Chapter Seventeen: Departure with the Stone

At this moment, the Yuan Tai Stone floated atop the Mo Lan Divine Fire, resembling a flame spirit, dancing gracefully as if possessed of a spirit.
The bandit leader, Dao Wuji, flew in the air, glaring angrily at the Yuan Tai Stone on the Mo Lan Divine Fire, already gripping his Tear Heaven Sword in his hand.
Dao Wuji had painstakingly built up his entire bandit gang, investing countless efforts to train nine capable subordinates. Yet, in this mission, they all died—especially due to the sudden appearance of the Yuan Tai Stone, which eliminated eight of them in an instant, ruining all of Dao Wuji’s efforts.
“A mere stone that possesses a spirit? Then it should just cultivate quietly below. If it dares to come out and cause trouble, it will never escape my grasp,” Dao Wuji said coldly, his expression turning fierce.
At present, the Yuan Tai Stone could only summon the Mo Lan Divine Fire. Dao Wuji naturally knew its current rank—just at the Divine General level, the same as his own. This gave him great confidence to defeat it and claim the stone.
Rare spiritual stones in the divine realm could fetch exorbitant prices. Using the divine crystals obtained from selling this stone, Dao Wuji could build a new bandit gang once again.
As he spoke, Dao Wuji suddenly raised his Tear Heaven Sword. A beam of light shot out in its direction—formed by the intense concentration of golden, green, and blue light. Wherever this light passed, space trembled, and the surrounding elemental energies instinctively avoided it, creating an invisible path.
The light arrived before the Yuan Tai Stone in an instant.
Boom!
Suddenly, the continuously erupting Mo Lan Divine Fire, under the control of the Yuan Tai Stone, split into a Mo Lan Fire Dragon, which swiftly rushed toward the light.
This light was actually composed of the spiritual entities of metal, wood, and water. When it encountered the burning Mo Lan Fire Dragon, it emitted loud crackling sounds as countless spiritual entities vanished instantly.
In the blink of an eye, the Mo Lan Fire Dragon dispersed, and the light disappeared as well.
Dao Wuji’s first confrontation with the Yuan Tai Stone ended in a draw.
The Mo Lan Divine Fire erupting from the peak had weakened slightly, with its flame height dropping, causing the Yuan Tai Stone to descend a bit as well.
Undoubtedly, Dao Wuji now understood the Yuan Tai Stone’s ability to control the Mo Lan Divine Fire and had a clearer idea of its strength.
“A mere stone trying to fight me? Overestimating itself. Come again!” Dao Wuji shouted coldly.

Suddenly, Dao Wuji swiftly swung the Tear-Heaven Sword, drawing two consecutive slashes that created two beams as wide as an arm each. Both beams contained a vast number of spiritual entities belonging to the metal, wood, and water elements—no less than 1.5 million. This was the maximum number of spiritual entities Dao Wuji could summon.

The two beams moved upward and downward—the upper beam attacked the Yuan Tai Stone, while the lower beam targeted the Mo Lan Divine Fire directly.

From the first attack, Dao Wuji realized that the Yuan Tai Stone had only been created recently. Though it possessed consciousness, its spiritual maturity was low; it could only instinctively sense danger and then use fire to fight back.

As expected, once the two beams were sent out, the Yuan Tai Stone immediately lost its composure. Only one Mo Lan Fire Dragon appeared to confront the beam aimed at it. The two clashed violently before disappearing altogether. However, the lower beam encountered no resistance from the Mo Lan Fire Dragon and plunged straight into the Mo Lan Divine Fire, triggering a massive explosion that scattered the fire in all directions.

It was clear that the Yuan Tai Stone was merely resisting instinctively by using the Mo Lan Fire Dragon to protect itself.

Despite this attack, the Mo Lan Divine Fire still erupted, but it was much thinner and weaker than before—more than half as intense. The height of the erupting fire also dropped significantly. The Yuan Tai Stone, floating above the flames, seemed to tremble slightly, clearly frightened by Dao Wuji’s fierce assault.

Yet, Dao Wuji’s brutal strike also cost him 30,000 divine essence points.

Looking at the drifting Mo Lan Divine Fire, a cold smirk appeared on Dao Wuji’s lips. Although he had expended a great deal of divine essence, he could still obtain a spiritual stone. Selling it on Beiyang Island would yield him vast wealth, allowing him to rebuild a new band of pirates—a worthwhile deal.

“Stop resisting. The place where you were born isn’t very good. Now that you’ve met me, you’ll become my treasure,” Dao Wuji said, his icy voice tinged with excitement.

The Yuan Tai Stone was clearly frightened as well, realizing it couldn’t match Dao Wuji’s strength. It wanted to return underground immediately.

Back in its birthplace, the Yuan Tai Stone could quickly restore its strength.

Dao Wuji, who knew quite a bit about spiritual stones in the divine realm, understood the Yuan Tai Stone’s intentions upon seeing its state, which made him even happier.

Suddenly, the Sky-Rending Sword was swung swiftly again, creating two beams of light—one striking the Primordial Stone directly, while the other, like a serpent, darted into the Inkful Wave Divine Fire atop the peak. The Primordial Stone activated the Inkful Wave Fire Dragon to once again fend off the beam’s attack, but it was already knocked back to the ground by the intense energy surge. Meanwhile, the beam that entered the Inkful Wave Divine Fire detonated once more, not only flattening the entire peak but also causing the terrifying Inkful Wave Divine Fire to disappear forever. With a single strike, Dao Wuji prevented the Primordial Stone from using the Inkful Wave Divine Fire again and caused it to fall to the ground, losing its source of power. Of course, this strike also cost Dao Wuji 10% of his divine essence. “Spirit Stone, you can’t escape now,” Dao Wuji said, sheathing his sword and flying happily over to the Primordial Stone, laughing heartily. At that moment, the Primordial Stone lay alone on the ground, utterly devoid of any spiritual energy, though the lingering aura of divine essence indicated it could still recover and turn back into a Spirit Stone. Dao Wuji immediately reached out to grab it. “Wait, there’s me too.” Suddenly, Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, and Qing Wu Gui appeared. Qu Yi immediately swung his divine weapon, the Golden Light Green Glow Sword, while shouting. Wu Yuan and Qing Wu Gui flew to opposite sides as soon as they appeared, continuously throwing Soul Compasses. The sword-shaped Golden Light Green Glow, containing a million fused golden and wooden spiritual entities, swiftly approached Dao Wuji from behind. Inside the Dimensional Sphere, Qu Yi had been watching the battle between Dao Wuji and the Primordial Stone. When he saw the Primordial Stone about to be taken by Dao Wuji, he could no longer wait and came out to attack. Upon sensing Qu Yi’s arrival, Dao Wuji didn’t dare take the Primordial Stone first. He darted aside, avoiding the attack of the Golden Light Green Glow sword-shaped spiritual entity. Qu Yi wanted to create a spectacle. Before Dao Wuji could react, he rushed to the Primordial Stone, put it inside the Dimensional Sphere, and then looked at the pale-faced Dao Wuji with a grin. Dao Wuji glared at Qu Yi, realizing that Qu Yi was only at the Divine Weapon stage, and the same applied to Wu Yuan and Qing Wu Gui. He grew puzzled. “Where did those three guys come from? At the Divine Weapon stage, they can’t have speed like mine. Do they possess powerful spatial divine weapons?” Dao Wuji guessed in his mind.

Qu Yi felt relieved after obtaining the Yuan Tai Stone. With just a few more simple materials, he could set up the Yuan Tai Pregnancy Spirit Array, allowing him to start expanding the number of the four fused spirit entities within his body.

“Sorry, I’m interested in this stone too. If you need it, come to Beiyang Island,” Qu Yi said cheerfully, looking at Dao Wuji fearlessly.

Dao Wuji snorted, his expression turning dark as he said coldly, “You three at the Divine Weapon stage think you can escape in front of me, Dao Wuji? You’ve angered me—your lives must be taken.”

As soon as he spoke, the Tear Heaven Sword appeared in his hand. With a swift swing, an arc of bright light rotated toward Qu Yi.

Although Qu Yi was at the Divine Weapon stage, Dao Wuji didn’t want to expend too much divine energy. He used only a small amount to cast a spell at that level.

Seeing this, Qu Yi realized Dao Wuji underestimated him greatly, using just an ordinary spell from the Divine Weapon stage against him.

“Dao Wuji, you underestimate me. Show me your true strength at the Divine General stage,” Qu Yi said with a faint smile.

Suddenly, Qu Yi swung his Golden Light Green Glow Sword, firing another beam of golden-green light that collided head-on with the arc of light.

The two beams collided, causing the spirit entities to scatter and vanish quickly.

Dao Wuji was surprised to see that the number of spirit entities summoned by Qu Yi’s spell—merging spirit entities—reached one million. For a cultivator at the Divine Weapon stage, the maximum number of spirit entities in the body was one million. Clearly, Qu Yi was among the strongest among them.

If Dao Wuji had known that Qu Yi’s number of spirit entities hadn’t even started to increase yet, he would have been even more astonished.

“You have some strength. Very well, I’ll use my full power to take your life,” Dao Wuji said coldly.

The Tear Heaven Sword was raised sharply and swung down swiftly. Suddenly, a circular beam of light appeared in the air, encircling the space where Qu Yi was. This was Dao Wuji’s ultimate move: Three Lights Prison of Space. Wherever the light reached, the space would be locked, and all energy inside would turn into metal, wood, and water-type spirit entities, attacking everything in the space indiscriminately.

Just as Dao Wuji expected to see Qu Yi’s body destroyed, Qu Yi’s body suddenly disappeared, escaping the coverage of the “Three Lights Prison of Space.”

The next moment, Dao Wuji was shocked to find that Qu Yi had appeared beside Wu Yuan, who then vanished instantly.

“You… you have a spatial artifact inside your body.” At that moment, the experienced Dao Wuji immediately understood and grasped the reason behind Qu Yi’s series of unexpected actions. Only a spatial artifact could allow Qu Yi to appear suddenly and then trap others inside it. Qu Yi smiled faintly and nodded, saying, “You’re right. I do have a spatial artifact. Well, I’ve already obtained a spirit stone this time, and I don’t want to entangle with you any longer. If we meet again, that will be the day you die.” After saying that, Qu Yi suddenly appeared beside Qing Wu Gui and trapped him inside the Dimensional Sphere. Then, under Dao Wuji’s angry gaze, Qu Yi suddenly traveled through space and disappeared without a trace. “Damn it!” Dao Wuji shouted furiously.