The sound of leveling up was accompanied by another notification. Xuan chose to ignore it for the time being, focusing instead on the work. He forced the lesser evils inside the three spheres, and repeated the same to others.

He put his hand at the solar plexus of the osprey bird. It was a few levels short of two hundred, probably the sidekick of the one Rovan and Phaeron had put down.

In its solar plexus, unlike the gem of the snakes, there resided a large transparent shell, within it two more small orbs orbited each other. And from what he could gather, the matter which allowed this motion to continue smoothly were the spirit particles. The particles worked like grease to bearings.

"This motion is also generating extra mana." He noted.

Xuan wondered whether he should find some other ways to fill this shell up, or if continuing the way he'd done so far would suffice.

After some deliberation, an idea dropped in his head. He took a small bit of particles from the chunk that remained after much of the whole ball of particles were used, and wafted it around the bird. And sure enough, a small part of it was sucked inside by the orb, and even though it was a tiny change, Xuan could perceive the transparent shell and how it had gotten noticeably clearer.

Next, he willed for much more of the particles to get directly into the sphere without the orb having to suck it. The particles poured in, and almost immediately much more of the outer shell that contained the orbiting crystals became clearer. The two crystals within each spun faster. They orbited each other like a pair of neutron stars.

He gradually increased the amount until he was certain that it would be safe to pour large amounts of it without concern later on.

After an hour of doing this, the orb was finally filled, its spins within also became blindingly fast, the motion emanated sparks of blue that crashed over the orb's shell.

And per usual, the bird's bright and sharp eyes developed into ones heavy with sleep. It soon slumped over on the ground, and entered full sleep. The squad of bears picked the bird up by its legs and wings, with one pulling at its long head. They carried him over to a more proper place.

"That carrying is anything but proper, though…" the sar leaned in, acting like he hadn't caught his words.

Did they have some kind of beef or something?

Thankfully, Akupara walked up to sar and explained his concerns.

"Okay, now Luna and co, get into a line, I'd modify and complete whatever journey equivalent you have too."

Luna came forward first. He looked at her physique thoroughly; before he didn't know what to look for, and thus couldn't find this hidden-in-plain-sight organ. In Luna's case, it was a series of gemstones similar to Medusa's except much larger. They numbered in five.

It was odd how he'd missed these giant gemstones. One of his hypotheses on why he couldn't see them thus far was that you couldn't unless you were actively searching for them. He'd only been able to see it on Medusa's head even beneath her skin because while he looked at her forehead, he'd been subconsciously comparing it to that winged serpent's head, which contained a gemstone, and had wondered if she would develop one someday too.

As for filling out Luna's gem, the current amount in his hands, a large teaspoon's worth of spirit particles, wasn't gonna cut it.

"From the looks of it, I'd probably need to spend half of that ball's worth of spirit particles…" he reconsidered his statement and calculated the amount further. "Maybe some more," he added.

He called on the spirits from his original body. It took a second, but the spirits soon flew over and filled the sky with motes of myriad colors. The spirit borns all looked up and began whispering to each other.

"Woo, so many spirits!" Said Luna with a slackened jaw.

Akupara looked beyond the spirits, and at his tree body, lowered his head towards the direction, and shook his head from side to side.

The rest of the turtlemen shivered at the sight. Following in Akupara's footsteps, they lowered themselves towards the same direction.

Seriously, if left to their own devices, they'd turn him into some god and start up a new religion. He'd have to have a good talk with Akupara if things escalated beyond simple reverence. Not like he was comfortable with even that.

Though, it was good that he'd only called on half a thousand lesser spirits; any more and he wouldn't have been able to live down their reaction.

He had much of the spirits converge into multiple points, forming into exactly five floating orbs of lesser spirits. He then used a unique spell, [Spirit Lord]'s authority. And with its authority over spirit particles — the stuff that a lesser spirit was made out of — he split them all apart. Particle by particle, before condensing them back into five balls.

Luna eyed the spirit balls with a unique thirst. He pushed them towards her. They simply phased through her fur, skin, muscles and arteries, and sat directly onto the gems. The gems in turn proceeded to flash with enough light that it caused him to avert his eyes.

And moments later, Luna lost consciousness too.

He then did the same to Akupara. The turtle's gem resided within the inner chambers of his shell, right at the center.

After the old man went to Dreamland, he moved onto his and Luna's subordinates. It took some time, but it was done without headaches.

Next were the bears, who'd been carrying everyone to their proper resting place. Like with the others, he started with their leader. For this guy, he had to call on an additional five hundred lesser spirits. He spent a hundred on the bear itself after modifying him. The bear resisted the sleepiness for a bit before he too succumbed to it.

The other bears picked Sarnoth up before hauling him on their backs. And even though he tried not to, he still couldn't help but notice how much more care the bears showed when taking their leader to a proper place compared to everyone else.

It was something he'd have to work on. They'd been together for a day or two; expecting any kind of genuine cooperation in such a short time wasn't realistic.

He called on Sun, and the monkey dropped down from the oak trees. He initiated the procedure on him.

"What?" His eyes widened at what he saw.

The monkey had two rings on his wrists and legs. These rings were the gem equivalent for him, except that they were made of an extra set of bones. And it was these bones that functioned like this monkey's gem. The structure and placement of these organs had felt natural until he saw Luna's, and now this monkey. The overall structure and placement of them felt unnatural.

He ground down a few more lesser spirits and injected them directly into these bones, as those ring-like bones glowed with radiance. The monkey remained awake.

"Are you alright?" He wondered if Sun was okay or not. The monkey looked up at him, fully conscious, with zero signs of sleepiness.

"My lord, I'm perfectly fine."

Which was the million dollar question. How are you fine? He was supposed to have fallen asleep like the others.

"Well, step aside and help carry the bodies of the minions of spirit borns I modify." He ordered. It was better to not dig deeper into his physique right now. He had a lot of fish to fry.

"As you say, my lor-"

Xuan's head started to ring, as dizziness swept over him. He looked inwards, and sure enough, quite a bit of his mana was gone.

It's probably a side effect of burning through so much mana so quickly.

Fortunately for him, the ringing subsided just as quickly.

He resumed the procedure, and picked Akupara's followers next. But after he modified their souls and turned to their gems, he found them already full…

He called on the wolves, and just like Akupara's followers, their gems were full too.

"This doesn't make sense…"

But before he could snoop around and figure out the reason this had happened, the ringing in his head returned.

"Well, I guess I can figure it out later. For now, let's modify them first."

He continued the process, and modified each of the turtlemen, wolves, bears, and monkeys. By the end of it all, the world truly had begun to spin in circles.

Or was it his mind that spun — he couldn't tell, because soon everything went dark. And the last thing he'd seen before he passed out was the mana within his reserve. It had gone down to a meager ten percent.

"My lord!" Screamed Sun in panic, as every still-conscious spirit born raced toward him.

He gave them a reassuring smile. "Don't worry guys, I'm just a little low on mana." He said and fell over on the ground.

….

It was the same domed ceiling he'd again woken up to find. Laying on a bed that felt soft enough he feared it might bury him alive — it was by no mistake meant to be comfortable. In fact, laying there it felt like each of his muscles had been massaged by some master masseur or something.

The ceiling overhead, which previously was just plain white marble, now contained intricate patterns of intricate geometry that glowed with part green and part purple. His hands unconsciously reached out to it. He felt like he could understand what was inscribed on it if he tried.

After a few minutes of 'trying', the complex rune began to unravel itself.

"Ah, so its function is keeping the temperature of the room at bay through transferring excess heat or cold outside using spatial distortion…"

An enthusiastic clap made him snap out of his fascination at the rune.

"Exactly, my lord." A voice came from his side. He turned. The person sounded like Akupara. And yet, the turtleman he was looking at was anything but like him.

To the side stood a turtleman with thick, jade green arms, legs and a much stockier shell.

"That you, Akupara?"

"Yes, my lord!" He beamed with reverence.

Yeah, that was him alright.

Xuan stood up from the bed, wearing silken white robes. They felt almost tender to the touch. Like he was wearing some fluffy clouds, which was odd, because the last time he'd worn it, it hadn't felt this noticeable and comfortable…

Also, he remembered being knocked unconscious from exhausting his mana. Then who had put him back in bed and undressed him?

It better not be a girl…

Though, the opposite sounded even more horrifying. Now that he thought about it, maybe it was better to not ask Akupara as to who put him in bed every time he went unconscious.

He admired the now well-built frame of Akupara. His build reminded him of Jian; Akupara was just a tad bit bulkier than him. The turtleman also seemed to have gained some height, now standing at exactly six feet. A whole foot taller than before.

He had a lot of questions, but the most vital one needed to be asked first.

"Tell me about it. What happened when I was unconscious?"

"Master, you've helped complete our journey. We've gone through a process called 'Evolution'. It has been seven days since my lord fell asleep from mana exhaustion."

So he had been unconscious for seven days. And now that he'd woken, all his spirit borns had supposedly evolved?