Dawn.

The sky had just begun to lighten, and the last sliver of moonlight vanished from the horizon.

Su Ze stopped his dance. Without the moon, the black pills wouldn’t work.

As the sun rose and the city awakened from its slumber, Su Ze popped four of the white daytime pills and went back to his room to sleep.

In his sleep, the Moonlight Energy he had stored in his body the previous night was activated by the white pills. It neutralized with the pills’ gentle medicinal properties, nourishing Su Ze’s body.

...

Su Ze woke up around noon.

Feeling the improvement in his constitution, Su Ze smiled. This "Day and Night" combo was indeed very effective, far surpassing any synthetic supplement he knew of.

Even some natural remedies weren’t as potent as the "Day and Night" pills.

He could feel that the Moonlight Energy stored from the night before hadn’t been fully absorbed yet; it was still gently strengthening his body.

After popping another white pill, Su Ze met up with Mr. Ya for lunch.

They had just finished eating when Mr. Ya received a message from Liou Wenxin—the Dung Eater was starting to evolve!

Mr. Ya was ecstatic. The third-tier Dung Eater he was raising was finally evolving to the fourth tier. Whether or not he could harvest a vial of fourth-tier extract all depended on this.

He immediately took Su Ze and hurried over to Liou Wenxin’s laboratory.

In the lab’s basement, they saw the evolving Dung Eater in its enclosure.

To be precise, the evolution had just begun and was still in its preparatory stage.

The Dung Eater’s fourth evolution was a metamorphosis, requiring a certain amount of time to complete its physical transformation.

The fat, pale Dung Eater lay motionless in its enclosure as if dead. But upon closer inspection, one could see liquid flowing and churning beneath its white skin.

Furthermore, its skin was gradually darkening and swelling...

It was about to pupate!

When it broke out of its chrysalis and shed its old skin, it would evolve into a fourth-tier, fly-type variant beast.

Su Ze and Mr. Ya stood behind Liou Wenxin. The three of them quietly observed the Dung Eater’s pupation process, while Liou Wenxin recorded the entire thing with a camera.

Before long, Principal Zhou Wenshan also arrived. He had known for a while that there was a third-tier Dung Eater on the verge of evolution in Liou Wenxin’s lab, so he rushed over as soon as he received her message.

He had to take this matter seriously. If the Dung Eater successfully evolved into a fourth-tier variant beast and they were unprepared, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Mr. Liou, do you know roughly how long this Dung Eater’s evolution will take?" Zhou Wenshan asked.

Liou Wenxin shook his head. "There’s no data to reference, but it will take at least two or three days."

"We can’t let our guard down," Zhou Wenshan said with a serious expression. "Once it has successfully pupated and its condition stabilizes, I will move it to a deserted, open area and keep it under constant surveillance."

Mr. Ya looked a little embarrassed. He hadn’t expected his personal business to be so troublesome, taking up several days of a Saint-level powerhouse’s time in Dongli.

Zhou Wenshan remained in the lab until late at night. Only when the Dung Eater’s surface had turned a deep brown and all movement had ceased did he step in and drag the chrysalis out.

Su Ze and the other two followed Zhou Wenshan to an abandoned factory not far from Dongli University.

Zhou Wenshan placed the chrysalis in an open area, then took out various strange objects and materials from a storage item to set up multiple traps around it.

Mr. Ya took the initiative and said, "Mr. Zhou, why don’t you head back? I can keep watch here for the next few days. I’ll notify you immediately if anything happens!"

Zhou Wenshan thought for a moment. Having Mr. Ya watch over it was appropriate, as no one would be more invested. Still, he wasn’t entirely at ease. "How about this," he said.

"While you’re watching it, start a live stream in a password-protected room. I’ll keep your stream open in my office."

"Okay," Mr. Ya agreed. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"I’ll stay here with you tonight," Su Ze said.

He had to dance in the moonlight anyway, so he might as well do it here.

And so, Zhou Wenshan and Liou Wenxin headed back first, leaving Su Ze and Mr. Ya to guard the giant chrysalis.

...

For the next three days, Su Ze went to guard the giant chrysalis with Mr. Ya every night, bringing him food as well.

He also brought Mr. Ya a tent so he could get some rest at night.

Su Ze spent most of his days sleeping. He had now developed a completely nocturnal, graveyard-shift schedule.

During this time, his senior, Ye Jin, also came to Su Ze to complain about not being able to find a thesis advisor.

"Why are all the advisors at Dongli University so busy? They’re either on business trips or too busy to spare any time," she muttered.

’Have you ever suspected that maybe you’re the problem?’

Su Ze suggested, "If it really comes to it, you could just ask your grandmother for help, Ye Jin."

"But I don’t want to bother my grandmother with such a small matter. She’s already very busy."

"Then why not just forget about finding an advisor? Once we make a breakthrough with our own research, who needs an advisor!"

Ye Jin’s eyes lit up. "You’re right! I just want to perfect my All Dao Converge into One Stream. I’m not really trying to get a degree. You’ll help me, right, Junior?"

"I’m glad you’ve figured it out, Ye Jin. I’ll definitely help you. But it’s getting late now, and I’m a little sleepy. Let’s talk again some other time, okay?"

After bidding farewell to Ye Jin, Su Ze didn’t actually go to sleep. The moon had just come out—his day was just beginning.

Full of energy, he flew all the way to the abandoned factory.

"Mr. Ya, go get some sleep. I’ll take over watch," Su Ze said.