and we are fine," Stella replied with a red face.

"Humm, let's go. We can't stay here any longer." He said with a serious look on his face. He knew that there was really a high chance of someone appearing here after the barrier went down. This was because there was still a dangerous aura radiating from here due to the aftermath and especially the landscape was completely destroyed. So, this matter would surely catch the attention of someone. Who knows if the emperor might even come here personally?

"Senior Brother, what about that woman? Or that man.." She asked. This was the only thing that they had remembered.

"Oh! I've taken care of that. It was a small devil that could change its form and cast illusion spells." He replied casually like it was a trivial matter.

If Aiden was alive then he would have died from anger after listening to this. How could someone even dare to say this after getting oneself nearly killed?

"Eh!" Stella didn't know what to say. She knew that the matter was not so simple as she could see the deep pit ahead of her. But she didn't question him anything because she knew the matter was simply way beyond her level. The same goes for Mia and Amelia.

"Girls, wait here for a minute. My beast is missing.." Without waiting for their reply, he disappeared in a jiffy.

Seeing him leave, Mia whispered to Amelia, "Now, I'm sure he is the masked man."

"Indeed, that devil he was talking about must be a devil king," Amelia said while gazing at the destruction ahead of her.

"Hehe, should we leak this news and have our revenge?" Mia chuckled.

"Why are you two so sneaky these days?" Stella interrupted them and came in the middle of them.

"No, we weren't. We were just discussing today's incident." Amelia said while glancing at Mia.

"Yeah, we were thinking of what to do as we owe him a big deal this time. He saved our lives after all," Mia continued.

"Humph, you don't need to hide it anymore. I have been noticing you acting strangely after meeting Senior Brother Davion." She coldly said.

"Now after seeing the aftermath of this battle, I'm sure you two are hiding something from me." She gave them a disappointed look.

"Actually this.." Mia was about to say something when Amelia cut her off, "It's no use in hiding this, Mia."

She then told Stella everything that happened during that day in the Wild Northern Forest. If it was anyone else then she surely wouldn't have told it. But since it was one of her best friends, she didn't worry about it.

A few minutes later,

"Haha"

"So, it was like that." Stella laughed and had tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe that such an interesting thing happened during that mission. Especially when she heard how he fooled that dragon and tamed it.

"A true genius.." Stella praised him.

Mia and Amelia had black lines on their faces. Why didn't she seem to be angry after knowing how they got bullied?

"Who could have thought that he would suddenly join our sect later on and might even be the mysterious masked disciple?" Stella had various thoughts in her mind.

"That is why he must have been favored by Elder Liliana." Everything made sense for her after knowing about it.

Then she persuaded Mia, "I don't think you should take this matter to heart and create troubles for him. Elder Liliana might become angry."

"How could I do that? I was just joking." Mia smiled.

"Stella you can take out your artifact and we will leave." Davion's voice came from afar. He came infront of them with Ryland on his shoulders. He found him lying unconscious on the ground. It seemed like he went too hard on him with his punch and a mark of his fist could still be seen on his stomach. Thus, Ryland seemed very angry right now. He even fed him some spirit stones on the way but it didn't work yet.

If Ryland knew that it was him, who did it then he would've surely attacked him right here.

"Senior Brother, but before that, thanks for saving our lives." Stella bowed and thanked him wholeheartedly.

Davion found her a little bit more respectful this time and thought, "Is this because of my strength?"

He then replied, "No worries. I had promised to protect you all."

"Senior Brother, we are willing to give you those corpses in gratitude for saving us." Stella politely suggested.

"Haha, I've already earned a lot from this trip. So, they are useless to me. You girls can consider this as a gift from me." Davion shamelessly said as he felt that he had managed to create a good impression on them.

"As you say, Senior Brother.." Stella was full of smiles.