Chapter 2: The Soul Star Region
In the realm of cultivation, there is a widely known principle that can be summarized as: first, immortal palaces; second, extreme deserts; third, lost treasures; fourth, dangerous regions.
The first refers to the Vast Heaven Immortal Palace, the second to the Five Souls Desolation and the Five Elements Extreme Realm, the third to the magical artifacts brought down from the upper realms by Emperor Hao and his two subordinates, and the fourth to the Tidal Mist, the Demon Poison Star Region, the Heavenly Fire Star Region, and the Soul Star Region.
Regarding the four dangerous regions, the Tidal Stone, the creator of the Tidal Mist, has already been taken by Qu Yi. He has visited both the Demon Poison Star Region and the Heavenly Fire Star Region, but he has not yet been to the Soul Star Region.
When the Artifact God suddenly suggested that Qu Yi go to the Soul Star Region, he was indeed very puzzled.
“Artifact God, why do you suddenly want me to go to the Soul Star Region? I know it’s a place many cultivators at the Tribulation stage go to. Won’t going there expose my whereabouts?” Qu Yi asked directly out of confusion.
The Tribulation stage involves undergoing three heavenly tribulations: the 39-day tribulation, the 69-day tribulation, and the 99-day tribulation. Especially the 99-day tribulation, which includes terrifying mental trials. If a cultivator’s heart demons arise during this time, their cultivation journey is essentially over.
The Soul Star Region is home to many soul beasts—some skilled in soul attacks, some dedicated to disrupting cultivators’ minds, and some that devour cultivators’ souls. Cultivators at the Tribulation stage wish to enter this region to let these soul beasts attack them, thereby getting used to the mental disturbances during tribulations and overcoming them more easily.
In essence, the Soul Star Region is a paradise for cultivators at the Tribulation stage.
After hearing Qu Yi’s question, the Artifact God smiled faintly and said, “Qu Yi, the Four Elements Path—do you really plan to spend five hundred years scanning it? Don’t you want to shorten the time? And as for your Three Cauldrons Sect, so many people’s soul realms haven’t improved. Can you wait for them to progress slowly before conquering the entire cultivation realm and unifying it?”
Qu Yi was stunned. After some thought, he began to understand the Artifact God’s reasoning. He wanted to go to the Soul Star Region to find treasures like Soul Nurturing Crystals to transform his soul once again and increase the speed of soul scanning, thus completing the scanning of the Four Elements Path more quickly. Moreover, some of the soul beasts in the Soul Star Region had soul cores within them, which could indeed help cultivators elevate their soul realms.
“Alright, let’s head to the Soul Star Region right away,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
……
Li Zan was once again sent out of the Tiny Realm Ball by Qu Yi and then traveled alone via the space teleportation array to the Soul Star Region.
Qu Yi, on the other hand, remained inside the Tiny Realm Ball, using the Star Luo Cauldron.
On Cuimu Planet, Tianfeng Planet, and Tianhua Planet, Qu Yi obtained a great deal of material at the level of precious artifacts. Later, he went to Baiyin Planet, the Demon Poison Region, and the Tianhuo Planet Region, where he also gathered numerous materials from the space rings of the elders of various sects. Furthermore, he obtained a large amount of material from the Lingkuang Repository of the Xiao family and from the Tan Tian Sect, as well as from the space rings of the experts sent by various sects to hunt him. All these materials have now been collected by the Artifact God and hidden in a certain area within the Cunjie Ball.
Inside the Xingluo Cauldron, it is the Artifact God who decides which materials to put in at each time. It’s unclear how he uses magic, but whatever materials are needed fly in and fall directly into the cauldron, being placed in the five designated areas corresponding to the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth elements—respectively the Metal Corner, Wood Corner, Water Corner, Fire Corner, and Earth Corner.
With a thousand materials at a time, Qu Yi can quickly become familiar with these precious artifact-level materials.
The Xingluo Cauldron bears Qu Yi’s soul imprint, allowing him to fully utilize its functions. Thus, he doesn’t need primordial energy to activate it—only his own vital energy is sufficient to ignite the Azure Blue True Fire within the cauldron, burning all the materials in the five corners.
Each corner area seems to be divided into two hundred parallel spaces. The two hundred materials burn in the Azure Blue True Fire without mixing or blending with each other, each burning independently.
This is the function of the Xingluo Cauldron—what can be called parallel spaces.
Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness continuously receives information from within the cauldron, meticulously recording the various properties of the thousand materials. He quickly figures out what kind of magical artifacts can be crafted from each material, what arrays can be inscribed, and which materials can be combined to enhance certain properties of the artifacts.
It can be said that what the Artifact God had previously taught Qu Yi about the properties of various materials, Qu Yi now comprehends directly after refining them with the Azure Blue True Fire, turning it into his own knowledge.
Qu Yi devotes all his spiritual consciousness to getting familiar with the materials for crafting artifacts, having stopped scanning the Four Elements Dao. By accelerating progress in this area first, he can later craft artifacts more swiftly on his own.
In a certain region of the Cunjie Ball, only Qing Wugui and Mu Han reside there.
After his Asura Heart matured, Qing Wugui reached the Combined Body stage and has since lived inside the Cunjie Ball. He is devoted to studying the “Spiritual Talisman Manual” to learn how to create more powerful spiritual talismans.
Dugu Fu is truly a genius. The “Asura Demon Manual” and the “Spirit Talisman Manual” he passed on can actually complement each other—progress in one area can enhance achievements in the other. Once he achieved the state of the Asura Heart, Qing Wugui found that he could already create spirit talismans at the initial stage of fusion. Qu Yi also handed over the Spirit Tool God to Qing Wugui, allowing him to practice extensively and continuously create spirit talismans at the fusion stage. These talismans exuded an aura devoid of intent to kill, as if they could extinguish all existence the moment they were cast. Through creating these talismans, Qing Wugui’s cultivation advanced astonishingly, reaching the late fusion stage in no time…
After half a year, Li Zan traveled through tens of thousands of space teleportation arrays before finally arriving at Soul-Shattering Star. From Soul-Shattering Star, one could reach the outer regions of the Soul Heart Star Zone. Like the Demon Poison Star Zone and the Heavenly Fire Star Zone, the Soul Heart Star Zone was also divided into outer, inner, and core regions, with tens of thousands of stars numbered by the cultivators of the cultivation world. After emerging from the teleportation hall on Yingxian Island, Li Zan began wandering around the island, keeping his spiritual sense wide open to eavesdrop on conversations among the cultivators there. Secretly, the Spirit Tool God expanded its spiritual sense to cover the entire island, capturing all information related to the Soul Heart Star Zone.
“Wang Qiang, I know you’re eager to break through to the soul realm, but the Soul Heart Star Zone is a paradise for those powerful cultivators at the Tribulation stage. With your cultivation only at the mid-stage of leaving the body, it’s likely you haven’t even obtained a soul core yet, so those strong cultivators will already be eyeing you.”
“The outer regions are filled with weak soul beasts, most of which are below the leaving-the-body stage. Even if you kill them, it’s hard to obtain their soul cores. In the Soul Heart Star Zone, the stronger the soul beast, the greater the likelihood it possesses a soul core.”
“Most soul beasts in the Soul Heart Star Zone live in groups; only the strongest ones act alone. Moreover, there’s a special spiritual connection between different soul beasts. If one is attacked, the nearby ones will immediately be aware. So when you attack those weak beasts, the strong ones around you will likely notice and come to attack you right away.”
“The soul beasts in the core area have some that have reached the late stage of the Tribulation Crossing phase. These powerful soul beasts sometimes, on a whim, come to the inner zones or even the outer zones. Basically, when humans encounter such soul beasts, they almost always die. You know that powerful Huangfu family in the cultivation world, right? It declined forever after their clan leader was killed by a soul beast in the Tribulation Crossing phase during his training in the Soul Heart Star Region.”
“In the Soul Heart Star Region, aside from the ferocity of the soul beasts, there are also many dangers. Some soul beasts create illusions to drain a cultivator’s vital energy, and some places naturally contain ores that launch soul attacks, making it even harder to defend against. So, if you want to enter the Soul Heart Star Region, it’s best to go in with the main group.”
……
As Li Zan walked around Yingxian Island, the Artifact God listened to all the information about the Soul Heart Star Region from various cultivators in different situations.
If the Artifact God knew, it meant Qu Yi knew as well.
Li Zan stayed at an inn on Yingxian Island and then set up a spirit-blocking restriction, after which Qu Yi immediately came out of the Dimension Sphere.
“Li Zan, you’ve worked hard. You can now enter the Dimension Sphere to train. If you manage to obtain a soul core at the Outward Departure stage, I’ll give it to you first,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
“Ah… Thank you, Senior Qu Yi!” Li Zan exclaimed excitedly.
Li Zan was only at the early stage of Outward Departure, and he needed a soul core at the middle stage of that phase to have a chance of breaking through.
Qu Yi nodded and immediately sent Li Zan into the Dimension Sphere.
“Qu Yi, on this Yingxian Island, besides cultivators from various parts of the cultivation world, it seems there are also disciples from the Ten Great Sects. It seems they’ve realized that you took the Star Luo Ding and guessed that you might come to the Soul Heart Star Region for adventures, so they’ve stationed some disciples here to monitor the entire Broken Soul Star,” the Artifact God’s voice suddenly rang out.
The Artifact God’s spiritual awareness was extremely powerful; it was likely already covering the entire Broken Soul Star, so not even the slightest movement of the Ten Great Sects’ members escaped its detection.
Qu Yi smiled and said calmly, “Since someone is watching, I won’t draw attention this time. There’s a dedicated team on this Yingxian Island that’s going into the Soul Heart Star Region, right? I’ll join their team and blend in with them. I doubt the members of the Ten Great Sects will notice me.”
Yes, many cultivators want to go to the Soulheart Region to hunt soul beasts and obtain their soul cores. But most people know that in addition to dealing with the soul beasts, they also have to fend off the interference of powerful cultivators at the Tribulation stage. As a result, a convention emerged on Soulheart Star: cultivators with insufficient strength gather together. This way, coming from different sects, they can join forces to fight against the soul beasts, and it also makes those powerful cultivators more cautious, afraid of offending too many sects at once.
Upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, the God of Tools immediately fell silent, seemingly agreeing with his idea.
So, Qu Yi left the inn and went to a place called the “Soulheart Grand Alliance.”