Inside a crevice within a mountain range in Demon Domain World No. 9, Ye Qingxuan’s explorer avatar had been lying low for a full three months.
Ever since he had concealed himself in that crack, and after the Spirit Transformation–stage Green Demon had left, Ye Qingxuan had stayed put to be on the safe side—not daring to make any reckless moves.
Now that three months had passed and the Spirit Transformation Green Demon still hadn’t reappeared, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but mutter to himself:
“It’s been this long—he should be gone by now, right?”
But then again, the gap in their cultivation levels was simply too vast. If that being truly wanted to stay hidden, there was no way Ye Qingxuan would be able to detect him.
He glanced out at the mountains beyond the crevice, hesitated for a moment, then finally emerged and made his way toward the outskirts of the mountain range.
Still, he reasoned that the Green Demon wouldn’t waste three whole months lying in wait for someone like him. If, by some off chance, a dignified Spirit Transformation powerhouse actually had the patience to stake him out for three months—well, then Ye Qingxuan would just have to accept it. Worst case, he’d lose this avatar.
Once out of the crevice, Ye Qingxuan flew at full speed.
After finding a remote cave at the edge of the mountain range, he took out the formation disk for returning to the Dì Xuán Realm. He activated it while carefully keeping watch over his surroundings.
Activating a spatial formation disk took a fair amount of time, and the spatial fluctuations it created were highly conspicuous to any nearby Spirit Transformation cultivators. That’s why he needed to be as far away as possible from that Spirit Transformation Green Demon when activating it.
Once the temporary spatial passageway was formed, Ye Qingxuan didn’t linger. He sent his explorer avatar straight back to the Dì Xuán Realm.
This time, however, the explorer avatar didn’t need to return to the Qingxuan Cave Heaven via the Mysterious Merchant avatar’s realm gate. After emerging from Star Battle City, Ye Qingxuan’s explorer avatar found a desolate, uninhabited forest and used the realm gate to return to the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Paradise.
At the same time, back in the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Paradise, Ye Qingxuan’s main consciousness had already returned to his true body, quietly waiting for his explorer avatar to come back.
This recent adventure had been quite thrilling for Ye Qingxuan, who was used to staying cooped up inside the Xuantian Sect. It served as a nice little diversion from his daily cultivation routine.
After a short while, a faintly glowing portal appeared within the Qingxuan Cave Heaven, and his explorer avatar stepped through.
Once again, he dissolved the explorer avatar through spiritual dissolution.
Holding the storage pouch containing all the spoils from his eight-plus years in Demon Domain World No. 9, Ye Qingxuan thought back to the Yin Kui King’s corpse he had been forced to leave behind, and shook his head with a sigh:
“What a pity—that Nascent Soul–stage Green Demon corpse and that Rank-5 demonic vein source…”
Setting aside the Rank-5 demonic vein source, just the Yin Kui King’s corpse alone was worth more than everything else he had gathered this time.
Still, even though he hadn’t killed as many Green Demons this time as during his last excursion to Demon Domain World No. 3, the quality of the Green Demon cultivators he had slain was far superior.
This time, he had taken down a total of six Golden Core–stage Green Demons—five of which came from the Yin Kui tribe alone.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be so easy to score such a big haul next time.
Among the spatial passages opened by the Xuantian Sect, only two led to small thousand-realm worlds: Demon Domain No. 3 and Demon Domain No. 9. But now, his explorer avatar had been blacklisted in both of those worlds.
The next time he tried to make a move in either of them, he’d be easily detected by the Green Demon powerhouses through his aura fluctuations—which would greatly increase the danger.
Although he could dissolve and reconstitute his avatar, that only removed any possible tracking marks. It didn’t change his fundamental essence. The changes to his avatar’s appearance and aura were made through the divine ability seeds of Minor Transformation and Minor Deception of Heaven. Since those ability seeds hadn’t yet matured into true divine abilities, they couldn’t alter his essential nature.
So even after reconstitution, his explorer avatar would still be recognizable to the blacklist systems of both Demon Domain worlds through his core aura.
As a result, his explorer avatar’s movements in those two Demon Domains would be severely restricted. Every action risked being hunted down; one careless slip could lead to instant death and the loss of all his gains.
Until he truly mastered those minor divine abilities, there was no way around this.
After reconstituting his explorer avatar, Ye Qingxuan handed over the trump cards he had prepared in advance. Then, through the realm gate of his Mysterious Merchant avatar, he sent the explorer avatar out of the Qingxuan Cave Heaven once more—heading back to Demon Domain World No. 9.
After all, Demon Domain World No. 9 had a slightly higher energy level than World No. 3, meaning the Green Demon tribes there were of better quality. Though the risks were higher, the potential rewards were also greater.
This time, however, Ye Qingxuan did not project his main consciousness into his explorer avatar. He’d already experienced life as an adventurer in the Demon Domain.
Compared to that kind of dangerous expedition, Ye Qingxuan still preferred his quiet, secluded cultivation life within the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Paradise.
Going on adventures to other worlds was fine as an occasional experience.
Besides, when you’re still at a low cultivation level, going to other worlds just meant getting beaten down. He’d much rather raise his realm first, then travel to other worlds and live incognito as a hidden powerhouse.
He had no taste for being on the receiving end of abuse.
After sending off his explorer avatar, Ye Qingxuan took the spoils from his eight-plus years in Demon Domain World No. 9 and headed deeper into the Qingxuan Cave Heaven.
Following the same allocation plan as before:
The Green Demon corpses below the Golden Core stage, along with all the miscellaneous demon domain materials, demon stones, demonic vein sources, and so on—he dumped them all into the Rank-5 Cave Heaven Purification Formation to be refined into primordial energy, accelerating the growth of the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Paradise.
As for the remaining six Golden Core–stage Green Demon corpses—each with varying degrees of damage and differing cultivation levels—they included:
One late-stage Golden Core, one mid-stage Golden Core, and four early-stage Golden Core.
This time, Ye Qingxuan didn’t bother extracting their cultivation essence separately. He’d already seen what cultivation essence looked like last time, so there was no need to repeat the extraction process.
Since he wasn’t selling them, it made little difference whether he offered the cultivation essence along with the bodies or separately. Out in the wider world, people separated the two mainly to fetch higher prices. In an auction, selling two lots instead of one naturally yields more profit. For sellers with a steady market, splitting the sale into two lots brought greater returns.
After offering up the six Golden Core Green Demon corpses in sacrifice, a golden radiance once again enveloped Ye Qingxuan. A surge of origin energy—far greater than last time—poured into his body, and his cultivation began to climb rapidly.
After about half an incense stick’s worth of time, his cultivation gradually steadied. He had made significant progress, but he still hadn’t broken through to the peak of the Golden Core stage.
Ye Qingxuan wasn’t disappointed—this outcome was well within his expectations.
Out of the six Golden Core Green Demons, four were only at the early stage. And since the origin energy gained from sacrifice was heavily discounted, the actual feedback he received wasn’t that much.
Based on the sacrificial experiences summarized by the wider cultivation world, for someone who had just stepped into the late Golden Core stage, it would take the sacrifice of ten complete late-stage Golden Core Green Demons to advance to the peak of Golden Core.
So it was no surprise that he hadn’t broken through this time.
If measured in percentages, he had now covered roughly thirty percent of the path from late Golden Core to peak Golden Core—with about seventy percent still remaining.
As for that final seventy percent, given that his Golden Core was currently aided by the World Map and boasted a cultivation speed comparable to a four-element spiritual root prodigy, if he relied solely on his own training, it would likely take him another two hundred years or more to naturally break through to the peak of Golden Core on his own.
