Chapter 26: Mid-Stage Outward Emergence

Qu Yi and his group had been conducting robberies over the Ten Islands Ocean in their Cloud-Stepping Ship for a year. Monks in the Distracted State were left to the care of the two monstrous beasts, the Golden Qilin and the Illusory Dancing Butterfly—one wielding a mountain-smashing staff that terrified people with its roar, the other using graceful dances to induce delusion and despair, making them perfect for robbery. Of course, over the course of this year, the Illusory Dancing Butterfly’s attitude toward the Golden Qilin had improved significantly, and gradually, they began to talk more to each other.

As for monks in the Outward Emergence State, Qu Yi handled them personally. Equipped with the top-grade treasures, the Fulong Sword and the Tulong Sword, along with the five-element attack techniques taught in the divine scripture “Five Energies and Three Flowers,” Qu Yi found it easy to deal with monks at this stage.

During his Yuan Ying stage, Qu Yi had only practiced the most basic levels of these five-element attack techniques. For example, among the metal-element techniques—Annihilation, Severity, and Final Destruction—he had only mastered Annihilation. Now that he had reached the early stage of Outward Emergence, he could proceed to practice Severity. The wood-element techniques were withering, languor, and death; the water-element techniques were coldness, ice fields, and silence; the fire-element techniques were explosion, sea of fire, and exhaustion; and the earth-element techniques were disintegration, cracking, and crushing pressure. During his Yuan Ying stage, Qu Yi had already mastered Withering, Coldness, Explosion, and Disintegration. Now, he began to practice the second set: Languor, Ice Fields, Sea of Fire, and Cracking.

Through a year of robbing, Qu Yi had become highly proficient in these second set of five-element attack techniques. After all, there were many monks who came to Baiyin Star from other planets, and dozens of them could be encountered daily over the Ten Islands Ocean. Qu Yi took this opportunity to refine his attack techniques further.

The violent beast Wuyuan was kept inside Qu Yi’s Dimensional Sphere for half a year, so frustrated that its dragon head was almost split in two before Qu Yi finally set it free. Then, filled with unhappiness, Wuyuan spent its time in the ocean, fighting against marine monsters—killing a hundred of them every day—to gradually ease its frustration.

At this moment, the Cloud-Stepping Ship arrived above an island and stopped. Qu Yi flew out of the ship and hovered above the island, calling out with a smile, “The five fellow cultivators on the island, please come out of your invisibility arrays. I’d like to spar with you.”

It turned out that while Qu Yi was controlling the Cloud-Stepping Ship, the spirit of the artifact had scanned the surroundings and informed him of the situation on the island.

The island remained calm.

Qu Yi could only nod at the Golden Qilin, who then flew out of the ship with a fierce roar, gripping his mountain-smashing staff, and suddenly swung it at the island.

Boom!
The intense air pressure generated a heart-rending sonic boom as it struck the island head-on, causing the entire island to vanish. Five men in black robes flew angrily into the air.
All five of them were at an advanced stage of the Outward Departure cultivation realm.
“How did you find us? Why are you attacking us?” one of the men snapped angrily.
Qu Yi smiled as he glanced at the five of them, drew out the Fulong Sword, and said, “Gentlemen, I’d like to spar with you. If you lose, all your treasures will belong to me.”
Hearing this, the five became even angrier. Qu Yi was only at an early stage of Outward Departure, yet he dared to look down on them who were at an advanced stage—this was a blatant humiliation. But despite their anger, they quickly glanced at the Golden Qilin, who was at an early stage of Divine Transformation, and their emotions began to calm down.
There shouldn’t be any life-threatening danger. Otherwise, that powerful being at the early stage of Divine Transformation would have already used his golden staff to attack them. The five understood this.
“What if you lose?” another man among them couldn’t help but ask.
“Haha, I won’t lose,” Qu Yi laughed loudly.
Before his words faded, he had already taken off, rushing straight at the five men.
The five men’s expressions turned solemn as they quickly drew out their own magical weapons—long swords of the same design, emitting a green glow with a chilling sharpness.
Suddenly, all five green swords released a green light sphere, which merged together to form a garden filled with floral fragrance. A strange aroma filled the entire space.
The five men had practiced wood-element cultivation techniques, and what they had just used was a combined attack technique called “Spring Filling the Garden.”
Qu Yi smiled slightly, suddenly stopped his charge, and soared upward, avoiding the swirling fragrance and flowers, thus remaining unharmed.
Immediately afterward, the green grass, red flowers, and green trees formed from his vital energy scattered in the wind, restoring the clear sky.
In the air, Qu Yi saw the five men staring at him in shock. A smile appeared on his face. Although he was only at an early stage of Outward Departure, his speed was already on par with those at an advanced stage.
“Fierce!”
Suddenly, seeing the five men relax slightly, Qu Yi shouted and used a gold-element attack secret technique.
His body vanished abruptly, and the entire sky became filled with a stern and cold aura, causing people to feel uneasy.
The next moment, Qu Yi reappeared beside one of the five men, his Fulong Sword already plunged into his body. In the blink of an eye, he flew back into the air, distancing himself from the five men.

The man who had been struck by a sword was not fatally injured; Qu Yi had no intention of killing him.
“How is that possible? What spell did you use just now? It disappeared suddenly and reappeared suddenly, even evading our spiritual sensing,” asked the injured man, looking panicked.
Of course, Qu Yi wouldn’t tell him that he had extracted all the metal-elemental vital energy from his lungs and used the attack secret technique ‘Slaughter’, which proved very effective.
Just as Qu Yi was about to use the wood-elemental attack secret technique ‘Withering’, he suddenly froze, a look of ecstasy appearing on his lips.
It turned out that while one of his spiritual senses was used for combat, the other five were constantly scanning the formation. At that moment, Qu Yi’s soul realm had reached the mid-stage of leaving the body.
With his soul realm established and his late-stage leaving-the-body Yuan Ying already ready, he could naturally proceed to advance to mid-stage leaving the body.
“Golden Qilin, capture these five first. I’ll deal with them after I reach mid-stage leaving the body,” Qu Yi said with a smile, already sheathing his Fulong Sword.
“Okay!” the Golden Qilin replied cheerfully.
The Mountain Smashing Rod was swung through the air, creating a pressure as immense as the sky pressing down, which instantly enveloped the five men, causing them to faint under the pressure.
Meanwhile, Qu Yi had entered the Inch Realm Sphere.
…
Ten days passed. Qu Yi sat by the lake, focusing entirely on strengthening his soul realm.
Now, feeling that his soul realm was solidified and his body was in optimal condition, he opened his eyes.
Immediately afterward, Qu Yi took out a jade platform and placed the Yuan Yings he had collected earlier on it—one each of the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth-elemental Yuan Yings from the late-stage leaving-the-body realm.
Then, Qu Yi closed his eyes. Inside his body, the five cultivation techniques—‘Glorious Splendor’, ‘Revival of All Plants’, ‘One Color of Water and Sky’, ‘Spreading Flames’, and ‘Vast Imperial Land’—were operating simultaneously. His vital energy rapidly increased in speed, eventually reaching the limit of the early stage of leaving the body.
At this moment, Qu Yi opened his eyes, opened his mouth, and gently sucked in the five Yuan Yings on the jade platform, bringing them into his dantian.
The mixed Yuan Yings in his dantian immediately activated the mixed vital energy, rapidly breaking down the five Yuan Yings and releasing vast streams of the five elements, which instantly surged throughout Qu Yi’s body.

At this moment, Qu Yi once again strived to increase the speed of the operation of the five cultivation methods, guiding an overwhelming amount of energy—metal energy into the lungs, wood energy into the liver, water energy into the kidneys, fire energy into the heart, and earth energy into the spleen. The energy surged throughout his body. At a certain point, the primordial embryos within his five organs suddenly left their bodies and dispersed around Qu Yi’s body, corresponding to each organ. Meanwhile, the five streams of energy within Qu Yi’s body resonated with these external primordial embryos, causing the five types of energy to flow out of his body and into them. As a result, a dense aura of the five elements surrounded Qu Yi completely. Naturally, during this process of energy circulation, his physical body was also tempered by the energy of the five elements. It was believed that after his breakthrough, his physical strength would be sufficient to withstand the attacks of even stronger opponents at the later stages of the cultivation process. As the energy was released, circulated, condensed, and stabilized, the five primordial embryos grew stronger at an astonishing rate. The Vessel God had been observing from nearby. When he saw that Qu Yi’s internal energy might get out of control, he immediately summoned two turtle dragons, which brought out fifty primordial embryos at the intermediate stage of cultivation and arranged them around Qu Yi in a specific pattern. In moments, the pile of five primordial embryos began to resonate with Qu Yi’s own primordial embryos. The energy from the pile also flowed into them, simultaneously responding to the energy within Qu Yi’s body, creating a remarkable energy circle both inside and outside his body. Time passed slowly as Qu Yi worked hard to reach the intermediate stage of the primordial embryo cultivation. …… After knocking out the five men, the Golden Qilin found another island and threw them there. Whenever they woke up, the Golden Qilin would strike them with his staff to knock them out again. Although it was a bit violent, it saved a lot of trouble, as the Golden Qilin had no interest in arguing with them. A month had passed. Suddenly, Qu Yi appeared on the island, smiling at the Golden Qilin. “Ah, master, you have already reached the intermediate stage of cultivation,” the Golden Qilin exclaimed in delight. Qu Yi nodded, then snapped his fingers five times, sending out five beams of true energy that awakened the five unconscious men. “Please… stop hitting us on the head,” the men said, already suffering from severe phobias, crying out for mercy as soon as they woke up. Qu Yi paused for a moment, realizing that the Golden Qilin must have been too violent over the past month. He didn’t mind it and continued smiling, saying, “Gentlemen, our battle isn’t over yet. Let’s continue.”

The five men, as if hearing a death sentence, knelt down at once and cried out loudly, “Fellow cultivator, please stop torturing us. What do you want? We’ll give it to you!”
They were utterly terrified.
Qu Yi was taken aback for a moment before realizing there was no point in fighting them further—they were already filled with fear.
“Very well. Keep all your treasures, and you can leave,” Qu Yi said indifferently.
The five men, as if hearing the most wonderful sound in the world, immediately took out all their storage bracelets and magical treasures stored in their bodies.
Qu Yi smiled faintly, already thinking about whom to rob next.