Chapter 14: Goodbye, Wei Yan

Qu Yi held the Five-Element Yuan Ying and shook his head, not very excited.
“It’s just a Yuan Ying in the middle stage—really not interesting at all. If it were a Yuan Ying in the later stage, that would be great,” Qu Yi muttered to himself.
As someone already at the early stage of the Yuan Ying, to reach the middle stage, if he had to devour Yuan Yings in the middle stage, he would need ten of each of the five elements—meaning he would have to kill fifty people at that stage, which was quite exhausting. If he devoured Yuan Yings in the later stage, he would only need one of each element.
“Qu Yi, you should be happy that there are Yuan Yings for you to devour. You keep complaining. Although most people in this Hundred Demons Mountain Region don’t have Yuan Yings, there are still some demon cultivators who do. Go ahead and fight your heart out here,” the Voice of the Artifact God rang out.
Qu Yi chuckled, quickly stowed away the Yuan Ying, and then sent his spiritual sense into the young man’s storage bracelet.
“There are so many mid-grade spirit stones here—probably over a thousand. Wow, there are also five top-grade spirit stones. Where did this guy get so many spirit stones?” Qu Yi exclaimed excitedly after scanning it with his spiritual sense.
Right now, Qu Yi was in dire need of spirit stones, as he had almost spent all of them at the Demon Island auction. Now, having obtained over a thousand mid-grade spirit stones and five top-grade ones, he wouldn’t have to worry about a shortage for now.
Qu Yi didn’t really need spirit stones for cultivation—he only needed to devour Yuan Yings. But since Bai Man wanted to speed up her cultivation, having spirit stones would be useful, so he kept them for her.
“Qu Yi, there are also many material for refining artifacts in this storage bracelet. I saw Dingkong Jade Crystals, which are materials used to create space teleportation arrays. Keep them well,” the Voice of the Artifact God reminded him cheerfully.
At this reminder, Qu Yi immediately took out all the materials from the young man’s bracelet and floated them in the air. He quickly found the Dingkong Jade Crystals.
The Dingkong Jade Crystals were fist-sized, diamond-shaped, and transparent crystals formed from transparent jade, containing infinite spatial energy.
There were three such crystals in total. Qu Yi picked them up, played with them for a while, then said with a smile, “Voice of the Artifact God, it seems that in this Hundred Demons Mountain Region, everyone is a treasure trove, full of surprises. I need to explore thoroughly.”

The Artifact God immediately replied, “From now on, go and challenge those at the later Yuan Ying stage; only then can you improve your strength. If you encounter someone at the middle Yuan Ying stage, just swing your Jade Sword and kill them—there’s no need to waste time.”
Qu Yi quickly agreed and then took off to find a target.
…
In the sky, a middle-aged man dressed entirely in black was flying at high speed.
Suddenly, a crescent-shaped beam of light as wide as a palm appeared in the sky and headed straight for the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man, at the middle stage of Yuan Ying and practicing a wood-based cultivation technique, was very quick-witted. As soon as he sensed the beam of light, a green bamboo sword appeared in his palm.
“You dare, young brat!” the middle-aged man roared.
Then, the green bamboo sword emitted a green energy shield to counter the attack of the beam of light.
Bang!
The beam of light almost ignored the wood-based energy shield, instantly breaking through it and continuing its attack on the middle-aged man.
“No!” the middle-aged man screamed.
The beam of light pierced into his body, instantly draining his life force, causing his body to plummet toward the ground.
Suddenly, a man in purple appeared in the sky, catching the middle-aged man’s body. With a grab of his right hand, he extracted the middle-aged man’s wood-based Yuan Ying.
This man in purple was none other than Qu Yi.
He had been in the Hundred Demons Mountain Range for a month, ambushing a middle-stage Yuan Ying cultivator every day and killing them all with his Jade Sword. However, he hadn’t encountered a single cultivator at the later Yuan Ying stage, which frustrated him greatly.
Most of the thirty middle-stage Yuan Ying cultivators he killed were body-cultivation types, so although he killed them, he didn’t obtain any Yuan Ying. But these thirty people carried storage bags or bracelets filled with many valuable items—spirit stones, crafting materials, precious medicinal pills, and rare artifacts—allowing Qu Yi to amass a fortune.
Naturally, Bai Man, who was inside the Dimensional Sphere, also benefited from some of these medicinal pills, raising her strength to the later stage of Golden Dan. If not for Bai Man’s insufficient soul realm, Qu Yi could have helped her break through directly to the early stage of Yuan Ying.
During this month, Qu Yi also stayed in contact with Qing Wu Gui through the communication token and learned that Qing Wu Gui had killed ten people and was showing signs of breaking through to the middle stage of Yuan Ying.
“Qu Yi, fly east for a thousand miles. I’ve detected Wei Yan’s presence,” the Artifact God’s voice suddenly rang out.

Qu Yi, who was still checking the storage bracelet of the middle-aged man, immediately leaped up at the sound and rushed eastward. At the same time, he took out six Yuan Ying at the early stage of Yuan Ying and threw them into his mouth, restoring the vital energy he had consumed by wielding the jade sword earlier.

Having already reached the early stage of Yuan Ying, Qu Yi naturally didn’t need to devour these Yuan Ying to advance further. He would consume them only when needed to restore his vital energy.

……

Wei Yan was currently fighting fiercely against a gloomy-looking young man.

“Gusong, you’re also a genius. It’s a shame you’ve only just reached the late stage of Yuan Ying. Your strength is far inferior to mine. Better submit to me,” Wei Yan said, waving a Sky-Slicing Blade while speaking nonstop.

The Sky-Slicing Blade contained a “Wind Blade Splitting the Sky” formation and was itself a mid-grade precious weapon. When activated with vital energy, it would manifest a large green sword that moved at incredible speed.

The young man named Gusong wasn’t afraid at all. Wielding a silver sword wrapped in golden threads, he swung it, creating three golden blades in midair to simultaneously block the incoming green sword.

The sword in Gusong’s hand was called the Fulong Sword, a top-grade metal precious weapon that contained three formations. One of them was the “Three Elements Sword Energy” formation, which could generate three golden blades that automatically formed the Three Elements Sword Formation, possessing great power.

Indeed, the three golden blades met the green sword but suddenly deflected, moving to the side of the green sword before colliding forcefully, causing it to deviate and become unstable, scattering rapidly.

“Not bad. Your top-grade precious weapon can indeed resist my attacks. But your vital energy is still too weak. I wonder how long you can hold out,” Wei Yan shouted with a smile.

“Go ahead and attack,” Gusong replied fearlessly. In the Hundred Demons Mountain Range, he had faced countless powerful opponents and slain them all through sheer strength, which had enabled him to reach the late stage of Yuan Ying. His pride had grown immensely.

Wei Yan laughed loudly and said appreciatively, “Gusong, I like your pride. But still, you must become my puppet.”

As soon as he spoke, Wei Yan picked up the Sky-Slicing Blade, his body becoming elusive, appearing and disappearing left and right, making it hard to pinpoint his exact location. This was Wei Yan displaying his true movement skill. His true form was a four-winged swift eagle, and his greatest strength lay in his speed.

This ethereal movement style made Gu Xing frown deeply, as he realized he couldn’t even lock onto Wei Yan’s body with his spiritual sense. If Wei Yan launched a sudden attack, he might not even have time to defend himself.
“Thousand Gold Sweep!”
Gu Xing suddenly shouted and channeled his vital energy into the Fulong Sword, activating the second formation sealed within it—Thousand Gold Sweep. Instantly, a thousand needle-thin swords emerged from the Fulong Sword and scattered in all directions with great speed.
Of course, Gu Xing intended to use this aggressive attack to leave Wei Yan with no place to hide, so he could lock onto Wei Yan’s body and continue attacking.
“Wind Suction Shield!” Sure enough, Wei Yan’s figure appeared as he shouted. In an instant, the spiritual energy of the world gathered to form a spiritual energy hurricane, which then condensed into a wind shield about the size of a person, shielding Wei Yan.
Dozens of needle-thin golden swords shot toward it and struck the wind shield, causing it to crack, but it still managed to block the attacks. This showed just how powerful the Fulong Sword, this top-grade treasure, was.
Wei Yan, who had been confident earlier, now grew hesitant. Although Gu Xing was only at the early Yuan Ying stage, he possessed a top-grade treasure crafted by someone at the Spirit Division stage, and his spells had the power of someone at the early Outward Emergence stage. He truly couldn’t suppress him right away.
Suddenly, Qu Yi flew over.
“Wei Yan, I’m here,” Qu Yi shouted loudly.
Earlier, both Wei Yan and Gu Xing had been focused on locking onto each other and hadn’t paid attention to their surroundings, so they hadn’t detected Qu Yi’s presence. Now that Qu Yi’s voice was heard, Wei Yan was naturally overjoyed, while Gu Xing frowned again.
In moments, Qu Yi teleported over.
“Boring, you’re here. I’ve been waiting for you for almost two months—finally, you show up,” Wei Yan said cheerfully.
Qu Yi took out a golden long sword and smiled at Wei Yan, saying, “Wei Yan, I’m now at the early Yuan Ying stage. This sword in my hand is called the Splitting Gold Sword, a mid-grade treasure. It should help you defeat this guy.”
It turned out that over the past month, Qu Yi had ambushed some cultivators of the demonic path and obtained the Splitting Gold Sword, a mid-grade treasure, which solved his problem of lacking a metal-type magic weapon.
“Great, great! Then let’s join forces to suppress Gu Xing and catch up later,” Wei Yan laughed heartily.

A mid-grade precious artifact can only be crafted by experts at the Qi Exit stage. With Qu Yi’s strength at the early Yuan Ying stage to power it, the magic spells it emits are equivalent to those of those at the later Yuan Ying stage. Naturally, with such a helper, Wei Yan was confident he could launch a surprise attack on Gu Xing.
“Good,” Qu Yi said with a smile, glancing at Gu Xing indifferently.
Gu Xing glanced at Qu Yi and, seeing that he was only at the early Yuan Ying stage and practiced a gold-based cultivation technique, his expression relaxed slightly.
“You two still can’t defeat me. The Golden World-Destroying Art I practice isn’t something you can easily overcome,” Gu Xing said coldly.
As soon as he finished speaking, Qu Yi moved.