Chapter Ten: The Golden Qilin

The Golden Qilin was fifty meters long. With a single step of its four legs, it appeared right in front of Qu Yi, Qing Wu Gui, and the others, raising a cloud of dust.
Qu Yi, Qing Wu Gui, and Wu Yuan were all terrified, shocked by the majestic appearance of the Golden Qilin.
Its body was covered in golden dragon scales, and its eyes were a meter in size, gleaming with a cold light. In particular, its golden dragon head was even larger than Wu Yuan’s own head, and its thick tail could crack the ground with just a swipe.
At first, Wu Yuan was filled with fear, but then he calmed down. When he saw that the Golden Qilin’s head resembled his own almost exactly, his interest grew, and he began circling around it.
“You three—were you responsible for that battle just now?” the Golden Qilin asked casually, stomping one leg on the ground.
It seemed the Golden Qilin intended to hold them accountable, as the beasts had the right to demand retribution for humans entering the Mountain of Heavenly Punishment.
Wu Yuan sized up the Golden Qilin and grew even happier. Seeing that his own body was only ten meters long and not as big as the Qilin’s, he immediately expanded his size to a hundred meters before stopping.
The Golden Qilin, realizing Wu Yuan had such abilities and was now larger than itself, saw this as a direct challenge.
“What kind of beast are you? How could you become friends with these human cultivators?” The Golden Qilin stopped stomping and glared at Wu Yuan.
Clearly, the Golden Qilin had lived in the Mountain of Heavenly Punishment its entire life without ever leaving, believing that beasts and humans could never coexist. Thinking Wu Yuan was also a beast from Tianhua Star, it was puzzled by his friendship with Qu Yi and Qing Wu Gui.
Wu Yuan then proudly stamped his hooves and smiled, saying, “Ugh, Golden Qilin, it’s because of my strength that I’ve earned the friendship of these two human cultivators.”
The Golden Qilin wasn’t foolish. It not only heard Wu Yuan’s pride but also detected his sarcasm about its weak abilities.
“Hmph! You unknown beast, I’ll kill you!” The Golden Qilin became enraged.
Without hesitation, it lunged at Wu Yuan, its dragon mouth wide open, ready to bite his neck. With its speed, dragon fangs, and the golden energy stored throughout its body, a single bite would surely deal a fatal blow.
Suddenly, Qu Yi stepped in. With his left hand, he drew the Fulong Sword and activated the “True Dragon Swallows Spirit” formation, summoning a golden dragon. With his right hand, he held the Tulong Sword, obtained from Yang Tianqi, and summoned an earth dragon.

A golden dragon and an earth dragon simultaneously wrapped around the golden qilin, pulling it to the ground and flipping it over, causing it to roll around.
Hmph!
The golden qilin was enraged. This human in the early stage of exiting the body neither fled at the right moment nor hesitated to use magical artifacts to attack it—utterly infuriating.
“I’ll kill you all!” the golden qilin roared again before moving.
Suddenly, layers of soil rose from the ground; all the soil from the mountains within a hundred meters seemed to be summoned by the golden qilin and lifted into the air. All the metals in the soil were separated and transformed into thousands of metal swords.
The golden qilin now possessed the ability to control metals, able to easily summon them from the soil.
Those thousands of metal swords shot at Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, and Qing Wu Gui like rain. At the same time, the golden qilin spat out its life force, catalyzing the swords into magical artifacts. Qu Yi no longer dared to withstand them with his physical body.
Qu Yi was quick-witted. He thought his body had reached the strength of the early stage of exiting the body, so he intended to use his body to block those ordinary iron swords and intimidate the golden qilin. But to his shock, the golden qilin had such a talent. In a flash, he waved his hand, creating a barrier of true energy around himself to block the thousands of swords.
Wu Yuan used his turtle-like back to block the swords, then became furious. He flapped his roc wings and spat out a stream of golden swords at the golden qilin.
The golden qilin remained unfazed, not moving at all, and directly blocked the swords.
Wu Yuan was stunned. The dragon scales of this golden qilin must have defense strength equivalent to the early stage of reaching divine focus. When the golden swords struck its scales, they only made a loud noise without leaving even a crack.
At that moment, Qing Wu Gui took action. As soon as he raised his right foot, he was already in front of the golden qilin, his black sword aimed at its right front leg.
The golden qilin leaped back sharply, distancing itself from Qing Wu Gui. It could sense that although Qing Wu Gui was only in the early stage of exiting the body, his black sword was peculiar, and its black true energy carried a murderous intent that terrified it.
“Hmph, you guys have some skills, but you’ll never break through my defense. So I’ll remain invincible. Since you’ve violated the rules of the Mountain of Heavenly Punishment, I’ll kill you all, ensuring that human cultivators never dare enter this mountain again,” the golden qilin declared triumphantly.

The Mountains of Heavenly Punishment are the domain of monstrous beasts; humans who enter there will be punished. Just as the Golden Qilin proudly declared this, Qu Yi suddenly laughed. “Golden Qilin, your defense is indeed astonishing, but your dragon scales are at most at the early stage of distraction-level strength—they can barely withstand the sharpness of top-tier spiritual weapons.” With that, Qu Yi activated his gold-speed secret technique and rushed onto the Golden Qilin’s back, already holding his jade sword in hand, before thrusting it forcefully. Hmph! A geyser of blood sprayed from the Golden Qilin’s back, filling the air with blood mist. Unfazed by the pain, Qu Yi continued to stab repeatedly, creating several bloody holes in its back. “Stop stabbing! I won’t kill you anymore. You may leave the Mountains of Heavenly Punishment; I won’t stop you.” The Golden Qilin never expected its once-proud defense to be effortlessly broken. In agony, it was forced to beg for mercy. The jade sword was a top-tier spiritual weapon, one that could only be crafted by cultivators at the Great Vehicle stage. How could the Golden Qilin’s dragon scales resist such a weapon? Qu Yi still sat on its back, laughing loudly. “Golden Qilin, saying you’ll let us go is ridiculous. If we dared enter the Mountains of Heavenly Punishment, would we fear you monsters? It seems you still don’t understand the situation. I’ll stab you a few more times.” Ten more bloody holes appeared on its back. “Ah, stop! I surrender! Please spare me! State your demands—just stop stabbing!” The Golden Qilin was in so much pain it was nearly unconscious. Seeing it on the verge of death, Qu Yi finally withdrew his jade sword and said with a smile, “Golden Qilin, it’s simple: become my monstrous pet, and I’ll let you go.” It turned out Qu Yi hadn’t used the jade sword to kill the Golden Qilin because he wanted to possess this beast with astonishing defense. “No! I won’t be a pet for humans!” The Golden Qilin shouted angrily, using its last remnants of clarity. Seeing its defiance, Qu Yi laughed again and called out to Wu Yuan, “Wu Yuan, this Golden Qilin has little strength left. It’s yours now. Trample it hard until it agrees to be my pet.” Hearing this, Wu Yuan was delighted. He immediately opened his dragon mouth, grabbed the Golden Qilin, threw it into the air, and as soon as it landed, stepped on it with all four of his hooves, trampling relentlessly while letting out eerie howls.

Qu Yi smiled cheerfully, then froze as the Artifact God sent him a message. After hearing it, he burst into laughter.
A while later, Bai Man and Mu Han left the Dimensional Sphere. Qu Yi said to the two women, “Go drink from the Miao Rong Spring. After your bodies are transformed by the spring water, drink some of the Golden Qilin’s blood—it will be beneficial for you. That’s what the Artifact God said.”
Bai Man and Mu Han were overjoyed and immediately went to drink from the Miao Rong Spring.
…
On Tianhua Star, at the Demon Island’s spatial teleportation array, a message was posted stating that the array would be under repair for a year, preventing anyone from leaving Tianhua Star. However, business transfers from other planets continued as usual.
That day, ten people were teleported over, nine of them at the early stage of the Divided Soul cultivation level, and one at the middle stage.
After sending a message to Yang Di, Leng Yu waited at the Demon Island. Now, he had finally waited for the ten people to arrive.
In a loft on the Demon Island, Leng Yu sat down with the ten people.
“Xia Han, the elder ordered you to come here and follow my commands. I have no choice but to accept that. But since our cultivation levels are the same, I think we should have equal authority in our actions. Let’s work together to find the murderer who killed Tian Qi,” Leng Yu said calmly to the man at the middle stage of Divided Soul cultivation.
It turned out that these ten people were part of a law enforcement team from Cangyang Valley, with Xia Han as their team leader. Naturally, although Leng Yu had received authority from Yang Di, he knew he needed Xia Han’s help on Tianhua Star and couldn’t act arrogantly.
“Brother Leng Yu, since the elder has given the order, I will of course follow your commands. The whole team will obey your instructions,” Xia Han said with a smile.
The other nine also looked at Leng Yu with smiles.
Leng Yu was aware of the situation. Judging from their expressions, he knew that even though they said so, if he tried to take advantage of them, they would resist.
“Brother Xia Han, no need for more pleasantries. This time, Tian Qi disappeared while searching for the Sea Soul Electric Eel in the ocean. Although we don’t know who the murderer is, I think they must know the whereabouts of people from Shixian Valley and followed us to ambush Tian Qi. So, let’s head to Shixian Valley right away to investigate and see if there are any suspicious people there,” Leng Yu said slowly.
Xia Han nodded.
Then, the ten people left the Demon Island and headed toward Shixian Valley on Tianhua Continent.