Chapter 32: Ze Di’s Men Arrive
On the Gongzhi Continent, Zhuang Guangming controlled a total of eleven key mineral resources. Aside from the Yubo mine vein, where Qu Yi had already killed ten elders, his disciples still firmly guarded the other ten locations.
Qu Yi sat atop a mountain peak. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and took out a communication card. “Brother Huwēi, another message has arrived,” Qu Yi said with a smile. He then sent his spiritual sense into the card, read the entire message, and smirked. “Long Zhantian’s appetite is growing bigger by the day. He’s found that my killings of these mid-level Earth Soul Demon elders are both fast and mysterious, so now he insists that I assassinate the elders on Zhuang Guangming’s side.”
He gazed at the beautiful surroundings for a moment. “Kill them. My Life Core has now reached the mid-level Earth Soul Demon stage. I estimate that by devouring a hundred Soul Flowers of that level, I can reach the peak of this stage. In the future, with my Life Core to hold off higher-level Earth Soul Demons, I’ll have more confidence,” Qu Yi said calmly. After saying that, he disappeared from the mountain peak.
Zhuang Guangming’s other ten mineral resource areas on the Gongzhi Continent were spread out widely, far apart from each other—several hundred thousand miles between them. Now, Qu Yi had arrived at the edge of the Xingchen Iron Mine.
“Instrument God, what’s the situation around here?” Qu Yi asked softly as he landed.
With only a six-star Earth Soul Immortal cultivation level, Qu Yi’s spiritual sense could easily be detected by those mid-level Earth Soul Demon elders guarding the mineral areas. To avoid alerting them, he would ask the Instrument God to assist.
The Instrument God had a unique spiritual sense—it could not only accurately pinpoint a person’s location but also detect their hidden strength clearly.
After a while, the Instrument God spoke up. “Qu Yi, the Xingchen Iron Mine area has mine veins arranged in a roughly ‘guo’ shape. A total of ten million disciples are stationed here, distributed according to a ‘yu’-shaped pattern of mine veins.”
“A ‘yu’ shape means five mine veins, with two elders guarding each vein.”
“Each vein has two million disciples at the Earth Soul Demon level.”
After hearing this, Qu Yi smiled. “There are even ten elders? Then I won’t hold back.”
Immediately afterward, Qu Yi entered the Inch Realm Sphere.
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In the middle of each mine vein, the two elders responsible for guarding it built their cultivation caves together. Since Zhuang Guangming had already sent messages to each elder, warning them that someone was trying to assassinate them, he instructed them all to be cautious.
The elders in charge of the mineral veins acted with great caution, all practicing together while guarding against potential attacks. At that moment, the Dimensional Ball flew into one of the elders’ meditation caves. Naturally, the protective array could not stop the Dimensional Ball from passing through, and soon it entered the cave. A middle-aged man was inside; somehow, he sensed danger approaching and opened his eyes. “Maybe I’m just too nervous,” the middle-aged man said, trying to relax as he saw the cave was quiet. No sooner had he spoken than Qu Yi appeared. “You should be nervous—sadly, you can’t resist,” Qu Yi said with a smile. The middle-aged man stood up abruptly, drawing a halberd ready to attack. But to his surprise, Qu Yi remained motionless, smiling at him. Meanwhile, a golden flower emerged from Qu Yi’s body and floated above his head. Before he could react, the golden flower emitted thousands of golden rays, attacking his Soul Flower again. “Ah…” The middle-aged man cried out in pain and rolled on the ground. In just two breaths, the Soul Core absorbed his Soul Flower completely. Now at the strength of a mid-tier Earth Soul Demon, it could attack mid-tier Earth Soul Demon warriors independently and swiftly drain their Soul Flowers. Qu Yi retracted the Soul Core, glanced at the cave, and said with a smile, “Now that the Soul Core is involved, I don’t even have a chance to show off. Next, it’s time for the Golden Lord, Wood Lord, Water Lord, Fire Lord, and Earth Lord to reach the rank of lower-tier Earth Soul Demons.” Thanks to the faith of cultivators across the entire cultivation world, the five lords grasped the laws of the Five Elements space quickly, and it didn’t take long for their soul realms to advance. Once their soul realms were ready, Qu Yi could use the two primal spirit veins under his control, the Spirit Void Tree obtained from the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion, the primal energy stored in the Star Luo Cauldron, or even his own Chaos Energy transformed into primal energy to help the five lords reach the rank of lower-tier Earth Soul Demons. After saying that, Qu Yi disappeared from the cave. The Dimensional Ball once again broke through the array’s restrictions and headed straight to another elder’s meditation cave nearby.
The array guarding the cave dwelling posed no obstacle to the Dimensional Ball at all. As long as the Artifact God was present, various arrays and restrictions held no secrets, allowing the Dimensional Ball to easily find weaknesses in the arrays and enter the cave dwelling smoothly.
Inside this cave dwelling sat a young, handsome man. At that moment, the young man opened his eyes and took out his communication card. “It’s time. I should get in touch with Kamon,” he said softly.
It turned out that Zhuang Guangming had realized that the deaths of his faction’s elders had occurred unnoticed, without any signs of battle. Thus, he guessed that the person who had secretly killed his faction’s elders must possess a treasure with hidden energy. Naturally, Zhuang Guangming knew that his faction’s elders could not sense the presence of the assassin, so he had them check periodically to confirm if any elders had died and whether the assassin had arrived.
Kamon was precisely the elder that Qu Yi had just killed.
Just as the young man picked up the communication card to send a message, Qu Yi appeared. “You don’t need to send it. That Kamon is already dead,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
The young man stood up abruptly, looking at Qu Yi in panic. The fact that Qu Yi could enter his cultivation cave so easily without triggering the protective array was extremely worrying. “How did you get into my cave?” the young man shouted.
Qu Yi returned a smile. The Life Core moved again, arriving directly above the young man’s head. Thousands of golden rays shot out and pierced into his brain. “You… you’re the one who assassinated our elders!” the young man cried in pain on the ground.
Just as the young man tried to use the communication card to send information about Qu Yi before dying, Qu Yi took action. He stepped in front of the young man, thrusting out his palms swiftly. Two streams of chaotic energy enveloped the young man’s body, destroying the communication card and allowing a large amount of chaotic energy to flow into his body. Naturally, with the chaotic energy disrupting his magical essence, he could no longer control it.
Soon, the Life Core absorbed all of the young man’s Soul Flowers. Qu Yi then took away the young man’s space ring and magical artifacts. “Artifact God, Zhuang Guangming has become smarter. He came up with the idea of having the elders check in periodically to track my movements,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, everyone who saw you is already dead. Let them guess your origins and strength,” came the voice of the Divine Weapon God leisurely.
Qu Yi appeared without a trace and vanished just as quickly, making him truly hard to fathom.
“There are still eight elders here in this Starfall Iron Mine area. I’ll get back to work for a while,” Qu Yi said softly.
Immediately afterward, he entered the Inch Realm Sphere.
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Zhuang Guangming, along with the nine elders who supported him, had been in the Hall of Light the whole time. Due to the defeat on the Land of the Sun, Zhuang Guangming and the nine elders devised a defense plan, assigning all their disciples to guard the Land of Unity and the Land of Water, waiting patiently for the nine high-ranking Earth Soul Demon-level figures sent by Emperor Ze.
At this moment, Zhuang Guangming received another message.
“Ten elders in the Starfall Iron Mine area of the Land of Unity have died.”
After reading the message, Zhuang Guangming suddenly stood up from his chair, his face twisted in anger, and he remained silent for a long time. The nine elders noticed the change in his expression and knew he had received more bad news, so they didn’t ask anything right away, waiting for him to speak on his own.
“Elders, the Starfall Iron Mine area in the Land of Unity is also going to be lost,” Zhuang Guangming said calmly.
Starfall Iron was a material used to forge Earth Soul Demon-level entities, and it was also an important resource for Zhuang Guangming’s cultivation.
The nine elders all looked worried, their mood growing heavy.
“Master, could it be that assassin killed our elders again?” one of the elders asked doubtfully.
Zhuang Guangming nodded.
The nine elders fell silent once more. They had thought of many ways to deal with Qu Yi but truly had no ability to stop his assassinations. After all, Qu Yi’s movements were unpredictable, and his attacks were silent—how could anyone prepare for them?
The scene was quiet.
After a while, Zhuang Guangming’s expression changed as he picked up the communication card. Instantly, his face lit up with great joy—clearly, he had received very good news.
The nine elders immediately turned their attention to him.
“Elders, Emperor Ze has sent ten high-ranking Earth Soul Demon-level warriors this time, and they will arrive at Earth Storm Star in three years,” Zhuang Guangming announced happily.
If those ten high-ranking Earth Soul Demon warriors came, Zhuang Guangming’s side would have twenty of them, giving them a significant advantage over Long Zhan Tian’s side. Most importantly, these ten warriors were coming secretly and would be able to cause great damage to Long Zhan Tian at a critical moment.
“Haha, we’ve finally gotten some good news.”
“We only need to defend for three years now to secure victory.”
“Good, then let Dragon Battle Heaven run amok for three years first.”
The nine elders said happily.