Chapter 48: Chaos Crystal

The elders of the Three Cultivational Sects—Taiyuan Gate, Qingyun Sect, and LanYang Palace—saw the elders of Cangyang Valley fleeing toward the bottom of the fissure and immediately flew down to continue pursuing them.
Deep within the ground, flames continued to erupt, dividing the fissure into a northern and southern section.
The eleven elders of Cangyang Valley kept flying downward, extending their spiritual senses, but they failed to detect the bottom of the fissure. They could only fly further down with trepidation.
The elders of the three sects also followed closely behind.
As the elders of the four sects flew deeper, they felt an increasing sense of strangeness and confusion, forcing them to slow down.
After about a day of flight, the eleven elders of Cangyang Valley finally sensed the bottom of the fissure. There were no flames there—only a peculiar energy that floated like clouds, entirely red in color. It was only on the surface of this “cloud layer” that the flames capable of devouring spiritual senses existed. It seemed as though all the spiritual energy from Tianyi Star had gathered here, forming this energy cloud layer that sustained the enormous wall of flames in the fissure.
The eleven elders of Cangyang Valley stopped above this cloud layer but dared not enter it, as it was too mysterious, filled with too many unknowns.
Mystery often meant danger.
The elders of the three sects also arrived above this cloud layer, still surrounding the eleven elders of Cangyang Valley.
“Liang Kui, Cui Zhan, Rong Zhu—don’t push them too hard. We’ve reached the bottom of the fissure, which should also be the core of Tianyi Star. If you insist on fighting to the death, we’re willing to join you. But everything here at the bottom of the fissure is strange. If you provoke these peculiar energies, you too will be in danger,” Li Zhong of Cangyang Valley warned cautiously.
While speaking, the eleven elders of Cangyang Valley also drew out their magical artifacts, especially the Eight Directions Seal, to defend against the attacks from the three sects’ elders.
Liang Kui used his spiritual senses to examine these energy clouds beneath the ground but was unable to determine their nature. Despite his advanced cultivation level and his true energy being nearly pure, like primordial energy, the energies here were chaotic and disordered.
Cui Zhan and Rong Zhu, the two team leaders, also sensed the energy of these cloud layers and came to the same conclusion as Liang Kui— they had no idea what these energies were.

However, these three team leaders simultaneously believed that the energy in those clouds was quite mixed and did not seem to possess explosive properties. Thus, their expressions toward the eleven members of Cangyang Valley became less friendly.
“Cangyang Valley, you are a sect of cultivators of evil forces. Since you have encountered us three sects of cultivators of righteousness, it’s only your bad luck. Hand over your lives now,” Liang Kui shouted immediately after communicating with Cui Zhan and Rong Zhu through their spiritual connections.
Immediately afterward, the elders from the Taiyuan Sect, Qingyun Sect, and Lanyang Palace, each wielding their magical artifacts, launched spells in attack.
The Taiyuan Sect focused on metal-based cultivation techniques, so most of these elders used metal-related spells. When these spells were cast, a golden world emerged; amidst the dazzling golden light, the spells formed from golden essence were extremely powerful.
The Qingyun Sect specialized in wood-based cultivation techniques, and all eleven elders cast wood-related spells. With their magical artifacts pointed forward, green spells covered the sky and earth. Among these spells were binding techniques to trap enemies, wind-blade formations that resembled thousands of wind blades slashing continuously, and corrosion spells that caused opponents to rot like leaves turning to mud.
The Lanyang Palace relied on fire-based cultivation techniques, and most of its eleven elders also cast fire-related spells. Once again, they used that pipe-shaped magical artifact, fueled by fire essence, to summon eleven fire dragons that rushed toward the eleven members of Cangyang Valley.
“Defend!” Seeing the situation, Li Zhong could only order the elders to resist.
Cangyang Valley practiced earth-based cultivation techniques. Eight of its eleven elders held the Eight Directions Seals and, using their essence, created eight layers of earth-based energy shields, one inside another, providing thorough protection for all eleven members.
Boom! Boom!
The eight circular shields burst one after another, revealing the eleven members of Cangyang Valley. Then, they cast more spells to eliminate the lingering effects of the spells from the Taiyuan Sect, Lanyang Palace, and Qingyun Sect.
Due to the previous attacks, energy turbulence arose throughout the underground area, with most of the energy rushing back into the energy clouds there.
Huh! Huh!
Silent at first, yet sounds emerged—mysterious and ethereal noises coming from the energy clouds underground.
Then, suddenly, forty-four streams of red energy burst forth from the energy clouds, so fast that it was impossible to react. These energy streams wrapped around all the elders from the four sects, and with a slight contraction, they pulled all forty-four elders into the energy clouds, making them disappear.

Meanwhile, beneath the energy cloud, it was no longer red but an utterly empty space. Everyone could sense the presence of others nearby, yet they couldn’t see their bodies—everything was so illusory.
In fact, within this void-like energy, forty-four circular balloons enclosed those forty-four people, just like bubbles in a fish tank, trapping them inside.
……
The Dimension Ball remained floating above the ground, keeping watch over the struggle between the four factions until all their elders were drawn into the energy cloud.
At that moment, Qu Yi inside the Dimension Ball stared in astonishment at the Instrument God. He had already noticed those strange forty-four streams of energy and was even more curious about how the elders of the four factions had been taken away without any resistance. So, Qu Yi could only look at the Instrument God, hoping that this seemingly all-knowing expert would explain things.
The Instrument God lay motionless on the soft chair with his eyes closed, unable to bear Qu Yi’s gaze any longer. He finally spoke, “Qu Yi, I don’t know what this strange energy is either; I’ve never seen it in my life. But I’ve thought of something—it resembles the mixed energy in your dantian. You might as well enter this energy cloud to experience it.”
Hearing this, Qu Yi was even more surprised. He hadn’t expected anything to stump the Instrument God. But after hearing his words, Qu Yi carefully sensed the energy in the cloud again and indeed felt a sense of familiarity. This energy seemed to be one level higher than the mixed energy in his dantian, yet many of their characteristics were very similar.
“Alright, I’ll go into this strange energy cloud and take a look,” Qu Yi said eagerly.
Soon, Qu Yi emerged from the Dimension Ball and fell into the energy cloud.
Amazing!
As soon as Qu Yi entered the energy cloud, he felt an indescribable sense of comfort and pleasure, as if bathed in a gentle spring breeze and warm sunlight, or like a fish returning to the sea. The energy rushed into his body instantly.
The top layer of this energy cloud was ten miles thick and entirely red, while the layers below were made of an empty energy—colorless yet clearly perceptible.
Now, Qu Yi was in this layer of empty energy. That void-like energy flowed into his body like water, washing away all impurities and stagnation within. Eventually, all of this energy converged in his dantian.

At this moment, the hybrid Yuanling in Qu Yi’s dantian greedily absorbed these formless energies like a baby sucking milk—endlessly, as if it could never be satisfied. Suddenly, the Voice of the Artifact God rang out, “Qu Yi, just let the hybrid Yuanling absorb these energies; it’s beneficial for you.” Qu Yi smiled helplessly. It wasn’t up to him now whether to absorb them or not; the hybrid Yuanling was absorbing them frantically on its own. Even trying to use the five-element techniques to manipulate the five elements within his internal organs wasn’t enough. “Artifact God, why do I find that the color of the mixed energy in my dantian is changing?” Qu Yi exclaimed in surprise after inwardly observing. It turned out that as the hybrid Yuanling absorbed the formless energies, those energies also altered the mixed energy around it. Previously, the mixed energy had been a mix of five colors, but now it was gradually turning gray, and that gray was slowly fading, as if it too was about to become formless. “Qu Yi, don’t worry. This might be a good thing. Oh… I remember now. This formless energy is likely chaos energy—a highly advanced form of energy that emerged when the universe was formed. There’s very little of this chaos energy left in the universe now. I never expected there to still be remnants on Tianyi Star,” the Artifact God said joyfully. Hearing this, Qu Yi’s face lit up too. If his hybrid Yuanling could absorb this chaos energy, it meant that the mixed energy in his dantian would likely evolve into chaos energy in the future. Just then, Qu Yi sensed that the hybrid Yuanling had completely become transparent and had stopped absorbing chaos energy, yet that chaos energy continued to seep into his dantian. “Artifact God, what should I do? This chaos energy is about to kill me!” Qu Yi was at a loss and quickly sought help from the Artifact God. “There’s such a thing? Qu Yi, use the mixed energy to concentrate and condense the surrounding chaos energy into chunks of chaos crystals,” the Artifact God replied swiftly. Without hesitation, Qu Yi followed the Artifact God’s advice. He gathered the invisible but perceptible chaos energy around him using his mixed energy in both palms and compressed it intensely. Gray chaos crystals actually appeared. As soon as they appeared, Qu Yi stored them in his space ring and continued compressing the chaos energy to create more crystals. The chaos energy throughout the underground area flowed endlessly toward Qu Yi.