Chapter 16: The Secret of the Three Swords

Qu Yi left Core Star 1 and arrived at Core Star 9. As soon as he set foot there, he entered the Tiny Realm Sphere. Upon entering, he immediately informed everyone inside the sphere to gather by the lake, while he took out various space rings and magical artifacts he had obtained from Core Star 1.

When the elders of the seven sects pursued Qu Yi on Core Star 1, they were instead killed by him, allowing Qu Yi to acquire a large number of magical artifacts and space rings. Nearly a hundred of these elders were killed by him. The hundreds of magical artifacts were mostly high-grade or mid-grade spiritual weapons, scattered across the lawn, emitting a strong aura of spiritual energy. Qu Yi quickly scanned the hundreds of space rings with his spiritual sense and took out everything inside them. There were also many spirit stones, magical artifacts, spirit talismans, ores, and more, all of high quality, fitting well with the status of these elders at the Tribulation stage.

As for the soul cores in the space rings, Qu Yi naturally kept them for himself, deciding to distribute them later as he saw fit. As for the soul cores of the mid- and late-Tribulation stages, Qu Yi had already found those of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—making it easy for him to advance his own spiritual realm in the future.

Soon, everyone practicing inside the Tiny Realm Sphere flew over and gathered around the pile of magical artifacts on the ground, smiling happily.

“Ugh, Qu Yi, can’t you catch at least one strong warrior at the early Tribulation stage for me? I’m so sad,” Wuyuan suddenly cried.

Wuyuan had long reached the late Consolidation stage. If it could devour a strong warrior at the early Tribulation stage, it could advance to that stage as well. Thus, seeing only magical artifacts, ores, and pills on the lawn but no strong warriors at the early Tribulation stage, it felt very frustrated.

Qu Yi chuckled but dared not look at Wuyuan again.

In fact, this was also the will of the Artifact God. Wuyuan had always relied on devouring cultivators’ life force to advance, resulting in an unstable foundation. Therefore, the Artifact God told Qu Yi not to let Wuyuan advance too quickly and to keep it at the late Consolidation stage for now.

Otherwise, with Qu Yi’s strength, it would be easy for him to knock out a strong warrior at the early Tribulation stage and capture them into the Tiny Realm Sphere.

The Golden Qilin looked down on these magical artifacts, still preferring its own staff. Especially after using the Eight Directions Sword, it truly disdained other magical artifacts.

The Illusion Dancing Butterfly had already obtained a high-grade spiritual weapon, so it naturally paid no attention to the artifacts on the lawn.

Qing Wu Gui had always used its black sword and never bothered to look at other magical artifacts.

However, Mu Han was quite interested and looked toward the lawn, eager to pick out a high-quality spiritual artifact. Soon, she indeed found one in the shape of a butterfly. Holding it in her hands, she was overjoyed. As for Bai Man and Qu Hanxin, they simply watched Qu Yi calmly—they already had too many such magical treasures. Seeing the situation, Qu Yi said to the Li family members, “Alright, all these magical treasures now belong to your Li family.” Nearly a hundred Li family members immediately grabbed all the treasures on the lawn and flew off to other places to refine and show off. Qu Yi looked at those who remained by his side—people who had followed him for a long time—and naturally, they deserved special attention. “These soul cores cover every stage from the Outward Emergence phase to the Calamity Crossing phase. Based on the cultivation methods you use, I’ve already assigned the soul cores. From now on, you won’t have to worry about limitations in your soul realm,” Qu Yi said with a smile as he suddenly took out the soul cores. Bai Man, who was only in the early stages of Outward Emergence and practiced a metal-based cultivation method, naturally needed a metal soul core. Two cores were required for the Outward Emergence phase, three for the Divided Attention phase, three for the Combined Body phase, and three for the Calamity Crossing phase—so one person received as many as eleven soul cores. As for someone like Qing Wugui, who had reached the late Combined Body phase, they only needed one core each for the early, middle, and late stages of Calamity Crossing. But Qing Wugui’s cultivation method was special—the black true energy was somewhat similar to Qu Yi’s mixed true energy, allowing it to attract the five elements. Thus, they needed three soul cores of each of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—to advance their soul realm. However, those like Wuyuan, who relied on devouring essence to advance, didn’t need soul cores at all. Qu Yi handed out the soul cores to everyone clearly before flying to the lakeside and lying down on the soft chair beside the Artifact God. “Artifact God, thanks to the Planet Great Migration technique you taught me this time. Otherwise, if I wanted to escape, I would have had to expose the Realm Sphere,” Qu Yi said with a smile. “Well, now that you’ve reached the early stage of Calamity Crossing, you can activate all three Eight Directions Swords simultaneously with your true energy to see if there are any unexpected clues,” the Artifact God said seriously, turning slightly. Qu Yi nodded and immediately jumped to the ground, taking out the three Eight Directions Swords before channeling his true energy into them. Suddenly, the blades of the three swords pointed at the same point, dividing the space into three equal parts. On the plane formed by these three swords, a disc appeared, displaying a line of text: “With three swords united under one person, twenty-four people can enter the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion.”

Qu Yi saw this and was filled with surprise. One Eight Directions Sword could carry six people into the Haotian Immortal Mansion, two could carry fifteen, and he never expected that three could carry as many as twenty-four people.
With three Eight Directions Swords under one person’s control, it was equivalent to four swords being used by four people in total.
“This is truly astonishing—six more people can be brought in,” Qu Yi exclaimed.
Hearing this, the Weapon God smiled and said, “Great! Since you can bring so many people in, you can negotiate with those ten major sects and make them pay a price to allow some of their people to enter as well.”
Qu Yi immediately understood what the Weapon God meant. If he entered the Haotian Immortal Mansion alone, he would only have one spot; the other twenty-three spots could be used to gain advantages.
“This time, neither the Hundred Beasts Peak, the Crescent Moon Cliff, nor the Nine Palaces Island sent anyone to chase me. It seems they want to be on good terms with me. Since they’ve shown their willingness, I should take the time to go and negotiate with them,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
Suddenly, the Weapon God’s tone changed, and he said calmly, “It’s not that simple. It’s obvious now that the seven sects have joined forces. Since they can’t kill you, they’ll surely target the three demon cultivator sects. This way, they’ll prevent you from finding allies and force you to emerge to negotiate with the seven sects. If my guess is correct, a great purge is about to take place in the cultivation world.”
Upon hearing this, Qu Yi instantly understood. Although he had obtained three Eight Directions Swords, to enter the Haotian Immortal Mansion, he still needed to go together with those sects that already had them. He certainly couldn’t go alone—that would be suicide, as the powerful cultivators from the seven sects would surely try to seize them. Therefore, to enter the Haotian Immortal Mansion, he needed allies, and only the three demon cultivator sects qualified as such. Thus, seeing that they couldn’t kill him, the seven sects would have to eliminate the three demon cultivator sects to force him to come out and negotiate.
“Hehe, a great purge—great! The cultivation world has always been controlled by those ten sects. If they fight each other so fiercely, let them do it. It gives me the chance to send people from the Three Tripod Sect to various planets and secretly expand our influence,” Qu Yi said, smiling happily.

Since its establishment on Tianfeng Star, Sanding Gate has been rapidly expanding its influence. The cultivators from Tianfeng Star have gone to various smaller planets, secretly building up a vast power base without revealing it openly. Moreover, every time Qu Yi visits a planet, he implants soul shackles on some powerful cultivators and uses them to control medium and large planets, allowing his influence to grow extremely fast.

It can be said that no cultivator in the cultivation world knows of Sanding Gate, yet its influence has secretly spread to every planet, waiting for just the right opportunity to emerge openly in the cultivation world.

“Yes, if those ten sects want to fight, let them do so first. Qu Yi, focus on scanning the Four Distant Paths and using the Xingluo Ding to study various materials. You don’t need to worry about anything else,” said the God of Tools with a smile.

Qu Yi nodded.

After that, he truly devoted himself to cultivation, ignoring other matters. As for the Cunjie Ball, it was left in the care of Wuyuan, who would take it out of the Heart Soul Star Region and return it to the cultivation world.

…

At that time, the cultivation world was shrouded in a heavy atmosphere of tension. Every cultivator and every sect felt oppressed, sensing the imminent arrival of a great war.

Indeed, the leaders of the seven sects—Taiyuan Gate, Qingyun Sect, Lanyang Palace, Yingtian Sect, Jinyang Church, Biyan Peak, and Cangyang Valley—left the Heart Soul Star Region and immediately returned to their own sects on Liupan Star. They then began recalling all their elders at the Tribulation stage. The branch sects on various planets in the cultivation world also received secret orders to form a temporary alliance between the Immortal and Demon sects to deal with the demon cultivators.

On Liupan Star, the core planet of the cultivation world, the atmosphere was even more suffocating due to the impending war. All disciples below the Divination stage within those ten sects were sent away from Liupan Star, leaving only those at or above the Divination stage. The Immortal and Demon sects, united, were about to launch an attack on the three demon cultivator sects.

All sects were preparing intensively.

The war certainly wouldn’t start on Liupan Star first; instead, it would begin with the branch sects of each group.

The branch sects under the seven Immortal and Demon sects received the same orders: since the demon cultivators were seizing resources on planets, the Immortal and Demon sects must resist and impose necessary punishment.

With such a noble pretext, the Immortal and Demon sects easily seized the moral high ground and launched an attack on the demon cultivators.

On small, medium, and large planets alike, bloodshed ensued—a massive purge by the Immortal and Demon sects against the demon cultivators!