Chapter 46: The Fortress King

Qu Yu could produce a large amount of Chaos Crystals—all he needed was to absorb the primordial energy of the Five Elements, which was abundant throughout the Divine Realm. Thus, he only needed a little time to create enough Chaos Crystals for Tianfeng Fortress. Before coming to Tianfeng Fortress, he had already thought of this and produced ten million Chaos Crystals in advance. Now, he took out a space ring and handed it to the chief of the fortress, Zhu Chen.

“Zhu Chen, this space ring contains a large number of Chaos Crystals. Distribute them and use them to accelerate the ripening of the Divine Crystal Trees we transplanted,” Qu Yu said happily, showing pride as he looked at the Divine Crystal Trees around.

The Baizhai Mountain Area was the base Qu Yu wanted to build for his own power. The stronger this area became, the happier he would be. Although Zhu Chen had seen many grand scenes before, his hands trembled slightly as he received the space ring. In the Divine Realm, only Divine Kings possessed something comparable to Chaos Crystals, yet now he himself had Chaos Crystals stored in a space ring—something that seemed unbelievable.

Similarly, the other chiefs of Tianfeng Fortress began to admire Qu Yu deeply. In less than a hundred years since ascending to the Divine Realm, he had already attained the strength of a Divine Weapon master and could produce a large number of divine weapons. Now, he even had Chaos Crystals that even Divine Kings would envy.

“Following Qu Yu, our future is boundless,” each of the chiefs of Tianfeng Fortress thought to themselves. With their current strength, reaching the level of a Divine King was an unattainable goal. But after witnessing Qu Yu’s wonders, they developed a strong belief that he could help them reach that level. Naturally, the ten chiefs of Tianfeng Fortress now looked at Qu Yu with admiration.

“Qu Yu, I hereby declare that the position of chief of Tianfeng Fortress belongs to you,” Zhu Chen said after brief consideration, announcing his decision publicly.

The nine chiefs—Zhao Jing, Zhen Lan, Zhuo Rui, Qing Yiyi, Yu Deming, Yu Chongxiu, Yu Zhuting, Meng Yan, and Fei Changxia—looked at Zhu Chen in surprise but quickly realized that acknowledging Qu Yu as the chief now would bring more benefits than waiting for him to take the position through his own strength in the future. At least when it came to divine weapons, Qu Yu would have to consider Tianfeng Fortress’s needs from now on.

“Qu Yu, please accept the position of chief,” the chiefs called out firmly.

Before coming here, Qu Yi never thought he would take charge of Tianfeng Fort right away. Now, seeing the expressions of the ten fort leaders, he understood their plans and couldn’t help but show a helpless smile. After some thought, Qu Yi realized that taking over Tianfeng Fort now also had its advantages—at least the fort could now act according to his own wishes, allowing him to develop his power sooner. “Alright, I agree. As for the position of fort leader, you ten should follow the current ranking. As for how to address me, just call me Fort King,” Qu Yi said with a smile. The term “Fort King” already revealed Qu Yi’s ambition. The ten fort leaders were stunned for a moment upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, then quickly reacted and shouted in unison, “Fort King!” Qu Yi nodded in satisfaction and said with a smile, “Everyone, now assign people to distribute Chaos Crystals and hasten the ripening of these ten million Divine Crystal Trees. Also, send a team to the Beast Mountain Range to mine ores; I need to produce a large number of divine artifacts.” If they only collected the Divine Crystal Fruits from the trees and the tolls from adventurers, Tianfeng Fort’s pace of gathering Divine Crystals would still be slow. Qu Yi wanted to refine them himself and then sell them in the cities of the Fire and Separation Divine Realm to earn a large amount of Divine Crystals. Tianfeng Fort currently had twenty thousand members. To provide each of them with superior cultivation conditions, the amount of Divine Crystals required was a terrifying figure. Roughly a hundred Divine Crystals could form one spiritual body within a person. Given the current physical strength of Tianfeng Fort’s members, the average number of spiritual bodies each could sustain was about seventy thousand. In other words, if every member’s spiritual bodies were expanded to their limit, seven million Divine Crystals would be needed. To expand all current members’ spiritual bodies to their limit would require 140 billion Divine Crystals. The demand for Divine Crystals was simply too enormous, forcing Qu Yi to find ways to obtain more. With his current abilities, only artifact refinement could help him acquire a large quantity of Divine Crystals. In fact, with Tianfeng Fort’s current ten million Divine Crystal Trees, it could produce one billion Divine Crystal Fruits, or one billion Divine Crystals, in a year. It would only take 140 years for all members of Tianfeng Fort to expand their spiritual bodies to their limit. Yet Qu Yi was still not satisfied with this pace and wanted to speed things up. After hearing Qu Yi’s words, the ten fort leaders all wore smiles, glad at their earlier decision. Qu Yi had just taken charge of Tianfeng Fort and immediately started working hard to help it.

If it takes 140 billion divine crystals to develop the 20,000 members of Tianfeng Fort, then the amount of divine crystals required to develop the ten fort leaders is astonishingly large. This is because all ten fort leaders are at the Divine Weapon stage, meaning they possess two types of spiritual bodies within them. To increase the number of both types of spiritual bodies, they must absorb both types of energy simultaneously to form them in their bodies. For example, Zhu Chen currently has the Metal and Earth spiritual bodies. If he only absorbs the essence energy of Metal, he cannot form a Metal spiritual body; he must absorb both Metal and Earth essence energies to form both types of spiritual bodies at the same time. It can be said that the process of enhancing the strength of the ten fort leaders involves extremely harsh conditions and requires special treasures. For instance, absorbing the essence blood left behind by deceased Divine Weapon stage cultivators or purchasing divine pills can help the ten fort leaders rapidly increase the number of spiritual bodies in their bodies. Essence blood can be formed within the bodies of Divine Weapon stage cultivators, but defeating cultivators of the same level and obtaining their essence blood is extremely difficult and inefficient. Therefore, in the divine realm, apart from forming spiritual bodies on their own, most Divine Weapon stage cultivators rely on purchasing divine pills to increase the number of spiritual bodies in their bodies. Divine pills are extremely expensive. If all ten fort leaders want to maximize the number of spiritual bodies in their bodies, they will need a large number of divine pills, and the amount of divine crystals spent on purchasing them is astonishingly high—far more than what is needed for the 20,000 Tianfeng Fort cultivators at the Divine Being stage. “Fort King, we will definitely handle this matter well,” Zhu Chen and the other ten fort leaders exclaimed with enthusiasm. With the divine artifacts refined by Qu Yi, the ten fort leaders have a chance to obtain a large amount of divine crystals, allowing them to go to the towns in the Huoli Divine Realm and purchase divine pills. “That’s great. Everyone, get to work quickly. I hope Tianfeng Fort can become a powerful force in a short time,” Qu Yi said with a smile and a determined expression. Hearing this, the ten fort leaders were even more delighted. The more Qu Yi showed his determination to help Tianfeng Fort, the more they realized they would reap significant benefits. “Yes, Fort King,” the ten fort kings replied joyfully. Immediately afterward, the ten fort leaders went about their tasks. Qu Yi, on his part, returned to Bai Shou Village to continue his cultivation. ※※※ In Huoxin Town, a trend has emerged recently. This trend comes mainly from various adventure groups. When these groups come to Huoxin Town to hunt beasts in the Violent Beast Mountains, they must pass through the Bai Zhai Mountain Area, and the toll they pay has actually decreased.

The tolls charged by bandits have actually decreased!
This is truly unprecedented. In the divine realm, which bandit stronghold would ever voluntarily lower its tolls? It’s never happened before. But now, it’s been done in the Baizhai Mountain Area.
Naturally, after returning to Huoxin Town from the Violent Beast Mountains, various adventure groups discussed this matter. They all realized that something must have changed in the Baizhai Mountain Area.
Qu Wantian, the mayor of Huoxin Town, also quickly learned of the changes in the Baizhai Mountain Area.
As the leader of the town, Qu Wantian had always turned a blind eye to the activities in the Baizhai Mountain Area, allowing the various bandit strongholds there to fight among themselves. But now, upon hearing about the changes, he grew worried and immediately sent a team to investigate the situation in the Baizhai Mountain Area.
One day, a group of ten people returned to Huoxin Town and entered the mayor’s office.
Qu Wantian sat on a chair at the head of the meeting hall, calmly observing the ten people before him.
These ten were from Huoxin Town’s guard team.
“Mayor, we’re back,” said Lan Xiao, the team leader, calmly.
Qu Wantian nodded and asked indifferently, “Have you investigated the situation in the Baizhai Mountain Area?”
Lan Xiao responded promptly, “Mayor, great changes have taken place in the Baizhai Mountain Area. The once third-ranked Tianfeng Stronghold has unified the entire area. Now, there is only one stronghold there—Tianfeng Stronghold. Moreover, many of its members possess divine artifacts.”
Hearing Lan Xiao’s report, Qu Wantian was shocked. He stood up immediately and asked urgently, “You said the people of Tianfeng Stronghold have divine artifacts?”
Struggling to withstand Qu Wantian’s pressure, Lan Xiao replied firmly, “Yes, Mayor. Although we didn’t enter Tianfeng Stronghold itself, we gathered some information after investigating the outskirts. Among its more than 20,000 members, there are estimated to be over 4,000 divine artifacts.”
Qu Wantian was stunned. He stood in silence for a long time before a cold smile appeared on his lips.
“Good. No matter where Tianfeng Stronghold obtained these divine artifacts, Huoxin Town will never allow such a force to exist. If we let its members grow stronger, they will wield these divine artifacts, and even our guard team won’t be able to resist them. Tianfeng Stronghold must be eliminated,” Qu Wantian said coldly.

Qu Wantian used to ignore the Baizhai Mountain Area because the various bandit strongholds checked each other, so no matter how they developed, they couldn’t grow stronger. But now that Tianfeng Stronghold rules over the Baizhai Mountain Area, it means Tianfeng Stronghold will have access to abundant cultivation resources, making it very likely to cultivate a group of powerful members. And now Tianfeng Stronghold already possesses 4,000 divine artifacts, which is almost on par with the strength of the Huoxin Town Guardian Team—a huge threat to them.
Lan Xiao and the other ten people immediately understood from Qu Wantian’s words that he had resolved to eliminate Tianfeng Stronghold.