Chapter 42: Team Qualifications

“Not a single drop of essence blood may be lost.”
“Space rings, start searching quickly—hand everything over to me.”
“Divine artifacts, pile them all together and divide them equally among us.”
After waiting for the nearly million cultivators at Nan Yin Island who were at the Divine General stage to return, Qu Yi pointed at the entire battlefield and shouted happily.
The nearly million cultivators from Nan Yin Island, who had pursued and slaughtered the Divine General-level cultivators from Kun Wei City, Zhen Shou City, and Xun Qiao City, were already in high spirits. Hearing Qu Yi’s words, they grew even more arrogant, responded immediately, and began searching the entire battlefield.
Qu Yi watched happily as the cultivators from Nan Yin Island cleared the battlefield.
During his last ten-thousand-year meditation, Qu Yi had refined the essence blood he had obtained, expanding the number of his Golden Wood Water Spirit Bodies, Golden Wood Fire Spirit Bodies, and Golden Wood Earth Spirit Bodies to sixty million each. Now, seeing the essence blood collected by the cultivators from Nan Yin Island, he decided that after this meditation, he must increase the number of these three types of spirit bodies to seventy million.
It didn’t take long for the nearly million cultivators from Nan Yin Island to clean up the battlefield.
Qu Yi took two hundred drops of each of the three types of essence blood—Golden Wood Water, Golden Wood Fire, and Golden Wood Earth—then shouted, “As for the remaining essence blood, take whatever you need. All the materials in the space rings belong to me, and the divine artifacts shall be divided equally among us.”
The nearly million cultivators from Nan Yin Island already knew Qu Yi’s habits—he would only take what he needed and never take anything he didn’t require. Therefore, upon hearing his words, they all looked at Qu Yi with joy and heartfelt admiration.
“Team leader, you’re the best!”
“Following you is truly a blessing.”
“I truly admire you to the extreme.”
The nearly million cultivators from Nan Yin Island immediately filled the air with expressions of gratitude, and the entire battlefield was filled with excitement.
Xin Wuhen and Tian Buao had already known from before that Qu Yi had taken one hundred drops of each of the three types of essence blood. Back then, they realized how far their strength fell short compared to Qu Yi’s. Now, seeing him take two hundred drops of each type again and knowing that the number of spirit bodies in his body was continuing to grow rapidly, they felt helpless, realizing that their strength could no longer compare to his.
Qu Yi was truly monstrous!
These two outstanding talents, Xin Wuhen and Tian Buao, were now completely conquered by Qu Yi.

Qingwugui’s expression remained calm. Hearing Qu Yi’s words, he realized that Qu Yi and the cultivators on Nan Yin Island were about to resume their meditation, so he immediately sent a mental message: “Qu Yi, you continue with your cultivation. I’ll go ahead and launch a sneak attack alone.”
Qu Yi nodded slightly.
※※※
On the outer islands where Nan Yin Island is located, there are a total of 109 groups of cultivators at the Divine General stage.
Over the past tens of thousands of years, these groups have fought against each other, and most of them have lost much of their strength, with only a few hundred or even dozens of cultivators remaining. However, since every group consists of cultivators at the Divine General stage, after each battle, whenever a group realizes they are at a disadvantage, they choose to flee. As a result, all 109 groups still exist today.
Each group’s cultivators have a specific mark on their foreheads.
Since all 109 groups on these outer islands still have surviving cultivators, meaning the marks representing these groups have not been completely erased, the total number of such marks on these outer islands remains 109.
When all these groups entered these outer islands, they were informed that only when there are five groups left can all the cultivators on these islands leave and head to the central island.
Therefore, all the groups of Divine General stage cultivators on these outer islands now understand one thing: the upcoming battles will be those where the stronger groups eliminate those whose strength has been greatly diminished.
With nearly a million cultivators on Nan Yin Island focused on their cultivation, it gives the other groups on the island the confidence to eliminate the hidden cultivators from other groups. These other groups fear that Nan Yin Island will target them next, so they must quickly wipe out those groups with weakened strength, reducing the number of groups on these outer islands to five in order to survive.
At every moment, the island is filled with cries of battle.
“You wretches from Kun Wei City! You’ve been defeated by the people of Nan Yin Island. Why hide anymore? Just commit suicide! Do you really expect us people from Gen Zhuang City to do it for you?”
In a valley on the island, a group of nearly seven hundred thousand cultivators at the Divine General stage surrounded a group of a thousand cultivators, mocking them mercilessly.
This group came from the Shan Gen Divine Realm and was part of Gen Zhuang City’s forces. The ones surrounded were cultivators from Kun Wei City who had fled after being defeated by Nan Yin Island.

The monk groups from Dui Ping City, Qian Xuan City, Kun Wei City, Zhen Shou City, Xun Qiao City, and Li Zhou City, which had been attacked by Nan Yin Island, were not all killed; some monks managed to escape. Among them, the number of monks at Kun Wei City who reached the Divine General stage and fled was quite large, and they now had a significant target, having been discovered and surrounded by Gen Zhuang City.

“Gen Zhuang City, our Earth Kun Divine Domain and Mountain Gen Divine Domain have always been on good terms. Could you please spare us this time?” cried a monk from Kun Wei City, his eyes filled with hope.

Backed by a Divine Emperor, the relationship between the Mountain Gen Divine Domain and the Earth Kun Divine Domain had always been excellent. The monk from Kun Wei City hoped to persuade those from Gen Zhuang City to spare them from suffering.

“Spare you? How ridiculous. On these outer islands, our Gen Zhuang City has already wiped out the monks from Gen Chang City, who also come from the Mountain Gen Divine Domain. How much less would we spare the monks from your Earth Kun Divine Domain?”

“There are only eight outer islands in total, with each divine domain having 108 cities, meaning at least 108 groups. Each of our domains sends over a dozen groups to the outer islands. On these islands, groups from the same domain fight fiercely against each other—how could we possibly spare groups from other domains?”

“You’re truly naive. No wonder you were defeated by Nan Yin Island. Now, your only fate is death. Out of pity for your pleas, we’ll let you kill yourselves; we won’t even mistreat your corpses.”

Soon, the monks from Gen Zhuang City began to mock them.

On the outer islands, only five groups were eligible to leave, with each domain having around sixteen groups. Thus, no single domain’s group could ensure that everyone could escape, leading to distrust among all groups on the island. Even groups from the same domain would fight to the death. Naturally, there would be no sympathy for groups from different domains.

The thousands of monks from Kun Wei City were well aware of the situation. Hearing the mockery from Gen Zhuang City, they felt sorrowful, but their fighting spirit surged as they resolved to fight to the death.

“If that’s the case, we can only fight. If even one of us survives, it will be enough.”

“We can’t let Gen Zhuang City get away with this. We’ll fight to the death. Those who can escape should do so—as long as one of us survives, our group’s legacy will not vanish.”

“Brothers, fight! We’d rather die in battle than die in humiliation!”

The monks from Kun Wei City immediately erupted in fierce shouts, their fighting spirit soaring. They united as one force and charged in one direction, trying to break through from there.

“Indeed naive.” Laughter filled the air among the cultivators of Genzhuang City. Soon after, seven million cultivators from Genzhuang City launched a coordinated spell attack, mercilessly killing all the survivors from Kunwei City. Similar scenes also played out from time to time on these outer islands. Cultivators who survived great battles were pursued and besieged by powerful groups; none could escape. Beneath these outer islands, an invisible force prevented cultivators from hiding underground, throwing them back out after just one breath. As a result, even those groups with only a few hundred survivors could not escape and were killed one after another. Of course, among those who fled after being defeated, there were also powerful individuals. Thus, even if some groups tried to hunt down these fleeing groups, they might not be able to wipe them out completely. Ten thousand years passed in no time. The nearly million cultivators on Nanyin Island continued to cultivate, refining the essence blood they had obtained. Qu Yi had already successfully refined a hundred drops of each of three types of essence blood, increasing the number of the three combined spiritual entities in his body by ten million. As a result, the numbers of the metal-wood-water, metal-wood-fire, and metal-wood-earth spiritual entities in his body all reached seventy million. Everyone on Nanyin Island came to their senses, stood up, and burst into a unified, thunderous laugh. “It’s amazing!” Everyone spoke from the heart. Although group battles were cruel, they were also opportunities to enhance one’s strength. After all, in the divine realm before, cultivators at the Divine General stage had to take great risks just to kill another cultivator at the same stage, and they might not even succeed. Therefore, the amount of essence blood they could obtain was very limited, nowhere near what they could gain after group battles now. Qu Yi smiled at everyone and then declared, “Cultivators of Nanyin Island, we have greatly improved our strength. It’s time to eliminate all the groups on this island.” Only five groups were eligible to leave. Qu Yi understood that they couldn’t wait any longer and should take the initiative to eliminate the other groups. At that moment, all eight outer islands where the group battles took place trembled. A buoyant force rose from each island, lifting all the cultivators hiding there into the air. Then, a voice sounded—the same voice that had given instructions to all the cultivators earlier. “The eight outer islands are shaking. There are now only five groups left on these islands, and they are eligible to head to the Central Island right away.”

As soon as these words were spoken, a giant character appeared in the sky above each of the eight outer islands, covering the heavens. Above the island where nearly a million cultivators lived on Nan Yin Island, a character “Li” appeared. It turned out that the eight outer islands were arranged according to the positions of the Eight Trigrams.