Chapter 196: The Great Unification of the Black-Horn Domain (Please Subscribe, Please Vote)

“A capable man can keep more than one close beauty by his side. It is perfectly normal,” Gu Yuan said, not caring much. He was already over a thousand years old, yet he had a teenage daughter, Xun’er, and anyone could tell Gu Yuan had long ago grown indifferent to affairs of the flesh. After a pause, he added, “Still, how can Xiao Xie, that little fool, look at Xun’er as only a sister? My Xun’er’s charm should be hard for anyone to resist.”

Lin Ying’s face darkened with frustration, but he still bowed respectfully. “Clan Chief, I fear young master Xiao Xie sees Miss Xun’er as a sister because she had already taken a liking to someone else, so she is treated as a sister only.”

“Love triangle? What a headache,” Gu Yuan groaned inwardly. If one man loves two women, he can accept both, but Xun’er is a young woman in love with two men; no matter what, one woman cannot serve two husbands.

Rubbing his forehead in annoyance, he waved to Lin Ying. “You’ve stayed by Xun’er’s side these many years. She’s used to your care. Stay with her for a while longer.”

“My lord, understood. I take my leave.” Lin Ying bowed deeply and withdrew.

“Ahem,” Gu Yuan sighed helplessly. Even as her father, he had no idea what to do about Xun’er’s feelings. But if it came down to it, he certainly preferred Xiao Xie and Xun’er to end up together. As for Xiao Yan—setting aside whether the elders of the clan would approve—that whole domain’s youngsters would probably object.

Sometime later, after Fan Lao and the others had all departed, Xiao Xie returned to his room and began to inventory the spoils from the battle.

Back in his room, Xiao Xie thought once and entered the Worship Space. He first retrieved the corpse of the Soul Tribe Battle Honored One. A stream of black mist from his palm sank into it, the body vanished, and a four-star Battle Honored One skeleton appeared. In general, a skeleton summoned by bone-calling magic drops one or two ranks below the corpse’s original level, though some exceptional creatures can be summoned stronger than they were in life.

Xiao Xie then formed a sphere of hellfire and fused it with the skeleton, reshaping it into a white-bone knight whose strength matched a five-star Battle Honored One. The white-bone knight held a long white-bone spear and wore imposing white-bone armor.

“From now on, I’ll call you Spear-One,” Xiao Xie willed, and at once the white-bone knight turned into a white-bone bead and was stored away.

His eyes then moved to the white chest, obtained earlier with the Divine Forging Hand from the Soul Tribe Battle Honored One’s body.

“Hoping for something worthwhile,” he murmured, and opened it. A white flash flickered. The chest vanished, leaving only a black claw on the ground.

He picked up the black claw and examined it.

**Ink-Jade Claw**: low-grade Heaven-level weapon.
Vastly powerful, this weapon was condensed from the lingering resentment of an unknown Battle Honored One master. Wounds struck by it become coated in malice, making them hard to heal.

Xiao Xie shook his head. “So deep is this fellow’s grudge against me that it’s condensed into a Heaven-grade weapon just for a single hit and a sneaky stab? Seriously?”

He stored the Ink-Jade Claw away. Though it was a Heaven-grade weapon, Xiao Xie was unaccustomed to claw-type arms, so he would take it out only when needed.

“There should be good things in here,” he said, looking at the soul-ring in his palm, now his spoils from the Soul Tribe Battle Honored One.

With a probe of soul power, he searched the ring. Of the pile of things inside, all the useless pieces—clothes and such—he converted into credit points. He had to admit the recycling feature was the perfect clean and efficient garbage collector.

When he cleared the trash, only a few dozen items remained: two eighth-grade magic cores, one equivalent to a two-star Battle Honored One, worth twenty million points, and another equal to a three-star Battle Honored One, worth thirty million points; four seventh-grade magic cores, worth a little over twenty million more in total.

The rest were various pills, some rare materials, and a well-preserved demonic beast corpse. The only disappointment was that it was only a seventh-grade beast, not an eighth.

After this battle, people across the Black Horn Domain showered Xiao Xie with a flood of worship points, pushing him above two million. After converting those magic cores, his total points reached more than 78 million.

He spent thirty million to forge three Bottles of Bodhi Heart, then used an Earth Spirit Pearl to return to the Gama Empire and deliver one Bottle each to Ya Fei, Yun Yun, and Queen Medusa.

After spending a day in intimate company with Ya Fei, Xiao Xie used the Earth Spirit Pearl again and returned to the Xiao Manor in Maple City to begin the unification of the Black Horn Domain.

Fan Lao and his companions, acting in Longmen’s name, went out to submit the major forces of the Black Horn Domain, and it went very smoothly. After all, everyone had seen Xiao Xie’s battle with the Soul Tribe Battle Saint. In Black Horn, even the old powers Black Emperor Sect and Demonic Flame Valley were only headed by figures no stronger than Battle Patriarchs. Faced with Xiao Xie—a brute who could stand toe to toe with a Battle Saint-level fighter—they had no real will to resist.

A month later, with major forces either voluntarily submitting or being forced into allegiance, the Black Horn Domain officially entered a period of unified rule. All top-tier powers became subordinate sects of Longmen, and Xiao Xie, lord of Longmen, became the most revered figure in the domain.

In the conference hall of the Xiao Manor in Maple City sat more than twenty men. Any outsider would see them all as Battle Emperors, with only a few among them at the Battle Patriarch level. These were the leaders of Black Horn’s former top-tier powers, now heads of Longmen’s subordinate sects.

“Su Mei, this is your reward—not a white-bone knight, but a white-bone demon beast of three-star Battle Patriarch strength.” Xiao Xie handed her a white-bone bead. In this recruiting campaign, Su Mei had performed best, and as promised he would reward her with a Battle Patriarch-grade white-bone knight.

This bead had been summoned from the seven-grade beast corpse contained in the Soul Tribe Battle Honored One’s ring, and its strength indeed matched a three-star Battle Patriarch.

“Thank you, Sect Lord.” Su Mei could not hide her delight. She accepted the bead with reverence and returned to her seat, face bright with joy.

The others watched her, envy plainly written on their faces. A three-star Battle Patriarch white-bone beast was far beyond the one-star Battle Patriarch white-bone knight in Fan Lao’s hand.

Even the sect head of Black Emperor Sect, Mo Tianxing, glowed with envy. Though Mo Tianxing himself was a Battle Patriarch, no one enjoys limiting their own power. If he obtained such a three-star Battle Patriarch beast, his own strength would rise by a great deal.

“All right. You all have worked hard these past days. Here are your rewards.” Xiao Xie swept his right hand, and more than twenty jade bottles flew to Fan Lao’s group.

After the Black Horn unification, his subordinates had gathered plenty of herbs, so Xiao Xie was not short on ingredients. He had prepared some pills especially for this reward gathering. Each of Fan Lao’s Battle Emperor companions received one Huangji Pill. Mo Tianxing and the other few Battle Patriarchs each received one Battle Patriarch Pill.

“Thank you, Sect Lord,” they all said.

Some among Fan Lao’s group took the Huangji Pills, but there was no effect—they could not use them themselves, so they might as well keep them for junior disciples. These pills that raise cultivation are always precious and rarely found. In all the Black Horn Domain now, perhaps only Xiao Xie could be so extravagant as to give so many at once.

A roar cracked from outside the hall. A wave of Battle Patriarch-level presence swept through, pressing over the entire chamber.

“Who goes there, daring enough to act wildly in the Xiao Manor?” Mo Tianxing shouted and shot toward the direction of the sound.

The others, seeing his reaction, briefly paused, then quickly followed, all flying toward where it came from. Fan Lao could not help but sneer inwardly—damn, he thought. This grand chance to prove loyalty had already been snatched by that old fool first.