Chapter Twelve: Soul-Transforming Stone

As Qu Yi cast the Poisonous Fruit, his body immediately sank into the abyss. Inside the abyss, spiritual awareness was blocked, it was pitch black with nothing visible, and the aura of souls was fierce, seemingly capable of devouring any essence or soul that entered. Yet Qu Yi didn’t need to worry about any of this—he had already entered the Tiny Realm Sphere.

Outside the abyss, the seven sect elders who had surrounded Qu Yi, aiming to kill him outright—seven thousand in total—had either died at the hands of his Eight Directions Sword or been killed by the poison gas from the Poisonous Fruit. Among the four cultivation sects and the three demon cultivation sects, although there were tens of thousands of elders in the Tribulation Phase, the death of a thousand elders at once dealt a devastating blow to these seven sects.

Inside the Tiny Realm Sphere, lying on a soft chair, Qu Yi kept laughing nonstop, his body trembling violently, almost collapsing the chair.

“Qu Yi, do you really need to be so happy? It’s just that you killed seven thousand Tribulation Phase cultivators—nothing more than ants. Are you so proud of such a small achievement?” The Artifact God, lying on another soft chair nearby, could no longer bear it and rebuked him.

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi immediately turned sideways, glaring at the Artifact God with an expression of defiance.

“Tribulation Phase cultivators? Ants? You’re really bold, really good at boasting. What are Tribulation Phase cultivators? They’re the strongest in the cultivation world, the pillars of the ten major sects. I killed so many at once—can’t I be proud?” Qu Yi shouted.

The Artifact God snapped his eyes open and also turned sideways, glaring at Qu Yi. “In my eyes, Tribulation Phase cultivators are nothing but ants, mere clouds. Back in the day, with just a breath from me, I could kill billions of Tribulation Phase cultivators. Have you ever seen a battle involving billions of people? No, right? I have. Any one of those billions could dominate the entire cultivation world, but in front of me, they can be dealt with with just a clap of my hands. So, aren’t Tribulation Phase cultivators like ants in front of me?”

Qu Yi’s face turned red from frustration. He was already hurt by the Artifact God’s exaggerated tone, feeling that the Artifact God was boasting endlessly just to elevate himself.

“Artifact God, although I know you’re powerful, there’s no need to exaggerate like this,” Qu Yi said with a sigh.

The Artifact God chuckled, lay back down, and suddenly said, “I’m too lazy to explain. When you reach my level through cultivation, you’ll understand whether I’m boasting or not. Well, you’re quite lucky. The elders of the Seven Sects lured you here, thinking they could use this mysterious deadly pit to kill you, but they didn’t expect there to be something valuable at the bottom of this pit.”

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi’s gloomy mood vanished instantly; his eyes lit up, and his spirit soared. “Artifact God, what’s so valuable? Could getting this treasure mean I don’t have to go through the Heavenly Calamity?” Qu Yi exclaimed excitedly.

The Artifact God shook his head, looked at Qu Yi helplessly, and said calmly, “The Heavenly Calamity is a punishment from heaven—a process every cultivator must endure. Since you’re defying heaven, you must accept its punishment. In this pit lies what you’re looking for when entering the Soul Star Region—namely, the Soul Transformation Stone.”

Qu Yi was stunned at first. He couldn’t recall any such treasure in his memory, so he looked at the Artifact God, waiting for an explanation.

The Artifact God closed his eyes and said nothing more.

……

In the Soul Star Region, the elders of the Seven Sects surrounded Qu Yi. Every day this plan progressed, the leaders of the sects kept monitoring it closely.

That day, the disciples in charge of the Soul Palace of the Seven Sects were shocked beyond measure! A thousand elders had died!

There were a thousand elders per sect, and all the Soul Seal Lamps went out—they were all dead.

The disciples of the Soul Palace immediately reported to their sect leaders!

Tai Ming, the leader of the Taiyuan Sect; Qing Xu, the leader of the Qingyun Sect; Lan Wei, the leader of the Lanyang Palace; Ying Hua, the leader of the Yingtian Sect; Jin Xiong, the leader of the Jinyang Sect; Bi Chi, the leader of the Biyan Peak; and Cang Huang, the leader of the Cangyang Valley—these seven sect leaders also received the news at the same time.

“A thousand elders, all dead?”

That was the only thought in the minds of the seven sect leaders, echoing endlessly as they could hardly believe it.

But facts were facts—Qu Yi had single-handedly killed all the elders of the Seven Sects. Though these seven leaders were also extraordinary figures, they quickly regained their composure and began to strategize.

Meanwhile, in the Blue Dragon Palace, the three brothers—Blue Dragon, Earth Dragon, and Water Dragon—who were also the leaders of three demonic cultivation sects—had been laughing all day.

“Elder brother, I truly admire you now. A thousand elders from each of the seven major sects—that’s going to cause them a huge loss,” Earth Dragon shouted, pounding the ground.

“Elder brother, it’s good you saved us. Otherwise, not only would our Nine Palaces Island lose a batch of elders, but we’d also become enemies of Qu Yi—that would be disastrous,” Water Dragon said, struggling to stop laughing as he shouted.

Yes, these three demonic cultivation sects also had their own networks within the seven major sects, so they naturally knew about the news that the seven sects had besieged Qu Yi and he had suffered heavy losses. Thus, they adopted an attitude of schadenfreude.

Qing Long smiled, glanced at the starry sky again, and said, “Second brother, third brother, the seven sects won’t give up. I reckon they’ll send more people to the Soul Star Region. There’s still great drama to come.”

Tu Long and Shui Long were momentarily stunned before understanding. With the death of those thousand-year-old elders, the face of the seven sects had been severely damaged. How could they just give up? That would mean enduring an everlasting scar.

Indeed, things turned out as Qing Long had predicted. The seven major sects—Tai Yuan Gate, Qing Yun Sect, Lan Yang Palace, Ying Tian Sect, Jin Yang Religion, Bi Yan Peak, and Cang Yang Valley—had their sect leaders personally lead teams of a hundred elders in the later stages of tribulation to the Soul Star Region.

The people from the seven sects went to the Soul Star Region not only to restore their reputation but also to investigate the cause of the elders’ deaths and confirm whether Qu Yi was dead.

Moreover, before devising a plan to lure Qu Yi into the Nuclear Star, the sect leaders already knew that the abyss was a mysterious and deadly place—anyone who fell in would die. Once every fifty years, the abyss would erupt, spewing out everything at its bottom.

It was because of these two characteristics of the abyss that the seven sects agreed to cooperate. Their plan was to force Qu Yi into the abyss, wait together for fifty years, and then compete using their own skills to claim the Eight Directions Swords and Six Directions Knives that would emerge from the abyss.

However, things took an unexpected turn. Qu Yi single-handedly killed all the elders of the seven sects. As a result, the sect leaders had no choice but to go to the Soul Star Region personally to search for Qu Yi.

……

At the bottom of the Nuclear Star, within the abyss.

Under the control of the Artifact God, the Inch Realm Ball kept falling until it reached a special place at the bottom.

It was pitch black everywhere, except in the center, where there was a pulsating stone resembling a placenta. The stone was very red, emitting a seductive red glow as it contracted and expanded.

This stone was precisely the Soul Transforming Stone mentioned by the Artifact God.

The soul energies of the Nuclear Star were absorbed by the abyss and then taken to the bottom of the abyss, where they were all absorbed by the Soul Transforming Stone. The stone condensed and transformed these soul energies into a blood-like substance. As this substance increased, the stone gradually grew larger.

Based on its current size, the Soul Transforming Stone had evolved for no less than a hundred thousand years, having absorbed an incalculable amount of soul energy.

As soon as the Inch Realm Ball landed at the bottom of the abyss, Qu Yi appeared. Without using any protective barrier, he walked straight up to the Soul Transforming Stone with his bare hands.
“The soul energy here is so intense—it feels sticky,” Qu Yi exhaled in awe.
“Enough pondering. Hurry up and pick up the Soul Transforming Stone with your hands,” the Artifact God suddenly called out.
Qu Yi chuckled and immediately bent down, wrapping his arms around the Soul Transforming Stone.
At that moment, the stone seemed to sense intense hostility—it realized Qu Yi’s intention was to refine it. It pulsed violently, pushing Qu Yi around as it tried to escape.
How could Qu Yi let something he had already obtained go? As soon as he held the stone, he sent out mixed primordial energy from his hands to refine it. Using the other five elements’ primordial energy would be instantly erased by the surrounding soul energy, so Qu Yi used mixed primordial energy close to chaotic energy to refine the stone.
Sure enough, as soon as the mixed primordial energy was released, the stone stopped pulsing as if possessed and remained still in Qu Yi’s arms.
Driven by the mixed primordial energy, the Soul Transforming Stone rapidly shrank before being absorbed by Qu Yi into his body, where it continued to be refined in his dantian.
At this point, Qu Yi entered the Inch Realm Ball and sat by the lake, fully focused on refining the Soul Transforming Stone.
At some point, the stone suddenly cracked, and plasma formed from the condensed soul energy flowed out quickly. Qu Yi’s six-headed spirit body became excited immediately, with all six heads devouring the plasma at high speed.
His six-headed spirit body expanded rapidly, while it also began to coalesce, seemingly taking on a distinct form.
After some time, Qu Yi finally opened his closed eyes, a triumphant smile on his face.
“Artifact God, I can feel it. After refining the Soul Transforming Stone, my spiritual scanning speed has increased by about five times. I think it now takes only about a hundred years to scan the Four Elements Path,” Qu Yi said happily.
The Artifact God, lying on the soft chair, kicked his feet and replied with closed eyes, “Not bad. Now you can focus on cultivating and scanning the Four Elements Path. Oh, by the way, you’ve also refined those five soul cores. You can absorb most of them to raise your soul realm to nearly the early stage of tribulation. As long as you don’t reach that stage, the Three-Nine Tribulation won’t fall upon you, allowing you to continue scanning the Four Elements Path peacefully.”

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi also understood what the Artifact God meant. As his spirit realm improved, his spiritual awareness grew stronger, and so did the speed of his spiritual scanning. Now that he had refined the Soul-Nurturing Stone, the speed had increased by five times. With these two factors working together, the speed of his spiritual scanning should be even faster, meaning he wouldn’t need to scan for a hundred years.
“Okay, I get it,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
“Also, this crater no longer has the ability to devour souls. Send Wu Yuan out with the Tiny Realm Ball to head to other core planets. I estimate that the stronger members of the seven major sects will be arriving soon,” the Artifact God reminded him.
Qu Yi then realized that by killing the seven thousand-year-old leaders of the seven sects at once, such a blow was something they couldn’t simply swallow; they would surely come to investigate.
“Good, I’ll send Wu Yuan to other planets,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
Soon, Wu Yuan and the Golden Qilin, who were fighting, suddenly saw Wu Yuan disappear—Qu Yi had forcibly sent it out through the Tiny Realm Ball.
Wu Yuan let out a few dissatisfied cries before immediately flying into the starry sky and heading toward other core planets in the Soul Heart Star Region.
Indeed, a few days after Wu Yuan left, seven groups of people arrived in the starry sky—these were the strong members of the seven major sects.
These seven groups arrived at the Core Five-Planet and landed beside the crater.