“I’ve never heard of such a legend! Master, please don’t let me go! I-I’ll die for real—!” Cao Wudi clung to Albion’s leg like he was clinging to dear life.

However, Albion snappishly replied, “Quit being a little b*tch and show what you got!”

“Ahh—!”

Cao Wudi fell after Albion shook him off. 

As Cao Wudi plunged towards the thousands of crawlers below, his fear instantly peaked and exploded with a fierce aura akin to a great general from the age of warring kingdoms. 

The only way to live was to fight with every fiber of his being!

“Haaa—!” Cao Wudi roared.

Veins protruded on his forehead, down to his neck, and all the way to his arms as Cao Wudi firmly gripped the black sword in hand. 

In the next instance, Cao Wudi sent dozens of crawlers flying in pieces with a single swing, bisecting everything that intruded the sword’s path. 

Thud!

Cao Wudi landed on the ground heavily shortly after and engaged the army of crawlers in a fierce battle, blocking attacks with the frying pan in one hand and dicing up crawlers with the sword in the other.

The crawlers’ corpses quickly piled like a rising mountain, and blood flowed down like a river as Cao Wudi faced the crawlers’ onslaught—or rather, the crawlers were ones getting slaughtered.

“Interesting…” Albion uttered thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, Fenriri was slumped over his shoulders like a pale corpse with her ghostly soul leaving from her mouth. 

However, Albion didn’t pay her any mind. 

As the saying went; no pain, no gain. She had to endure it continuously and build up her tolerance to overcome the motion sickness. 

It was a sickness that only happens when her body is moved by anything other than herself. If she were in control of her movement, such sickness wouldn’t exist.

Despite that, Albion still saw the need to build up her tolerance. 

Otherwise, she would have no chance of survival if her enemy caught wind of her weakness. 

…

As Albion continued to observe Cao Wudi fight with his explosive, he started to understand why the Dark Emperor put Cao Wudi through life-or-death situations.

“Limit Breaker.”

It was a term for people who can continuously overcome their physical limits and advance to new heights. 

Bottlenecks become non-existent to them. 

While people like Cao Wudi are extremely afraid of death and seemingly useless, more often than not, they also tend to demonstrate a much powerful will to live compared to others when pushed into a corner.

Such mentality was perfect for body refining when used correctly. 

‘The Dark Emperor must have realized this and based Wudi’s training on pursuing the extreme limits of body refining before eventually giving up to the scarcity of resource needed,’ Albion thought. 

Cultivation was mainly divided into three core focuses; Body Refining, Energy Gathering, and Soul Tempering. 

Supreme techniques like the Asura Empyrean Arts incorporate all three focuses in its training method to reach the legendary realm of Immortal Emperor, the highest of the Nine Divine Heavens.

However, it doesn’t pursue the absolute limit of Body Refining. 

The Asura Empyrean Arts only touches lightly on the topic of body refining as a means to another end; to reach Immortal Emperor.

Thus, even if Immortal Emperors are the strongest of the Nine Divine Heavens, they weren’t exactly invincible. 

Their immortal bodies were weak without divine energy.

‘Body Refining is a cultivation path that requires an exorbitant amount of high-quality medicine to train to great success. If not for the scarcity of spirit herbs on Earth, the Dark Emperor would have also pursued the extremity of Body Refining.’ 

The Dark Emperor wouldn’t have given up on Cao Wudi’s training and tossed him aside, either.

‘However, times have changed. With other worlds and realms connecting to Earth, an abundance of cultivation resources is appearing. Extreme Body Refining is no longer impossible to pursue.’

Albion was curious to see how far Cao Wudi could reach in Body Refining under the proper guidance, method, and support of medicine.

Only time will tell. 

…

Sometime later, Cao Wudi began reaching the absolute limit of his body and displayed a decline in battle strength and efficiency.

He didn’t have the stamina to continue supporting his battle. 

Albion quickly cleared the area with Asura Flames before swooping down to pick up Cao Wudi’s exhausted body and returning to the Stillwater Hunter Association Branch. 

Shortly after leaving a bottle of Body Restoration Pills and some instructions for Cao Wudi, Albion departed the branch with Fenriri and headed east towards the coast.

The tall fleshly hive by the coast required investigation.

‘There’s no use crying over spilled milk, and just make full use of the current situation. This is probably what some people in the government and Hunter Association was thinking,’ Albion thought. 

And to be honest, he agreed with them.

Although it was unfortunate that millions of lives turned into irreversible monsters, he didn’t find the situation all that bad. 

It was a good battleground to train his subordinates.

Rather than viewing it as a disaster, it was better to treat it as an opportunity now that things have reached such a state. 

Nevertheless, such thinking was akin to playing with fire. 

If the Scruxs were not properly monitored and kept under control, the government and Hunter Association would be burning themselves.

After reaching the Scruxs hive’s location, Albion frowned at the tall heap of flesh. 

“What an ugly piece of turd. It must have taken a few tens of thousands of humans and probably hundreds of thousands more to construct this abomination.”

Albion openly showed disgust as he inspected the Scruxs hive, which looked like a teat-shaped blood tower made of flesh and bones, continuously pumping out hundreds of bugs.

Shortly after the bugs left the hive, they divided themselves into groups before banding together to construct new fleshly buildings around the hive. 

After completing the new fleshly constructs, they were connected back to the hive via a thick fleshly tube like a vein.

Watching the Scruxs reminded Albion of an alien race from a real-time strategy game he had played in his previous life.

“These bugs are terraforming and expanding their territory…”