Picking up his teacup, Ye Qingxiao couldn’t help but sniff it, muttering under his breath:
“This is just Calming Heart Tea, isn’t it? I’ve had it before.”
With that, he downed the tea in one gulp. Seeing him drink, Yu Xueqing also raised her cup and took a small sip.
The moment Ye Qingxiao finished his tea, he froze.
He felt a gentle warmth rise from his dantian, eventually merging directly into his mind.
Then, involuntarily, he slipped into a state of enlightenment.
The essentials for breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm flowed through his thoughts. Unconsciously, Ye Qingxiao began to comprehend their mysteries, and part of his awareness gradually converged toward his dantian.
Seeing the change in Ye Qingxiao, Yu Xueqing hesitated and asked:
“Big Brother, what’s happening to Qingxiao?”
Yu Xueqing had consumed very little of the Tier-5 Calming Heart Tea, so its effects weren’t as pronounced. Plus, Ye Qingxiao’s transformation had captured all her attention, causing her to overlook the subtle changes happening within her own body.
Watching her hesitant expression, Ye Qingxuan chuckled lightly:
“No worries. Qingxiao has simply entered enlightenment and is about to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Qingxiao’s body began absorbing external spiritual energy at a rapid pace.
To help him break through more smoothly, Ye Qingxuan flicked his sleeve, piling a large heap of high-grade spirit stones around Ye Qingxiao for him to absorb during his breakthrough.
At this sight, Yu Xueqing was utterly dumbfounded.
Ye Qingxiao had always told her how incredibly wealthy his brother Ye Qingxuan was, but she’d never really believed it.
Starting today, though, she was a believer.
Three hours later.
Since Ye Qingxiao was in an enlightened state and aided by the high-grade spirit stones, his breakthrough saved a great deal of time.
In just three hours, he had successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul realm.
“Hahaha!”
The moment he succeeded, Ye Qingxiao couldn’t help but laugh out loud with excitement.
Watching this, Ye Qingxuan shook his head and said with mild exasperation:
“Alright, alright, stop laughing. It’s getting late. Get going and don’t disturb my meditation.”
Hearing that, Ye Qingxiao’s laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Scratching his head awkwardly, he rolled his eyes and said cheekily:
“I’ll leave, but only if you give me a packet of the tea leaves you just brewed.”
Ye Qingxuan shot him a look, but instead of arguing, he simply tossed a large packet of Tier-5 Calming Heart Tea leaves to Ye Qingxiao.
Catching the packet, Ye Qingxiao beamed with delight. He then took out a storage pouch he’d prepared earlier, placed it on the stone table, and said smugly:
“Hehe, I’m not taking your stuff for nothing. This is what you asked for earlier. I brought it back for you. Later!”
With that, he grabbed Yu Xueqing and flew off from the stone pavilion.
Hearing this, Ye Qingxuan was taken aback:
“What I asked for? What did I ask for?”
Picking up the storage pouch, he didn’t open it right away.
Instead, he stared at Ye Qingxiao’s departing figure, lost in thought.
The fact that the Cleansing Spirit Nuclear Explosion Pills had spread so quickly in the lower realms had caught him off guard.
He’d originally thought that, given the situation between the Dixuan Realm and the Green Demon Realm in the lower realms, the pills’ effects wouldn’t catch on anytime soon.
He hadn’t expected the lower realms’ situation to shift so rapidly.
Still, Ye Qingxuan wasn’t overly worried about the fallout from the pills’ popularity.
Even if he couldn’t handle the pressure, surely the Xuantian Sect could?
After all, he was now a Fortunate Cultivator of the sect and couldn’t leave his blessed land anyway.
And outsiders couldn’t really do much to him either—did they really think the Xuantian Sect was that easy to push around?
In the worst case, he might be pressured under the guise of humanity’s greater good, forcing him to completely abandon the pills’ external profits.
He was still lacking in strength for now, and Ye Qingxuan didn’t put much stock in material gains.
Whatever losses he incurred now, in tens of thousands of years, he could easily make those who forced him—or their factions—pay back tenfold.
After all, the higher your cultivation, the longer you live.
Those who could pressure him, a disciple of the Xuantian Sect, would certainly have high cultivation and powerful backing. They might even live long enough to see him reach the pinnacle of this realm.
Besides, knowing the Xuantian Sect as he did, he didn’t think they’d let him completely give up on the Nuclear Explosion Pills’ profits.
Still, all this was just speculation on his part.
Ye Qingxuan deeply disliked the feeling of having his fate in others’ hands.
After a moment of silence, he turned expressionlessly and stepped back into the Qingxuan Blessed Land.
Once inside, he opened the storage pouch Ye Qingxiao had left him.
At the sight of its contents, a flicker of realization crossed his face, and he chuckled softly:
“So it’s Green Demon corpses after all?”
Before Ye Qingxiao had gone down to the lower realms, he had indeed mentioned this request.
But Ye Qingxuan hadn’t thought much of it.
He hadn’t expected Ye Qingxiao to make much of a haul in the unconquered lower realms.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that Ye Qingxiao would have the guts to venture into the already-fallen Xuanmu Small Thousand Realm later on.
Fortunately, luck was on Ye Qingxiao’s side. When the situation in the occupied lower Nine Realms shifted, he seized the opportunity.
With the trump cards Ye Qingxuan had given him, he managed to hunt quite a few Green Demons.
Just in the pouch he left behind, there was one Nascent Soul–stage Green Demon corpse, ten Golden Core–stage (early to mid) corpses, and over a hundred Purple Mansion–stage corpses.
As for Foundation Establishment–stage corpses, there were none.
It seemed Ye Qingxiao had only gone after Green Demons above the Purple Mansion stage in Xuanmu Realm?
What Ye Qingxuan didn’t know was that the lower-level Green Demons that had migrated to the Nine Realms were mostly kept far in the rear.
Only those at the Purple Mansion stage and above moved freely near human-occupied areas, hunting cultivators to raise their own cultivation.
That’s why there were no Foundation Establishment corpses in the pouch.
The Green Demon corpses Ye Qingxiao left behind still had their cultivation essences intact.
Looking at the pile of corpses before him, Ye Qingxuan’s eyes burned with anticipation.
With these, he too could finally break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Taking a deep breath, he carried the storage pouch into the Qingxuan Cave Heaven.
First, he tossed all the Purple Mansion–stage Green Demon corpses into the Cave Heaven’s Purification Grand Array to accelerate its growth.
As for the one Nascent Soul–stage and ten Golden Core–stage corpses, he placed them all into the Minor Sacrificial Array to be offered.
The next moment, a golden pillar of light enveloped Ye Qingxuan once more.
His cultivation began rising steadily at a visible pace.
