Chapter 52: The Flower of Empty Breath

Without its core, the Spirit Sky Tree was like a cultivator without a soul, with its five-element energies erupting wildly. Thus, the warriors from the eight sects, after using their own treasures to defend against the attacks of lower-grade immortal weapons and spirit artifacts, thought they could easily cut down the tree’s leaves and obtain those lower-grade immortal weapons. But due to the sudden loss of control over the core and the chaotic flow of five-element energies, the lower-grade immortal weapons received an overwhelming surge of energy and launched attacks abruptly.

The warriors from the eight sects retreated to the space within the Spirit Sky Tree and rose high into the air, cursing furiously.
“What’s going on with this Spirit Sky Tree? Why did its energy suddenly erupt?”
“We were so close! We almost had those lower-grade immortal weapons. Why did it attack suddenly?”
“The Void-Consuming Heavenly Fire—our ancestors in the Mahayana stage worked so hard to find it. We brought it to the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion, only to waste it on this Spirit Sky Tree.”
“The sudden attack by the Spirit Sky Tree must be related to Qu Yi. Could he be doing something inside the tree trunk?”
…

In just a moment, the warriors from the eight sects expressed their thoughts, but none of them dared return inside the Spirit Sky Tree again.

Meanwhile, Qu Yi remained in the core’s space, using his spiritual consciousness to connect with the Star Luo Cauldron and observe the movements of the core inside it. The core struggled constantly, clearly still unwilling to be controlled by others. Yet the more it struggled, the harder it was for it to escape, until it finally had to remain still inside the Star Luo Cauldron.

Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness tried to reach out to the core, sending the intent to subdue it. As soon as the core sensed Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness, it became violently agitated, even emitting its own fluctuations of spiritual energy, attempting to control Qu Yi’s consciousness and thus his soul. Qu Yi felt both amused and exasperated—this core actually wanted to take control of him instead.

Huh!

The Star Luo Cauldron suddenly saw violent surges of five-element energies, which treated the core like a ball, tossing it back and forth. It was as if the core had traversed countless timespaces, being shattered into chaos and losing its spiritual essence temporarily.

After a while, Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness entered the Star Luo Cauldron again and located the core. It seemed the core’s spiritual essence was beginning to recover. Immediately, Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness entered the core’s interior, discovering another soul space there. Taking advantage of the core’s incomplete awakening, he left his own soul imprint within the core’s soul.

After all, this Lingkong Tree was a treasure at the mid-tier immortal artifact level. Qu Yi did not dare to implant a soul shackle on the tree core right away. With his current soul strength at the middle stage of the tribulation, it was likely not even comparable to a wisp of air in front of the tree core. Therefore, Qu Yi only wanted to leave his own soul imprint and see how the tree core would react once it fully regained consciousness.

The tree core quickly recovered and then detected Qu Yi’s spiritual awareness inside the Xingluo Cauldron. At this point, it showed no signs of attack but rather a sense of attachment, pulsing joyfully.

Qu Yi was overjoyed. It seemed he had established a connection with the tree core and could coexist amicably with it.

Immediately afterward, Qu Yi controlled the Xingluo Cauldron to release the tree core, allowing it to take control of the entire Lingkong Tree once again. Now, Qu Yi also had the ability to make the tree core use the Lingkong Tree to attack specific targets—a development that was likely far beyond Emperor Hao’s initial expectations. Emperor Hao probably never imagined that a being in the tribulation phase could enter the tree core’s space and establish a connection with it.

……

The powerful warriors from the Eight Sects in the air noticed that the low-tier immortal artifacts and immortal weapons on the Lingkong Tree had returned to normal, no longer randomly casting spells into the air. The Lingkong Tree became calm once more, seemingly waiting for the warriors from the Eight Sects to attack it again.

Earlier, Qu Yi had already established a connection with the tree core through his spiritual awareness, making it obey his commands and issue instructions whenever it was time to attack. With Qu Yi’s soul imprint in its soul, the tree core regarded him as a friend and listened very attentively to him. Upon receiving his request, it readily carried it out.

When the warriors from the Eight Sects saw the changes in the Lingkong Tree, their faces showed surprise, mixed with confusion. “The Lingkong Tree has returned to its original state. Should we attack those low-tier immortal artifacts?” “What’s going on with the Lingkong Tree? Could it be that Qu Yi is inside the trunk and has taken control of it?” “It’s strange. The Lingkong Tree seems odd. Let’s observe it for a while longer.”……

The warriors from the Eight Sects pondered again, each worried about the changes in the Lingkong Tree, and did not immediately fly into it to attack the low-tier immortal artifacts.

After a long time,

Suddenly, the four members of the Taiyuan Sect—Tai Ming, Shan Zhen, Shan Ren, and Shan Zhen—gathered their true essence once more, transforming it into a golden true essence sword, which then flew toward the golden low-tier immortal artifact they had been attacking earlier.

At that moment, the low-tier immortal artifact, along with the ten thousand immortal weapons around it, launched another attack. However, its power seemed to be half that of the previous attack.

At that moment, the True Energy Swords of the four members from Taiyuan Gate effortlessly blocked the attack and quickly flew toward the lower-grade immortal weapon. With a single swing, they severed the leaf holding the lower-grade immortal weapon. As soon as the weapon fell, it was immediately retrieved by Tai Ming, who was hidden inside the True Energy Sword. The ten thousand spirit weapons around were all controlled by the lower-grade immortal weapon; now that it was gone, they remained motionless on the leaves, emitting no offensive spells. The True Energy Swords of the four Taiyuan Gate members immediately left the space of the Spirit Tree and separated, revealing their figures. Tai Ming, holding the gold-colored lower-grade immortal weapon, laughed as he glanced at the strong warriors from the other seven sects. “Gentlemen, this time it’s Taiyuan Gate that takes the lead. I won’t wait for you all,” Tai Ming laughed. Immediately afterward, he performed a blood oath of allegiance, and the lower-grade immortal weapon emitted a light shield that enveloped the four Taiyuan Gate members, who then vanished into the sky. This time, Tai Ming wanted to be the first to leave this magical world via the space transmission array and head to the last region of the Eight Deserts Palace—the Northeast Deserts. The four Taiyuan Gate members had long guessed that Qu Yi would reach and leave each of the first six regions first, likely due to some special guidance from Emperor Hao. Therefore, having finally obtained the first lower-grade immortal weapon, they chose to leave right away without lingering in battle. The strong warriors from the Seven Sects—Qingyun Sect, Yingtian Sect, Jinyang Sect, Cangyang Valley, Bai Shou Peak, Xianyue Cliff, and Jiugong Island—saw the smiles on the faces of the four Taiyuan Gate members and heard Tai Ming’s triumphant voice as they watched them depart. All of them immediately felt regret. Soon, the strong warriors from the seven sects reassembled their True Energy Swords and flew into the Spirit Tree to attack those lower-grade immortal weapons. Meanwhile, inside the Spirit Tree, Qu Yi continued to direct the actions of the tree’s core. “Qu Yi, are you really going to let Taiyuan Gate take the lower-grade immortal weapon so easily?” The voice of the Weapon God rang out. It turned out that when the four Taiyuan Gate members went to retrieve the lower-grade immortal weapon, Qu Yi had deliberately made the tree’s core control the energy supply, reducing the attack power of both the lower-grade immortal weapon and the spirit weapons by half. “Weapon God, I don’t want these strong warriors from the eight sects to die now. Let them accompany me on my journey,” Qu Yi said with a smile. Although only the last region of the Eight Deserts Palace remained, there was still the Six Harmonies Palace ahead. Qu Yi didn’t want to explore it alone; he preferred to have these strong warriors from the eight sects help him find the way.

Upon hearing this, the Spirit God fell silent, clearly agreeing with Qu Yi’s actions. At that moment, the powerful warriors from the seven sects had transformed into seven blades of True Essence, each approaching a lower-grade immortal weapon and launching fierce attacks. The attack power of those lower-grade immortal weapons against the warriors from the seven sects had been reduced by half, posing little pressure on them. Naturally, this was also the result of Qu Yi’s secret control; otherwise, it would have been impossible for the warriors from the seven sects to approach the lower-grade immortal weapons so easily. Soon, each of them obtained a lower-grade immortal weapon. Meanwhile, the warriors from the Six Sects—Qingyun Sect, Yingtian Sect, Jinyang Sect, Cangyang Valley, Baishou Peak, and Jiugong Island—left the interior of the Lingkong Tree carrying their lower-grade immortal weapons. The blades of True Essence formed by the three demon cultivators from Xianyue Cliff, after obtaining one lower-grade immortal weapon and seeing that its attack power had been halved, decided to target the remaining two. So, those blades approached another blade-shaped lower-grade immortal weapon, attempting to take it as well. “Damn you, greedy wretches! You must be punished!” Qu Yi shouted angrily from within the tree’s core space. Clearly, the actions of the three from Xianyue Cliff immediately enraged him. How could he tolerate it if the seven sects took away the last two lower-grade immortal weapons? Suddenly, before those blades could even get close, the lower-grade immortal weapon along with ten thousand other spiritual weapons around it began to vibrate violently, unleashing a devastating spell. Its attack power doubled! In an instant, the three demon cultivators from Xianyue Cliff felt immense pressure. In a hurry, they withdrew their blades of True Essence, scattered, and each took out a treasure—all of which were the same flower: the Space-Calming Flower! The warriors from the other sects shouted from outside in the air. It turned out that the treasures brought by those demon cultivators from Xianyue Cliff were the Space-Calming Flowers, treasures capable of sealing off a space. The three demon cultivators had planned to use them as a last resort, but out of greed, they failed to bring them out to save their lives. Driven by True Essence, the Space-Calming Flowers immediately dispersed and vanished, and soon the three demon cultivators from Xianyue Cliff disappeared as well, seemingly entering another dimension.

The attack wave from the lower-grade immortal artifact passed, and soon the figures of the three from Cliff of the Crescent Moon appeared, unharmed at all. However, the three from Cliff of the Crescent Moon did not dare to think about attacking the lower-grade immortal artifact again; they immediately flew out of the Spirit Tree as soon as they appeared.
Qu Yi smiled faintly upon seeing the three from Cliff of the Crescent Moon leave.