Chapter 2: Striving to Enhance Strength

Changes within the miniature universe continued unabated. The original miniature universe gave rise to planets within the spiritual energy layer, while the new one generated planets within the primal layer. The two miniature universes had now merged perfectly, forming a single entity. Thus, within Qu Yi’s body, there was still only one miniature universe.

Qu Yi sent out a thread of his divine consciousness to monitor the changes within the miniature universe. There, he could observe planet formation, spatial expansion, energy fluctuations, and the emergence of matter, which allowed him to gain insights at all times. Of course, while paying attention to these changes, Qu Yi’s main focus remained on his own cultivation. His strength was what mattered most.

In the world within Qu Yi’s body, the numbers of the four types of spiritual bodies—metal-wood, metal-water, metal-fire, and metal-earth—had all reached ten million, reaching the limit of his Chaos Body. Therefore, Qu Yi could now embark on the path of fusion, allowing these spiritual bodies to merge further and thus break through to the rank of Divine General.

“The metal-wood spiritual body can merge into the other three types,” Qu Yi said calmly as he sat cross-legged on a flat rock.

After speaking, he entered a state of silence, focusing all his attention on the world within his dantian. At the center lay an invisible Chaos Planet, surrounded by a wood planet, a water planet, a fire planet, and an earth planet. On the Chaos Planet, four bridges extended out, connecting to the surrounding planets. Soon, the metal-wood spiritual bodies on the wood planet crossed over via these bridges to the Chaos Planet. Chaos energy immediately enveloped them and then dispersed evenly, sending them to the water, fire, and earth planets through the other three bridges.

As the spiritual bodies continued to merge, they formed aggregated spiritual bodies, those containing three laws. Once Qu Yi reached the rank of Divine General, the wood planet in his internal world would disappear, and all the metal-wood spiritual bodies would merge with the other three types. This would result in the formation of a metal-wood-water spiritual body on the water planet, a metal-wood-fire spiritual body on the fire planet, and a metal-wood-earth spiritual body on the earth planet.

From the start of the fusion process, Qu Yi did not actively prompt it. When he regained consciousness, he sat on the rock with a smile on his face.

“This time, it will take about five million years to complete the fusion. By then, I will have reached the rank of Divine General,” Qu Yi said to himself with a joyful expression.

When Qu Yi reached the Divine Weapon stage, his spiritual entity already numbered tens of millions, indicating an extremely solid foundation. Thus, when he broke through to the Divine General stage, his strength was far greater than that of ordinary Divine General cultivators.

After saying this, Qu Yi took out the Boundless Star Array and immediately returned to Tianfeng Fort.

At that moment, a thousand people had gathered in front of Tianfeng Fort—those thousand members of Tianfeng Clan who had never entered the Ruins Realm Divine World.

It was Qu Yi who had ordered the chief of the clan, Zhu Chen, to gather these people in front of Tianfeng Fort.

“Clan King, please allow us to enter the strange space to cultivate,” the thousand people immediately knelt down and called out in unison upon seeing Qu Yi arrive.

It turned out that initially, these thousand people had refused to enter the strange space, that is, to cultivate in the Ruins Realm Divine World, out of fear that Qu Yi would harm them. However, when Zhu Chen and the nineteen thousand others returned from the Ruins Realm Divine World with rapidly improved strength, it greatly inspired these thousand people. As a result, they regretted their decision to the point of wishing to die. Now, with Zhu Chen’s order to return to Tianfeng Fort, they naturally understood his intention and wanted to seize this opportunity to beg Qu Yi to send them into the strange space to cultivate as well.

Qu Yi calmly looked at the thousand people, scanning them all before saying with a faint smile, “Do you truly want to enter the strange space to cultivate?”

“Yes, Clan King,” the thousand people replied immediately.

Qu Yi nodded and then said, “Very well. I will now put you all inside the spatial artifact. Your divine consciousness must not resist in the slightest, otherwise, you will completely lose the chance to enter the strange space to cultivate.”

“Yes, Clan King,” they responded loudly once again.

Qu Yi immediately activated the Tiny Realm Ball, and an absorbing force enveloped the thousand people of Tianfeng Clan, bringing them all inside. Indeed, these thousand people no longer had any concerns; they were all sincerely determined to enter the strange space to cultivate.

Naturally, Qu Yi also entered the Tiny Realm Ball. Just like when he subjugated the members of Tianfeng Clan before, he turned these thousand people into his slaves before sending them to the Ruins Realm Divine World to find Soul Body People and obtain Soul Orbs.

After finishing all this, Qu Yi went to Fire Treasure Town, Shop No. 1 of the Artifact Pavilion.

※※※

Fang Xinfei, the master of the Artifact Pavilion, had actually returned safely from the Galaxy Battlefield.

This news quickly spread throughout Huobao Town, surprising all the alchemy sects. Which of these alchemy sects was unaware that Fang Xinfei’s strength was extremely weak—basically, any slightly stronger Divine Being stage practitioner could defeat him? Yet, the fact was that Fang Xinfei had returned, and his strength had improved greatly. Of course, in Huobao Town, dozens of alchemists at the Divine Weapon stage from other alchemy sects also returned alive. But since their strength was still sufficient for self-protection, it was understandable that they could survive the chaos and return. Fang Xinfei’s safe return left many alchemy sects that had lost all their Divine Weapon stage alchemists feeling extremely resentful. However, now that almost all Divine Weapon stage alchemists in the entire Divine Realm had perished, even one such alchemist in Huobao Town was treated like a treasure. Thus, though those alchemy sects resented him, they dared not show any disrespect or mockery. Fang Xinfei himself remained low-key; after returning to Huobao Town, he stayed in the store of Fangqi Pavilion. Meanwhile, in the Huoli Divine Realm, those alchemists who had been controlled by Qu Yi returned to their original sects after coming back from the Galaxy Battlefield. But these alchemists followed Qu Yi’s instructions, staying low-key, staying in their own alchemy rooms, and quietly working on alchemy. At this moment, Qu Yi arrived at Store No. 1 of Fangqi Pavilion. “Ah, Master Qu Yi, you’ve come,” Fang Xinfei said excitedly as soon as he sensed Qu Yi’s presence in the room. Qu Yi nodded and smiled, saying, “Pavilion Master, no one has bothered you recently, right?” Fang Xinfei smiled happily and replied, “Master Qu Yi, in the first few days after I returned, some sect leaders did come by, constantly saying mocking things. But I just remained silent, making them leave in frustration. However, lately, many people have come to visit me, all with the same goal: to establish a partnership with Fangqi Pavilion and hope that we can provide them with divine artifacts in the future.” With almost all Divine Weapon stage alchemists in the entire Divine Realm dead, many merchant groups lost their sources of supply. Therefore, any alchemy sect that still had a Divine Weapon stage alchemist became a precious asset and received numerous business partnership opportunities.

Qu Yi smiled in satisfaction, then took out a space ring and said, “Guild Master, these are divine artifacts I obtained from the Galaxy Battlefield. They are all at the Divine Weapon level, with no less than ten billion of them. With these artifacts, Fangqi Pavilion’s business can expand across the entire Divine Realm, and soon the whole realm will know of Fangqi Pavilion’s reputation.”

Fang Xinfei was instantly stunned and took a long time to calm down before taking the space ring and saying excitedly, “Master Qu Yi, thank you.”

Qu Yi smiled, a sly look appearing in his eyes as he said, “Guild Master, let me give you one more gift. I’ll have those twenty thousand blacksmiths secretly leave their sects and gather in Huobao Town. I’ll put them all inside the Inch Realm Ball so that they can craft weapons exclusively for Fangqi Pavilion.”

Since the twenty thousand blacksmiths captured by Qu Yi were all from the Huoli Divine Realm but scattered across various towns, it was impossible for him to use the Boundless Stars to bring them away directly. He had to let these blacksmiths escape secretly and then hide them in Huobao Town. In this way, Fangqi Pavilion would be the only one with Divine Weapon-level blacksmiths in the entire Divine Realm. Even if some Black God-level blacksmiths reached the Divine Weapon level later, due to the time elapsed, the quality of the artifacts they could create would not be very good, so they wouldn’t be able to compete with Fangqi Pavilion.

“That’s great, great! Master Qu Yi, with this, Fangqi Pavilion will monopolize the business of Divine Weapon-level artifacts in the entire Divine Realm.” Fang Xinfei was so excited he could barely stay still, his eyes shining and his whole body trembling.

Qu Yi chuckled and then said, “Alright, now I need you to do me a favor. For the next nine hundred thousand years, if anyone asks about me, tell them I’m in seclusion for cultivation. After nine hundred thousand years, if anyone still asks, say I’ve gone to the Inner Sea.”

On the Galaxy Battlefield, Qu Yi had killed Gongye Bo. Although no one else saw it, he didn’t believe the Gongye family would let him go—they would surely send someone to deal with him. Therefore, to avoid causing trouble for Fangqi Pavilion, Qu Yi chose to hide himself.

Within the Huoli Divine Realm, the Gongye family didn’t dare to be too bold and would only send their disciples to attack Qu Yi secretly. As long as Qu Yi stayed hidden, the Gongye family would be at a loss and forced to wait endlessly.

With these hundreds of thousands of years, Qu Yi could reach the Divine General level, giving him the strength to face the Gongye family’s retaliation.

“Yes, Master Qu Yi,” Fang Xinfei guessed the reason somewhat and agreed solemnly.

Qu Yi smiled, then left the Fangqi Pavilion via the space-time array and returned to Bai Shou Village. His next plan was to retreat inside the Cunjie Ball to focus on advancing his cultivation to the Divine General level. Only with sufficient strength could he face future challenges. While the outside world was filled with turbulent storms, Qu Yi remained calm, continuing his cultivation. Time passed swiftly, and soon five hundred thousand years had gone by.