As the final lightning bolt was finally defeated, Atticus became wrapped in a golden cocoon of the Heavenly energy while the System Panel informed William of the sessful upgrade.


    Atticus was now at the very peak of the Tribtion Transcendence Realm, and would immediately Ascend on his next upgrade. Unlike the Epic-Ranked me Dragon Uri whose upgrades always ced him at the first level of the following Realm, Atticus would always be pushed to the peak of the next Realm.


    It made William wonder if he should upgrade Atticus right after Ascending, since the Mythical Rat Snake would instantly be a peakbat power in the Ascension Realm. Not that William was afraid of anyone in the Ascension Realm, but he didn''t want Atticus to suffer any more.


    ———


    BEAST UPGRADED


    Atticus: (S --> SS)


    Learned 7 new abilities.


    Strength improved.


    Speed and Stealth improved.


    Defensive abilities improved.


    Size massively increased.


    Intelligence slightly improved.


    Illusion Territory has improved.


    Comprehension of the Primary Law of Illusion has reached fifty percent.


    Next rank up: 500000PP


    ———


    He has the Law of Illusion and it''s at fifty percent? My Primary Law of Sealing is only at 0.6 percent! William eximed.


    Speaking of which, I should probably eat the rest of those Seal Fruits soon... The increased strength of my Seal Element would help the Suppression Pillsst longer.


    "Atticus,e here." William ordered to the Mythical Rat Snake.


    "Yess? Masster?" Atticus asked as he floated down from the sky. His movements were incredibly fast and agile, but the Mythical Rat Snake identally crushed part of a nearby forest when his tail hit the ground. He had forgotten to use the Illusion Territory.


    William took a peek over Atticus'' shoulder and sighed. "Your Illusion Element has improved. Can you sense the Law of Illusion?"


    "Ah... yes, I think I can."


    "Good." William nodded in satisfaction. "Practice well with it and show me what you can do when I see you next. You may be stronger now, but that doesn''t mean you can do whatever you want. Don''t identally kill anyone."


    "Kill? I couldn''t hurt a fly unless I wanted to!" Atticus looked to the sky proudly and flipped his tail back and forth, as if iming to be a righteous Cultivator with a pure heart.


    "Oh, really? Then what''s that?" William pointed behind Atticus, where a bundle of trees had been thrown to the sky while the forest and some nearby hills werepletely leveled. At the same time, a number of System notifications entered William''s vision.


    -Atticus has killed a Qi Refinement Beast (x110): +111 PP


    -Atticus has killed a Foundation Establishment Beast (x32): +63 PP


    -Atticus has killed a Core Formation Beast (x6): +19 PP


    Atticus, still proud of himself, turned around to see what William was pointing at. When he saw the group of trees that still hadn''tnded and were already a dozen kilometers away, Atticus felt a little awkward.


    He used the improvements of the Illusion Element to change his shape and size to that of a five-meter-long snake with big eyes, staring at William with a cute expression, "Mastaw, it was an ident. Pwease fowgive me."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    William looked at Atticus with a nk expression. System, you said his intelligence improved...


    -He takes after you. I can''t fix whatever that is.


    Hey! William eximed angrily.


    The Systemughed. How could it miss the opportunity to poke at William? It was the System''s favorite hobby.


    ***


    In an unfamiliar area of the Ascended Realms.


    Ascended Cultivator Juhi was currently inspecting his body with a sense of urgency. The myriad of Curses applied by William were all in effect, and he could feel his Soul Strength being drained away little by little.


    If he wasn''t a Poison Mage himself, Juhi would have been unable to eliminate the Soul-Sapping Necrotoxin from his body at all, but his SS-Rank Poison Affinity was still too weak to take care of it in a short amount of time. It would take almost an entire month to eliminate it fully, and by then he would have lost almost five percent of his Soul Strength!


    How did he get his hands on poison from the Higher Realms? Damn it, was it from that incident back then? Juhi thought angrily as he opened his Poison Domain to counter the Soul-Sapping Necrotoxin.


    This method would greatly slow the speed at which he lost Soul Strength, but it heavily relied on how much Mana Juhi had in Reserve. Unfortunately for him, his Mana Regeneration wasn''t as absurd as William''s so he wouldn''t be able to do this constantly, but it was enough for now.


    Damn that William! I need to inform the Heavens, or he''s going to be the death of me in a thousand years!


    Juhi retracted his Poison Domain temporarily and entered a permanently open portal in the back of his home that took him directly to his ce of work, the Pewot City Defense Force Headquarters or PDF HQ for short.


    As its name implied, the PDF HQ served as Pewot City''s first line of defense against outside threats. Juhi''s role in the organization was as a Defender, and his mission was to increase his strength however possible. The strong ones were paid well and promoted to be Great Defenders, while the weak ones were treated as cannon fodder for wars.


    Juhi was one of the more powerful Defenders of the PDF HQ, but he still had a long way to go before promotion. Acquiring the heart of a Mythic Beast in the Lower Realms was supposed to be his guaranteed ticket to promotion, but unfortunately Juhi met William.


    It''s fine though, all I need to do is get rid of these Curses. I still got the Beast''s blood, so I can improve a little bit. Juhi thought as he approached the front counter.


    A secretary looked up from her notebook and asked, "Defender Juhi, what can I do for you? You look unwell..."


    "I need to see Great Defender Mia, please." he ced his hands on the counter and looked at the secretary seriously.


    "I see... I''ll let her know." the secretary picked up amunicator and dialed for Mia. She ryed Juhi''s request, hanging up once the other party was finished speaking. Read exclusive chapters at empire


    "Great Defender Mia is on her way. You may sit for now." she said simply.


    Juhi nodded and took a seat, waiting only a few minutes before a beautiful woman with long red hair stepped out of a nearby room. She looked at Juhi with narrowed eyes, "What do you need, Defender Juhi?"


    Juhi stepped in close, "I needed to speak with you, Great Defender. It''s important. Can we go into another room?"


    Great Defender Mia felt something touching her thigh and looked down, disgusted by what she saw. Her voice grew loud as she pped Juhi in the face, "If it''s because of that, I think I''ll have to decline. Get out of my sight."


    Juhi looked down and noticed that William''s Curse, Reverse Libido, was in effect. He felt incredibly awkward and apologized immediately, "Great Defender Mia, it''s not what it looks like!" he cried out as he tried to exin.


    "I think it''s exactly what it looks like. Don''t ever reach out to me again."


    Juhi was left devastated by Mia''s words, crouching on the floor in shame. I only wanted to find a Curse Mage to heal me...


    Damn you, William!