This highly unique and pure killing intent had been born from Qi Ping’s desire to protect his home.
It was only through the relentless annihilation of a terrifying number of the Immortal Alliance’s lackeys—nearly wiping out all of their subsidiary forces in the Azure Heaven Domain—that he had managed to condense such fearsome slaughter-force.
This kind of killing intent, born from standing against a behemoth like the Immortal Alliance, was not something that could be generated by merely slaying a few powerful foes or butchering some ordinary rogue cultivators.
In terms of both rarity and sheer power, this slaughter-force was far more formidable than ordinary killing intent.
Moreover, there was one crucial point: this slaughter-force was exceptionally stable and carried no emotional baggage that could affect Qi Ping’s consciousness.
Ordinary killing intent, after all, tended to have a heavy impact on one’s divine sense and was highly volatile. Every so often in the cultivation world, some cultivator would lose control of their killing intent and go on a rampage.
But the killing intent that Qi Ping had developed through protecting his home brought no emotional disturbances whatsoever—an advantage that other types of killing intent could hardly match.
In fact, this slaughter-force alone was enough to make his Dao Heart conceptual realm stronger than many other types.
Not to mention that his Dao Heart realm also came with two other effects: protective sanctuary and the ability to draw upon the world’s natural forces within his home territory.
To solidify this new Dao Heart realm, Qi Ping chose not to attend to other matters and instead continued his earnest contemplation.
Now was the optimal time for deep insight. If he waited too long, his state of mind would shift, and the effectiveness of his comprehension would be greatly diminished.
——–
Just as Qi Ping was immersed in comprehending his Dao Heart realm, the turbulence in the outside world had not ceased with the Bee Daoist’s disappearance. On the contrary, it had only grown more delicate and complicated.
This time, the Bee Daoist seemed to have gone into complete hiding!
The Immortal Alliance had exhausted their resources and employed every trick in the book—even dispatching several Golden Core cultivators—yet they still hadn’t so much as touched a single hair on the Bee Daoist’s head.
They had made such a grand show of force and accomplished absolutely nothing!
It was a feeling worse than eating shit!
At that very moment, inside the Immortal Alliance’s headquarters, the Alliance Envoy and the Golden Core experts wore expressions just like that—like they’d eaten shit!
In fact, it was even worse!
They simply could not fathom how, after dispatching multiple Golden Core cultivators, they still ended up in this situation—instead, almost all of their subordinate forces in the Azure Heaven Domain had been annihilated!
If they hadn’t prudently preserved and hidden a portion of their forces at the critical moment, they probably wouldn’t have a single subsidiary left.
Yet no matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn’t figure out how the Bee Daoist had managed to avoid the Golden Core cultivators’ positions with such pinpoint accuracy every single time. Even a gambler on a winning streak couldn’t pull off something like this.
This single campaign had completely destroyed the subsidiary foundation they had spent over a thousand years building!
And what made matters even more troublesome was that the Bee Daoist was still alive!
Until the Bee Daoist was killed, it was practically impossible for them to recruit any new subsidiary forces.
After all, if you agreed to join today, the Bee Daoist might come knocking at your door tomorrow. The Immortal Alliance’s deterrence and protection had become a complete joke—even sending out Golden Core cultivators was utterly useless!
In the past, everyone had seen the Immortal Alliance as mysterious, terrifying, and not to be trifled with. Joining came with risks, sure—you had to carry out missions to collect and refine blood sacrifices—but at least the rewards were generous, and you had the backing of the Alliance’s massive influence.
Now?
Screw that! Anyone who joins is an idiot!
Under these circumstances, the Alliance Envoy had no choice but to shift from a distribution model to a direct-operation model. They began forming their own overt and covert guards to carry out the collection and refinement of blood sacrifices directly.
Of course, this was the least efficient approach. Losing the information advantage of those local powers slowed things down considerably, but at least recruitment was far easier than trying to win over subsidiary factions.
“Envoy, why don’t we hire a Heavenly Secrets or curse cultivator to deduce the Bee Daoist’s location—or simply curse him to death?” suggested a Golden Core cultivator of the Alliance.
“I think that works too. The cost may be steep, but as long as the Bee Daoist remains alive, we can’t safely carry out our blood sacrifice collection… And it would also serve to show the cultivators of the Azure Heaven Domain just how terrifying the power behind the Immortal Alliance really is,” another Golden Core cultivator chimed in.
The Alliance Envoy hesitated for a moment at the suggestion, then a vicious look hardened on his face.
“Fine! Spare no expense to find him! I want him to wish he were dead! To suffer the most horrific tortures and torments this world has to offer!”
As long as they could hang the Bee Daoist’s head beneath the Immortal Alliance banner, there would still be a chance to salvage their reputation.
Compared to the Alliance’s fury and desperation, the Qingyuan Sect, aside from the factions that had lost members to the Bee Daoist, mostly remained silent on the matter—they didn’t even issue a single statement.
This left the ordinary rogue cultivators of the Azure Heaven Domain baffled.
But as word spread, they gradually discovered that the families and forces wiped out by the Bee Daoist were, upon closer inspection, all steeped in villainy. Behind the scenes, they seemed to be engaging in all sorts of unspeakable activities—most of them tied to human trafficking.
For the common cultivators, this was a blessing! And they couldn’t help but feel a surge of gratitude and admiration for the Bee Daoist.
Many rogue cultivators even speculated that this might have been an internal operation orchestrated by the Qingyuan Sect itself—a purge to rid the Azure Heaven Domain of its cancerous elements.
But regardless, it didn’t diminish the Bee Daoist’s prestige and fearsome reputation among the ordinary cultivators.
The real reason the Qingyuan Sect had chosen not to act, however, was that they believed the Bee Daoist posed no threat to them.
After all, nearly all of the Qingyuan Sect’s foundations were concentrated within its headquarters. There, not to mention Foundation Establishment cultivators—even a Nascent Soul cultivator would lose at least half their life if they tried anything.
And on top of that, this situation gave them a convenient excuse to indirectly tear up their agreement with the Immortal Alliance.
After all, it wasn’t that they weren’t holding up their end—it was that the Alliance themselves had no one left to go out and find or harvest blood seedlings. Naturally, the Qingyuan Sect was more than happy to see things play out this way.
As for Meng Yan, Elder Zhou, and others who had firmly stood against the Immortal Alliance, upon learning that the Bee Daoist had not only successfully wiped out nearly all of the Alliance’s subsidiary forces but also retreated safely, their worries finally faded.
Beyond that, they also felt a deep sense of admiration for the Bee Daoist.
And so, the mystery and might of the Bee Daoist were forever etched into the annals of the Azure Heaven Domain.
——-
Misty Cloud Mountain Range, Druid Natural Sanctuary.
One month after Qi Ping had comprehended the second level of [Home Domain], he suddenly felt a premonition while still immersed in cultivation—as if something had brushed against his awareness.
Thanks to his heightened affinity with heaven and earth, Qi Ping detected a peculiar force probing at him, though it vanished just as quickly.
He immediately turned to look at the little immortal tiger beside him, a questioning look in his eyes.
“Was someone just using Heavenly Secrets to divine my existence?”
“Rrowr~ (Yes, boss! Just now, a force of Heavenly Secrets tried to pry into your information. But with me and the karmic protection on you, nothing got through! And hehe!)”
At this point, the little tiger wore a smug, mischievous expression.
“Rrowr~ (Boss, your karmic protection counterattacked so fiercely—combined with my own protective rebound—that the other party should’ve gotten a taste of their own medicine and been heavily wounded!)”
Just as the little tiger said this, in a place far, far away, a cultivator with an immortal-like bearing suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Half of his jet-black hair instantly turned white, and his eyes were filled with utter terror.
He had no idea what kind of existence he had just provoked. The world’s natural forces had rebounded so violently against him that if he hadn’t stopped in time, he would have lost half his life!
“Dammit! What kind of monster did you people send me after?!”
“You’re paying me extra! Otherwise, I swear I’ll make your lives miserable!”
The once-immortal cultivator completely lost his composure, roaring furiously at the Golden Core cultivator of the Immortal Alliance before him, his gaze wild with rage and madness!
