Chapter 5: Everything Is Ready

The 18,000 members of Tianfeng Fort who had reached the Divine General level left the Hundred Forts Mountain Range and headed to various places in the Fire Departure Divine Realm. Of course, there were also a certain number of bandit fortresses in these areas. Qu Yi sent the members of Tianfeng Fort there so that they could seize one of these bandit fortresses each, then take its members to the Inner Sea to begin their journey of competing there.

As for the other 2,000 members of Tianfeng Fort who had reached the Divine Weapon level, Qu Yi was fully confident that 1,000 of them—those who had returned from the Galaxy Battlefield—would also reach the Divine General level within 100,000 years, and they would be taken to the Inner Sea then. As for the other 1,000 members who had just returned from the Meteor Domain Divine Realm, Qu Yi did not plan to send them to the Inner Sea; they could simply continue practicing in Tianfeng Fort.

After giving out the orders, Qu Yi left alone.

Inside the stone fortress of the “Three Tripod Gate” in Beast Village, which had now become a crafting site for the Fangqi Pavilion, Fang Mo was always on duty there. At this moment, Qu Yi arrived in Beast Village and entered the stone fortress directly.

Fang Mo was sitting beside the “Holographic Simulation Array,” responsible for injecting magic arrays into the weapon embryos placed in the array. Once the arrays took effect, he would immediately quench the embryos to create divine weapons. These divine weapons were all at the Divine Human level.

“Oh, Master Qu Yi, you’ve come,” Fang Mo said excitedly, jumping up suddenly when he noticed Qu Yi beside him, seemingly having been observing him for a while.

Qu Yi nodded and smiled. “Fang Mo, has the number of divine weapons crafted here each day reached ten thousand?”

Fang Mo immediately shook his head and replied awkwardly, “Master Qu Yi, now that the villagers of Beast Village have earned plenty of divine crystals, they no longer have much motivation to help us craft weapon embryos. Currently, only about 2,000 embryo pieces are crafted per day.”

Crafting 2,000 divine weapons at the Divine Human level per day was an absolutely astonishing speed even in the Divine Realm. However, Qu Yi wanted the Fangqi Pavilion to monopolize the supply of divine weapons in the Divine Realm, so he wasn’t satisfied with this speed.

After hearing this, Qu Yi smiled faintly, his eyes shifting as he thought carefully before coming up with an idea.

“Without competition, there’s no sense of honor or shame. Beast Village has no rivals and has lost its passion. It seems I need to find a rival for them. Hmm, let’s take control of three more villages and have their people help the Fangqi Pavilion craft weapon embryos.” Qu Yi suddenly smiled and spoke softly.

The villagers of Bai Shou Village, after crafting several artifact cores, obtained a large amount of divine crystals, enough to fulfill their farming tasks, so they paid less attention to helping the Fang Qi Pavilion with artifact core production. That’s human nature—once they have something, they lose their passion and motivation. Now, Qu Yi wanted to introduce more competitors to Bai Shou Village and get the villagers from nearby villages to help the Fang Qi Pavilion produce artifact cores, thereby putting pressure on them.

Fang Mo seemed to understand what was going on and smiled happily. “Master Qu Yi, introducing pressure on the villagers of Bai Shou Village is truly a great idea,” he said cheerfully.

With more villagers helping out, the Fang Qi Pavilion could produce tens of thousands of divine artifacts in a single day. Mass-producing divine artifacts and dominating the divine realm’s market was entirely possible.

The divine artifacts produced by the Fang Qi Pavilion were in large quantities, very inexpensive, and of decent quality, making it easy for them to steal business from other alchemy sects. At the thought of this, Fang Mo saw the bright future of the Fang Qi Pavilion, his heart brimming with joy.

Qu Yi smiled and then said, “Alright, Fang Mo, you’ve worked hard in Bai Shou Village over the years. It’s time to set you free. I’ll find some alchemists to take your place. From now on, you should focus on cultivating arrays under the Pavilion Master’s guidance.”

At these words, Fang Mo burst into tears, staring at Qu Yi with overwhelming gratitude.

After releasing the people from Tian Feng Zhai, Qu Yi still had one more thing to do: secretly retrieve those twenty thousand alchemists. After returning to their respective sects from the Galaxy Battlefield, they had kept a low profile, and now was the perfect time to bring them here.

Seeing Fang Mo on the verge of tears, Qu Yi patted his shoulder and said with a smile, “It’s okay. Wait a while longer, and you can return to the Fang Qi Pavilion. I’ll arrange for people from nearby villages to come and help the Pavilion with alchemy production. As for me, I need to travel around. After finishing my tasks, I’ll be leaving the Fire Departure Divine Realm for a long time.”

Hearing this, Fang Mo stopped crying and looked at Qu Yi in shock.

Qu Yi simply smiled faintly before disappearing.

※※※

In the Galaxy Battlefield, Qu Yi captured twenty thousand alchemists. Once the chaos ended, they were sent back to their respective sects by the guiding light.

Now, these alchemists were scattered across thousands of towns in the Fire Departure Divine Realm.

At that moment, Qu Yi arrived outside Li Wei City in the Fire Departure Divine Realm.

On a certain mountain peak, Qu Yi sat there for just one day before seeing a blacksmith flying over and heading straight for his mountain. “Qu Yi, I’m here,” said the blacksmith calmly after landing. Yes, this blacksmith belonged to a blacksmith sect in Liwei City. After receiving Qu Yi’s message, he quietly left Liwei City and came to Qu Yi’s side. Qu Yi nodded and smiled, saying, “Good. Mo Nanqing, I’ll put you inside the Dimensional Sphere now.” Immediately, the blacksmith’s figure disappeared. “Sigh, there are still 20,000 left—I’ll have to make more trips,” Qu Yi said unhappily after taking in this blacksmith. After all, he had to visit thousands of towns to bring all 20,000 blacksmiths away. Soon, Qu Yi’s figure vanished as well. At the same time, in a blacksmith workshop of the Weihuo Sect in Liwei City, many blacksmiths had gathered. A line of text appeared on the wall of the workshop. “I’m on the Galaxy Battlefield. I’ve been controlled by Xu Ming. Now I’m going to join him.” Yes, Mo Nanqing had long set up a formation in his blacksmith workshop. Once he was taken away by Qu Yi, it would transmit a thought, causing this line of text to appear on the wall. “Master Mo Nanqing has left. He actually left.” “Our Weihuo Sect now only has one blacksmith at the Divine Weapon level. Now that Master Mo Nanqing has left, won’t our sect ever have another Divine Weapon-grade artifact again?” “Xu Ming—this name sounds so familiar.” “Ah, I remember. Isn’t Xu Ming the one who took the green sphere on the Galaxy Battlefield?” “Good heavens, this Xu Ming is too powerful. He hid so well and controlled Master Mo Nanqing for so long before letting him reveal himself now.” “From Master Mo Nanqing’s words, I sense another meaning. It seems Xu Ming deliberately made Master Mo Nanqing say this. It seems he intends to challenge the entire Divine Realm.” … In the blacksmith workshop, the blacksmiths of the Weihuo Sect were arguing excitedly. When the sect’s elders arrived and saw the words on the wall, they remained silent. They already knew that Mo Nanqing had completely left the Weihuo Sect. Xu Ming’s name rang loudly in the hearts of these blacksmiths once again.

In fact, among the alchemy sects in the Fire Departed Divine Realm, it’s not just the Minor Fire Sect that has encountered this situation. Thousands of alchemy sects have experienced the same thing, with their alchemists leaving behind identical messages before departing. All the messages clearly state that they have been controlled by Xu Ming and are now going to join him. Of course, this was all ordered by Qu Yi for those 20,000 alchemists to do. The greater Xu Ming’s fame becomes, the more attention from the Divine Realm will focus on him, and the pursuit from various forces will also shift toward him. In this way, Qu Yi will receive less attention and have more time to improve his own strength. The 4 million spiritual entities revealed by Qu Yi on the Galaxy Battlefield, whose strength rivaled that of Guo Huo, the top-ranked figure, had already attracted the attention of many cultivators in the Divine Realm. Now, Qu Yi urgently needed a hot topic to draw the Divine Realm’s attention away. It seems his goal has been achieved. Indeed, the 20,000 alchemists who returned from the Galaxy Battlefield to the Fire Departed Divine Realm turned out to be Xu Ming’s slaves, and this matter was immediately exposed, sparking a wave of excitement in the Divine Realm. Xu Ming, who had been missing for a long time, once again became the focus of discussion among all cultivators in the Divine Realm. With the super artifact, the green sphere, and those 20,000 alchemists at the Divine Weapon level, Xu Ming couldn’t help but become famous, drawing the attention of everyone in the Divine Realm. Naturally, all major forces in the Divine Realm became interested in Xu Ming. These forces understood that capturing Xu Ming meant not only obtaining the green sphere but also gaining control over those 20,000 alchemists. 20,000 alchemists at the Divine Weapon level were a constant source of wealth, capable of generating endless riches in the future. While everyone in the Divine Realm was focused on Xu Ming, Qu Yi had already returned to Tianfeng Fort. He had settled those 20,000 alchemists in the mountains behind Bai Shou Village and built an underground alchemy workshop so they could practice alchemy there. Of course, Qu Yi also replicated his “Two-Dimensional Dao” formation for them to cultivate, as the Divine Weapon-level artifacts from the Future Armory would eventually be entrusted to these alchemists. After arranging for the alchemists, Qu Yi went to Tianfeng Fort to reunite with the 18,000 members of Tianfeng Fort scattered across the Fire Departed Divine Realm, as well as the members of the bandit camps under their control. Soon, Qu Yi’s figure disappeared, heading straight to some unknown place.

It didn’t take long for Qu Yi to bring back 18,000 people from Tianfeng Fort, along with 18,000 members from the bandit strongholds. The total number of these bandit stronghold members reached one million, meaning there were an average of 100 bandits per stronghold. Everyone was inside the Dimensional Sphere, and Qu Yi, having made all preparations, was ready to head to the Inner Sea.