Chapter 23: Taking Action

Qu Yi placed one hand on the Back-Shaking Crab’s back and immediately channeled Chaos Energy into its body.
Although the Back-Shaking Crab was unconscious, it felt extremely comfortable once the Chaos Energy entered its body. It also helped greatly in healing its injuries, and its divine essence recovered rapidly as well.
Before long, the Back-Shaking Crab regained consciousness. It then saw Qu Yi smiling and Wu Lan Sea Snake sucking in essence blood nearby.
“You guys!”
Surprised, the Back-Shaking Crab cried out before staring at Qu Yi intently.
Qu Yi smiled at it and said, “Back-Shaking Crab, you’re now under my control. I’ll give you a choice: become my pet, and I’ll help you get the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma.”
“Bastard! Trying to make me your pet?”
The Back-Shaking Crab, which had been carefully observing Qu Yi, became furious upon hearing his confident tone. It immediately tried to swing its golden pincers to cut Qu Yi in pieces.
Qu Yi stood calmly, motionless, smiling at the enraged crab.
Meanwhile, Wu Lan Sea Snake, which was refining essence blood, noticed the crab’s anger. Knowing the power of the four sea lords in this region, it shrank into a ball, terrified as it stared at the crab.
But when the Back-Shaking Crab raised its golden pincers, it couldn’t move at all.
Inside the Dimensional Sphere, Qu Yi was the king, controlling everything.
Both the Back-Shaking Crab and Wu Lan Sea Snake were stunned, unable to understand what was happening. They sensed that Qu Yi was incredibly powerful—capable of controlling space and locking down an area.
“Back-Shaking Crab, do you agree to become my pet?” Qu Yi asked with a smile.
At that moment, the crab’s mind was filled with conflicting thoughts. It found it hard to accept that a sea beast at the Divine Hero stage had to become the pet of a cultivator at the Divine General stage. Yet, remembering that Qu Yi had the power to kill it and that the special energy he had injected had healed its injuries, it realized Qu Yi’s immense potential.
Hearing this, Wu Lan Sea Snake uncurled itself and crawled over to Qu Yi.
“Powerful one, I want to become your pet. Will you agree?” it transmitted in a trembling voice.

Qu Yi shook his head and smiled, saying, “Wu Lan Sea Snake, your cultivation level is still a bit low. If you reach the level of a Divine Marshal, then I might consider it. For now, I only want this Earth-Shaking Crab.”
The Earth-Shaking Crab trembled once again inside, and suddenly, on impulse, it shouted, “Okay, I agree to you.”
It was intuition—the Earth-Shaking Crab simply felt that by following Qu Yi, it would grow stronger and become a dominant force in its domain. Thus, driven by passion, it hesitated no longer and agreed right away.
Qu Yi nodded with a smile, then sent his consciousness into the Earth-Shaking Crab’s soul space, imprinting his own soul mark on one of its soul orbs.
The Earth-Shaking Crab found that its body could move freely once more.
After finishing everything, Qu Yi said with a smile, “Alright, it’s time for us to go claim the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma. Wu Lan Sea Snake, you stay inside the Dimensional Sphere for now. Earth-Shaking Crab, come with me.”
With that, Qu Yi and the Earth-Shaking Crab left the Dimensional Sphere.
※※※
The valley where the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma was located remained calm.
Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, and Gongye Jing continued to confront each other, while a hundred thousand cultivators from the Divine Realm stood at a distance, waiting for the right moment to act. As for the three sea dominators—Thunder-Eye Ice Crocodile, Four-Armed Water Ape, and Nine-Headed Imperial Snake—although they were all at the Divine Marshal level, sensing the strength of Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, and Gongye Jing, they were not confident enough to kill them, so they could only wait aside.
In everyone’s consciousness, they noticed that a large number of sea beasts were swimming in from afar. After all, the massive battle involving tens of millions of sea beasts had released countless drops of essence blood, attracting countless more sea beasts.
“Gongye Ping, Gongye Jing, how about I give you the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma? I’ll compensate you both,” Yan Feng said, realizing the urgency of the situation and trying to negotiate through his consciousness.
Undoubtedly, Gongye Ping and Gongye Jing also knew that once the sea beasts arrived, they would have no chance of obtaining the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma.
“Okay, give us an Innate Spiritual Treasure, and we’ll agree to it,” Gongye Ping replied immediately through his consciousness.
Yan Feng’s face turned cold. He didn’t even possess a single Innate Spiritual Treasure—how could he agree? Moreover, although the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma was precious, it wasn’t at the level of an Innate Spiritual Treasure. The demands of Gongye Ping and Gongye Jing were far too harsh.
Innate Spiritual Treasures were artifacts even Divine Kings fought over.
“That’s too much!” Yan Feng snapped in anger.

This sound undoubtedly told the others nearby that Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, and Gongye Jing must be involved in some secret deal.
“We can’t wait any longer!”
The Thunder-Eyed Ice Crocodile, the Four-Armed Water Ape, and the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake also realized that it was too dangerous to let Yan Feng stand beside the Divine Blood Jade Mushroom. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t use some underhanded trick to snatch it away suddenly.
Suddenly, two lightning bolts as thick as a person shot out from the Thunder-Eyed Ice Crocodile’s eyes at the same time, instantly heading toward Yan Feng.
The Four-Armed Water Ape gathered a water ball and immediately threw it at Gongye Ping, while the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake spat out nine black water balls. As they flew toward Gongye Jing, the nine water balls merged into one large black water ball, filled with poisonous gas.
The three Sea Dominators attacked together, aiming to drive back these three most powerful Divine General-level cultivators before competing for the Divine Blood Jade Mushroom.
“Hmph!”
Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, and Gongye Jing all roared in anger and immediately took action to counter these fierce spells.
“By order of the True Flame!”
Yan Feng shouted, swiftly swinging his Flame-Serving Sword. A sea of fire appeared instantly—a realm of flames formed by 20 million aggregated spiritual entities, as if commanded by heaven to burn all realms.
The two lightning bolts struck the flames, causing countless dull thunderclaps before disappearing.
Gongye Ping and Gongye Jing also swung their divine swords, each summoning a water ball to block the ones flying toward them. When the water balls collided, it was clear that those of the Four-Armed Water Ape and the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake were of higher quality, as they were formed from unified spiritual entities, far surpassing those made from aggregated spiritual entities.
Unified spiritual entities were the spiritual entities contained within cultivators at the Divine General level, embodying four laws. However, Gongye Ping and Gongye Jing had a significant advantage in the number of aggregated spiritual entities they could summon.
The water ball sent by Gongye Ping submerged the one from the Four-Armed Water Ape. Although Gongye Jing’s water ball didn’t completely destroy that from the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake, it weakened it greatly. By then, the water ball cast by the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake was only the size of a human head and was quickly sliced apart by Gongye Jing’s sword as it approached her.
All these events that unfolded in the blink of an eye gave Yan Feng an opportunity. After blocking the two lightning bolts, he reached out with his left hand, using his divine essence to pull out the Divine Blood Jade Mushroom.
Boom! Boom! Boom!

As soon as the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma was restrained, it immediately reacted, and another vast network of spiderweb-like cracks appeared across the seabed, as if the roots of the entire plant had spread throughout the ocean floor. Yan Feng did not pull it out right away! Naturally, no one else would give him another chance to remove it; they immediately acted together, unleashing a sea of spells at Yan Feng. “Bastards!” Yan Feng shouted in anger, but he had no choice but to dodge quickly. When those spells hit the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma, all its divine energy was absorbed by it, leaving it unharmed at all. At that moment, the hundred thousand cultivators, who had been waiting for their chance, united as one force and flew toward the plant, aiming to seize it during this chaos. “Dare you!” “You’re seeking death!” “You overestimate your strength!” In an instant, Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, Gongye Jing, Thundereye Ice Crocodile, Four-Armed Water Ape, and Nine-Headed Imperial Snake all roared in fury, their eyes blazing with anger as they stared at the hundred thousand cultivators. Immediately, these six powerhouses unleashed their ultimate techniques—thunder, water balls, seas of fire, and poisonous gases—enshrouding the cultivators and sending deadly intent their way. “It’s bad! Everyone, defend yourselves!” “Those six have joined forces—hurry up and defend!” “I misjudged; those six actually stopped fighting.” … The hundred thousand cultivators were filled with panic. They never expected the six fighting masters to suddenly stop fighting and instead unite to suppress them. Undoubtedly, those six fierce attacks caused many cultivators to die instantly, while the rest were severely injured and fled to the surface in terror. With no hope of taking the Divine Blood Jade Ganoderma anymore, these injured cultivators at the Divine General level wouldn’t risk it further. The hundred thousand cultivators were either dead or injured; in any case, none remained in the sea. Only the six powerhouses remained, facing off against each other. Just then, their divine senses detected two more powerful auras approaching the valley. One of them was the injured Zhendi Crab, while the other had a very faint aura, seemingly blended in with the seawater—probably deliberately concealed by the cultivator himself, otherwise his aura would have been detected by the six powerhouses. Naturally, those auras belonged to Qu Yi and the Zhendi Crab. Shortly after, Qu Yi stepped on the back shell of the Zhendi Crab and majestically broke through the water to confront the six powerhouses.

“Crab, your wound has healed.”
The Thundereye Ice Crocodile, the Four-Armed Water Ape, and the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake immediately exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the Earth-Shaking Crab approaching.
“Qu Yi!”
Meanwhile, Yan Feng, Gongye Ping, and Gongye Jing, who had been searching for Qu Yi all along, instantly focused their consciousness on him and shouted.