Chapter 25: Divine Spirits

The icy coldness of the darkness seeped into the soul space. Threads of dark energy entered the soul space, causing it to freeze as if entirely, leaving one feeling extremely uncomfortable. For cultivators from the divine realm, once such icy coldness entered the soul space, the soul would be instantly frozen, leading to eternal death.

However, for Qu Yi, this icy coldness had no effect. Within Qu Yi’s soul space lay an invisible chaotic orb. When the dark energy entered, it tried to find this orb to freeze it, but found nowhere to go. Qu Yi’s consciousness could sense the coldness in the soul space, yet his soul continued to move, controlling his body to descend deeper into the sea eye.

Inside the sea eye, there was bright light, mainly white, resembling the glow reflected by snow. Thus, Qu Yi could clearly see the substances inside with his bare eyes—spirit crystals grew everywhere on the stone walls, thriving like plants. Besides the icy coldness, bubbles also continuously emerged from the depths of the sea eye. When these bubbles passed by the spirit crystals, they would automatically carry away the crystals and expel them from the sea eye.

Seeing this extraordinary sight, Qu Yi merely smiled faintly before flying over to a stone wall. “These stone walls in the sea eye can naturally produce spirit crystals. I needn’t be polite—let’s collect all the spirit crystals here,” he said with a calm smile, then taking out the Star Luo Ding.

The 19,000 cultivators at the Divine General stage in Tianfeng Fort, though possessing internal sea resources, had limited means to expand their spirit entities. Over the years, most of them relied on their own cultivation to increase the number of spirit entities, resulting in a slow progress. Most of these cultivators had around 20 million integrated spirit entities, which made their strength far inferior to that of other Divine General-stage cultivators in the divine realm.

Now that Qu Yi had discovered the spirit crystals in the sea eye, he immediately thought of Tianfeng Fort’s situation. He needed to use these crystals to significantly enhance the strength of its Divine General-stage cultivators. The battles among Divine General-stage cultivators were crucial for determining the rulers of the eight major divine domains in the divine realm. Qu Yi aimed not only to seize the position of the ruler of Lifei City but also to help the cultivators of Tianfeng Fort claim some of those positions.

If Tianfeng Fortress seized all the city lord positions in the Eight Great Divine Realms, then Qu Yi’s power would surpass that of the eight royal families. In the future, when cultivators from the Immortal Realm, Demon Realm, Monster Realm, and Spirit Realm ascended to the Divine Realm, they could be exempted from cultivation tasks and immediately possess abundant resources for training.

The Xingluo Ding grew larger and larger, generating a powerful suction force that covered the entire stone wall.

Whoosh, whoosh…

Punch-sized hexagonal spirit crystal orbs flew off the stone wall and fell into the Xingluo Ding.

Qu Yi quickly used the Xingluo Ding to collect all the spirit crystal orbs from the stone wall, then descended again to continue gathering them.

Each spirit crystal orb contained at least a million unified spirits.

As Qu Yi continued to descend, his divine sense kept counting the number of spirit crystal orbs he had collected. By the deepest part of the Sea Eye, he had a rough estimate: he had gathered as many as one million spirit crystal orbs.

This quantity was sufficient for the cultivators at the Divine General stage in Tianfeng Fortress to expand their spirits. Even expanding each person’s spirits to a maximum of 100 million would be enough.

At this moment, Qu Yi reached the deepest part of the Sea Eye, and his eyes widened dramatically.

“This is a Divine Spirit Essence!” Qu Yi exclaimed.

On the ground lay a transparent humanoid figure. Its eyes emitted white light that penetrated the entire Sea Eye and reached into the ocean—turning out to be the source of light beneath the sea. This humanoid figure seemed to possess spirituality, radiating a power that could shake planets, fierce and domineering.

After reaching the Divine King realm, a soul sphere would merge to form a human shape. When a Divine King died, they might leave behind a soul body without a spirit. If such a soul body entered special innate substances, it could transform into a Divine Spirit Essence.

Qu Yi never expected to be so lucky—entering the depths of the Sea Eye and encountering a Divine Spirit Essence. If he could refine this Divine Spirit Essence, he believed his number of spirits within his body would undergo a qualitative change.

Suddenly, Qu Yi understood everything. How could such an ordinary Sea Eye produce so many spirit crystal orbs? Why was the seabed so brightly lit? And why was there a gloomy, freezing cold energy in the Sea Eye that could freeze souls? All of this was related to the Divine Spirit Essence.

“Since I’ve already encountered it, it’s my fortune. If not now, then when?” Qu Yi laughed heartily.

Suddenly, he arrived in front of the Divine Spirit Essence, stretched out a hand, and grabbed it by the shoulder.

Cold—extremely cold.

Qu Yi’s Chaotic Body made him feel as though he was about to freeze. However, the chaotic energy within him began to function, driving away the cold air outside, while his fingers also emitted chaotic energy to form five fingers, gripping the divine spirit tightly without letting go. The divine spirit clearly sensed Qu Yi’s intentions and struggled desperately, only to find its strength waning as the chaotic energy suppressed it. “Come in,” Qu Yi suddenly shouted. Immediately, the divine spirit disappeared, entering Qu Yi’s body and arriving at the Chaotic Planet in his dantian space. All the chaotic energy enveloped the divine spirit, tearing it apart bit by bit before separating it into the Golden, Wooden, Water, and Fire spiritual bodies, as well as the Golden, Wooden, Water, and Earth spiritual bodies. These two combined spiritual bodies were quickly sent to the Fire Planet and the Earth Planet. The number of such combined spiritual bodies in Qu Yi’s body was still only around 100 million. Over the years, Qu Yi had not deliberately tried to increase the number of spiritual bodies in his body. But this time, thanks to the divine spirit, he intended to maximize the number of spiritual bodies in his body at once. At this moment, Qu Yi sat calmly on the ground deep within the Sea Eye, focusing solely on refining the divine spirit. This divine spirit was difficult to subdue, but once refined, it would happen quickly. In just a short while, the number of combined spiritual bodies in Qu Yi’s body increased by 10 million, and this rate of growth continued to accelerate. ※※※ Below the sea, Qing Wu Gui, Wu Yuan, Thunder-Eye Ice Crocodile, Four-Armed Water Ape, Nine-Headed Imperial Snake, and Earth-Shaking Crab were still fighting against the sea beasts. Thunder-Eye Ice Crocodile, Four-Armed Water Ape, Nine-Headed Imperial Snake, and Earth-Shaking Crab had a one-sided advantage over the sea beasts. Their divine weapons caused bloodshed with every strike, being extremely fierce, forcing the sea beasts to flee without the will to continue fighting. Qing Wu Gui, on the other hand, was constantly battling 500 sea beasts, using his agile movements to dodge waves of powerful spells while comfortably practicing his art of killing. With battles going on, and many powerful sea beasts to fight against, Qing Wu Gui was fully immersed in this atmosphere of cultivation. Wu Yuan was fighting 400 sea beasts, exchanging attacks back and forth. The sea beasts launched spells at him, but Wu Yuan dodged them swiftly. While dodging, Wu Yuan would often approach one of the sea beasts and strike it with his staff.

The mighty sea beasts ignited Wu Yuan’s fierce fighting spirit; his divine energy seemed inexhaustible. Nine tens of millions of spiritual entities surged forth like a tide, each capable of injuring a sea beast. As the battle continued, the number of sea beasts surrounding Wu Yuan dropped to around three hundred. The fighting between the two sides remained intense, but given the situation, Wu Yuan could still kill all three hundred sea beasts. Meanwhile, above the sea surface, a group of people arrived—none other than the forces of the eight royal families. When Qu Yi appeared above the sea area, a cultivator at the Divine Marshal stage who was monitoring the sea eyes nearby sent a message, reporting Qu Yi’s location to the eight leaders. The forces of the eight royal families were already not far from Qu Yi, and after flying rapidly, they finally arrived. “Leaders, Qu Yi and the others are still underwater, fighting against the sea beasts,” said a Divine Marshal cultivator who had been monitoring from above, upon seeing the arrival of the eight royal families. Yan Tiankuo, Qiu Guanling, Wu Zhuangchen, Bai Feiyun, Sang Yunpeng, Tian Chaolin, Gongye Zhi, and Jin Ziping all nodded in gratitude, then stared coldly at the sea below. “Qu Yi’s presence is not underwater; only Wu Yuan, Qing Wugui, and those four sea beasts are there,” they said. Immediately, the eight leaders used their spiritual senses to confirm this and glared coldly at the three Divine Marshal cultivators monitoring the area. The cultivator who had just received encouragement trembled slightly and hurriedly shouted, “Eight leaders, Qu Yi has entered the sea eyes. There is a sinister cold aura there; my spiritual senses cannot detect what’s inside.” The eight leaders were surprised, then each smirked coldly. “Hmph, a sinister cold aura—such a coldness that can freeze a soul. Qu Yi is really overconfident. Even if he survives this time, his soul won’t recover anytime soon. This is heaven helping us,” said Yan Tiankuo immediately. The members of the eight royal families all laughed. “Then we don’t need to wait any longer. Let’s go help the sea beasts fight against Wu Yuan, Qing Wugui, the four divine beasts, and first kill everyone around Qu Yi before waiting for him to come out of the sea eyes,” said Qiu Guanling coldly. “Good!” Everyone cheered excitedly and then descended into the sea one after another, dividing into three groups to attack Qing Wugui, Wu Yuan, the Thunder Eye Ice Crocodile, the Four-Armed Water Ape, the Nine-Headed Imperial Snake, and the Earth-Shaking Crab.

“You bunch of fools who helped Qu Yi become a tyrant, die now!” Yan Tiankuo roared wildly, his expression filled with madness as a fierce killing intent radiated from him. Qing Wu Gui, Wu Yuan, Lei Yan Bing E, Si Bi Shui Yuan, Jiu Tou Huang She, and Zhen Di Xie immediately felt immense pressure. Just then, Qu Yi suddenly emerged from the sea. “You bastards of the eight royal families, you dared to be so arrogant while I was away. If I don’t slaughter you all today, do you really think I’m easy to mess with?” Qu Yi appeared and shouted coldly.