Within the Xuantian Sect, inside the Qingxuan Blessed Land.
After his main consciousness returned, Ye Qingxuan’s true body wore an amused expression and murmured softly:
“Interesting. I didn’t expect that not long after condensing my clones, I’d already lose one in the demon domain.”
The experiences of his External Incarnation and two ordinary clones flowed through his mind, and a contemplative look settled in his eyes.
His External Incarnation, Gui Xuanzi, was currently a black-clad young man of ordinary appearance, aboard a skyship of the Tianyuan Trading Company. It would still take several decades to reach the Eastern Extremity Domain.
As for the other two ordinary clones—
One was the mysterious merchant operating a secret shop outside Star Battle City, presenting himself as an elderly man with a silver mask and silver hair.
The last one was the clone that had just fallen in Demon Domain No. 3—the one Ye Qingxuan had named the Explorer, manifesting as a silver-masked youth of seventeen or eighteen.
The name “Explorer” was something Ye Qingxuan had come up with on the spot, purely to distinguish his three clones and give each of them an identity of their own.
He had no intention of linking these clones to one another in the outside world, which was why he’d designed their appearances to be so different.
However, due to a previous oversight, the silver masks worn by his two ordinary clones were rather similar in style—a minor but notable flaw.
Now that the Explorer had fallen, Ye Qingxuan planned to give the new Explorer a dark-gold patterned mask once it was recondensed. This would prevent anyone from connecting the Mysterious Merchant and the Explorer based on their similar masks.
For now, though, he didn’t intend to immediately recondense the Explorer clone.
It would take just a few more years for the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land to advance to the peak of the second grade.
Over the years, through his continuous investment—melting down a vast amount of first- and second-grade spirit ores and cultivating many types of spiritual plants—the Elemental Origin rules of the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land had already reached the third-grade threshold.
Once the energy reserves caught up and the Origin reached the peak of the second grade, the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land could directly advance to a third-grade Cave Heaven Blessed Land.
When that happened, the feedback from the Origin would inevitably give his cultivation a substantial boost. At that point, he could recondense the Explorer clone and possibly raise its cultivation to the threshold of the Golden Core realm.
As a true explorer, that would significantly increase the clone’s chances of survival.
A few years—he could wait that long. Besides, the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land was bound to advance to third grade within that time.
Moreover, his new batch of Spirit-Cleansing Trees had successfully grown to the fourth grade. In three months, when Steward Bai came to collect, he could sell this batch of fourth-grade Spirit-Cleansing Trees and obtain nine second- and third-grade spirit vein sources in return.
Then, the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land would gain nine additional second- and third-grade spirit veins, further accelerating its energy absorption and Origin conversion. Perhaps the blessed land could even advance a year or two ahead of schedule.
With his decision made, Ye Qingxuan stood up, stretched lazily, and took a single step forward—his figure already vanishing from the Qingxuan Blessed Land.
Ever since he’d broken through his inner obsessions, Ye Qingxuan had returned to a tranquil and uneventful cultivation life.
Though he still kept an eye on the war progress between the Earth Mystery Realm and the Azure Demon Realm, he no longer let external affairs disturb his state of mind.
Arriving at the stone pavilion, he brewed himself a pot of fourth-grade Calming Heart Tea and slowly sipped it while enjoying the view.
“I wonder how Qingxiao is doing. I hope he’s alright…”
In the blink of an eye, nearly forty years had passed since Ye Qingxiao had descended to the lower realm for his trials. In all that time, not a single word had come back from him, and Ye Qingxuan couldn’t help but feel a twinge of concern.
As for himself, these years had been quite comfortable.
Aside from Steward Bai coming by once a year to collect the Spirit-Cleansing Trees, practically no one disturbed his secluded cultivation.
Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, following his instructions, had been in closed-door cultivation all this time, diligently working to raise their cultivation levels. In the future, Ye Qingxuan would need them to handle certain overt matters outside the Xuantian Sect. If they could break through to the Core Formation realm—or even the Spirit Transformation realm—they would make things far more convenient for him.
Although he’d spent all these years alone, Ye Qingxuan never once felt bored or lonely.
His days were filled with cultivation, tea-drinking, enjoying the scenery beyond the peak, and occasionally playing with the spirit beasts inside the blessed land.
Now that he had broken through to the Golden Core realm and condensed his clones, his main consciousness could descend upon any of them at will—to see the sights beyond the Xuantian Sect and experience different walks of life.
Ye Qingxuan had grown to love this kind of life.
It was safe, balanced cultivation with worldly experience, and any trouble his clones stirred up wouldn’t easily trace back to his true body. This gave him a tremendous advantage.
He felt that the best decision he’d ever made was joining the Xuantian Sect.
Where else could he find such an ideal environment—one that allowed him to lie low in peace and safety for centuries, perhaps even millennia or tens of millennia?
Leaning back lazily on the stone seat, Ye Qingxuan half-closed his eyes, taking an occasional sip of tea. Life was truly good.
The original stone seats in the pavilion had long been replaced with luxurious demon beast pelts he’d refined himself—soft and supple, already reaching the level of spiritual artifacts.
If Ye Yuhong ever saw this, he’d definitely fly into a rage and curse Ye Qingxuan for being a prodigal son. After all, the Ye family didn’t even own a single spiritual artifact.
But who could blame Ye Qingxuan? He could now refine spiritual artifacts himself. When you can make your own, you naturally don’t hold them in such high regard.
Ye Qingxuan would say: this is what it means to be a fifth-grade artifact refiner who never lacks spirit stones.
Though the war in the extraterritorial battlefield had shifted to higher cultivation levels, reducing combat opportunities for cultivators below the Core Formation realm within the Xuantian Sect and lowering the frequency of Nuclear Explosion Pill purchases, resulting in a drop in sales at the Tianfu Shop and a severe decline in daily profits—after decades of development, the Tianfu Shop had established stable channel systems and a steady customer base.
Even with the decline in sales of the Nuclear Explosion Pill series, the shop still netted around one hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones in profit per day.
Add to that the immense resources and spirit stones he’d swindled from the eight Spirit Transformation-level factions using the Nuclear Explosion Pill formulas—at this stage, Ye Qingxuan was practically swimming in wealth. He had no worries about spirit stones whatsoever.
Inside the Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land, countless second- to fifth-grade spirit ores lay scattered about, and high-grade spirit stones were piled high like mountains. Later on, for convenience, he even had Zhu Dafu exchange a batch of high-grade spirit stones for top-grade spirit stones.
On top of that, the population of spirit beasts within his blessed land was growing day by day.
He hadn’t bothered to count them in detail. As long as they didn’t disrupt the environment of the blessed land, Ye Qingxuan took a hands-off approach to their care.
Even the Spirit-Gathering Bees—though the Spirit-Gathering Honey they produced could accelerate a cultivator’s advancement—were now of little use to him. With only a handful of fourth-grade Spirit-Gathering Bees, they barely made a difference. So his attention toward them had also waned.
He’d been stockpiling the Spirit-Gathering Honey all along. His plan was to wait until his External Incarnation, Gui Xuanzi, reached the Eastern Extremity Domain and established a foothold there, then hold his first auction. At that auction, he would put up all the first-, second-, and third-grade Spirit-Gathering Honey he’d accumulated over the years—to attract customers and build a client base for his foundation in the Eastern Extremity Domain.
To establish a foothold in the Eastern Extremity Domain and grow quickly, you had to offer something good to get the word out. And what better way to showcase those good things than through an auction?
