Chapter 33: Killing Three in a Row

In the core of Desert Star, the Earth-Sustaining Stone continuously absorbed and released Earthly Energy, sustaining the planet’s unique desert terrain.
Next to the Earth-Sustaining Stone, the Miniature Realm Sphere had remained quietly integrated into the ground, and sixty years had passed in the blink of an eye.
During those sixty years, Qu Yi had stayed inside the Miniature Realm Sphere, sitting by a lake while his spiritual awareness scanned the Three Elements Dao constantly.
Now, Qu Yi had nearly completed the scanning of the Three Elements Dao, and his soul realm had long since reached the middle stage of the Convergence Phase. With another ten years, he would be able to finish scanning the entire Dao and advance to the later stage of the Convergence Phase.
However, some matters forced Qu Yi to temporarily break away from his meditation.
After sixty years, the layer of yellow sand in the cracks of Desert Star’s land would stop drifting and turn into solid sandland. Then, the three early-stage Tribulation Survivors—Shan Meng, Xiao Duhan, and Wei Ming—who were trapped in those cracks could escape.
If Qu Yi wanted to reach the later stage of the Convergence Phase, he needed an early-stage Tribulation Survivor’s Yuan Ying. With three such strong individuals right here, how could he possibly ignore them? He must act and deal with them.
By the lake in the Miniature Realm Sphere, Qu Yi opened his eyes and smiled faintly. His soul realm had advanced enough to allow him to strive for the middle stage of the Convergence Phase.
But…
“Vessel God, have those three early-stage Tribulation Survivors been doing well over these sixty years?” Qu Yi asked, looking at the Vessel God sitting on the soft chair beside him with a smile.
It turned out that Qu Yi wanted to deal with those three early-stage Tribulation Survivors before advancing to the middle stage of the Convergence Phase.
“Don’t talk to me. You said you’d avoid communication with me for sixty years. Now that sixty years are up, let me tell you too—I’ll also avoid communicating with you for sixty years,” the Vessel God retorted in a childish tone, looking quite adorable with its plump cheeks.
Sixty years, another sixty years—that’s 120 years! Hearing the Vessel God’s angry words, Qu Yi broke into cold sweat. This mysterious supreme expert actually acted like a child when angry.
“Vessel God, stop playing around. Please tell me quickly what’s become of those three guys,” Qu Yi said with a flattering smile.
The Vessel God sat up on the soft chair, crossing its two fair little legs, and sized Qu Yi up before saying, “I give you two choices: either let me pierce your Yuan Shen once, or we’ll avoid communication for sixty years.”
Qu Yi was so frightened that he sat down on the ground. He never expected the Vessel God to be so terrifying when angry. He realized he really couldn’t afford to offend such a powerful figure.

“Come on, if you want to pierce my essence, just do it directly.” Qu Yi immediately understood the Consciousness of the Artifact God. If it didn’t let him have his way, this matter would go on endlessly, so he had no choice but to endure it.
The Consciousness of the Artifact God giggled, its eyes filled with triumph.
Standing on the lawn, Qu Yi suddenly felt a fierce stab to his essence, as if a finger had pierced into it, causing an excruciating pain.
On the lawn, Qu Yi rolled around all day before finally feeling that his essence was no longer in pain.
Sitting on the lawn, he remained depressed for a long time, sighing continuously, until he finally calmed down. Then he looked at the Consciousness of the Artifact God with a calm expression.
“Artifact God, can you tell me what’s happening to those three?” Qu Yi asked calmly, showing neither anger nor happiness.
The Consciousness of the Artifact God studied Qu Yi for a while before giggling nonstop before saying, “Those three have been trapped at the bottom of the fissure, blocked by flowing yellow sand above, and attacked by the Earth-Stabilizing Stones from the core. They can only sit and meditate in a certain place in the fissure, waiting for the sand to stop flowing so they can escape.”
Qu Yi thought for a moment and asked curiously, “I remember one of those three practiced earth-based cultivation techniques. Here in this fissure, he doesn’t have to worry about exhausting his earth energy. So why doesn’t he attack the other two?”
Hearing this, the Consciousness of the Artifact God’s eyes lit up as it laughed, “Qu Yi, it seems you’re not stupid after all. You even thought of that.”
Qu Yi felt like vomiting from frustration, muttering to himself, “I’ve always been smart. If I ever become stupid, it’s because of you, the Artifact God, poking my essence.”
As if it knew what Qu Yi was thinking, a smile flashed in the Consciousness of the Artifact God’s eyes before it continued, “That Wei Ming, who practices earth-based cultivation, indeed wants to kill Shan Meng and Xiao Duhan. But those two aren’t fools either. As soon as they realized they were trapped, they flew away to other parts of the fissure. Now, with the spiritual connection severed at the bottom of this fissure, how could Wei Ming possibly find them? So, right now, the three of them are all meditating in one place in the fissure.”
Qu Yi nodded and said, “Since they’re not together, I’ll deal with them one by one.”
Without waiting for the Consciousness of the Artifact God’s reply, Qu Yi already summoned the Golden Qilin.
“Hehe, Master, you’ve been cultivating for sixty years. Now you’ve finally awakened.” In its transformed form as a muscular man, the Golden Qilin looked even more imposing, yet it still fawned over Qu Yi.

Qu Yi nodded and said, “Golden Qilin, come with me. There are three strong warriors in the early stage of the Tribulation Phase waiting for you to kill them.”
Upon hearing this, the Golden Qilin let out a gulping sound—clearly shocked.
“Three in the early stage of the Tribulation Phase for me to kill? Wow! Just thinking about controlling the formation in the Xiao family and slaughtering enemies everywhere makes me feel how wonderful life is. Now I can even kill warriors in the Tribulation Phase—what an honorable thing!” The Golden Qilin shouted excitedly.
Immediately afterward, the Miniature Realm Sphere flew up from beside the Stone of Rest, escaping the attack range of the nine Earth Energy Dragons. Only then did Qu Yi and the Golden Qilin emerge from the sphere and fly in a certain direction toward the fissure.
…
As soon as Shan Meng realized he was trapped at the bottom of the fissure, he understood that his only option was to wait there until the flowing yellow sand stopped and the area turned back into sandy land before he could escape.
So, Shan Meng immediately flew to a stone wall in the fissure, found a hiding place, and began to meditate and cultivate in silence.
For warriors in the Tribulation Phase, with lifespans of tens of thousands of years, a mere few decades was nothing that could significantly affect them. Thus, Shan Meng treated it as if he were in seclusion underground.
Sixty years passed, and Shan Meng remained seated in silence, unaware that two figures were flying toward him.
The Spirit Consciousness of the Artifact God, unaffected by the underground constraints, quickly located Shan Meng and guided Qu Yi to him. Qu Yi had asked the Artifact God why it had such an extraordinary ability, but the Artifact God refused to explain.
Qu Yi had long gotten used to the mystery of the Artifact God. Since he couldn’t get an answer, he stopped asking. After all, the Artifact God was on his side, and its abilities were his own—that was enough.
At that moment, guided by the Artifact God, Qu Yi and the Golden Qilin arrived about five meters away from Shan Meng.
Shan Meng was completely unaware and continued cultivating.
Qu Yi didn’t bother greeting him. Instead, he threw an Eight Directions Sword to the Golden Qilin and took one himself, then the two of them attacked Shan Meng together.
Two streaks of light flashed across the fissure and suddenly struck Shan Meng.
When Shan Meng sensed the arrival of the two lights and intuitively realized danger, trying to fly away immediately, he lost consciousness right away.
Qu Yi quickly flew to Shan Meng’s side and unleashed the Blazing True Fire from both of his palms, burning Shan Meng to ashes. However, Shan Meng’s Yuan Ying had to be preserved.

Shan Meng had already disintegrated once, and this body was formed by gathering energy through his Yuan Ying. As long as the surface energy of the metal element was burned away, his Yuan Ying could be found. It could be said that Shan Meng died under an utterly unjust fate—he didn’t even know who killed him before dying. After killing Shan Meng, Qu Yi took the Golden Qilin and immediately flew at the bottom of the earth fissure, continuing to search for Wei Ming and Xiao Du Han. These two early-stage Tribulation cultivators, out of mutual caution, flew far down the fissure before each finding a place to cultivate. Thus, even with the guidance of the Spirit Consciousness of the Artifact God, Qu Yi had to fly for a long time to locate their hiding places. After flying for a month—almost half a planet’s distance along the bottom of the fissure—Qu Yi finally found Xiao Du Han. Xiao Du Han had actually discovered a genuine ancient cave on the stone walls of the fissure and set up an Ice Cloud restriction at the cave entrance. Any enemy who came into contact with it would trigger the restriction, freezing them instantly. “Golden Qilin, get ready. I’ll use the Eight Directions Sword to attack the restriction at the entrance, while you immediately attack Xiao Du Han inside,” Qu Yi said as he arrived at the cave entrance, communicating directly with the Golden Qilin through their souls. Since the Golden Qilin was Qu Yi’s demon pet, the two were connected through their souls, allowing direct spiritual communication—unlike Qu Yi’s interactions with others, which could only occur through Spirit Consciousness. “Master, I understand what you mean,” the Golden Qilin replied immediately. Then, Qu Yi took the Eight Directions Sword and poured all the metal-element essence from his Yuan Ying into it, unleashing a beam of light. With his current cultivation level at the early stage of fusion, the energy of this beam was comparable to that of an early-stage Tribulation cultivator. The beam instantly shattered the Ice Cloud restriction at the entrance, without even producing a single piece of ice. Xiao Du Han inside immediately sensed this and tried to fly out of the cave, but before he could stand up, another beam of light, like a wind blade, flew in and pierced straight into his body. With a sound, Xiao Du Han collapsed upright inside the cave. Qu Yi immediately flew in and released the Blazing True Fire from both hands, burning Xiao Du Han to ashes. Of course, Xiao Du Han’s water-element Yuan Ying from the early stage of Tribulation was taken by Qu Yi. After dealing with Xiao Du Han, Qu Yi, excitedly, took the Golden Qilin and continued flying at the bottom of the fissure, searching for the last early-stage Tribulation cultivator, Wei Ming. Somewhere at the bottom of the fissure, Wei Ming, an early-stage Tribulation cultivator of the Jin Yang Sect, had been sitting in meditation on a flat rock for sixty years.

Suddenly, Wei Ming’s spiritual awareness sensed something—a tendency for the Earthly Essence at the bottom of the fissure to become stagnant. At that moment, Wei Ming, who was practicing Earth-based cultivation techniques, immediately realized that the layer of yellow sand in the middle of the fissure was about to change, likely forming yellow sand land, allowing him to finally escape his predicament.
“Hmph, sixty years—so it’s a cycle of sixty years. Good, I, Wei Ming, am still blessed by heaven; I can finally get out of this trouble,” Wei Ming exclaimed excitedly as he stood up on the flat rock.
“You have no chance!” A voice suddenly came from nearby.
Just as Wei Ming tried to draw out his magical artifacts to defend himself, two dazzling beams of light rushed toward him at once, too fast for him to dodge even with teleportation.
“The Eight Directions Sword…” Wei Ming cried out in surprise before dying.
Qu Yi appeared immediately, unleashing blazing True Fire from both hands that burned Wei Ming to ashes. Qu Yi also took away Wei Ming’s nascent Earthly Yuan Ying, which was still in the early stage of tribulation transformation.
By killing three people in a row, Qu Yi had obtained three nascent Yuan Ying from the early stage of tribulation transformation—one each for Metal, Water, and Earth.