Meanwhile,
after wiping out the Cyan Demon tribe in that valley,
Ye Qingxuan didn’t linger anywhere nearby. He traveled under cover for several hundred miles before finding a concealed cave to hole up in, where he began tallying up his haul from this operation.
One Golden Core–stage Cyan Demon corpse, plus one complete Golden Core cultivation essence.
Twenty-two Purple Mansion–stage Cyan Demon corpses, and eighteen Purple Mansion cultivation essences.
One hundred and twenty-three Foundation Establishment–stage Cyan Demon corpses, with eighty-six corresponding cultivation essences.
Eighty-six Qi Refining–stage Cyan Demon corpses, yielding twenty-four cultivation essences.
One fourth-grade demon vein core, a stockpile of demon crystals, and countless miscellaneous low-grade materials from the Demon Domain.
Among the Purple Mansion and Foundation Establishment–stage Cyan Demons, more than a dozen had actually come from other tribes as tribute emissaries—caught in the same net when Ye Qingxuan struck.
The reason the cultivation essences he extracted didn’t match the number of corpses?
Well, this time he’d given the tribe a moment to react, allowing them to activate their fourth-grade guardian formation.
During that process, a great many Cyan Demons had poured their own cultivation energy into sustaining the barrier, significantly draining their reserves.
On top of that, the fifth-grade slaughter formation had physically obliterated parts of quite a few bodies outright.
So many of the corpses Ye Qingxuan collected were incomplete.
And when he went to extract the cultivation essences afterward, a lot of them turned out to be damaged as well—some requiring several fragments just to piece together one full essence.
The biggest losses were among the Qi Refining–stage Cyan Demons; most of their bodies had simply been vaporized under the sheer force of fifth-grade energy.
As a result, the number of Qi Refining corpses and essences he gathered was actually less than what he got from the Foundation Establishment stage.
But honestly, Qi Refining–stage Cyan Demons weren’t worth much to begin with, so Ye Qingxuan wasn’t too torn up about the losses.
All in all, he was extremely satisfied with this haul.
After finishing his inventory, he picked a direction far from the previous valley and continued his journey onward.
Five years later.
On a densely wooded mountainside,
Ye Qingxuan stared ahead with a hint of exasperation, wondering if he should just change course.
Over the past five years, he’d run into nearly twenty Cyan Demon tribes.
But almost all of them were small-time operations—Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, with at most a Purple Mansion–stage cultivator in charge. None of them were worth his time as targets.
In all those five years, he hadn’t found a single Nascent Soul–level tribe—and worse, he hadn’t even encountered a second Golden Core–level one.
Though, to be fair, part of that was due to the constraints of his covert approach—moving in stealth severely limited his speed and search radius.
Back in the Third Demon Domain, he’d spent a full decade and only taken down one Golden Core tribe.
This time, in the Ninth Demon Domain, he’d bagged one within the first year.
And if you compared the frequency of encounters along the way, the Ninth Demon Domain clearly had stronger Cyan Demons overall.
Ye Qingxuan frowned, glancing around at the dim, shadowy trees and the omnipresent demonic qi swirling through the air. He let out a resigned sigh:
“This godforsaken environment—it’s really not a place for humans.”
Any ordinary person staying here too long would probably start feeling the psychological toll—oppression, negativity, the works.
After surveying his surroundings and hesitating for a moment, he ultimately decided not to change direction. Instead, he pressed deeper into the mountain range.
There’s no way a mountain range this big doesn’t have a second Golden Core tribe somewhere.
Time flew by. Another three years passed.
By now, Ye Qingxuan’s exploration incarnation had been in the Ninth Demon Domain for over eight years.
After more than eight years of scouting, he’d finally reached the core region of the mountain range.
As he ventured further into the heart of the mountains, the strange demonic beasts he encountered grew increasingly bizarre in form and higher in cultivation level.
Over those three years, he’d also taken down three Golden Core–stage demonic beasts along the way—an unexpected but welcome bonus.
But now, having arrived at the core area, he found himself hesitating. He wasn’t sure whether to keep pushing deeper.
Because the further he went, the denser the demonic qi became—and not just in quantity, but in quality as well.
Even though he wasn’t standing directly atop a tier-two demon vein, the ambient qi in the core region was already approaching second-grade levels.
If it actually crossed that threshold and became true second-grade demonic qi, Ye Qingxuan would find himself stuck again—unable to move freely.
With his Golden Core–stage spiritual power—comparable to fourth-grade qi—he still couldn’t circulate his energy internally fast enough to naturally repel second-grade demonic qi from his vicinity.
He’d be forced to do what he did back in the Third Demon Domain: form a spiritual barrier around his body to isolate the second-grade demonic qi.
But that would make him impossible to fully conceal. His safety margin would plummet.
That wasn’t a situation he wanted to be in.
After a long pause, he gazed into the seemingly endless depths of the mountain range and murmured to himself:
“Well… I’ve come this far. Might as well take a look.”
He decided to go a little deeper and check things out. If the demonic qi really did reach second-grade levels further in, he’d turn back.
With that settled, he continued weaving through the mountains, avoiding low-tier demonic beasts as he crept forward at a slow, steady pace.
Three more days passed.
Suddenly, Ye Qingxuan came to a halt, eyes lighting up with excitement as he looked ahead.
Not far in front of him, a battle had just broken out. The commotion was considerable—occasional shrill, agonized roars of beasts echoed through the air.
From what he could sense, the clash was at the Golden Core level.
He didn’t rush in blindly. Instead, he waited patiently until the sounds of battle began to die down.
Only then did he carefully mask his presence and creep slowly toward the source of the disturbance.
As he drew closer, he finally got a clear view of the scene.
It was a mid–Golden Core–stage Cyan Demon, hunting a tiger-like fourth-grade demonic beast.
By now, the fight was nearly over. The beast was on its last legs, barely clinging to life.
Ye Qingxuan’s hand moved instinctively—the Town-World Pagoda materialized in his palm.
But after a moment’s hesitation,
he withdrew it, tucking the pagoda away without making a move against the Cyan Demon.
Under his hidden observation, the Cyan Demon finished off the fourth-grade beast cleanly, then took off toward the deeper parts of the mountain range.
And not far behind—trailing at a careful, unhurried pace—was Ye Qingxuan.
To avoid detection, he didn’t follow in a straight line.
Instead, he constantly shifted his path, dodging areas dense with demonic qi, keeping a safe distance while maintaining a loose tail on the Golden Core Cyan Demon ahead.
