Chapter 51: Return

“Qu Yi, you must repay the honor of the Gouye family today.”
As soon as Gouye Chen saw Qu Yi approaching, his first words were a death sentence, filled with murderous intent.
Qu Yi merely smiled faintly, rubbing his hands together before saying calmly, “Gouye Chen, you rarely roam the Divine Realm, yet you still managed to rank eleventh on the list. It seems you do have real strength after all. Fine, since you possess a congenital spiritual treasure, go ahead and attack now. Let’s see if you can kill me.”
Upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, silver light flashed in Gouye Chen’s eyes as he drew out the Star Sword.
“With the Star Sword drawn, ten thousand stars shine in the sky—silver light fills the years!”
Gouye Chen suddenly shouted and swung his Star Sword like a butterfly, its movement graceful yet somewhat heavy. Soon, the entire bubble-like space was filled with silver light, resembling stars streaking across the sky—beautiful yet terrifying.
There was no escape from the silver light everywhere.
Qu Yi only smiled faintly. He didn’t summon the Dimensional Ball to block the silver light either. Instead, he quickly retracted his Spring Rain Sword and swiftly moved his hands, releasing waves of chaotic energy that formed a membrane of chaotic energy around him.
The silver light that tore through space was filtered by this membrane of chaotic energy, its power reduced to the level of a Divine General. When it hit Qu Yi, it couldn’t penetrate even an inch further.
Qu Yi, with his agile movements, darted forward under Gouye Chen’s astonished gaze, aiming straight for him.
“Impossible!” Gouye Chen quickly dodged, shouting in disbelief.
Qu Yi could even weaken the attacks from a mid-tier congenital spiritual treasure—this was truly astonishing. It shattered the common sense of the Divine Realm once again, something hard to accept at first.
“Nothing is impossible. Many people have felt what you’re feeling now, but this is all reality,” Qu Yi said with a smile, continuing to press Gouye Chen with his swift movements.
Gouye Chen kept swinging his Star Sword, and the bubble-like space remained filled with endless silver light.
Qu Yi maintained the membrane of chaotic energy, weakening the power of the incoming silver light, rendering it harmless to him. Meanwhile, he kept charging at Gouye Chen, aiming for close combat.
The silver light was tangible, while the chaotic energy was intangible.

Seeing this scene through the eyes of the powerful beings in the other bubbles, everyone was utterly astonished. That silver light had even killed Ling Xu, the number one on the earthly rankings, yet it had no effect on Qu Yi at all. On the contrary, Gongye Chen was being chased and attacked by Qu Yi, which was completely beyond everyone’s expectations.

Of course, Qing Wu Gui merely smiled faintly. He greatly admired Qu Yi’s strength and wasn’t worried about Qu Yi’s safety at all.

The battle between Qu Yi and Gongye Chen lasted for five days, yet neither side could claim victory.

Qu Yi didn’t want to use either the Star Luo Ding or the Dimension Ball, as there were still several cultivators from the Divine Realm watching outside. If he used them, it would reveal his origins. The Star Luo Ding was an artifact belonging to the God of Weapons. If the cultivators of the Divine Realm found out about it, many Divine Kings would step in to seize it. As for Qu Yi, the heir of the God of Weapons, others would try to take control of his soul and use him for their own purposes.

The shape of the Dimension Ball had already caught the attention of the Divine Kings during the great battle among cultivators at the Divine Weapon stage. If Qu Yi used it now, it would undoubtedly signal to the Divine Kings that Xu Ming was under his control, and that the Dimension Ball, a innate spiritual treasure, had also been taken by him. At that point, the Divine Kings would also try to deal with Qu Yi and seize the Dimension Ball.

Therefore, Qu Yi could only use Chaos Energy now—a type of energy that the cultivators of the Divine Realm had never seen before. Using it could also confuse them, so he didn’t have to worry about the Divine Kings intervening.

Inside the bubble, Gongye Chen’s divine essence was already running low.

The Star Sword was a mid-tier innate spiritual treasure. To keep using it, a large amount of divine essence was required. After all, Gongye Chen was only at the Divine General stage—how could he keep using the Star Sword to attack?

Yet Qu Yi showed no sign of fatigue, as if he could keep fighting indefinitely without ever running out of divine essence.

Suddenly, Gongye Chen stopped, holding the Star Sword, and glared coldly at Qu Yi. He shouted, “Qu Yi, let’s end this battle here. The grudges between our Gongye family and yours can wait until later.”

Obviously, with his divine essence depleted, Gongye Chen didn’t want to fight any longer and came up with a delaying tactic.

Qu Yi shook his head and smiled faintly. “Between me and your Gongye family, there’s nothing but enmity. There’s no way we can end this peacefully. One of us must die for it to stop. So, you must die today—there’s no other reason.”

Gongye Chen’s eyes burned with silver light, filled with extreme anger.

“Qu Yi, you need to realize that what I have in my hands is a mid-grade innate spiritual treasure. If I detonate it, see if you can still resist!” Gongye Chen shouted loudly, trying to intimidate Qu Yi. At that moment, Qu Yi’s eyes were filled with a smile, his lips twitching as he said, “I want to see the power of a mid-grade innate spiritual treasure. Go ahead and detonate it.” As long as Gongye Chen dared to detonate the Star Sword, Qu Yi would immediately enter the Dimensional Sphere amidst the chaos. At that time, the powerful beings in the other bubbles wouldn’t be able to see what was inside, and Qu Yi would emerge once the space stabilized to claim his victory. Since there was no real danger, Qu Yi wasn’t afraid of Gongye Chen’s threats. Gongye Chen’s gaze became scattered, revealing his panic and confusion, along with worry and caution. The moment Qu Yi saw the change in Gongye Chen’s expression, he suddenly laughed and disappeared. The next instant, he reappeared in front of Gongye Chen, already holding a thousand divine artifacts at the Divine General level, ready to be detonated. Boom… The artifacts exploded simultaneously, turning the bubble space where Qu Yi and Gongye Chen were into a chaotic vortex of darkness, brutality, and destruction that devoured everything. The chaotic currents appeared quickly and vanished just as fast, leaving the bubble space back to its original state. Under everyone’s horrified gazes, they saw that after the bubble calmed down, only Qu Yi was left, while Gongye Chen had disappeared. Undoubtedly, everyone realized that Gongye Chen had been killed by Qu Yi. “Qu Yi, you’re too strong!” At that moment, Liu Xiu, Wei Dongchen, Lu Feixiong, Kang Ji, Xing Bing, Gongye Kaiyuan, and Qiu Ze, who were inside the bubble, were shaken upon seeing Qu Yi unharmed, and fear began to take hold of them. Now, with only nine people left in the central area, they needed to kill one more to leave safely. Suddenly, Liu Xiu, Wei Dongchen, Lu Feixiong, Kang Ji, and Xing Bing all activated their bubbles and moved toward Gongye Kaiyuan. Since Gongye Chen had killed Ling Xu, as Ling Xu’s friend, it was the perfect opportunity to take out Gongye Kaiyuan, who also came from the Gongye family. In fact, these people were afraid that Qu Yi might attack them suddenly, so they wanted to kill Gongye Kaiyuan first to ensure their own safety. But Qu Yi ignored their movements and instead accelerated his bubble, heading straight for the Star Heaven-Opening Stone.

After seeing Qu Yi’s movements, Qiu Ze didn’t dare to stop him either. After all, he realized there was still a significant gap between his own strength and Qu Yi’s. Trying to stop him now would be suicide. Thus, instead of trying to stop him, Qiu Ze was even relieved that he hadn’t challenged Qu Yi directly, otherwise he would have died by now.

Qu Yi activated the bubble and approached the Star-Opening Stone. He placed one hand on the bubble, which then adhered to the stone.

“Chaos energy, it’s your turn,” Qu Yi said to himself, filled with expectation.

Immediately, his body was filled with surging chaos energy, which flowed through the bubble and directly into the Star-Opening Stone, gradually refining this colorful stone.

Suddenly, as the Star-Opening Stone absorbed the chaos energy, it emitted thousands of sword auras. These rainbow-like sword auras filled the air and instantly shattered all the bubbles, freeing everyone.

Qu Yi continued in his posture of refining the stone, his body pressed against it as chaos energy kept flowing into its interior, continuing the refinement process.

Liu Xiu, Wei Dongchen, Lu Feixiong, Kang Ji, and Xing Bing, now free, frantically attacked Gongye Kaiyuan. They still didn’t have the courage to compete with Qu Yi for the Star-Opening Stone; they only wanted to kill Gongye Kaiyuan to avenge Lingxu and save their own lives.

Qiu Ze and Qing Wugui watched Qu Yi’s actions, ignoring everything else.

Gongye Kaiyuan couldn’t hold out long. Although he wore defensive armor at the Divine General level, being attacked by the top five on the Earth Ranking list caused his divine essence to drain rapidly like a breached dam, leading to his death.

Soon after, Liu Xiu, Wei Dongchen, Lu Feixiong, Kang Ji, and Xing Bing, along with Qing Wugui and Qiu Ze, stood on the ground, calmly watching Qu Yi. None of them interfered as he took possession of the Star-Opening Stone.

Ten days later!

Qu Yi suddenly stood on top of the Star-Opening Stone and shouted triumphantly, “I have the Star-Opening Stone!”

Immediately, the stone shrank drastically to the size of a finger and disappeared into Qu Yi’s body, vanishing from everyone’s sight.

At that moment, the entire space trembled.

A familiar voice spoke softly, “The Star-Opening Stone has been taken. The group battles at the Divine General level are now over. Everyone, return to the Divine Realm.”

As soon as the voice faded, Qu Yi, Qing Wugui, and the others found themselves back in their respective Divine General-level groups. Above each group, a guiding vessel appeared simultaneously.

“The team leader is back!”
The nearly million cultivators on Nan Yin Island immediately cheered excitedly upon seeing Qu Yi and Qing Wu Gui appear. Only Qing Yiyi, Yu Zhuting, Meng Yan, and Fei Changxia looked extremely anxious, as none of them had seen Wu Yuan.
“Wu Yuan has already reached the Divine General stage and returned to Nan Yin Island. There’s no need to worry,” Qu Yi quickly sent a mental message to reassure the four women before turning to look at the nearly million cultivators on Nan Yin Island.
After scanning the crowd, Qu Yi smiled happily, raised his fist, and shouted, “Brothers of Nan Yin Island, we have won the group battle against the Divine General-level cultivators. Now we’re returning to Nan Yin Island.”
“Yes, team leader!” everyone shouted loudly, their voices echoing in unison.
Nearly a million people flew onto the guiding boat at the same time, and the boat then carried the cultivators of Nan Yin Island through the air, heading back to the island.
Episode 17: The Divine King Stirs