Chapter 25: Cultivation
“Master Qu Yi, you’re here so soon again.”
At the entrance of Fangqi Pavilion’s first store, Fang Mo, who had been guarding the shop, exclaimed in delight upon seeing Qu Yi.
Other artifact forgers would only come out after tens of thousands of years once they started working, but Qu Yi would show up every few years. Those who didn’t know him would never guess that he was an artifact forger.
Qu Yi descended from the air and smiled at Fang Mo, saying, “Artifact forging is too exhausting. I came out to relax a bit.”
Fang Mo’s legs suddenly went weak, and he almost fell.
“Master Qu Yi, you really know how to joke,” Fang Mo said, steadying himself and touching his forehead.
Chuckling, Qu Yi entered the shop and then went to the back courtyard, where there was a room for rest. Fang Mo followed him in.
“Fang Mo, here are fifty space rings. Inside them are all the artifact forging tasks Fangqi Pavilion will undertake next,” Qu Yi said with a smile, holding up a pile of space rings.
Bang!
After hearing this, Fang Mo sat down on the ground immediately. His eyes, like those of an ox, stared fixedly at Qu Yi, filled with disbelief.
Two hundred years—five hundred thousand divine artifacts!
Is this even human?
Is there such artifact forging in the divine realm?
Can I believe this is real?
A myriad of strange thoughts rushed through Fang Mo’s mind. Even though he had seen many astonishing things from Qu Yi before, what he did this time was undoubtedly the most incredible.
Other artifact forgers would take tens of thousands of years to create just one divine-grade artifact, but Qu Yi… had produced five hundred thousand in two hundred years.
Anyone who saw this comparison would be astonished.
“Master Qu Yi, are you not joking?” Fang Mo tried to stand up, asking earnestly to confirm again.
Fifty space rings flew straight toward Fang Mo.
He took them and scanned them with his mental sense, confirming the number of divine artifacts inside. His body trembled uncontrollably as he was too nervous to speak.
Qu Yi smiled faintly and then said calmly, “Fang Mo, you can’t hand over all fifty space rings to the Artifact Forging Guild at once. Hand over one space ring every thousand years until the deadline for the forging tasks arrives. I don’t want to attract excessive attention from the guild. You should understand what I mean.”
After hearing this, Fang Mo nodded vigorously. Qu Yi’s concerns were clearly explained.
“Master Qu Yi, rest assured. I’ll handle this properly,” Fang Mo said firmly.
At the same time, an inexplicable magical power arose in Fang Mo’s heart. He felt extremely excited, knowing that Qu Yi trusted him so much that he would undoubtedly carry out any task Qu Yi assigned without hesitation.
Qu Yi smiled faintly, stood up, and said, “Over the next few years, I might have to be away for a while. While taking care of the shop, you can also study the formation techniques in the jade slips I gave you.”
Fang Mo smiled happily and nodded repeatedly.
Qu Yi then left the room.
※※※
Inside the Dimensional Sphere,
Qu Yi and the Artifact God appeared simultaneously on a planet. The Dimensional Sphere had now evolved into a vast region of planets, just like in the cultivation world, with various planets operating on their own.
The planet where Qu Yi and the Artifact God were located was one rich in primordial energy. The two stood on a vast grassland.
“Alright, let’s set up the Yuan Tai Yun Ling Formation here,” said the Artifact God, looking around.
Qu Yi nodded and immediately took out the Yuan Tai Stone along with other materials needed for the formation. Of course, these materials were those Qu Yi had deliberately listed in excess during his artifact-making process and now claimed for himself.
The Artifact Guild had immense resources; basically, any material available in the divine realm could be found there. So, Qu Yi naturally asked the guild to procure the materials needed for the formation he wanted to set up.
With swift movements of his hands and the fluttering of illusion butterflies, pieces of material flew out of Qu Yi’s hands, quickly forming a formation space. A strong aura of the formation covered the entire space.
Finally, Qu Yi picked up the Yuan Tai Stone and placed it in the center of the formation space. Instantly, the entire space seemed to come to life, filled with a sense of vitality. The surrounding primordial energy automatically sorted and condensed, forming spirit entities that flew rapidly within the formation space.
After being infused with primordial energy, the Yuan Tai Stone gradually regained its vitality. However, due to the constraints of the formation space, it could neither move nor generate the Dark Cang Divine Fire.
“The Yuan Tai Yun Ling Formation is truly powerful,” Qu Yi exclaimed in admiration as he watched more and more spirit entities appear around him.
The Artifact God looked at the formation and thought of the one he had once set up himself. Sighing, he then disappeared.
Qu Yi also stopped trying to comfort the Artifact God and simply sat down next to the Yuan Tai Stone. Then, he placed his hands on it and began absorbing the spiritual entities around him. Spiritual entities of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth rushed into Qu Yi’s body like waves.
Inside Qu Yi’s world, there was a chaotic planet at the center, surrounded by circularly arranged planets of wood, water, fire, and earth. On each of these four planets, there were one million fused spiritual entities: metal-wood entities, metal-water entities, metal-fire entities, and metal-earth entities.
The five-element spiritual entities that rushed into Qu Yi’s body first arrived at the chaotic planet. The planet then released chaotic energy to envelop these entities and transport them to the four surrounding planets.
On the planet of wood, the metal and wood spiritual entities merged immediately under the influence of the chaotic energy, forming metal-wood entities.
The same process occurred on the planets of water, fire, and earth, gradually creating metal-water, metal-fire, and metal-earth entities, with their numbers slowly increasing.
Back when Qu Yi was at the Divine Being stage, it took him ten thousand years to maximize the number of spiritual entities in his body. This time, since he needed to increase the number of fused spiritual entities, the difficulty was naturally much greater. Qu Yi estimated that it would take at least another hundred thousand years to reach the maximum number of the four types of fused entities.
In fact, using the Fusion Path he practiced, he could force the metal-wood entities on the planet of wood to be transferred to the other three planets right away, allowing the entities on those planets to transform into aggregates of three types of entities—i.e., aggregated spiritual entities—thereby advancing from the Divine Weapon stage to the Divine General stage.
However, the Artifact God had pointed out that forcing a breakthrough now would be detrimental because only one million metal-wood entities would be shared with the other three planets, resulting in a lower starting point for Qu Yi’s advancement to the Divine General stage. The best approach was to first maximize the number of the four types of fused entities at the Divine Weapon stage before attempting to break through to the Divine General stage.
Alone inside the “Yuan Tai Pregnancy Spirit Array,” Qu Yi continued quietly increasing the number of fused spiritual entities in his body.
※※※
Nan Yin Island was divided into 108 regions, with a city built at the center of each.
At that moment, Wu Yuan and Qing Wu Gui, who had already arrived in Nan Luo City, were by a combat arena in one of the cities.
Inside Nanluo City, battle arenas could be found everywhere. This place was a paradise for cultivators at the Divine Weapon stage. Any cultivator who wished to enhance their strength could quickly find opponents here and engage in continuous battles, mastering various spells and rapidly improving their abilities.
In this square alone, there were as many as a thousand battle platforms.
After arriving in Nanluo City, Wu Yuan and Qing Wugui headed straight to battle platform number 9527. They observed the surroundings before deciding on an opponent to fight.
On the battle platform they were watching, a burly man was fighting against a handsome young man. The fight was intense, with spells being cast endlessly, yet neither side had an edge.
“Wow, this place is great! There are fights every day—perfect! This is exactly the life I’ve been dreaming of,” Wu Yuan said after watching for a while. His blood boiled with excitement, and he immediately took out his divine weapon, the Nine Heavens Staff.
“It’s indeed good. It suits my cultivation of the killing art well,” Qing Wugui replied with a faint smile.
Wu Yuan’s Divine Weapon, the Nine Heavens Staff, and Qing Wugui’s Divine Weapon, the Heartless Blade of Time, had both been reforged by Qu Yi and now had transformed into divine weapons at the Divine Weapon stage. Since these two weapons also suited the two of them, Qu Yi wasn’t in a hurry to give them new ones.
Wu Yuan and Qing Wugui exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
Soon after, they went their separate ways to find opponents to fight. In front of each battle platform, there were some cultivators watching. Anyone who stepped forward to challenge could get a chance to fight.
“Hey, buddy! Watching others fight is so boring. How about we fight?” Wu Yuan went straight to a nearby battle platform and challenged a muscular man right away.
The man glanced at Wu Yuan’s thin frame and sensed the fluctuations in his spiritual energy before nodding immediately.
“Okay. Let’s fight after they finish,” the man said happily.
Meanwhile, Qing Wugui also found a tall man.
“I challenge you,” Qing Wugui said briefly.
The man sized Qing Wugui up, feeling puzzled. He sensed that Qing Wugui’s spiritual energy fluctuations were extremely strange, not like those emitted by an ordinary spiritual orb.
Though it was strange, with someone challenging him, he knew he couldn’t establish himself in Nanluo City if he refused. So, he quickly accepted the challenge.
“Okay, when they come down, we’ll go up and fight,” the man said readily.
In just a short while, Wuyuan and Qingwugui each found an opponent and decided to compete on the fighting platform.
Their training in Nanluo City officially began.