As expected, the declarations of submission went well with the beasts by their side. Although some people still wanted to voice their unwillingness, a single roar from the beasts shut them up.
While the demon king and the shadow queen were talking to their races, Zhou Fan, Yipeng, and the remaining beasts were reading the books in their library.
Unlike the dark elf library, the demon races library contained a lot of new information. There was the legend of the beast of calamity and many opinions on how they worked.
Some demons said that there was a way to kill the beast of calamity while others speculated that there were more beasts of calamity besides the one they knew.
Zhou Fan quickly finished the demon races library and headed to the shadow races library. On his way there, he noticed that they had a giant purple crystal hanging from the sky. Unfortunately, besides more detailed information about their race, there was nothing new.
By the time he finished both libraries, 50 hours had passed.
However, since he had faked his death, Zhou Fan didn't need to rush. It was much nicer to live carefreely.
Before leaving the demon race, Zhou Fan investigated why they had so many people despite their low reproduction rate.
After asking the demon king, Zhou Fan discovered that they found a herb that increases the chances of reproduction.
In fact, since the demon races cave was unsuitable for growing anything, it was grown in the shadow races cave.
After learning that, it was time for Zhou Fan to leave. However, before he could leave the cave, the demon king requested to join his group.
"Don't you have to lead your people?" Zhou Fan asked.
"Not really. I haven't done much ruling since I became king. They are basically ruling themselves at this point. Also, the shadow queen will be there to make sure nothing bad happens." He explained.
Since there was no harm, Zhou Fan agreed on the condition that his strength was sufficient. He didn't want to be carrying around useless people with no purpose.
For example, although Yipeng didn't have much physical strength, he was incredibly wise and intelligent. He was also quiet and self-sufficient.
In order to test the demon king's strength, Zhou Fan lowered his strength to the same level as him and fought in a battle of swords.
When the fight started, Zhou Fan was the one being suppressed. After all, although his increased mind made him a genius at everything, the demon king had been practicing the sword since he was a child.
After 3 minutes, Zhou Fan could equally fight the demon king, and after 10 minutes, he was the one sidedly suppressing the demon king.
Although the battle ended in the demon king's defeat, Zhou Fan allowed him to join. Not only was his physical strength far above humans, but he was also much better with the sword than anyone else Zhou Fan had come across.
With Zhou Fan riding on Xiaolong, Yipeng riding on Xuanwu, and Cao Lin riding on Bainu, they set off back to the dragon cave.
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Looking at the new scenery, Zhou Fan nodded his head. After they had gotten back to the dragon cave, Cao Lin, Yipeng, and the beasts started to construct Cao Lin a place to stay.
5 days had passed since then and with the help of Zhou Fan every now and then, the demon king's castle was built.
Although Zhou Fan's little wooden house couldn't compare, Zhou Fan prefered it much more.
After cultivating for a few days, Zhou Fan was extremely close to breaking through to the 8th level. In fact, he wanted to break through even further before he did anything else.
Thinking that far, he sent the beasts, Cao Lin, and Yipeng to scout the other caves and repeat the previous process.
Not long after, they had left the dragon cave and Zhou Fan was finally alone again.
Looking at his house, he truly felt it was insufficient for cultivating inside. Although he liked to live in it, he felt it was better to make a new place for cultivation.
Zhou Fan walked to the side of the cave where nothing but a dirt and stone wall stood. Controlling the Qi around him, he molded the side of the cave into a small, dome-shaped area, and made the entrance just big enough for him to walk through.
Looking around inside, Zhou Fan used fire Qi to melt the stone and dirt on one of the sides and created lava to use as a light source.
He then made a small stone platform in the center, just big enough for him to cultivate on.
Not wasting any more time, Zhou Fan sat on the platform and cultivated.
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After a single day, Zhou Fan broke into the 8th level of core formation. Without stopping, he continued to cultivate.
After 25 days had passed, Zhou Fan broke into the 9th level of core formation. Shaking his head at his progress speed, Zhou Fan didn't stop and continued.
After a month and a half, Zhou Fan broke into the 10th level. By now, the lava pool had cooled down and didn't produce any more light, Zhou Fan once again melted it and the lava appeared once more.
Thinking to himself, Zhou Fan was disappointed with his cultivation speed. Looking at his core now, its size exceeded what he previously thought was possible. If he had to estimate, he felt it would be the size of an entire kingdom. Luckily, it was located in his mind.
As he once again started to cultivate, he noticed that the core was shrinking instead of expanding. That didn't make Zhou Fan stop since it felt less like it was shrinking and more like it was condensing.
After a month and a half, the core had condensed to the same size it was when he first broke into core formation. However, he didn't break through. In fact, he estimated he was only halfway done.
As he continued, he noticed that the core was losing its shape. It stopped resembling a core and started to disperse into his mind.
However, Zhou Fan felt that when it dispersed, it went into a separate space.
After 2 weeks, Zhou Fan suddenly gained another sight. it was as if he had grown another eye. However, instead of seeing in the real world or his mind, it could see into a completely new space.
Zhou Fan could feel that the shape of the space was the same as a human, or rather, the shape of himself! Looking at it, Zhou Fan chose to name it his soul.
It was slowly being filled up by the gray gas that his core turned into. After another 2 weeks had passed, the gaseous gray Qi filled up the entire space. Unexpectedly, it didn't stop there and instead started to turn into a liquid.
Looking into his mind, he could see that the core was only 33% dispersed.
After another 2 weeks, a gray liquid filled his soul space. However, once again it didn't stop and instead started to condense into a solid form.
After 3 months since he started to breakthrough, the entire space was filled with a solid gray matter.
Zhou Fan heard a crack and all of a sudden, his entire soul space and the solid matter within it exploded!
BOOOMMM!