Chapter 18: You Go First

Qu Yi held two swords, magical artifacts of the Upper Heavenly Soul Immortal level, and dug two thousand pits behind his wooden house.
Bai Hu Tian Duo kept his divine sense active, monitoring every move of Qu Yi. When Qu Yi finished digging the two thousand pits, Tian Duo was utterly astonished, unable to believe it.
“This Qu Yi—not only did he find a storage ring, but he also obtained two thousand Divine Crystal Trees? How is that possible? In the mountainous areas near our Bai Shou Village, Divine Crystal Trees are extremely rare. It’s impossible to gather ten thousand of them without tens of millions of years.” Tian Duo sat on his wooden bed, muttering to himself.
Among the villagers of Bai Shou Village, many still hadn’t gathered ten thousand Divine Crystal Trees, including some who had lived there for tens of millions of years. This was because almost all the Divine Crystal Trees in the nearby mountains had been dug up, and it took an extremely long time for new ones to grow. Over time, as the old trees were taken and no new ones emerged, the Divine Crystal Trees in that area were on the verge of extinction.
“Impossible… Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, and Qing Wu Gui ascended to the Divine Realm less than twenty years ago. How could they have the strength to enter the Beaststorm Mountains? It also takes twenty years just to travel back and forth from Bai Shou Village to the outskirts of the Beaststorm Mountains. Qu Yi has only been away from the village for twelve years—there’s no way he’s already entered the Beaststorm Mountains.” Tian Duo was filled with doubts and kept speculating.
The more he thought about it, the more mysterious Qu Yi seemed. One moment it was a storage ring, the next, two thousand pits—his motives were utterly unfathomable.
At this moment, Qu Yi took out the storage ring and also produced a Divine Crystal Tree. This tree was already fully mature, reaching nearly ten meters in height. In just a moment, Qu Yi planted the first tree. As soon as its roots touched the ground, they instantly sprouted and sank deep into the soil. Naturally, its survival ability was extremely strong.
“What? Qu Yi actually found a fully mature Divine Crystal Tree! How can he be so lucky?” Bai Hu Tian Duo’s divine sense immediately detected the tree Qu Yi had brought out, and he exclaimed in shock once again.
The maximum height a Divine Crystal Tree could reach was ten meters. Having encountered many such trees before, Tian Duo instantly determined the level of the one Qu Yi had brought out as soon as he sensed it.

Tian Duo was still in shock; his wide-open mouth wouldn’t close, his eyes were wide with disbelief. In Qu Yi’s hands, divine crystal trees kept appearing—each one ten meters tall—one after another. Those two pits were quickly filled with divine crystal trees. Two thousand fully mature divine crystal trees! Using his spiritual sense, Tian Duo was utterly astonished by the endless stream of mature divine crystal trees appearing in Qu Yi’s hands, something completely beyond his expectations. Even if other villagers found many divine crystal trees, they would never find any that were already mature—only saplings or small trees. Having two thousand mature divine crystal trees at once was an unprecedented event even in the entire Divine Realm. “No rush, no rush. I’ll wait a bit longer to see what other miracles Qu Yi has in store,” Tian Duo said quietly, trying to stay calm as he sat on the bed. After planting those two thousand divine crystal trees, Qu Yi calmly returned to his wooden house and began meditating. Naturally, Tian Duo never saw Qu Yi perform any other miracles. After observing for ten days and confirming that Qu Yi was in a state of meditation, Tian Duo left his house and went to Village Chief Xu Qiang’s room. “Village Chief, I’m here,” Tian Duo called softly. After a while, Xu Qiang replied indifferently, “Come in.” Tian Duo pushed the door open, sat down on the wooden chair next to Xu Qiang, and then reported on Qu Yi’s situation. “What! Thirteen years, two thousand divine crystal trees?” Xu Qiang was also completely shocked upon hearing Tian Duo’s account. He immediately used his spiritual sense to verify that what Tian Duo said was true. “It seems this Qu Yi indeed hides many secrets. Two thousand fully mature divine crystal trees—is that possible? I think he must have found a Five Elements Spirit Spring in the mountains, which allowed those divine crystal trees to grow rapidly,” Xu Qiang said calmly. In the Divine Realm, there were also some peculiar spiritual veins, among which the Five Elements Spirit Spring contained equal amounts of the energy of the five elements, enabling divine crystal trees to grow quickly. Seeing Xu Qiang surprised, Tian Duo felt pleased and immediately suggested, “Village Chief, this Qu Yi is too mysterious. Should we send someone to test him?” Xu Qiang thought for a moment before nodding. “Alright. Go call Meng Hu and have him deal with Qu Yi. I want to see what his strength is now.”

Meng Hu had lived in the Village of All Beasts for ten million years, yet he still hadn’t completed the task of planting ten thousand Divine Crystal Trees. However, over these thousand years, he had made progress in his cultivation and now possessed a strength that ranked above average among cultivators at the Divine Being stage.

After hearing this, Tian Duo immediately stood up and said with a smile, “Great, I’ll go handle it right away.”

Then, Tian Duo went to find Meng Hu.

※※※

Qu Yi, a new villager in the Village of All Beasts, had managed to find two thousand Divine Crystal Trees in just thirteen years—two thousand fully mature ones at that. Once this news spread, it immediately caused a sensation throughout the village.

Fully mature Divine Crystal Trees meant they could directly produce Divine Crystal Fruits.

At that moment, nearly ten thousand villagers from the Village of All Beasts gathered in front of Qu Yi’s wooden house. These villagers usually practiced in their own homes and rarely interacted with each other. But now, after hearing about the miracle that had happened to Qu Yi, they couldn’t stay calm and gathered together.

Faced with all the villagers coming over, Qu Yi couldn’t stay inside by himself. He stood at the door, calmly observing each of them.

As the village chief, Xu Qiang naturally also came out. He stood in front of all the villagers, smiling at Qu Yi.

“Qu Yi, you really brought good news to our Village of All Beasts this time—finding two thousand Divine Crystal Trees in one go,” Xu Qiang finally spoke up, his voice loud enough to silence everyone.

Upon hearing this, all ten thousand villagers looked at Qu Yi with interest.

Each of these villagers was a dominant force in the lower world; none of them were ordinary. After hearing Xu Qiang’s words, they were eager to see what would happen next.

Qu Yi chuckled and replied simply, “Luck, just luck.”

Was it that simple?

Upon hearing Qu Yi’s reply, Xu Qiang showed signs of dissatisfaction. The more Qu Yi avoided giving a clear answer, the more it seemed he was hiding something. Thus, Xu Qiang became even more determined to uncover the secret behind Qu Yi.

However, Xu Qiang didn’t want to speak further. His hands, which were behind his back, moved slightly, and Tian Duo, standing behind him, noticed.

Tian Duo immediately sent a glance toward Meng Hu, who was standing in the distance, giving him a signal.

Meng Hu, with his muscular build and standing hair, had a bold expression on his handsome face, radiating a fighting spirit.

Upon receiving Tian Duo’s signal, Meng Hu immediately shouted loudly, “Qu Yi, stop hiding it! Did you find a Five Elements Spirit Spring, which is why all the Divine Crystal Trees you found have matured?”

As soon as these words were spoken, all ten thousand villagers were shocked and exclaimed in surprise, with a roar of wind and waves filling the space. These villagers had stayed in the Village of Beasts because they failed to complete the task of planting the Divine Crystal Trees or hadn’t gathered enough Divine Crystals. With the Five Elements Spirit Spring, the Divine Crystal Trees could be accelerated in maturity, and Divine Crystal Fruits could be produced. Naturally, upon hearing the words “Five Elements Spirit Spring,” these ten thousand villagers immediately became agitated and filled with thoughts. If someone had found it and still dared to hide it, that would be utterly unrighteous! That was what many of the villagers thought at that moment—without even considering that even if Qu Yi had found the Five Elements Spirit Spring, it belonged only to him, and whether they could obtain it depended entirely on his will. Qu Yi’s gaze immediately fixed on Meng Hu. “Who are you?” Qu Yi asked gently. “Meng Hu,” Meng Hu replied. He stepped out of the crowd and came to the front, facing Qu Yi directly. Qu Yi smiled, took two steps forward, and suddenly said, “You claim I’ve found the Five Elements Spirit Spring. Fine, then produce proof. Otherwise, I won’t hesitate to kill you right now.” Hiss! Upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, all ten thousand villagers took a sharp breath, terrified by his attitude. The mere act of questioning him could mean death, which made them shudder. They realized they must not easily anger Qu Yi in the future, or else it would be a life-or-death struggle. Hearing Qu Yi’s words, Meng Hu burst into laughter, shook his hair violently, and shouted, “Qu Yi, you’re even more reckless than I am! I’m a ruler who ascended from the Realm of Madness. After hearing your words today, I definitely won’t let you go. Your life is mine!” The Realm of Madness was a level of cultivation similar to the Realm of Immortals, the Realm of Demons, and the Realm of Monsters. On the way to the Village of Beasts, Qu Yi had also asked about what would happen if villagers fought each other to the death due to disputes—whom would take over the deceased villager’s task of planting Divine Crystal Trees. Tian Duo, the village leader, had truthfully answered that the task would fall to the victorious villager. In the Divine Realm, with so many cultivators who had ascended, the rules set by the powerful figures there naturally didn’t consider the lives of those at the Divine Being stage. However, since these powerful figures had to worry about the revenue of the Divine Realm, they established such rules: killing was allowed, but the completed tasks had to be taken over by the killer.

Generally speaking, villagers don’t kill each other easily. After all, completing their own tasks takes tens of millions of years, and taking on another task would mean another tens of millions of years. So no one would kill someone over a trivial issue and suffer for tens of millions of years as a result.

Qu Yi smiled slightly, then looked at the village chief Xu Qiang and said, “Village chief, please act as a witness. Today, I will fight Meng Hu to the death. After he dies, I will take over his planting task.”

Xu Qiang lowered his head, frowned, and pretended to think for a while before finally looking up.

“As the village chief, I don’t want to see fights between villagers. But since you two voluntarily agreed to this life-and-death battle, I can’t stop it. Well, you decide how you want to duel,” Xu Qiang said calmly.

Qu Yi glanced at Xu Qiang, chuckled, then turned to look at Meng Hu.

“Go first. I don’t want to deprive you of even a chance to strike,” Qu Yi said with a smile.