Chapter 44: Ten Years

Li Zan was only at the early stage of leaving his body and flew through the Cold Wind Starfield. Along the way, he saw many powerful cultivators, but none of them paid attention to Li Zan or suspected him. Thus, he arrived at Yingxian Island quite easily and then used a spatial teleportation array to head to the Demon Poison Star Region.

At that time, countless cultivators had already gathered in the Xianfeng Gorge area. Therefore, the battle between Qu Yi and Yan Bo caused a massive energy fluctuation, which was detected by many people. The news spread quickly, and naturally, the cultivators sent by the Ten Great Sects to Cold Wind Star became aware of it. Immediately, many people rushed over.

“That’s the aura of Yan Bo from the Taiyuan Sect’s Fire Element True Essence!” A powerful cultivator at the Tribulation stage from a major sect, who had encountered Yan Bo on Cold Wind Star before, immediately realized through the remaining energy fluctuations that Yan Bo had been killed.

“What? Yan Bo is dead? He was a strong cultivator at the early Tribulation stage, and I even knew he had a speed secret technique. How could he meet such a fate?” Another powerful cultivator at the Tribulation stage from a major sect was shocked.

The Ten Great Sects had each sent a strong cultivator at the early Tribulation stage to Cold Wind Star, so that they could rush to assist whenever something happened on the planets surrounding this large planet. As a result, these cultivators who resided on the planets often interacted with each other and had come to know one another somewhat.

There was an uproar. The nine cultivators at the early Tribulation stage present suddenly realized something: if Yan Bo, who was at the same cultivation level, had died, then they too were in danger of losing their lives.

“Everyone, I think we can’t split up now. If the killer is still on Cold Wind Star, any of us who is alone might be attacked by surprise,” suddenly said a strong cultivator from the Jin Yang Sect.

The other eight immediately nodded, realizing that they could no longer consider sectarian differences and needed to work together to defend against the enemy.

“Moreover, I’ve figured out that the group of forces here is likely to be from the Li family. That means the killer is probably Qu Yi,” suddenly said a strong cultivator from Cangyang Valley.

Silence fell over the scene. The nine people immediately took out their communication tablets and sent out the news that Qu Yi had arrived on Cold Wind Star.

Of course, Yingxian Island and Jiemo Island on Cold Wind Star also immediately closed down.

These people thought that Qu Yi would be leading the Li family members, who must be hiding somewhere on Hanfeng Star at that time. So they wanted to contact various factions to send even more powerful elders to Hanfeng Star to surround Qu Yi. Unbeknownst to them, Qu Yi already possessed a treasure like the Dimensional Ball, and he had left with the Li family members via a spatial teleportation array before Yingxian Island was sealed off.
…
Pidu Star was the planet closest to the Magic Poison Star Region.
At this moment, after going through several teleportations, Li Zan finally arrived at Pidu Star. After leaving Yingxian Island and arriving in a remote area of Pidu Star, Qu Yi immediately came out of the Dimensional Ball.
“Li Zan, thank you for your hard work,” Qu Yi said as soon as he appeared.
“Elder Qu Yi, you saved the lives of all of us in the Li family. Such hard work is nothing. I’m happy to serve you, Elder Qu Yi,” Li Zan said respectfully.
Qu Yi nodded and then sent Li Zan back into the Dimensional Ball.
The next moment, Qu Yi flew into space and, with a few large jumps between planets, arrived at a planet outside the Magic Poison Star Region.
In this Magic Poison Star Region, only Qu Yi and the Five Elements were immune to the poisonous gas. But Qu Yi also knew that the entire region was now hostile toward human cultivators and would surely attack any outsiders who entered. Therefore, he didn’t want the Five Elements, who couldn’t control their auras, to go out, so he used the “Silent Art” to move around in the region.
With the sensing ability of the Artifact God, a Great Perfection-level spiritual entity, Qu Yi wouldn’t encounter those fierce poisonous beasts in the region. Besides those five poisonous beasts in the early Tribulation stage, he didn’t have to fear any other poisonous beasts either. However, to avoid attracting their attention, Qu Yi had to move stealthily through the region.
Soon, Qu Yi reached the inner area of the Magic Poison Star Region and found a huge cave on one of the planets, suitable for the growth of Poison-Sucking Fruit Trees. He decided to stay on that planet.
Qu Yi blocked the cave entrance with huge stones, leaving only a few gaps for the poisonous gas to enter.
At the bottom of the cave, tens of thousands of meters deep, Qu Yi stopped and immediately asked the Artifact God to bring out the Poison-Sucking Fruit Tree from the Dimensional Ball and place it on the ground.
As soon as the tree came out of the Dimensional Ball, it began to absorb the dense poisonous gas vigorously. Its roots immediately sank into the ground, allowing it to grow on their own.

The poisonous gas howled, and the gas throughout the cave thinned out in an instant. Since the cave entrance was blocked by huge rocks, no more gas could enter, but the gas that seeped in through the cracks formed gas blades, showing just how intensely the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree absorbed poison.

It could be said that now, in the entire Demon Poison Star Region, only the area around this Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree was free of poison, as it had been completely absorbed.

Qu Yi watched as the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree, which was originally five meters in size, suddenly grew to a height of a hundred meters. Its black leaves covered the entire cave, and numerous Poison-Devouring Fruits, numbering no less than ten thousand, appeared on those leaves. Shocked, Qu Yi then thought of something and immediately released the Poison Soul Beast.

As soon as the Poison Soul Beast emerged, it detected the poisonous gas in the cave, realizing it had returned to the Demon Poison Star Region, its home. It immediately took to the air with a joyful howl.

Next, the Poison Soul Beast flew to the branches of the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree and sprayed the poisonous gas it exhaled onto the fruits. Qu Yi immediately witnessed a miraculous scene: the newly grown Poison-Devouring Fruits, after absorbing the poisonous gas from the Beast, seemed to gain its essence, rapidly expanding to the size of a fist and emitting a dark glow. Clearly, their grade had risen by several levels.

The Poison Soul Beast could actually absorb poison and convert it into poison essence within its body, which enabled the Poison-Devouring Fruits to continue maturing. If enough of this essence accumulated, they could transform into World-Poison Fruits.

Seeing this, Qu Yi was naturally very pleased. He had sought out the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree precisely to create World-Poison Fruits, and now it seemed the chances were high.

Soon after, Qu Yi confidently allowed the Poison Soul Beast to live in the cave while he entered the Dimension Sphere to begin his cultivation.

……

Qu Yi had already scanned most of the Three Elements Dao. He estimated that it would take another ten years to complete scanning the remaining parts, after which his spiritual awareness level would be able to break through to the later stage of Convergence.

Therefore, Qu Yi didn’t want to waste any more time and focused solely on scanning the Three Elements Dao to elevate his spiritual awareness level first.

As soon as he entered the Dimension Sphere, he sat by the lake and devoted himself to scanning the Three Elements Dao.

Inside the Dimension Sphere, the others were also concentrating on their cultivation, no longer needing to worry about the dangers outside.

At this time, on Hanfeng Planet, the ten major sects each sent elders in the middle stage of the tribulation phase, who then gathered at Xianfeng Gorge. These ten elders had immediately used spatial teleportation arrays to come from nearby planets the moment they learned that Qu Yi had arrived on Hanfeng Planet. However, after searching carefully around Xianfeng Gorge for a month, they found not the slightest trace of Qu Yi, nor any sign of the Li family members. Confused, troubled, and puzzled, these elders, each with thousands of years of experience, could not figure out how Qu Yi had managed to leave Hanfeng Planet. Since the spatial teleportation arrays on Yingxian Island and Jiemo Island were shut down and Qu Yi had not flown away into space, these elders firmly believed that Qu Yi must have some special method and was still hiding somewhere on Hanfeng Planet. Therefore, they continued to stay on Hanfeng Planet, with Yingxian Island and Jiemo Island remaining closed.

※※※

On BaiShou Peak, the sect leader Yizhu Qinglong received news from the elders who had gone to Mili Forest Planet and learned that the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree had disappeared. He immediately realized that Qu Yi must have been to Mili Forest Planet. After all, all the powerful cultivators in the tribulation phase were either from the ten major sects or from influential cultivator families. As a cultivator in the early stage of the tribulation phase, Meng Chen could not be killed by ordinary tribulation-phase cultivators, and even if he abandoned the Poison-Devouring Fruit Tree to flee on his own, few would be able to stop him. Now that Meng Chen was dead, the only possibility Qinglong could think of was Qu Yi, who possessed the Eight Directions Sword and the Six Directions Knife. Further speculation filled Qinglong with fear—he suspected that Qu Yi might already have obtained a Wandu Fruit. The previous news of the Poison Soul Beast appearing in theMagic Poison Region Star Region had piqued Qinglong’s interest. To avoid attracting the attention of other sects, he sent four combined-stage demon beasts there, taking along the only Wandu Fruit as well, in order to prevent the five early-stage tribulation-phase cultivators in that region from capturing the Poison Soul Beast. In this way, they could rely on the Poison Soul Beast to continuously produce Wandu Fruits, thus gaining countless fruits at the cost of just one—a very profitable deal. Unfortunately, Qu Yi also went to theMagic Poison Region Star Region and took the four demon beasts from BaiShou Peak to steal the Wandu Fruits. Upon realizing that Qu Yi might have obtained the Wandu Fruit, Qinglong was shocked but quickly understood that the elders from the ten major sects who went to chase after Qu Yi might face enormous losses.

However, Qinglong would never reveal the matter of the Poison Fruit on Qu Yi’s person; it was enough for just him to know. “Since Qu Yi has the Poison Fruit, our Hundred Beasts Peak should reduce the pressure of pursuing him and show some goodwill. Let other sects do the heavy lifting in hunting him down, so we can use Qu Yi to wipe out those sects’ elders,” Qinglong had already made up his mind. Since he had deduced that Qu Yi had taken the Poison Fruit Tree, he also inferred that Qu Yi must have gone to the Demon Poison Star Region, as only the poisonous gases there provided the ideal environment for the tree to grow and were most likely to produce the Poison Fruit. Having decided to use Qu Yi to massacre the elders of other sects, Qinglong naturally had a plan: he informed the elders of Hundred Beasts Peak that they only needed to pursue Qu Yi symbolically without pressing too hard, while sending several mid-stage Tribulation Phase elders to the Poison Purification Star. He also deliberately spread the rumor that Qu Yi was likely in the Demon Poison Star Region, so they should go there to intercept him. Sure enough, when the three mid-stage Tribulation Phase elders from Hundred Beasts Peak arrived at the Poison Purification Star, it immediately caught the attention of the other nine sects, which also sent three mid-stage Tribulation Phase elders to guard that star. Although these nine sects didn’t know for sure if Qu Yi really was in the Demon Poison Star Region, they knew that since Hundred Beasts Peak had sent three such elders, there must be something going on there, so they decided to keep an eye on the three elders from Hundred Beasts Peak to act swiftly if necessary. ※※※ In the cultivation world, things gradually settled down again due to Qu Yi’s sudden disappearance. Although the ten major sects kept trying various methods to find him, they found not a trace of him, so their members became increasingly perfunctory, their enthusiasm for searching for him fading day by day. To search for Qu Yi, one needed to be a powerful being in the Tribulation Phase; otherwise, it was suicide. But those at the Tribulation Phase needed a lot of time for cultivation, as they had to prepare magical artifacts, pills, and other treasures for the tribulation, so they wouldn’t waste time searching for a elusive Qu Yi. As those with lower cultivation levels saw that even the powerful ones were not searching for him, how could they risk their lives trying to find him? So they merely flew around symbolically to show they were trying. The matter of Qu Yi soon faded into oblivion. Time passed silently, and ten years went by in the blink of an eye.

Qu Yi, who was in the Demon Poison Star Region, was sitting by the lake on the Dimensional Ball when he suddenly opened his eyes and exclaimed joyfully, “Instrument God, I’ve completed scanning the Three-Element Dao. My soul realm has reached the later stage of Convergence.”

The Instrument God, lying on the soft chair, merely moved slightly without even opening his eyelids. He just uttered an “Oh” before going back to sleep.

Qu Yi bit his lip, realizing that the Instrument God utterly disdained the cultivation level of the Convergence stage, so he didn’t expect congratulations from him.

The next moment, Qu Yi arrived at the Wind-Listening Residence and saw Bai Man and his son practicing together, each wielding a precious sword in attack.

“Senior sister, Han Xin, I’ve broken through to the later stage of Convergence!” Qu Yi happily descended from the air and stepped in front of them.

“Oh!” Bai Man replied perfunctorily.

“Father, congratulations!” Han Xin didn’t even turn to look at Qu Yi, continuing to fight against Bai Man.

Qu Yi’s expression darkened as he sighed inwardly, “Affection needs to be nurtured. I’ve been cultivating alone, without being with my senior sister and son, so this sense of closeness has faded a lot.”

“Ah, I won’t disturb you anymore. Go on practicing,” Qu Yi said, shaking his head and ready to fly away.

“Come back! I haven’t congratulated you yet!” Bai Man suddenly called out cheerfully.

“Father, you’re my role model, my pride!” Han Xin suddenly stopped attacking and called out with a smile.

Hearing this, Qu Yi immediately started dancing with joy, overjoyed in his heart.