Chapter 22: Seizing the Spirit Stone Mining Area

On the other side, the mining disciples of the Fire Moon Sect were in a dire situation.
Bai Man released blood-sucking mosquitoes, the Five-Element Dragon Head emitted countless streams of golden qi, and the two turtle-dragon beasts charged forward recklessly. Those disciples at the Foundation stage were quickly devoured by these blood-drinking monsters at the Golden Core stage, not a single drop of blood left behind.
Seeing that no help was needed on Bai Man’s side, Qu Yi immediately flew over to Qing Wu Gui to watch how he dealt with the Puppet Leopard.
Inside the Puppet Leopard’s body was a “Flowing Wind Formation” that allowed it to move at high speeds and turn swiftly. There was also an attack formation called “Thousand Wind Blades” within it. When activated by spirit stones, thousands of wind blades would be released, leaving no other option but to withstand them head-on.
However, to maintain the Puppet Leopard’s attack power and agility, the spirit stones used had to be at least of medium quality.
Qing Wu Gui approached the Puppet Leopard but did not attack the person at the early Golden Core stage beside it. Instead, he wanted to first understand the energy-based attack methods of the Puppet Leopard and grasp the characteristics of the “Thousand Wind Blades” spell.
“Leopard, kill him,” ordered the person at the early Golden Core stage, controlling the Puppet Leopard.
Then, the Puppet Leopard rushed toward Qing Wu Gui at high speed, already casting the “Thousand Wind Blades” spell.
A thousand blue wind blades formed a large square formation and swept toward Qing Wu Gui. Now, he couldn’t even fly away and had to withstand this wind blade formation with his own strength.
Qing Wu Gui had reached the early Yuan Ying stage. Although his strength was limited to the late Golden Core stage due to severe poison, he immediately sensed the attack pattern of the “Thousand Wind Blades.”
“Slay Thousands of Armies!”
With a light shout, Qing Wu Gui swung his black sword ten times, creating another thousand wind blades that charged at the “Thousand Wind Blades.”
The two rows of wind blades collided, causing Qing Wu Gui’s “Slay Thousands of Armies” to collapse, forming a thousand whirlwinds in the air. The “Thousand Wind Blades,” having lost some energy to “Slay Thousands of Armies,” were further weakened by these whirlwinds, reducing the strength of the wind blades heading toward Qing Wu Gui.
A black energy shield appeared around Qing Wu Gui, blocking all the incoming wind blades.
“I can only unleash the strength of the late Golden Core stage for now. Otherwise, my ‘Slay Thousands of Armies’ would have shattered the ‘Thousand Wind Blades’ long ago,” Qing Wu Gui sighed slightly.

At this moment, the person in the early Jin Dan stage who controlled the Puppet Leopard was even more astonished. The Puppet Leopard, which had always destroyed anyone it encountered, was now being held back by someone in the late Jin Dan stage. Seeing Qu Yi watching eagerly nearby, as well as Wu Yuan and Gui Jiao approaching rapidly, this early Jin Dan stage person realized that despite having a Puppet Leopard in the early Yuan Ying stage, he was still in danger.

“Leopard, let’s go!”
The early Jin Dan stage person decisively decided to flee.
Since the Puppet Leopard possessed the ‘Flowing Wind Formation,’ he was confident that escaping would be no problem, allowing him to return to Fire Moon Sect and report the situation to Sect Master Yong Shan.

“Qu Yi, it’s up to you,” Qing Wu Gui said, knowing her speed couldn’t match Qu Yi’s, and turned to look at him with a smile.
Undoubtedly, Qu Yi, who had speed-based secret techniques, also knew that only he had the ability to catch up with the Puppet Leopard now.

“Leave it to me!” Qu Yi immediately dashed after it.
The early Jin Dan stage person, sitting on the Puppet Leopard and facing the fierce wind, still felt worried and used his spiritual sense to sense around.
“Ah? Where’s one person?” the early Jin Dan stage person exclaimed in surprise.
At that moment, in front of the Puppet Leopard, Qu Yi was laughing heartily, already holding the four formation discs: Wind Binding Formation, Wild Fire Formation, Golden Thorns Formation, and Storm Sand Formation.
In an instant, as soon as the early Jin Dan stage person noticed Qu Yi’s move, all four formations were activated.
Wind! Fire! Golden thorns! Storm sand!
The Puppet Leopard itself wasn’t harmed, but the early Jin Dan stage person sitting on it couldn’t withstand these four formations, each possessing the power of a late Jin Dan stage warrior.
Undoubtedly, the early Jin Dan stage person died instantly under the combined attack of the four formations.
The uncontrollable Puppet Leopard also stopped immediately. It turned out that the Puppet Leopard carried the soul imprint of that early Jin Dan stage person; once he died, the Puppet Leopard lost its control and stopped automatically, as if lost.
“Sister, come quickly! Mark this Puppet Leopard as yours with your blood,” Qu Yi shouted cheerfully while standing next to the Puppet Leopard.
Hearing this, Bai Man giggled happily, flew over to the Puppet Leopard, dropped a drop of blood on it, and then put it into her storage bag.
After eliminating Fire Moon Sect’s influence in this spirit stone mining area, Qu Yi immediately ordered the Artifact God to take action and mine all the spirit stones in the area.

The inch-world sphere flew out, drilling into the mine tunnels dug by the disciples of the Fire Moon Sect, then began moving rapidly through the layers of spirit stones, transporting them all into the inch-world sphere. While the Artifact God controlled the sphere to collect the spirit stones, it kept shouting, “So great! Absolutely amazing!” Of course, only Qu Yi could hear this voice, as the Artifact God only had a spiritual connection with him. Upon hearing this, Qu Yi understood that this spirit stone mine contained a vast amount of stones of high quality. Naturally, Qu Yi stood there in stupor, a smile forming on his lips. It took an entire day, using the sphere’s collection capacity, to fully gather all the spirit stones from this mine area. “Absolutely amazing… but also extremely exhausting,” the Artifact God sighed again as the sphere returned to Qu Yi’s soul. Qu Yi was speechless. Qing Wu Gui hovered in the air, observing the entire 200-mile radius of the mountainous area, which had sunk beneath the surface. After thinking for a moment, he immediately flew over to Qu Yi. “Qu Yi, you’ve collected all the spirit stones here. The people from the Fire Moon Sect are coming. Aren’t you afraid they’ll figure out you possess a massive storage artifact?” Qing Wu Gui asked worriedly. A spatial artifact of such a large scale was likely beyond even the largest space rings in the cultivation world. Of course, if anyone knew Qu Yi had such an artifact, many would come to pursue him. “Qing Wu, there’s no need to worry. First, no one knows I collected these stones. Second, even if the Fire Moon Sect’s people arrive, do you think Yong Shan would reveal this news?” Qu Yi replied with a smile. Having spent time with Qing Wu Gui, Qu Yi naturally gave him a nickname—Qing Wu. Qing Wu Gui didn’t object and allowed Qu Yi and the others to call him that. After careful consideration, Qing Wu Gui agreed that Qu Yi made sense. With the death of Master Han Shang at the Fire Moon Sect, fifteen Golden Core cultivators killed at the Immortal Cloud Sect, and now three more Golden Core cultivators dying along with several important mines, the sect’s members were already uneasy. If Yong Shan revealed the loss of the spirit stone mines now, those cultivators who relied on spirit stones for cultivation would have even less reason to stay at the Fire Moon Sect, causing great turmoil within it. Therefore, if Yong Shan found out about the loss, his most likely move would be to suppress the news and secretly send people to investigate. … In the distance, three figures were flying at high speed toward the Fire Moon Sect’s spirit stone mine area. The three were Master Ling Huo, Wan Chang, and Yong Shan.

Receiving the report from the disciples of Fire Moon Sect outside the mining area, Yongshan immediately realized something serious had happened. He then went to ask for help from Elder Linghuo, who summoned Wan Chang, and the three of them rushed over.
“Who did this?” Yongshan looked down at the entire mountainous area and shouted in anger.
The whole area was filled with cracks and sinkholes, fallen trees, and overturned soil and rocks. The usual presence of spiritual stone energy was now replaced by a strong smell of dirt. Clearly, the entire spiritual stone mine had been emptied. As the leader of Fire Moon Sect, Yongshan knew well how important this mine was to his sect. Seeing this, he was almost driven to the point of breaking apart.
Elder Linghuo used his spiritual sense to scan the surroundings and sighed, “Yongshan, it seems a group of people came here. They brought dozens of space rings and seized the spiritual stone mine while we were at Lihuo Peak.”
Wan Chang also sighed deeply.
Yongshan even shed tears—he could no longer bear such devastation. The various blows Fire Moon Sect had suffered recently had left him, as the leader, physically and mentally exhausted under immense psychological pressure. Now that the spiritual stone mine, on which the sect relied, was gone, he naturally wept.
At that moment, the eight people who had followed arrived—they were all at the Golden Core stage. Among them was Huai Jin.
Beneath Elder Linghuo and the others, the Inch Realm Ball had turned into dust and lay quietly in the soil. Undoubtedly, the Spirit God’s spiritual sense was constantly monitoring Fire Moon Sect’s situation.
“Qu Yi, Huai Jin has joined Fire Moon Sect,” the Spirit God told Qu Yi about his discovery.
“What!” Bai Man cried out first, her eyes immediately filling with tears.
Huai Jin’s betrayal had led to the destruction of Xianyun Sect and his own death. Bai Man never forgot this hatred.
Qu Yi quickly held Bai Man back to calm her down before saying coldly, “Now that we know Huai Jin’s whereabouts, it seems our next target should be to kill him and ensure this traitor receives his due punishment.”
Bai Man nodded, her eyes still red.
In the air, Elder Linghuo glanced at the eight Golden Core cultivators behind him and said sternly, “Everyone, keep quiet about what’s happening here. Otherwise, I will burn them to death, destroying their souls as well.”
“Yes, Sect Leader!” the eight Golden Core cultivators replied promptly.
Yongshan also understood Elder Linghuo’s intention. Realizing he had forgotten about this due to his excitement, he knew the loss of this spiritual stone mine must not be known to Fire Moon Sect’s disciples—or else chaos would truly ensue.