Chapter 60: Soul Waves

“The eight worlds within the Bahuang Hall each contain only one lower-grade immortal artifact, but here in the Liuhé Hall, there are lower-grade immortal artifacts everywhere. It’s absolutely exhilarating!” Shàn Rěn cried out as he flew.
Indeed, this powerful warrior from the Taiyuan Gate kept altering the fluctuations of his vital energy, successfully evading the array’s detection. Unnoticed, he approached one puppet immortal after another, snatching treasures from them while remaining in a state of excitement.
As soon as he obtained a lower-grade immortal artifact, Shàn Rěn spotted another puppet immortal thousands of miles away, who undoubtedly also held one. So, with a loud cry, he flew straight over.
This time, he altered his vital energy fluctuations again, thinking he could easily get close to the puppet immortal. But just as he reached them, the puppet immortal suddenly raised their right hand vertically, using the lower-grade immortal artifact to unleash a beam of starlight—bright yet tinged with mystery—that shot straight at Shàn Rěn.
“What is this…?”
Shàn Rěn had no time to react. Instinctively, he tried to raise his own lower-grade immortal artifact to defend himself, but the beam of light already penetrated his body, destroying all his life force.
The array’s detection was working after all—the puppet immortals were being activated by it. Undoubtedly, Shàn Rěn’s death signaled to the other warriors that in this area, even altering one’s vital energy fluctuations wouldn’t allow them to escape the array’s detection. Their positions were constantly monitored, and the puppet immortals would attack.
The other three warriors from the Taiyuan Gate—Tai Ming, Shàn Zhen, and Shàn Zhen—were about 20,000 miles away when they immediately sensed Shàn Rěn’s death. They stopped flying forward, afraid to go any further.
“How could this happen? Shàn Rěn kept changing his vital energy fluctuations—why was he still attacked by the puppet immortals?”
“It seems that the deeper we go, the more aggressive the array’s detection becomes. It will attack as long as there’s any fluctuation in vital energy.”
“It’s too dangerous. Although we can use lower-grade immortal artifacts to create a primordial energy shield for defense, obtaining more of those artifacts will be extremely difficult.”
“Let’s first check on the other sects before making a decision.”
In an instant, the three warriors from the Taiyuan Gate quickly exchanged thoughts via their spiritual senses, then flew together in one direction to investigate the situation of the warriors from other sects.

The strong warriors from other sects were the same. These people were all sect leaders. Although they easily seized hundreds of low-grade immortal artifacts, they still calmly observed the surroundings. Thus, when they arrived at a certain area, those puppet human immortals actually attacked first. The well-prepared sect leaders immediately activated their low-grade immortal artifacts and used their primordial energy shields to defend themselves before flying away.

The strong warriors from all eight sects immediately realized that this world of puppet human immortals was also divided into several areas. In the area they had entered, by constantly changing their primordial energy fluctuations, they could approach the puppet human immortals unnoticed. But if they ventured deeper into the next area, any primordial energy fluctuation would be detected by the formation, triggering attacks from those puppet human immortals.

All the strong warriors from the eight sects stopped moving forward.

……

At this moment, Qu Yi, like the other strong warriors, had gathered hundreds of low-grade immortal artifacts. His body, which was flying in the air, suddenly landed on the ground, his expression filled with alarm.

“Artifact God, what did you just say? In the next area, the formation detects soul fluctuations. No matter how you change your primordial energy fluctuations, it will still be detected,” Qu Yi called out quickly.

It turned out that just as Qu Yi was about to fly toward a puppet human immortal ahead, the Artifact God suddenly spoke up.

“Yes, this world of puppet human immortals is actually a circular area, with an outer zone, an inner zone, and a central zone. The place you entered first is the outer zone, where the formation only detects primordial energy fluctuations, allowing you to trick your way past the attacks of the puppet human immortals. But in the inner zone, the formation detects soul fluctuations, and you can’t trick it. With your current level of soul power, it’s impossible to change your soul fluctuations. Therefore, once you enter the inner zone, you’ll be under constant attack from the puppet human immortals,” the Artifact God explained patiently.

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi understood and his face showed concern.

“Artifact God, what treasures are there in the central zone?” Qu Yi suddenly asked.

It turned out that Qu Yi was already making a decision. If the treasures in the central zone were of no value, he didn’t plan to enter and would instead head to explore the other five worlds.

“There is one mid-grade immortal artifact in the central zone,” the Artifact God replied with a faint smile.

A mid-grade immortal artifact!

Hearing this, Qu Yi’s face turned astonished, and his emotions surged. He immediately resolved in his heart that he must obtain this mid-grade immortal artifact at all costs.

Although treasures like the Inch Realm Ball, Star Luo Ding, and Divine Formula Cards were far above mid-tier immortal artifacts in quality, precisely because they were so powerful, Qu Yi dared not use them. He could live freely in the cultivation world, but once the people from the Immortal Realm, Demon Realm, and Fiend Realm learned of these treasures he possessed, he would surely face relentless pursuit upon ascending. Qu Yi didn’t want to incur such trouble.

Naturally, Qu Yi wanted to acquire some other powerful treasures so he could use them to attack enemies. Mid-tier immortal artifacts were perfect for him—even if their existence were revealed, he wouldn’t be hunted by the strong ones from those three realms, as such artifacts were quite common there.

“Instrument God, it seems I still need to enter the central area. Instrument God, if I hide inside Star Luo Ding, should be fine, right?” Qu Yi quickly asked.

Thinking of Star Luo Ding’s extraordinary defensive power—something those puppet human immortals couldn’t break—he decided to hide inside it and use it to fly into the central area.

“Of course it’s fine, but you don’t need to go to such lengths. I can alter your soul fluctuations, so you won’t be detected by the formation,” the Instrument God said with a faint smile.

Hearing this, Qu Yi’s expression trembled again. Could soul fluctuations really be altered?

Although he had always recognized the Instrument God’s great strength, he never imagined it could even change someone’s soul fluctuations. Was this still human?

“Instrument God, you’re truly powerful!” Qu Yi exclaimed sincerely.

“Young Qu Yi, calling me powerful is an insult. Let me put it this way: if I had just blown once back then, your cultivation world would have been destroyed,” the Instrument God said indifferently.

At this moment, doubt appeared on Qu Yi’s face. His earlier admiration for the Instrument God was instantly replaced by the thought that it was exaggerating—blowing big claims.

Still, Qu Yi didn’t dare mock the Instrument God in person. After all, he would never want to endure the pain of having his core spirit pierced again.

Just then, the auras of the eight faction’s strongmen appeared as they flew toward Qu Yi together.

It turned out that all these strongmen had encountered the same problem—when flying from the outer area to the inner area, they were attacked by puppet human immortals. Thus, none of them dared to go deeper, so they gathered together and decided to seek Qu Yi to continue hunting him.

Sensing the arrival of the eleven people, Qu Yi chuckled softly and rolled his eyes a few times.

Suddenly, Qu Yi took out the Xingluo Ding, then entered it. Instead of flying away immediately, he stayed in mid-air. The eleven powerful warriors from the eight sects all flew near Qu Yi and naturally saw him inside the Xingluo Ding. “Qu Yi, don’t even think about escaping!” “Qu Yi, your death is near—come and face our punishment!” “Qu Yi, the status of our ten great sects isn’t something some helpless cultivator like you can challenge. Die today!” … The eleven of them, their voices filled with murderous intent, all locked their sights on Qu Yi. Qu Yi simply smiled faintly and said, “Gentlemen, if you really want to kill me, come and get me together. But first, if you plan to kill me, be careful of the puppet human immortal here.” With that, Qu Yi activated the Xingluo Ding and flew straight into the inner area. In an instant, the puppet human immortal ahead moved slightly—clearly, the formation had sensed Qu Yi’s soul energy and thus locked onto his location. Suddenly, the puppet human immortal picked up an iron spear of lower-grade immortal weapon quality, pointed it at the sky, and shot a beam of cold blue sword energy toward the Xingluo Ding. Bang! The sword energy hit the Xingluo Ding and immediately dissipated, while the Xingluo Ding continued flying forward unharmed. At that moment, the eleven powerful warriors from the eight sects also flew after it, determined to surround and kill Qu Yi. Suddenly, the puppet human immortal, which had just been attacking the Xingluo Ding, seemed unaware of its location. It turned to face the warriors from the eight sects and thrust its iron spear eleven times in a row, sending eleven beams of sword energy at them. Earlier, the Weapon God had already altered Qu Yi’s soul fluctuations, so the formation could no longer sense his location, leaving the puppet human immortal without a target. As for the warriors from the eight sects, their true energy fluctuations could be suppressed by their cultivation techniques, but their soul fluctuations remained constant, allowing the formation to sense them and thus making them targets for the puppet human immortal. “Damn it! This Qu Yi is too cunning!” The eleven warriors, each wielding a lower-grade immortal weapon, also unleashed their primal energy to counter the puppet human immortal’s sword energy. These puppet human immortals used attacks based on lower-grade immortal weapons, relying only on primal energy without domain or magical attacks, so they were easily resisted by the warriors from the eight sects. The Xingluo Ding continued flying deeper into the inner area, and the warriors from the eight sects, unwilling to give up, followed closely behind.

Ahead, puppet human immortals appeared. They didn’t notice Qu Yi at all, so they didn’t attack the Xingluo Ding. Meanwhile, the powerful warriors from the eight sects had to constantly fend off the attacks of the puppet human immortals, which prevented them from accelerating and forced them to fight while flying. The distance between the two sides grew wider and wider.