Chapter 26: Assassination

Qu Yi, Jin Zun, Mu Zun, and Tu Zun arrived at a mountain near the Patriarchal Council of the Tyrant Dragon Sect.
There, Long Hu Wei had already been sitting there for three days.
“Haha, Brother Qu Yi! You really didn’t leave Earthly Tyrant Star after all.” As soon as Long Hu Wei sensed the arrival of Qu Yi and his companions, he stood up immediately and called out happily.
Seeing Qu Yi, the gloom in Long Hu Wei’s heart vanished in an instant.
Qu Yi flew down and immediately hugged Long Hu Wei.
“Brother Hu Wei, since you asked me to come, how could I possibly run away at the last moment? Your senior brother, Long Zhan Tian, has received the sect leader’s mandate, yet Zhuang Guangming still tries to seize power through schemes—what a cunning plan. Very well, this time I’ll help your senior brother firmly take the position of sect leader,” Qu Yi said with a smile after releasing Long Hu Wei.
Long Hu Wei was deeply moved.
“Brother Qu Yi, let’s go see my senior brother now. I’ll introduce you to him,” Long Hu Wei exclaimed excitedly.
At this point, Long Hu Wei still wanted Long Zhan Tian to get to know Qu Yi again so that Qu Yi could be given a suitable role to deal with Zhuang Guangming.
Qu Yi smiled slightly and waved his hand to stop Long Hu Wei from speaking further.
“Brother Hu Wei, just go to your senior brother’s side and tell me about Zhuang Guangming’s current military layout. I’ll take care of him,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
He didn’t want Long Hu Wei to know about the one billion Ice Bees or the top-grade immortal weapon, the Vast Heaven Sword.
Indeed, upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, Long Hu Wei was momentarily stunned, not understanding his plans.
However, knowing that Qu Yi had secrets of his own and didn’t want him to join in, Long Hu Wei realized there must be his own reasons and stopped asking further.
“Alright, Brother Qu Yi. I’ll stay by my senior brother’s side and keep sending you updates on Zhuang Guangming’s forces,” Long Hu Wei said solemnly.
Qu Yi nodded.
Immediately afterward, Qu Yi, Jin Zun, Mu Zun, and Tu Zun flew away, waiting for the messages from Long Hu Wei.
※※※
Qu Yi arrived on the eastern side of the Sun Continent.
This was the territory controlled by Zhuang Guangming, where fifty million disciples lived. Zhuang Guangming had fifty million disciples under his command, focusing on guarding important locations such as the Origin Mineral Veins.
These fifty million disciples all possessed the strength of the Earth Soul Demon level, ranging from one star to six stars, making them extremely powerful. They occupied the most important Origin Mineral Veins on the Sun Continent.
These Origin Mineral Veins contained abundant Origin Stones, which allowed many disciples to directly absorb their energy and quickly restore their demonic essence.

Thus, with the Origin Mineral Veins, Zhuang Guangming’s forces could quickly regain their combat strength. After receiving the message from Longhu Wei, Qu Yi rushed over swiftly, entered the Dimensional Sphere, and arrived at the edge of the Origin Mineral Veins. The Immortal Consciousness of the Artifact God could cover the entire Sun Continent, so naturally, this entire area of Origin Mineral Deposits was also within its coverage. “Qu Yi, Zhuang Guangming has divided his 50 million disciples into four groups to guard the four directions.” “There are already tens of thousands of mines in these deposits, with many disciples at the Human-Demon level mining there.” “Qu Yi, these 50 million disciples are guarded by forty elders at the Mid-Level Earth Soul Demon level, ten in each direction.” “There are also four hundred core disciples at the Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon level, one hundred in each direction.” Soon, Qu Yi understood the situation around these Origin Mineral Deposits. “The Life Core of the Soul-Receiving Flower has now reached the strength of a Six-Star Earth Soul Demon. If it consumes even stronger Lower-Level Earth Soul Demons or Mid-Level Earth Soul Demons, it will likely break through.” These thoughts flashed through Qu Yi’s mind. The Life Core could devour souls and also help Qu Yi resist soul-based spell attacks. Immediately, Qu Yi made up his mind: first, he would assassinate some Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon strongmen to boost the Life Core’s strength, and then deal with those 50 million Earth Soul Demon level disciples. This Origin Mineral Vein was vast, with over 12 million disciples scattered evenly in the four directions. Each area was guarded by one core disciple at the Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon level. Before long, the Dimensional Sphere arrived at the secret chamber of a Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon strongman. War wasn’t coming anytime soon, so these Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon strongmen wouldn’t waste their time on cultivation. Thus, each area had a strongman personally setting up a place as their cultivation site. The moment the Dimensional Sphere landed on the ground, Qu Yi stepped out. “You…” That Lower-Level Earth Soul Demon immediately sensed Qu Yi’s arrival, but before he could shout, his head was severed. Yes, Qu Yi had already drawn the Shangjin Sword of the Golden Lord and slashed off the strongman’s head. “Who are you? How did you get in?” The head transmitted a message through its demonic consciousness, staring at Qu Yi in terror. Qu Yi didn’t bother to pay attention. With a thought, the Life Core of the Soul-Receiving Flower appeared. The Life Core glowed with golden light, enveloping the head, then emitted tens of thousands of rays that pierced deep into it.

“No!” A wave of soul tremors spread, filled with desperate panic.
The Life Core was already using tens of thousands of golden threads to extract the soul flower of this powerful warrior, directly devouring and refining his soul. Moreover, this warrior had no strength to resist, and his soul flower quickly collapsed, being entirely absorbed by the Life Core.
Soon, Qu Yi retracted the Life Core, placing it back outside his own soul flower to protect his soul.
Now, Qu Yi’s soul flower had two layers, indicating that he had reached the realm of Earth Immortal.
At the same time, Qu Yi immediately returned to the Miniature Realm Sphere and disappeared.
Inside the secret chamber, thanks to the magic array in place, none of these activities were detected by those outside.
Thus, Qu Yi controlled the Miniature Realm Sphere once again and headed to the secret chamber of another powerful warrior at the lower Earth Soul Demon level.
He repeated the same tactic!
…
One after another, in just ten days, Qu Yi managed to kill all 100 powerful warriors at the lower Earth Soul Demon level in this region of the West.
And none of this caused any stir—those disciples usually wouldn’t disturb these warriors’ cultivation, so they didn’t even realize these warriors had vanished from the world.
Qu Yi didn’t stop there and headed north instead.
Using another ten days, he eliminated 90 powerful warriors at the lower Earth Soul Demon level in the north. As for the remaining ten, who were close to some middle-level Earth Soul Demon elders, Qu Yi gave up attempting to assassinate them.
Next, Qu Yi rushed to the east to continue his assassinations.
Eighty-nine lower Earth Soul Demon warriors died.
He then went to the south.
Another 94 powerful warriors at the lower Earth Soul Demon level died at Qu Yi’s hands, all becoming “food” for the Life Core.
Qu Yi had long known that Long Zhan Tian wouldn’t attack this region of origin mineral veins for three months. Therefore, he understood that these lower Earth Soul Demon warriors wouldn’t come out either during those three months, remaining in their secret chambers to cultivate.
Qu Yi took advantage of this time to kill these lower Earth Soul Demon warriors.
After each assassination mission, Qu Yi would leave a soul compass in a certain place for his next plan.
And now, Qu Yi was ready to carry out his next plan.
※※※
Zhuang Guangming set up his command post on his own Guangming Peak.
At that moment, in the Guangming Hall, Zhuang Guangming sat with the nine elders who supported him, discussing the reports that had come in.
“On the Land of the Sun, Long Zhan Tian sent a force of a million disciples to attack the northern military camp, only to suffer a crushing defeat.”

“In the Land of the Sun, Long Zhan Tian sent a group of ten million disciples at the Earth Soul Demon level to encircle and attack our guards guarding the molybdenum ore deposits in the central and northern regions. We received the news in advance and retreated quickly, preventing Long Zhan Tian from succeeding in his attack. After Long Zhan Tian’s disciples withdrew, we regained control of the molybdenum ore deposits.”

“In the Land of the Sun, Long Zhan Tian sent another group of five million human-demon level disciples to seize our junior disciple training grounds. They were repelled through fierce resistance from our disciples, with both sides suffering losses of around two million disciples each.”

……

In just a short while, the ten people scanned all the information related to this side of the Land of the Sun.

“That’s not right. The primal ore veins in the Land of the Sun are of utmost importance to us. Long Zhan Tian must have thought of that. He has attacked every region in the Land of the Sun—why then hasn’t he sent anyone to harass those primal ore veins?” Zhuang Guangming exclaimed as if suddenly realizing something, feeling a hint of concern.

“Elder Master, Long Zhan Tian knows we have stationed many disciples there, all at the Earth Soul Demon level. Realizing he can’t capture it immediately, he wants to harass other regions of the Land of the Sun, first eliminating disciples from other factions before surrounding our fifty million disciples at the primal ore veins,” said one of the elders with a calm smile, as if he had already seen through Long Zhan Tian’s strategy.

At this point, these people already regarded Zhuang Guangming as the leader of the Storm Dragon Sect.

The several elders immediately nodded in agreement with this speculation.

A few others remained in deep thought, not speaking up with their own ideas yet.

Zhuang Guangming shook his head and said directly, “I have an intuition that Long Zhan Tian must have a deeper purpose behind this. Moreover, he has surely already sent people to the primal ore veins to secretly target our fifty million disciples.”

The nine elders stared at Zhuang Guangming in confusion.

“Elders, here’s what I suggest: Let the disciples stationed at the primal ore veins rotate locations every half month. In this way, even if Long Zhan Tian sends disciples to mix in with our disciples, those spies won’t be able to cause much disruption,” Zhuang Guangming said calmly.

Upon hearing this, the nine elders understood Zhuang Guangming’s plan.

If someone infiltrates among the disciples of various factions, it takes time to get familiar with the place and to make connections with other disciples. By having these disciples move around every half month, it will naturally undermine the effectiveness of those spies operating within their group.

“Good,” the nine elders agreed to his suggestion with smiles.

Soon, Zhuang Guangming drafted an order, ready to issue it. At that moment, his communication card vibrated. He took it out and scanned it, his face instantly turning pale. “The Origin Mineral Veins—fifty million disciples—have all died.” Zhuang Guangming stood up abruptly, shouting in fury with a twisted expression.