Chapter 3: Planetary Tremors

Qu Yi stood in the cave, five colors swirling around his body as five types of energy flowed in and out, intensely transforming his physique.
Throughout the cave, with the disappearance of the five lotus seeds, the dazzling and dreamlike light vanished as well, leaving only the soft blue glow emitted by the blue crystal.
The Purple-Stem Multicolored Lotus shrank rapidly after the five lotus seeds left and then disappeared silently, leaving only the pool still gently rippling.
After the five streams of energy moved throughout his body, they finally formed five circular halos, each settling in a different part of his body. The golden halo was in the lung area, the cyan halo in the liver area, the blue halo in the kidney area, the red halo in the heart area, and the yellow halo in the spleen area.
These five halos acted like sources of energy, continuously pouring energy into Qu Yi’s body and transforming his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.
Gradually, the colors of the five halos faded until they completely disappeared.
Qu Yi’s consciousness slowly returned from a state of stillness. He felt as though there had been a qualitative leap within his body, bringing him great comfort and pleasure.
“Hmm, why does my body smell so bad?”
Once excited, Qu Yi immediately noticed that his body was covered in dark substances, and his highly sensitive sense of smell detected an unbearable stench.
Thud!
After spinning around, he saw the pool beside him. He quickly stripped off his clothes and jumped in.
The water in this pool was formed from droplets accumulated over tens of thousands of years by stalactites, indicating its remarkable properties.
The fact that the Purple-Stem Multicolored Lotus grew in this pool further underscored its rarity and value.
As soon as Qu Yi entered, a cool sensation spread throughout his body. He soon realized that the water seemed to have a life of its own—the water flowed into his body, turning into powerful energy streams that entered his meridians. These streams then converged in his dantian, filling it completely before flowing into his five internal organs.
Amazing!
Such thoughts kept arising in Qu Yi’s mind. He felt utterly exhilarated, as if he had taken a hot bath after extreme fatigue, as if he had achieved success in hunting, or as if he felt energetic after improving his skills. All these pleasant sensations could only be expressed with the word “amazing.”
Within his body, in his meridians, in his dantian, and in his internal organs, true energy was abundant.

Qu Yi had also practiced internal energy and knew how it flowed, but when using his own “Great Strength” technique, he found he couldn’t harness that energy within his body. “This energy is far more advanced and substantial than internal energy!” Qu Yi muttered to himself with certainty. Unable to figure out what this energy was, he stopped thinking about it—knowing that it was beneficial to him and had greatly changed his physical constitution was enough. Climbing out of the pool, he took clean clothes from his backpack and changed. Every time he went hunting alone, he would bring extra clothes, and he used them now. After putting on the new clothes, he carefully examined the cave, looking for anything valuable inside. “Huh! How did the lotus disappear?” After searching the entire cave, aside from the jade and blue crystals on the walls, he found no other rare items. Suddenly, he remembered something. He was well aware of how strong his physique had become, and that reminded him of the effects of those five lotus seeds. So what about the effects of the lotus that produced them? The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He immediately went to the pool and found that its once-dark water was now clear and transparent. Surprised, he took off his clothes and jumped in, then used all his strength to scoop out the water, trying to drain the pool completely. After a while, the water was gone, revealing the bottom of the pool. The bottom was covered in hard stones, with a few tiny cracks—nothing special. “I refuse to believe there aren’t any lotus seeds underground!” Qu Yi shouted. Thinking of the effects of the five lotus seeds, he resolved to find them. If he could transplant them, he could eat those colorful lotus seeds again. He picked up an iron axe and began to fiercely chop at the hard stones at the bottom of the pool. clang! clang! The stones were not only hard but also very dense. Even with full force, the axe only left a shallow groove, emitting a shrill sound. Qu Yi covered his ears and swung the axe again with all his strength. The axe broke, the stones cracked, and a thick layer of rock was destroyed, revealing a layer of soil beneath. At that moment, Qu Yi held the broken axe, not swinging it any further, staring blankly at what lay below. In the soil layer was a round, egg-sized sphere emitting a green glow. The surrounding soil seemed too dense to approach, as if the sphere existed in its own world.

“What is this!” Qu Yi threw aside his great sword and exclaimed in confusion.
There was no fierce killing intent, no gloomy malevolent aura—just an ordinary sphere, yet it uniquely hovered in its own separate space above the soil.
Qu Yi calmed himself down, then crouched to reach for the sphere, filled with anticipation.
This?
Qu Yi was stunned. He never expected that as soon as his hand touched the sphere, it vanished instantly.
Where did it go?
The moment this thought crossed his mind, Qu Yi felt as if he were no longer in control of his body, as if his soul had left him, leaving him in a state of utter emptiness before his consciousness faded away.
Qu Yi fell into unconsciousness once again.
Above the Flaming Valley, members from the four major cultivation sects—Xianyun Sect, Huoyue Gate, Xuanyang Temple, and Yusu School—flew together to the top of the giant pit, gazing down at the bright red beams shooting out from within.
The leader of the Xianyun Sect was its sect master, Huai Qing, who was at the early Yuan Ying stage. He glanced at the other three groups and saw that they too dared not enter the pit first, so he smiled.
“Sect Master Yongshan, Sect Master Chengchang, Sect Master Qiuyu, should the people from our four sects enter this pit?”
It turned out that the leaders of the other three sects were also sect masters, all at the early Yuan Ying stage.
Yongshan, the leader of Huoyue Gate; Chengchang, the leader of Xuanyang Temple; and Qiuyu, the leader of Yusu School—all looked at Huai Qing with meaningful smiles.
“The situation isn’t clear yet. Let’s wait and see. If Sect Master Huai Qing is eager, he can lead the Xianyun Sect members in first,” they replied in unison.
Treasures weren’t easy to obtain. All four sect masters knew well that none of them wanted their people to take risks. Moreover, judging from the immense power of those red lights, the value of the treasure must be extremely high—probably even those at the Yuan Ying stage wouldn’t be able to seize it by force, let alone those at the Jin Dan stage.
The members of the four sects had no choice but to continue watching from above the pit.
Suddenly, a strange phenomenon occurred in the sky and earth.
A long, bright light rose from within the pit. The intense red beams disappeared, leaving only a long, luminous mass above the pit, extremely dazzling.
From within that long light mass, an overwhelming pressure radiated in all directions, as if an emperor was descending, forcing everyone to look up in awe.
Huai Qing, Yongshan, Chengchang, and Qiuyu—these four sect masters, all experts at the Yuan Ying stage—felt their Yuan Ying energies on the verge of splitting and dissipating under the influence of that light mass. Terrified, they quickly flew back.
“Everyone, retreat!”
As they flew away, the four sect masters didn’t forget to give the order.

Those at the Golden Core stage among the four sects immediately fled upon receiving the order, riding their flying swords and escaping like wisps of smoke. As the members of the four sects left, the momentum of that light sphere weakened instantly. It seemed that the energy accumulated over countless years, once unleashed, made it impossible to generate such overwhelming pressure again. “Everyone, return!” The four sect leaders kept their spiritual senses focused on the changes in the light sphere. Realizing it had played a trick on them, they smiled bitterly before ordering the Golden Core cultivators to fly back to compete for the treasures inside the sphere. The members of the four sects rushed back to the top of the giant pit and surrounded the elongated light sphere. “Seize it!” The four sect leaders immediately sent mental commands to their Golden Core cultivators. In an instant, they each took out their magical artifacts, cast spells at the light sphere, and attacked the members of the other three sects at the same time. At that moment, Qu Yi in the Beast Mountain happened to touch that greenish sphere. As dozens of different spells were cast by the members of the four sects, dazzling lights exploded in the air along with deafening noises. No one was injured. Just as they prepared to cast more spells, they suddenly sensed something unusual in the world. A fierce wind arose, as if all the winds in the universe were blowing in one direction; the spiritual energy in the world became chaotic, with all the scattered energy converging in one direction; the magical artifacts trembled uncontrollably, trying to leave their owners’ bodies and fly to a certain place. The members of the four sects were filled with fear and had no mind to attack others to seize treasures. Instead, they used their spiritual senses to search for changes in the world. Apart from the Flame Domain Valley, the entire Green Wood Planet was in a state of chaos. Mountains collapsed, trees were blown down by the howling wind, spiritual energy streams became chaotic, rivers overflowed and flowed wildly, and air currents rushed downward. All sorts of apocalyptic scenes were unfolding across Green Wood Planet. If anyone were in space at that time, they would see that the entire planet was shaking violently, bouncing back and forth in the void like a ball. The source of all this chaos was in the Beast Mountain. Qu Yi had no idea that the sphere he touched was a treasure that could shake the heavens, and that the chaos it triggered was destroying the entire Green Wood Planet. “Ugh, why did I fall asleep again?” Qu Yi suddenly woke up, saying irritably. “Ah, where… where am I?” Qu Yi cried out in panic as he opened his eyes.

It turned out that the chaotic energy from the heavens and earth, upon converging at Beast Mountain, directly destroyed the entire mountain, leaving only a giant conical crater. Qu Yi was standing at the bottom of the crater at that moment.