Chapter 15: Underwater Monsters

On the planet Cuimu, aside from the Four Mainland Continents, everything else is ocean.
People divided the entire ocean into four regions based on direction: the Eastern Ocean, Southern Ocean, Western Ocean, and Northern Ocean.
Now, Qu Yi, Bai Man, Qing Wu Gui, and Wu Yuan had gathered at the coast of the Southern Ocean.
This place was close to the Lanyue Mountains where the Fire Moon Gate was located. Qu Yi chose the Southern Ocean for only one reason: after reaching the mid-stage of the Golden Core phase, it would be closer to harass the Fire Moon Gate.
As far as the eye could see, the ocean stretched endlessly, with waves constantly rising.
Qu Yi and the others were greatly relieved by the magnificent view of the sea, feeling much more at ease.
“Qu Yi, shall we enter the sea now?” Bai Man asked.
With all four of them having reached the Golden Core phase, entering the sea posed no problem. The terrifying water pressure and freezing temperatures were no longer a threat.
“Senior sister, we need to fly a bit further. Let’s wait until we reach the deep sea area before entering. The coastal area here probably only has monsters at the Qi Attraction phase or Foundation Establishment phase,” Qu Yi replied with a smile.
Qing Wu Gui nodded, while Wu Yuan continued to fan his wings leisurely.
So, Qu Yi, Bai Man, Qing Wu Gui, and Wu Yuan flew again to the skies above the deep sea area before finally entering the sea.
…
“Qu Yi, there’s a Spirit Shuttle Fish ahead, at the mid-stage of the Golden Core phase,” the Artifact God warned.
In this Southern Ocean, Qu Yi and the others had been there for a month. With the Artifact God’s spiritual senses constantly scanning, information about the underwater monsters around them was clearly displayed before Qu Yi.
He immediately informed Bai Man, Qing Wu Gui, Wu Yuan, and the two Turtle Dragon Monsters.
The two Turtle Dragon Monsters were originally water-type monsters, and once in the ocean, they became extremely powerful.
Over the past month, they had hunted down more than twenty Golden Core phase underwater monsters. Apart from the Artifact God’s role in scouting, the two Turtle Dragon Monsters had made the greatest contributions.
The Spirit Shuttle Fish continued swimming happily, unaware that six figures were emerging around it, surrounding it from all sides.
Whoosh!
The Spirit Shuttle Fish, with its body over ten meters long, thrashed violently in the water. It had already detected the six of them, sensing their rapidly approaching auras.
“Are you human cultivators? What do you want by entering our world of underwater monsters?” The Spirit Shuttle Fish sensed danger but knew it couldn’t escape, so it immediately spoke up.

On Emerald Jupiter, human cultivators inhabit the land while sea monsters inhabit the oceans, and the two never interfere with each other—this has become the rule.
Qu Yi smiled and immediately shouted, “Spirit Shuttle Fish, hand over your demon pill.”
The Spirit Shuttle Fish panicked. Realizing that words couldn’t stop these humans, it knew it had no other choice but to fight desperately.
Naturally, its target was Bai Man, as her cultivation level was only at the early Golden Pill stage, making her the weakest.
The Spirit Shuttle Fish charged straight at Bai Man, opening its mouth wide and spewing a gush of true energy that created a massive wave in the sea. If it hit Bai Man, it could crush her instantly.
Bai Man smiled and immediately used “Wanli Cunjin” to fly to Qu Yi’s side.
By the time the wave passed, Qu Yi also used “Wanli Cunjin” to reach where Bai Man had been and blocked the Spirit Shuttle Fish, which was about to flee.
In that short time, Qing Wu Gui, Wu Yuan, and the Two-Headed Turtle Dragon arrived at the Spirit Shuttle Fish’s side. Qing Wu Gui swung his sword, Wu Yuan’s dragon head emitted golden light, and the Two-Headed Turtle Dragon wrapped around the Spirit Shuttle Fish, its jaws already biting into it.
Undoubtedly, under these four attacks, the Spirit Shuttle Fish was instantly left barely alive.
Seeing this, Wu Yuan immediately flew to the Spirit Shuttle Fish’s side, bit through its body, and began sucking in its vital essence.
The Spirit Shuttle Fish’s body shriveled up, while Qu Yi quickly swung his Green Python Sword to retrieve the demon pill from within its body.
This process had become very familiar to him over the past month.
“Qu Yi, we’ve already obtained 25 demon pills, all at the middle stage of the Golden Pill,” Bai Man exclaimed excitedly.
Indeed, over the past month, to save time, Qu Yi had focused on monsters at the middle stage of the Golden Pill. He dismissed those at the early stage, as he realized he would need to consume 500 such pills just to reach the middle stage—something that filled him with dread. Thus, he targeted those at the middle stage, as only 50 were needed.
“Yes, but most of them are Water-type Golden Pills. There’s only one each of the other four types—still not enough for my breakthrough,” Qu Yi said calmly.
To advance from the early to the middle stage of the Golden Pill, Qu Yi needed to consume 10 Golden Pills of each of the five elements—wood, fire, earth, water, and metal—totaling 50. Currently, he had plenty of Water-type Golden Pills, but there was still a significant gap in the other four types.

Qing Wu Gui heard this and felt ashamed. His cultivation method was already quite unique, and his progress was fast, but compared to Qu Yi, he was still far behind. As long as Qu Yi had enough Golden Core essence to devour, he could advance directly. If he had enough Nascent Soul essence in the future, he could also advance quickly.

Wu Yuan still stood there leisurely, his dragon head shaking nonstop. He was actually very dissatisfied. Over the past month, although he had devoured the essence of more than twenty monsters, his cultivation hadn’t made much progress. According to Qu Yi’s speculation, Wu Yuan could only advance to the early Nascent Soul stage by devouring the essence of monsters at that stage.

Regaining their composure, Qu Yi, Bai Man, Qing Wu Gui, Wu Yuan, and the two turtle dragons flew forward again to search for their target.

……

At the top of Fangmu Mountain, there were three figures: Elder Ling Huo, Elder Xuan Gu, and Elder Ling Ji.

“Brother Xuan Gu, Brother Ling Ji, have you discovered anything over the past month?” Elder Ling Huo asked with a smile.

It turned out that after sensing Qu Yi and the others disappear, the three were unwilling to give up. They thought Qu Yi might be hiding in some invisible formation, so they stayed on Fangmu Mountain, waiting for him to exhaust the spirit stones that powered the formation before capturing him. But in the end, none of them saw anything.

“Huh. Over the past month, I’ve kept my spiritual sense outstretched, but I haven’t detected any unusual activity. It seems Qu Yi has already escaped,” said Elder Xuan Gu, his face filled with anger.

All three knew that Qu Yi was likely already left Fangmu Mountain, but they still held out a glimmer of hope and didn’t want the other two to catch him. So, they all had to stay on Fangmu Mountain together.

“Brother Ling Huo, Brother Xuan Gu, I’ve thought about this. Qu Yi’s cultivation is only at the early Golden Core stage. He can’t possibly use the space transmission array to leave Cuimu Planet. I suggest we each send a subordinate at the Nascent Soul stage to occupy the space transmission array, then we can go back and come up with another plan,” said Elder Ling Ji gloomily.

To use the space transmission array, one needed at least the strength of the early Nascent Soul stage; otherwise, they would be crushed by the spatial pressure.

All three were at the early stage of exiting their bodies and had many subordinates. It frustrated them to have spent a month guarding this mountain just for Qu Yi. Naturally, Elder Ling Ji made this suggestion to ease their concerns.

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

Elder Ling Huo and Elder Xuan Gu understood Elder Ling Ji’s intention and immediately agreed.

The three quickly left Fangmu Mountain.

A day later, Elder Linghuo sent Qian Shun, Elder Xuan Gu sent Jia Ping, and Elder Lingji sent Mu Zhen. These three late Yuan Ying stage cultivators simultaneously guarded the space teleportation array at the top of Fangluo Mountain.
…
On the main peak of Huoyue Gate, atop Lifei Peak, Elder Linghuo was alone, lost in thought.
“That’s right, it must be like this. Qu Yi is likely already in the sea; he’s going there to hunt demonic beasts,” Elder Linghuo said to himself in ecstasy.
It turned out that through Qu Yi killing people from Huoyue Gate in Xianyun Sect and hunting demonic beasts on Fangluo Mountain, Elder Linghuo had roughly deduced from the five-element attributes of those beasts and the attributes of the Golden Core stage cultivators who died that Qu Yi needed a large amount of Golden Core or demonic cores, covering all five elements.
Naturally, recalling the situation on the Four Veins Continent, Elder Linghuo knew that if Qu Yi wanted to hunt more demonic beasts, the only option was the ocean.
After a while, Wan Chang and Yong Shan arrived.
“Wan Chang, Yong Shan, you two come with me to the Lunnan Ocean to search for Qu Yi,” Elder Linghuo said directly.
In the ocean, those Golden Core stage cultivators would be of little use. If they encountered a group of demonic beasts, Huoyue Gate’s strength would be completely ruined. Therefore, Elder Linghuo only wanted to take these two Yuan Ying stage cultivators to search the seabed together.
“Yes, Lord!” Wan Chang and Yong Shan replied immediately.
Yong Shan gathered the various elders of Huoyue Gate, gave them some instructions, and then immediately followed Elder Linghuo and Wan Chang to the Lunnan Ocean.
…
Just as Elder Linghuo figured out that Qu Yi had gone to the ocean, Elder Xuan Gu and Elder Lingji also roughly deduced that Qu Yi was likely in the ocean.
After all, on the Four Veins Continent, the Zuiwu Mountains were already destroyed, and the other three mountain ranges were under the control of three different sects. There were also not many Golden Core stage demonic beasts. Naturally, if Qu Yi wanted to hunt enough of them, he could only go to the ocean.
However, they couldn’t guess which specific ocean he had gone to.
So, Elder Xuan Gu and Elder Lingji also decided to take three people each and head to the ocean in hopes of a chance.
Elder Xuan Gu, Ding Shun, Cheng Chang, and Elder Qingyang went to the Ludong Ocean.
Elder Lingji, Lian Ming, Qiu Yu, and Elder Bingyu went to the Lubei Ocean.
…
After these three groups went to different oceans, Qu Yi and his companions in the Lunnan Ocean had no idea that Elder Linghuo was on his way there. They continued to hunt demonic beasts in the sea with great enthusiasm.
At that moment, the demonic beasts in front of Qu Yi were actually six Purple Scaled Tiger Sharks.

The Purple-Scaled Tiger Sharks, reaching up to 30 meters in length and possessing the strength of late Golden Core stage, swam side by side. Their combined auras made them even more terrifying as they drew in seawater, emitting a cold, murderous intent. However, Qu Yi and the others felt no fear and focused intently, ready for a fierce battle.