Chapter 17: The Art of Soul Separation and Union

After hearing these words from the Instrumental God, Qu Yi was initially shocked but quickly calmed down, though the smile on his face couldn’t hide his excitement. Five avatars and one original body meant six lives in total. Moreover, these five avatars were created directly from the Origin Energy Stones, meaning they immediately reached the Mahayana stage of cultivation. Just think—Qu Yi was fighting against a being at the Mahayana stage with just one body, when suddenly five more Mahayana-level allies appeared. How could he possibly resist?

After laughing for a while, Qu Yi finally began to pay attention to what was happening outside the Star Luo Ding. The ten people from the Upper Realm were currently using their domains to lock down the Star Luo Ding. They had all arrived on the Reincarnation Planet and were discussing how to break through its defenses.

“Everyone, this Star Luo Ding has existed for millions of years. Judging from its quality, it’s no less than a top-tier immortal artifact. If we rely solely on domain attacks, we definitely won’t be able to break through it. Therefore, I suggest that each of us locks down the Star Luo Ding for a while, taking turns, until Qu Yi’s Origin Energy is exhausted,” said Zong Xi with a smile.

The Star Luo Ding’s quality was so high that even if Qu Yi fully controlled it, activating it would still require the use of Origin Energy. However, Zong Xi hadn’t realized that the Star Luo Ding already contained a great deal of Origin Energy from the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion. Additionally, Qu Yi himself had obtained many Origin Energy Stones from there. Even if all ten of them exhausted their own Origin Energy, it might not deplete Qu Yi’s supply completely.

Although the spiritual energy in the cultivation world also contained Origin Energy, the ten people from the Upper Realm couldn’t extract enough from it for their own use, as the Origin Energy in that spiritual energy was far too sparse. It was estimated that all the spiritual energy on the Reincarnation Planet combined could only suffice to enable them to use one ultimate technique.

The other nine people agreed with Zong Xi’s suggestion, believing that Qu Yi likely didn’t possess much Origin Energy. Yet, the ten of them faced a fundamental conflict—after all, they had come to the Lower Realm to seize the treasures of the Emperor of Vastness, which were all in Qu Yi’s possession. They didn’t trust anyone else and feared that they might suddenly take away the Star Luo Ding.

“Exhausting Qu Yi’s Origin Energy is a good idea. But taking turns locking down the Star Luo Ding isn’t easy. How about we shrink our domains and each take responsibility for a part of the Star Luo Ding? That way, we’ll consume much less Origin Energy,” said Yi Xi from the Demon Realm with a calm smile.

These words were immediately agreed upon by the others, who nodded with smiles. Seeing their expressions, Zong Xi gave Yi Xi a cold look before also agreeing. Thus, the ten people from the upper realm simultaneously reduced the scope of their domains, each locking onto a part of the Xingluo Ding. At that moment, Qu Yi started laughing inside the Xingluo Ding, saying softly, “Instrument God, these guys think they can trap me. It seems I need to go out and show them my strength.” The Instrument God replied right away, “Qu Yi, you can’t break through their domain barriers. But you do have a treasure that can counter them.” Hearing this, Qu Yi quickly thought through his options, counted all the treasures he possessed, and suddenly burst into laughter. “Instrument God, I understand what you mean. Great, I’ll let the Lingkong Tree come out and compete with them in terms of energy consumption,” Qu Yi said with a smile. The Lingkong Tree was a precious treasure Qu Yi had obtained from the Haotian Immortal Mansion. It had the ability to absorb primordial energy and convert it into the five-element energies to supply its leaves. Initially, the Lingkong Tree already had countless spiritual instruments, all of which used the energy from its leaves to cast spells and launch attacks. Now, Qu Yi planned to use the Lingkong Tree to attach itself to the Xingluo Ding, then gradually absorb the primordial energy from the ten people’s domains and transfer it to the Xingluo Ding. In other words, the primordial energy of those ten people would be transformed into the energy needed to operate the Xingluo Ding, eliminating the need to waste Qu Yi’s own collected primordial energy. Inside the Cunjie Ball, Qu Yi appeared. “Lingkong, long time no see,” Qu Yi exclaimed happily as he looked at the tall red tree before him. That red tree was the Lingkong Tree, which had been moved inside the Cunjie Ball. Qu Yi referred to the tree’s core as Lingkong, and a friendly relationship had already been established between them. Sure enough, as soon as Qu Yi spoke, the tree core transformed into a smiling face using its leaves, shook slightly, and sent a joyful mental wave to express its happiness. “Haha, Lingkong, I promised you I’d take you to experience the cultivation world properly. Great, now is the chance. There are ten big villains outside trying to deal with me. I’ll take you out, and you can absorb all their energy to drive them crazy,” Qu Yi said, gesturing with his hands. The leaves of the Lingkong Tree shook again, agreeing to Qu Yi’s plan. Soon, Qu Yi brought out the Lingkong Tree and had its core control each leaf, causing them all to stick to the inner wall of the Xingluo Ding, so that the leaves could begin absorbing every bit of primordial energy that struck the Xingluo Ding.

Inside the Xingluo Ding, the Lingkong Tree immediately grew infinitely large, with each leaf stretching out like a vine and sticking to the inner wall of the Xingluo Ding. Outside the Xingluo Ding, the ten people—Zong Xi, Feng Qu, Yan Xuan, Qiu Rui, Yi Xi, Chen Yan, Rong Han, Jun Wei, Zhuo Hong, and Qi Jia—after locking their domains onto a part of the Xingluo Ding, suddenly realized that the primordial energy within their domains hadn’t disappeared into the universe but had instead entered the Xingluo Ding. Something was wrong! The ten of them exchanged surprised looks, feeling an ominous premonition. “What exactly is this Xingluo Ding? How is it able to absorb our primordial energy?” Feng Qu shouted angrily. “Can the Xingluo Ding really absorb primordial energy? Even though our domains can lock onto it, all the primordial energy we emit gets absorbed by it. How long can we keep locking it?” Rong Han, usually calm, was nearly frantic. The others were also angry but remained more composed. “Everyone, let’s work together to guard this Xingluo Ding. There’s no need to lock it with our domains anymore. We just need to wait for Qu Yi to come out of it, and then we can capture him with our own strength,” Zong Xi said with a faint smile. Initially, the ten had planned to seize the Xingluo Ding using their domains, then force Qu Yi out alone to obtain the Emperor Haowu’s treasure. Now, though their domains could lock onto the Xingluo Ding, their own primordial energy kept being drained, and they couldn’t force Qu Yi out either—this was a torment for all of them. Therefore, the best approach was for the ten to guard the Xingluo Ding together and outlast Qu Yi; once he left, they could capture him immediately. “Agreed!” The ten unanimously agreed to this plan. Inside the Xingluo Ding, Qu Yi had already disappeared and entered the Cunjie Ball, sitting by the lake. Meanwhile, the Instrument God was sitting on a soft chair, with a delicate pink hand continuously slapping five soul spirits as if they were people. The life core of the Soul-Receiving Flower was forced to lie motionless on another soft chair nearby. Inside the Cunjie Ball, Qu Yi was the king. For three days straight, the Instrument God, like a vengeful spirit, kept beating the five soul spirits without pause, bringing them completely under control. Now, with just one word from him, the five soul spirits would obey instantly.

Sitting by the lake, Qu Yi suddenly heard the spirit voice of the Artifact God: “Qu Yi, it’s done now. The five soul essences are completely numb and have essentially lost their consciousness. Now, I’ll teach you the ‘Soul Division and Combination Technique.’ You can use it to cultivate your own soul and create an identical one. For each new soul you create, you can replace one of the soul essences’ souls.”

Qu Yi opened his eyes and exclaimed in surprise, “Artifact God, how do you know everything? There’s even a technique for soul cultivation?”

The Artifact God slapped the golden soul essence hard before standing up from the soft chair and saying, “Stop talking nonsense. I’ll give you the technique; just cultivate it. You keep trying to pry into my secrets.”

Qu Yi smiled awkwardly, then noticed that his soul contained new content—the ‘Soul Division and Combination Technique.’

This technique for soul cultivation involved dividing the soul into countless layers, creating a copy of each layer, and then combining them to form a new soul that was identical to the original.

After scanning it, Qu Yi was shocked and immediately began to meditate and practice.