Chapter 29: You Attack First

“Bad luck for you!”
As soon as Qu Yi appeared, he said those words lightly to the middle-aged man.
It was only when the middle-aged man attacked and killed one of the patrol disciples that Qu Yi noticed him. Immediately, he used the speed of Water Path Coldness and flew over in an instant.
Hearing Qu Yi’s words, the middle-aged man realized they were exactly the same words he had used against the patrol disciple earlier—someone had repeated them so quickly.
However, when he sensed that Qu Yi was only at the level of a Six-Star Water Path Earth Soul Demon, he felt much more relaxed.
By this time, Qu Yi had transformed all the chaotic energy in his body into Water Path Demon Essence, allowing the middle-aged man to sense his cultivation level. This was intentional on Qu Yi’s part, meant to confuse the man.
“Is that so? Do you really think I’m only at the level of a One-Star Earth Soul Demon?” the middle-aged man replied indifferently.
Immediately afterward, he released his own Demon Essence, fully revealing his Mid-Level Earth Soul Demon cultivation, and smiled at Qu Yi.
Qu Yi remained calm, unshaken by the pressure of a Mid-Level Earth Soul Demon’s Demon Essence, which surprised the middle-aged man.
“That’s impossible. I’m a Mid-Level Earth Soul Demon—how could you not be affected by my pressure?” the middle-aged man asked in confusion.
Of course, Qu Yi’s behavior was so astonishing that the man couldn’t help but ask.
Qu Yi smiled and shook his head, saying, “There are many strange things in the world. There are still many things you haven’t seen. By the way, you can attack me now. Do you want me to attack first? It will cause you a lot of pain.”
Since Qu Yi’s body had transformed into a Chaos Body, he viewed everything in the world with a superior attitude. Naturally, although the middle-aged man was stronger than Qu Yi, his Demon Essence pressure had no effect on him.
Only pressure at the level of a Heavenly Demon could exert some influence on Qu Yi.
Hearing that Qu Yi actually asked him to attack first, the middle-aged man was shocked. Qu Yi, who was only a Six-Star Earth Soul Demon, was asking him, a stronger Mid-Level Earth Soul Demon, to attack first—what a strange thing!
“Are you really asking me to attack first?” the middle-aged man asked in disbelief.
Qu Yi nodded and smiled, “Yes. If I attack first, you won’t have the strength to retaliate.”
His expression was sincere.

The middle-aged man shook his head violently. He had fought in countless battles throughout his life but had never seen such a scene—some cultivator of the Earth Soul Demon actually daring to let a cultivator of the Earth Spirit Demon attack first.
“I get it. You’re deliberately acting mysterious to scare me away so you can escape,” the middle-aged man exclaimed with sudden realization, his expression resolute.
Qu Yi sighed and said, “Alright, since you won’t attack, I’ll attack you instead.”
The middle-aged man’s expression tightened as he gripped his iron spear more firmly.
Qu Yi chuckled and suddenly shouted, “Life Core, activate!”
Immediately, above Qu Yi’s head, the Life Core of the Soul-Connecting Flower appeared, glowing with golden light. It then descended above the middle-aged man’s head, shooting out a thousand golden rays that pierced into his skull.
As soon as it appeared, the Life Core aimed to snatch the Soul Flower from the middle-aged man’s soul.
“Ah, no… What is this thing?!” The middle-aged man cried out in pain and terror as his soul suffered.
Qu Yi laughed and said, “I told you before—if you let me attack first, you wouldn’t have the strength to retaliate.” His expression remained sincere.
In pain, the middle-aged man shouted angrily, “If I attacked first, wouldn’t you release this thing against me? You wretched scoundrel! Pay with your life!” With that, he thrust his iron spear at Qu Yi.
Strangely, the speed of the spear slowed down significantly. His Soul Flower had been affected by the Life Core, preventing him from using spatial spells as intended.
If he could master spatial spells, the spear could suddenly emerge from another dimension, appearing as if by teleportation, to pierce Qu Yi’s skull. But due to the restraint of the Life Core, which possessed the strength of a lower-level Earth Spirit Demon, the middle-aged man couldn’t easily use spatial spells, greatly weakening his strength to that of a six-star Earth Soul Demon.
Qu Yi held the Wu Xi Sword, his body floating as if in a dream. As he dodged the spear’s strike, he thrust the Wu Xi Sword forward, piercing into the middle-aged man’s body.
At that moment, the water-based demonic energy surrounding Qu Yi suddenly transformed into a calm, chaotic energy. The Wu Xi Sword, now embedded in the middle-aged man’s body, had injected a thread of chaotic energy into him. Qu Yi quickly pulled out the sword and stood aside, smiling, without attacking the middle-aged man anymore.

The middle-aged man immediately sensed an unusual energy within his body—it was not one of the Five Elements, but instead moved chaotically inside him, destroying the Metal-type demon essence and preventing his own demon essence from functioning properly. With no other choice, he had to use some of his demon essence to block the flow of chaotic energy. By gathering pieces of his demon essence, he slowed down the chaotic energy’s progression, but he couldn’t transform it or expel it from his body. Thus, trapped by the Life Core above and hindered by the chaotic energy inside, his strength was greatly reduced—nearly 90% of it lost. At this point, his strength was far inferior to Qu Yi’s. Qu Yi wasn’t in a hurry; since the middle-aged man couldn’t use spatial spells and no longer had the ability to escape, he simply stood by, smiling. “Tell me,” Qu Yi asked gently, “where are the others who came with you to this Land of Days to carry out the assassination mission?” The middle-aged man remained silent, focusing all his efforts on fighting against the Life Core. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me. I have my own ways to find them. Their fate will be the same as yours—they will all die at my hands,” Qu Yi said with a smile. Soon after, theQueen andQueen also emerged from the Dimensional Sphere. As soon as they appeared, they cast a soul spell, sending thousands of needle-like soul waves into the middle-aged man’s Soul Flower. This was the “Thousand Souls Needle” spell, capable of piercing the Soul Flower to pieces. Indeed, after the soul attacks from theQueen andQueen, the middle-aged man cried out in pain. The soul energy he used to resist the Life Core was instantly reduced by half, allowing the Life Core to break through his defenses. Ten thousand golden rays grew brighter as the Life Core began drawing out the middle-aged man’s Soul Flower. Once completely drained, the man would die immediately. “Ah… don’t kill me! I’m willing to become your slave!” The middle-aged man, sensing his Soul Flower being drained, immediately begged Qu Yi for mercy. Qu Yi shook his head lightly and smiled, “Fellow cultivator, it’s too late to plead now.” By devouring this man’s Soul Flower, the Life Core could reach the strength level of a Mid-tier Earth Soul Demon, which would be of great help to him in the future. How could Qu Yi possibly stop it? The middle-aged man’s face twisted into a fierce expression as he shouted viciously, “I may not be able to defeat you, but don’t think you can gain anything from me! I’ll self-destruct!”

Qu Yi’s eyes lit up as he quickly flew out, thrusting Wu Xi Sword back into the middle-aged man’s body, allowing more chaotic energy to flow into him.
“How about it? Can you still self-destruct now?” Qu Yi flew back swiftly and shouted happily as soon as he landed.
As long as there was chaotic energy in the middle-aged man’s body, he couldn’t gather his demonic essence into one mass, and thus couldn’t explode.
The middle-aged man was in too much pain to speak, his gaze filled with hatred as he stared at Qu Yi, his body writhing on the ground.
It wasn’t long before the Life Core drained the man’s Soul Flower.
“Life Core, return to the Soul Space!” Qu Yi exclaimed joyfully.
Immediately, the golden-lit Life Core entered Qu Yi’s mind, returning to his Soul Space and once again protecting his Soul Flower.
At this moment, Qu Yi picked up the middle-aged man’s iron spear and said with a smile, “This mid-tier demonic weapon is quite decent. From now on, it shall be called the Demon Piercing Spear.”
A mid-tier demonic weapon was essentially the same as a mid-tier immortal weapon; it was just called differently in the two realms.
After picking up the middle-aged man’s space ring, Qu Yi destroyed his body and immediately entered the Inch Realm Sphere.
In the distance, a patrol team was flying toward the forest.
When the patrol arrived, they sensed the energy fluctuations in the area and realized that a battle had taken place there, but the extent of the destruction didn’t suggest a particularly fierce fight.
After all, the attacks from the Life Core, thequeen queen queen, and Qu Yi’s chaotic energy were all invisible and left little damage on the ground.
Only the spear thrust by the middle-aged man left a trace of golden energy, but since it didn’t contain spatial laws, the patrol members couldn’t detect any significant energy fluctuations.
Thus, they assumed that a few ordinary Earth Soul Demon-level disciples had fought there and left without suspicion, flying away immediately.
It wasn’t long before Qu Yi emerged.
“Hehe, this time I’ve obtained a Soul Flower of mid-level Earth Soul Demon rank. The Life Core should be able to break through soon. Next time I encounter those elders who came to assassinate me, dealing with them will be much easier,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
A Life Core of mid-level Earth Soul Demon rank, when using soul magic to attack such strong opponents, could easily extract their Soul Flowers.
“Qu Yi, good luck! I’ve already spotted another elder who’s come to assassinate you,” came the voice of the Weapon God at that moment.

Qi Shen had been helping Qu Yi search for those lurking assassins. Hearing this, a smile appeared on Qu Yi’s lips.