My construction materials are weird

“Your secret has ultimately become mine. Did you think not saying it would make it alright?”

“What a joke.”

Under the Great Grinding Mill's efforts, Qi Long's divine soul was completely ground to dust and absorbed.

Along with it, the secret he spoke of unsurprisingly appeared in Xuan Huang's memories.

This was the first time refining a 'human' being. Previously, he hadn't checked the memories of the creatures he killed because there weren't any, but that didn't mean he couldn't.

Xuan Huang perfectly accepted Qi Long's memories.

The Great Grinding Mill also broke through to the mid-stage of the first level through this, reaching the same level as the Void Blade, second only to the Tongtian Jianmu.

In the following years...

Through Qi Long's memories, Xuan Huang learned many secrets he hadn't known before.

For example, the Strange Anomaly Club was formed by a third-level expert known as 'Director,' who gathered like-minded individuals.

It slowly developed and grew larger. The Director's strange anomaly ability was to control a Strange Building, possessing the quality of a bound spirit and capable of moving freely, making it extremely powerful.

The interior of the Strange Building was comparable to Xuan Huang's domain.

Moreover, it didn't require piecing together puzzles; it could strengthen itself simply by growing over time, which was truly rare.

Besides this, there were also some Strange Anomaly Spirit Master organizations, including the 'Salvation Society' and 'Demon Followers' that Xuan Huang was familiar with.

There were also righteous organizations such as the 'Anomaly Subduing Sect' and 'Gold Medal Envoys'.

It was a diverse and eye-opening experience.

As for Qi Long's secret...

Half a year ago, in Wu City in the south, Qi Long discovered a Demon Cave in an underground fissure.

It was called a Demon Cave because it was filled with black mist that drove people mad.

Within the black mist, the sounds of slaughter, like those of an ancient battlefield, could be heard from time to time.

Using the Shadow of Calamity's ability, Qi Long narrowly escaped death and entered, making a great discovery.

Deep within the mist, there was an ancient building emitting a red light, three stories high.

The large red lanterns hanging in front of the door were soul-stirring.

Anciently dressed soldiers were constantly entering and exiting.

Those who entered were missing arms and legs or were even severely crippled, but those who came out were all intact.

It seemed that something inside the building could restore them.

Qi Long didn't know the specific details of the secret.

This was still what he had discovered with great difficulty.

Even the three-story building wasn't considered too deep into the center of the black mist; it could only be considered the edge.

Originally, these things weren't worth paying attention to.

It was just a newly discovered strange anomaly place, perhaps even an entrance to a strange anomaly world.

But when he came out of the mist, he had an unexpected gain.

At that time, because he had merged with the Shadow of Calamity for too long, he was in a state of high pressure and at risk of collapse and distortion.

However, due to accidentally entering the black mist, whether it was because the black mist had the ability to suppress strange anomalies or because the red building he saw had this ability...

In short, under circumstances he didn't understand, the Shadow of Calamity was suppressed.

This relieved his collapsing mind.

Qi Long was overjoyed by this discovery.

If the Demon Cave had this ability, he wouldn't be afraid of losing control.

Moreover, would it be easier to perform a second strange anomaly fusion here?

He eagerly wanted to experiment, and his target was the important puzzle piece in Jia Zhengyi's hands, the Strange Cloak.

He had contacted Jia Zhengyi for a long time before.

But Jia Zhengyi hadn't budged, refusing to trade with him.

Until recently, Jia Zhengyi actually contacted him first.

He was extremely excited, but to prevent Jia Zhengyi from seeing through his intentions, he had to act very rationally.

He had a mindset of 'I'll be happy if I get it, but it doesn't matter if I don't get the Strange Cloak'.

In fact, he craved it.

It would be difficult to snatch it. Xu Ruyi, the Minister of the Evil Suppression Department in Nan City, was a true second-level expert.

Her ability, 'Strange Heart' Xu Ruyi, was also very frustrating.

Everything was so perfect.

Just like six or seven years ago, when he narrowly escaped death and mastered the Shadow of Calamity, and was lucky enough to reach the peak of the first level.

Just when he was about to lose control, he discovered the Demon Cave, which suppressed the strange anomaly's invasion of his divine soul.

And now good news came that Jia Zhengyi agreed to trade with him.

With the Demon Cave suppressing strange anomalies, it seemed that becoming a second-level expert by mastering two strange anomalies that were highly compatible was a natural progression.

What a pity!

“What a pity, he doesn't even know how the strange anomalies are suppressed, he just simply explored the periphery of the underground Demon Cave?”

Xuan Huang also said it was a pity that this guy discovered too little.

However, one should be content with what one has. He didn't need this Demon Cave, but it was very useful for Spirit Masters who mastered strange anomalies.

“The only thing is, I don't know if there's a price to pay for this suppression of strange anomaly invasion?”

Xuan Huang didn't quite believe that there was a free lunch when it came to strange anomalies.

Perhaps Qi Long had unknowingly lost a lot, but he hadn't noticed it.

“The Demon Cave isn't too far away. I can go and check it out when I have time.”

The strange anomaly soldiers, the Demon Qi that suppressed strange anomalies, and the strange anomaly building were all quite attractive.

But that's not what Xuan Huang wanted to do now.

“Jia Zhengyi, Jia Zhengyi!”

“This guy is still waiting for news, right? Can't keep him waiting too long, that's not very polite.”

“It's best to reunite him with his 'old friend' Qi Long as soon as possible.”

Xuan Huang didn't like threats being exposed outside.

It's best to resolve them as soon as possible if you can. What's the point of keeping them around if you don't resolve them early?

He made a decision.

He didn't even bother to check the rewards he got from killing Qi Long for the time being.

The Strange Shadow Qi Long had a shadow space that could store items that had shadows.

This ability was not bad. After Xuan Huang mastered the Strange Shadow, he discovered a room-sized collection of Qi Long's belongings.

There were all sorts of things, this was Qi Long's collection over the years.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

A very low-key small courtyard.

This was one of the several homes of Minister Jia of the Nan City Evil Suppression Department.

Unlike the people in martial arts and Taoist temples, they would gather to live in a martial artist community or a Taoist temple community.

Strange anomaly Spirit Masters would not.

Because the martial arts and Taoist temple communities were all home to the families of both immortals and martial artists.

And Spirit Masters were a mobile strange anomaly, so they didn't dare to gather together. Gathering their families together would be like catching them all in one fell swoop.

In addition, Spirit Masters had strange personalities, so gathering together was very irrational.

Therefore, every Strange anomaly Subduing Spirit Master liked to be alone and would not gather together.

“Tick, tock…”

Time continued to pass.

Jia Zhengyi, who was waiting, was a little anxious.

He attached great importance to assassinating Xuan Huang.

Recently, he had been using his privileges to suppress the spread of Xuan Huang's martial arts transcendence, and he had reached his limit.

As the time for Xu Ruyi's return approached, he would no longer be able to suppress it.

Of the three Deputy Ministers of the Evil Suppression Department, one had followed Xu Ruyi to the headquarters.

Another was not too friendly, but there were no major grievances.

A fence-sitter Deputy Minister, who had not been able to advance in recent years, and had also undergone some personality changes due to the long period of strange anomaly invasion.

Therefore, he didn't pay attention to Jia Zhengyi's actions, having a mindset of 'After I die, who cares if the world is flooded'.

However, there were also many Spirit Masters below who had a friendly attitude towards Xuan Huang's appearance.

Almost all of them were like Xu Ruyi, their minds had not yet been distorted, and they hoped that humanity would rise again.

There were still some of these Spirit Masters.

“Hmph, too young.” Thinking of this, Jia Zhengyi said disdainfully.

……