Chapter 38: The Nest Found

Qu Yi left the valley and flew for less than a kilometer before stopping. Then, he took out a storage bag—exactly the one Liu Qingfeng carried, which he had seized. As a trace of true energy was infused into the bag, its interior opened, and items began to fall out one by one.

The Golden Fei Sword was the first thing Qu Yi saw—it was Liu Qingfeng’s precious sword, its blade covered in a golden glow that was truly eye-catching. Among the other items were numerous low-grade spirit stones, as well as five mid-grade spirit stones. There were also several vials of pills. Qu Yi immediately lifted the porcelain caps and inhaled deeply.

“Qingling Pills! Xuewu Pills!” The voice of the Artifact God rang out.

In the Xianyun Sect, Qu Yi had read various books on pills. Although he had never synthesized them himself, he had memorized the scent, color, and effects of each type. Naturally, the Artifact God in his soul had also recorded these properties, and now it recited them all at once.

“Great stuff! These can replenish the true energy in a Golden Dan-stage cultivator’s body. If used to replenish someone like me in the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment phase, even one Qingling Pill would likely blow me up. Liu Qingfeng thought he could easily defeat me and didn’t even spare the use of pills—what a huge advantage for me!” Qu Yi said with joy.

There were also a few magical artifacts and mineral materials, but none of these caught Qu Yi’s attention. However, a greenish branch piqued his great interest.

“Artifact God, what is this branch?” Qu Yi held the branch, sensing the concentration of wood-type spiritual energy within it, and asked eagerly.

As an expert in crafting, the Artifact God probably knew about all the cultivation materials in the world. So, when Qu Yi had questions, he would ask directly.

As expected, the Artifact God replied immediately, “Qu Yi, you’re truly lucky. This is Nine Nether Sunken Wood. It can enhance the true energy of wood-type cultivation techniques at the Golden Dan stage and also nourish a cultivator’s primordial spirit.”

Qu Yi was shocked upon hearing this. Such a small branch had such remarkable functions.

“Nourish the primordial spirit? How exactly?” Qu Yi asked in delight.

Qu Yi was currently in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. If he could cultivate a primordial spirit, he would advance to the later stage of this phase. Naturally, upon hearing that this branch could nourish his primordial spirit, he became eager—hoping that the Nine Nether Sunken Wood could help him develop one.

“Hehe, I told you. You’re lucky—this Nine Nether Abyss Wood can help you cultivate a primordial spirit. If you follow the proper method of cultivating the Five Energies and Three Flowers, you can also cultivate your own primordial spirit, but that would take three years. However, with this Nine Nether Abyss Wood, you probably won’t need a year to cultivate your own primordial spirit,” the Artifact God explained patiently.

Qu Yi let out a shout and leaped into the air. This news was absolutely amazing, and he was overjoyed.

Upon landing, Qu Yi immediately asked, “Artifact God, do you know how to use this Nine Nether Abyss Wood?”

“It’s simple. Treat this wood as a magical artifact. First, drip your blood onto it. Then it will enter your body, and you can move it to your liver to refine it using the Wood-type True Qi. During the refinement process, the wood will emit a kind of soul energy. Once your soul absorbs it, it will gradually transform—this is what cultivators call the stage of refining qi into spirit, right?” the Artifact God explained in detail.

Qu Yi didn’t expect it to be this simple. Overjoyed, he immediately cut his finger and dropped a drop of blood into the wood.

As soon as the wood absorbed Qu Yi’s blood, he felt as though he was connected to it. With a thought, the wood entered his body and instantly reached his liver. The Wood-type True Qi in his liver immediately surrounded the wood and began to penetrate its interior, refining it with full force.

Qu Yi retrieved the wood and realized that breaking through to the later stage of Foundation Building was not far off. Delighted, he quickly packed up Liu Qingfeng’s belongings and stored them in his own storage bag. Then he set off to continue searching for the Blood Mosquito King.

……

“Qu Yi, as we move forward, the chances of encountering Blood Mosquitoes are increasing. We’re likely approaching their nest,” the Artifact God warned.

After sorting through Liu Qingfeng’s items, Qu Yi continued walking through the Abyss of Ten Thousand Monsters. A few more days passed, and they finally reached the bottom of the abyss, where they encountered over a dozen groups of Blood Mosquitoes.

“Artifact God, leave the task of finding the way to you. I’ll go wherever you say,” Qu Yi said casually.

With Qu Yi’s spiritual awareness, which had not yet formed a primordial spirit, he could only sense things within a few miles around him—useless in such a vast abyss. But the Artifact God’s spiritual awareness was much stronger, reaching the level of mid-Primordial Baby stage, so naturally, finding the way relied on him.

“I’m truly pitiful. A great God of Tools, a deity of the divine realm… reduced to being a pathfinder.” The God of Tools said angrily, full of dissatisfaction.

Qu Yi remained silent obediently. He knew it was not the right time to provoke the God of Tools further, or else his soul would suffer intense pain once again.

Another period of solitary journey ensued, spanning over a hundred miles.

“Qu Yi, a thousand miles ahead, Yong Chuan from the Fire Moon Sect is fighting against Huai You,” the God of Tools suddenly reminded him.

Huai You was Qu Yi’s uncle and the leader of the Xianyun Sect’s expedition into the Abyss of Ten Thousand Monsters.

Hearing this, Qu Yi was shocked and quickly asked, “God of Tools, point out the direction, and I’ll fly there right away.”

At this moment, Qu Yi didn’t want to wander slowly through the abyss; he was eager to help Huai You. Although Huai You was also at the late Golden Core stage, he practiced wood-based cultivation techniques, making him naturally vulnerable to Yong Chuan, who used metal-based techniques.

The God of Tools didn’t stop him. Though Qu Yi was only at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment and normally shouldn’t be able to participate in battles between those at the late Golden Core stage, he carried four array discs, which were equivalent to four late Golden Core cultivators, so he could still assist Huai You.

Flying swiftly through the air, Qu Yi rushed forward.

……

At the bottom of the Abyss of Ten Thousand Monsters, in a muddy depression, there were only two hundred-meter-tall stone pillars standing upright, providing a place to stand.

At that moment, there were exactly two people standing on those two pillars.

One was Huai You from the Xianyun Sect, at the late Golden Core stage with wood-based cultivation, wielding a lower-grade precious weapon, the Feather Wood Sword.

The other was Yong Chuan from the Fire Moon Sect, also at the late Golden Core stage with metal-based cultivation, holding a lower-grade precious weapon, the Fire Scaled Blade.

“Yong Chuan, this is the nest of the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes that I discovered first. Leave quickly. Our Xianyun Sect will take care of these mosquitoes,” Huai You called out seriously.

It turned out that the muddy area beneath the stone pillars was indeed the nest of the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes. However, there were no mosquitoes flying in or out of the mud at that time, which seemed strange. If not for Huai You being tired from flying in the abyss and resting on the stone pillars, occasionally sensing the aura emitted by the Blood Mosquito King, he wouldn’t have realized that this was the nest of those mosquitoes.

Yong Chuan, on the other hand, said leisurely, “Huai You, the four sects agreed to enter the Abyss of Ten Thousand Monsters with the rule that whoever kills the Blood Shadow King will gain control over it. But we didn’t agree that whoever discovers it first won’t allow others to enter the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes’ nest.”

In the cultivation world, usually, if someone from a certain sect discovers a treasure, it belongs to that sect. However, if that sect is too weak or the person sent to retrieve the treasure is not strong enough, the treasure is likely to change hands.

The reason is simple: resources in the cultivation world are precious, and everyone wants to advance in cultivation, so competition for these resources is extremely fierce. After all, strength still determines everything. Now, Yongchuan’s words also imply that if they’re all entering together, the two of them should fight now. Huaiyou snarled in anger but said nothing more, standing quietly on the stone pillar while using his spiritual sense to search for the location of the Blood-Sucking Mosquito nest in the mud. Seeing Huaiyou remain silent, Yongchuan began to think. They couldn’t just stand on this stone pillar forever; after all, no one knew what was going on inside that nest. If all the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes emerged, he would be in extreme danger. He had to act! After some deliberation, Yongchuan suddenly took off and swung his Fire-Scale Sword fiercely. The original intention of the Fire Moon Sect was to capture the Blood Mosquito King and then breed a large population of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, so that the entire Cuimu Planet would become their domain. But after the other three sects united, the Fire Moon Sect was forced to compromise, agreeing to eliminate the Blood Mosquito King. Now, Yongchuan had made up his mind: by dealing with Huaiyou, he would be the only one who knew about the nest’s location. Later, when the Fire Moon Sect sent people to capture the Blood Mosquito King, they would already have a group of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes at their disposal. As the Fire-Scale Sword swung, a fiery red energy blade flashed through the air, aiming straight at Huaiyou. “Despicable!” Huaiyou shouted angrily and immediately raised his sword, creating his own energy blade. His Feather Wood Sword possessed a “Feather Eagle Formation”; when his vital energy was channeled, an eagle soaring through the sky would appear, its wings flapping as it intercepted the fiery red energy blade. Boom! With flames and blue light, the explosion lit up an area of hundreds of meters around them. When the shockwave reached the muddy ground, it caused ripples like those on a lake—quite unusual. “Yongchuan, you despicable wretch! Do you really think that just because you practice gold-element cultivation techniques, you can definitely defeat me? You should know that I’m also in the later stage of the Golden Core realm. Even if I can’t defeat you, I can still escape. Then I’ll reveal that this place is a Blood-Sucking Mosquito nest and ruin all your plans,” Huaiyou shouted angrily after blocking Yongchuan’s sword strike and instantly understanding his intentions. “Is that so? Then let’s fight here to see if I can defeat you,” Yongchuan laughed maniacally as he took off and rushed toward Huaiyou. With his skills at the later stage of the Golden Core realm, he was extremely fast. The distance between the two stone pillars was only a hundred meters, and Yongchuan quickly arrived in front of Huaiyou.

“If you’re willing to fight, I’ll take it on.” Huaiyou wasn’t weaker either; seeing that Yongchuan really intended to fight, he immediately took off into the air.