Chapter 39: Starry Sky Fire

After giving away the Golden Dragon Bloodstone and Golden Orifice Pill, Qu Yi returned to the Lava Lake and entered the cave where the spatial teleportation array was set up.
The over hundred members of the enforcement team had already distributed all the loot equally, and they welcomed Qu Yi’s return with great joy.
“Captain, you’re truly amazing—leaving all the gains for us!”
“Captain, I admire you! I got a bottle of Divine Hao Pill; I can now advance to the middle stage of Spirit Separation.”
“Captain, do you have a partner? I have a younger sister who has reached the late stage of Soul Exit. How about I introduce her to you?”
“Captain, your brilliance illuminates the world; your greatness shakes the heavens; your gaze pierces through all darkness…”
…
After Qu Yi entered the cave, the enforcement team members who had benefited began to shower him with praise without reservation. At that moment, Qu Yi was considered the greatest person in the cultivation world.
Qu Yi waved his hand and said lightly, “Enough. We’re all cultivators—no need for such empty praise. From now on, we’ll keep cultivating here. Chief Commander Liang Kui has already sent me a message; he’s on his way to the Tianhuo Star Region and asked us to wait for him here.”
Indeed, the ten major sects of the Liupan Stars had sent their elder groups out, and Liang Kui immediately informed Qu Yi to lead the enforcement team to wait for their arrival.
Hearing this, the hundred enforcement team members were overjoyed again—now they didn’t have to risk their lives exploring the inner regions of the Tianhuo Star Region. Moreover, if the elder groups arrived and the elders decided to fly through space themselves because they thought the progress was too slow, the enforcement team would still not need to go there.
Seeing the expressions on the enforcement team members’ faces, Qu Yi understood what they were thinking and smiled, saying, “Don’t get too excited too soon. Use this time to improve your cultivation skills. If everything went as planned, those elders would arrive in five years. Their early arrival must mean something has changed. Well, what I need to tell you is that when the elders come, it will still be us enforcement team members who go to the inner regions to explore and set up the spatial teleportation arrays.”
Upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, the expressions of the hundred enforcement team members turned much more gloomy, and they grew worried again.
Qu Yi didn’t want to say more and simply said, “Alright, you all cultivate here outside the outer star. I’ll teleport alone to that inner planet to guard the spatial teleportation array there.”

Without waiting for those law enforcers to respond, Qu Yi had already entered the space teleportation array and quickly teleported away. Undoubtedly, Qu Yi wanted to cultivate alone, not wanting these law enforcers to disturb him, nor letting them know he possessed a Miniature Realm Sphere. As soon as he arrived via teleportation and stepped out of the space teleportation array, he entered the Miniature Realm Sphere, then sat by the lake, took out the Panfire Cauldron, scanned the Three Elements Dao, and used the Samadhi True Fire to further familiarize himself with those basic alchemy materials. Since he had already raised his soul realm to the later stage of Split Consciousness, Qu Yi was not in a hurry to advance it further; instead, he wanted to keep familiarizing himself with alchemy materials and solidify the foundational aspects of alchemy. Inside the Miniature Realm Sphere, the Golden Qilin was refining the Golden Dragon Bloodstone, striving to reach the middle stage of Fusion. Bai Man, at the Wind Listening Residence, had consumed the Golden Orifice Pill and was working toward the early stage of Departure. Meanwhile, Wu Yuan was with the Illusion Dancing Butterfly, watching as the butterfly kept dancing and teasing the three middle-stage Fusion elders of the Guangyuan Sect, secretly stealing their understanding of energy. Wu Yuan watched eagerly, wishing the butterfly would finish quickly so it could swallow their life forces and break through to the middle stage of Fusion. Everyone was striving hard to improve their cultivation levels. … Two months later, the elder groups of the ten major sects arrived one after another at Outer First Star. Outer First Star was the closest to Zhai Tian Star, so these elder groups also used the fastest teleportation route to reach Zhai Tian Star and then flew to Outer First Star. After arriving at Outer First Star, Liang Kui brought the ten middle-stage Fusion elders of the Taiyuan Sect and immediately took out a communication token to contact Qu Yi. Soon, Liang Kui arrived at the lava lake with the ten elders and found the cave where the space teleportation array was set up. Qu Yi had already teleported from the inner planet to the cave and greeted Liang Kui’s group with a smile. “Chief Commander, you’ve arrived,” said Qu Yi. Liang Kui glanced at the law enforcers in the cave and immediately frowned, realizing that there were about thirty fewer of them than before. “Li Mu, did you let thirty law enforcers die on Outer First Star? And where are Meng Zhan and Gui Ning?” Liang Kui asked calmly. Hearing Liang Kui’s words, the law enforcers took a deep breath and looked at Qu Yi nervously.

Qu Yi smiled slightly before calmly saying, “Commander, Meng Zhan and Gui Ning were accidentally struck by the falling celestial fire while taking me to the Lava Lake and have died. Some members of the 20th and 43rd enforcement teams refused to follow my orders, so I dealt with them.”
The former members of the 20th and 43rd teams lowered their heads in embarrassment upon hearing this.
Liang Kui noticed their reactions and knew Qu Yi was telling the truth; otherwise, those members would have come out to accuse him.
“Enough. I’ve said before that I won’t care too much about the lives of these enforcement team members. It’s up to you to protect yourselves. Without strength, no one will care about you,” Liang Kui said with a smile.
Hearing this, Qu Yi asked with a faint smile, “Commander, did you bring the elders here this time to change the original plan?”
The hundred enforcement team members also pricked up their ears, as this affected whether they would go explore the outer areas of the Tianhua Star Region, which involved risking their lives.
Liang Kui remained silent for a while before saying, “The eleven of us will first come here and meditate quietly for five years. Only after your enforcement team has installed all the space teleportation arrays will we head to Tian Er Star or Tian San Star.”
After hearing this, Qu Yi guessed that the treasure wouldn’t appear anytime soon. Judging from the behavior of these ten major sects, it would likely take another five years before the treasure truly appeared; otherwise, the elders wouldn’t be so calm.
“Alright, Commander. Our enforcement team will definitely complete the task,” Qu Yi said calmly.
The enforcement team members could only accept this silently. Anyone who dared to voice dissent would surely die.
After that, Liang Kui and the ten elders quickly set up their own dwellings in the cave and began to meditate.
Qu Yi, following the original plan, teleported all the hundred enforcement team members to the planet he had found.
In this cool cave, the enforcement team members, having just emerged from the space teleportation array, were all surprised. They never expected there to be such a cool place in the Tianhua Star Region.
“Alright, everyone. As per the original plan, you need to go to the outer areas of the Tianhua Star Region to search for planets and set up space teleportation arrays. This time, don’t try to fly through space—just me going alone is enough,” Qu Yi said right after teleporting over.

Upon hearing this, the law enforcers were utterly astonished and began to doubt whether Qu Yi had lost his mind—risking his life in the Tianhuo Scorching Region, where flames flew everywhere. At the same time, they felt a surge of happiness, as they didn’t have to face any danger, and after completing the mission, they would even receive rewards for their efforts, which was truly satisfying.
“Captain, the Tianhuo Scorching Region is extremely dangerous. Aren’t you afraid?”
“Captain, do you have any magical artifacts to ward off the heavenly flames?”
“Captain, do you possess some powerful flying magic artifacts?”…
The sudden happiness left the law enforcers in disbelief, prompting them to speculate wildly.
Qu Yi smiled, waved his hand to silence everyone, and then said, “Everyone, just wait here. I’ll head straight to the inner area of the Tianhuo Scorching Region. I should reach the other planet in no time.”
With that, Qu Yi flew away, disappearing into the starry sky.
Of course, Qu Yi couldn’t tell these law enforcers that he was going alone to explore in order to enter the Cunjie Ball for cultivation. Naturally, the task of exploring by flight was assigned to Jin Qilin.
As expected, as Qu Yi flew through the stars, he dodged several hundred-mile-wide streams of heavenly flames before arriving at a certain spot in space. He immediately summoned Jin Qilin and entered the Cunjie Ball to cultivate.
Jin Qilin, having already refined the Golden Dragon Bloodstone, had reached the mid-stage of the HeTi level.
“Starsky, heavenly flames—here comes Jin Qilin again! I have speed, I have the Eight Directions Sword—nothing can stop me!” Ever since his cultivation level improved with the Eight Directions Sword, he had been extremely excited. As soon as he appeared, he started shouting loudly.
In space, sounds couldn’t travel far. After roaring for a while, Jin Qilin found it pointless and promptly used the Planet Teleportation technique to instantly move to a nearby planet.
…
On the outer planet, Jin Yang Sect, led by the three major demon cultivation sects, along with Shuo Shang, the head of the law enforcement team, and ten elders at the HeTi level, finally arrived.
These eleven people hardly rested upon arriving on the outer planet and scattered to eleven different locations to gather information.
It wasn’t long before they gathered together again.
“Elders, have you found any news? Who killed all our Jin Yang Sect law enforcers?” Shuo Shang asked calmly, but his flickering eyes were chilling.

One of the elders in the later stage of fusion, Shuo Kai, said with some annoyance, “Captain Shuo Shang, I’ve found out that all 200 law enforcers from our Jin Yang Sect were killed by the law enforcement team of Tai Yuan Gate. It was mainly a man named Li Mu from Tai Yuan Gate who used some kind of fire thunder to blow up most of our enforcers, allowing Tai Yuan Gate’s team to take the opportunity to kill them all.”
“Is that so?” Shuo Shang finally learned the real culprit. He took a few slow steps, a cold glint in his eyes, and immediately said, “Now that the elder group of Tai Yuan Gate has also arrived, it will definitely be very difficult for us to confront their law enforcement team. However, I can guess that Liang Kui won’t send those elders to explore the Tian Hua Star Region, so Tai Yuan Gate’s law enforcement team will still have to go there to find a path, which gives us an opportunity.”
Upon hearing this, Shuo Kai’s eyes lit up, and he immediately asked, “Captain, do you plan to ambush all of Tai Yuan Gate’s law enforcement team in the starry sky?”
Shuo Shang nodded slightly.
The other ten elders also smiled in understanding. With their eleven fusion-stage powerhouses, it would be a piece of cake for them to ambush these law enforcement members from Tai Yuan Gate.
After making the plan, the eleven fusion-stage powerhouses of Jin Yang Sect immediately flew into the starry sky, heading toward the inner area of Tian Hua Star Region. Of course, their main goal was to search for ‘Li Mu’ and set up spatial teleportation arrays, but that wasn’t their top priority, as there was still plenty of time.
…
The other eight of the ten major sects—Qing Yun Sect, Lan Yang Palace, Ying Tian Sect, Bi Yan Peak, Cang Yang Valley, Bai Shou Peak, Xian Yue Cliff, and Jiu Gong Island—also sent eleven elders. They arrived in various places on Tian Yi Star and began meditating in the spatial teleportation arrays set up by their own sects.
Meanwhile, the law enforcement teams of these eight sects continued to fly into the inner area of Tian Hua Star Region to search for new planets and set up spatial teleportation arrays.
Thus, in the starry sky, law enforcement members from eight sects were flying in groups toward the inner area of Tian Hua Star Region.
In Tian Hua Star Region, celestial fire could descend at any moment, and the starry sky was no exception.
Suddenly, a 50-li-long bolt of celestial fire formed and attacked the law enforcement members of Qing Yun Sect flying in the sky.
“Run!”
“Scatter!”
“Teleport!”
These law enforcement members in the Diversion Stage had no chance to resist the sudden appearance of the celestial fire, as it contained a large amount of Xuan Ji True Fire, far beyond their capabilities as Diversion Stage cultivators.

Unfortunately, the celestial fire arrived too quickly, and the enforcement members of the Qingyun Sect were unable to react in time. They were enveloped by the flames and couldn’t even shout before being completely burned to ashes. This time, the Qingyun Sect sent a total of 150 enforcement members, yet that wave of celestial fire killed 30 of them at once, leaving less than 120 left. “Be careful everyone! Don’t gather together in this starfield—scatter!” the leader of the Qingyun Sect’s enforcement team shouted in pain. The enforcement members who had just escaped barely survived, nodding in fear with worried expressions as they looked at the starfield ahead. Soon, the Qingyun Sect’s enforcement members flew forward into the starfield once again. Coincidentally, the enforcement members of the other nine sects also suffered attacks from the celestial fire and incurred losses as well. Thus, in this starfield, people from all ten sects had to stay alert and fly forward constantly.