Chapter 302: Breaking Through and Leaving Seclusion

After a day of refinement within the Cocoon of Time, Li Weiyi, his body enveloped in spirit flames, shot out like lightning from the shimmering array surrounding the pagoda. He headed straight for the pavilion building where Yao Qingxuan usually resided, flipped over a lampshade, took out a fragment of the Spirit Altar Blazing Star Stone from inside, and placed it into his Mind-Spirit World.

Then, he raced back at top speed to the array area where the pagoda was located and vanished into the Blood Mud Space.

One fragment of the Spirit Altar Blazing Star Stone was surprisingly insufficient to condense the third psychic star, so he had no choice but to take Yao Qingxuan's. He was at a critical juncture in condensing his psychic star and couldn't worry about the consequences. He would simply buy another one from the Spirit Valley Hall afterward to replace it.

"It seems the higher one's cultivation realm, the more fragments of Spirit Altar Blazing Star Stone are needed to condense psychic stars," he thought. "If I had known earlier, I would have sold a few of my Hundred-Character artifacts and bought two more."

Returning to Tanggu Sea, Li Weiyi sat on a jade boat more than thirty meters long, using the second fragment of the Spirit Altar Blazing Star Stone to continue condensing his third psychic star. The phantom image of the Fusang Divine Tree behind him reflected the two genuine divine trees at the horizon, appearing like a sapling to an ancient tree, or a child to a teacher.

On the Tanggu Sea, resplendent and scorching Xihe flowers drifted everywhere. The environment was beautiful, and the floral fragrance was peculiar. Above the flowers, brilliant light condensed into streams of light particles, flowing towards Li Weiyi's glabella and the two phantom images of the Fusang Divine Tree. This made his aura increasingly powerful, his entire body becoming crystalline, like a pure immortal physique.

"Gulu!"

"Gulu!"

As time passed, bubbles appeared on the sea surface, and white mist rose. This was a sign that the Golden Crow was about to rise from the seabed! If he didn't leave in time, with Li Weiyi's current cultivation realm, he certainly wouldn't be able to withstand the scorching waves that could boil the seas and burn the heavens.

His body remained still, as serene as an immortal mountain. His consciousness was introverted, and his perception of the outside world was hazy as he was at the critical moment of condensing his third psychic star. The phantom image of the Fusang Divine Tree, dozens of feet tall, behind him grew thicker in its trunk, unfurled its branches and leaves, and continuously grew taller and larger. The divine tree's phantom image continuously breathed. The Golden Crow flames on its leaves became increasingly solidified, with both their temperature and brightness intensifying.

"Gulu!"

The bubbles on the sea surface grew even larger. The seabed seemed to ignite, emitting golden-red radiance and turning the seawater into a magma-like color. As this intensified, the spiritual light around Li Weiyi grew brighter, his entire body enveloped in flames.

"Boom!"

His Mind-Spirit World vibrated, and the third psychic star successfully condensed. A ripple of golden-red light spread outwards from Li Weiyi, gradually fading only after extending a mile away. On the sea surface, concentric waves appeared with him at the center. This was the "one-mile domain" his psychic power could reach!

For martial cultivators, those who could cultivate their Dao Heart Manifestation to the "one-mile domain" level would be able to ascend the "Jiazi Scroll" and become elders of the Twin-Grain Sect. Of course, Li Weiyi was still far from being comparable to martial arts masters of that level. It could only be said that in terms of perception, he was already on par with them. This was the advantage of a Spirit Psion!

"Oh no, the Golden Crow is about to fly out of the sea!" Li Weiyi put away the jade boat, transformed into a human-shaped ball of fire, rushed into the spatial barrier gate, and tumbled into the Blood Mud Space.

"Rumble!"

Almost instantaneously, golden-red radiance and flames enveloped the entire Tanggu Sea. Heatwaves and some flames surged in through the spatial barrier gate, landing on Li Weiyi. His robes instantly turned to ashes, leaving only the Blood Handprint Demonic Armor. His skin burned with pain; his protective spiritual energy and light failed to block it.

Li Weiyi endured the pain throughout his body and stood up. He draped an outer robe over himself, gazing at the Golden Crow soaring into the sky. There was no fear in his heart; instead, he felt excited, truly sensing his current power. At this distance, the Golden Crow's heat gradually began to be ineffective against him. He could already barely resist. If he reached the Dao Seed realm and further enhanced his physical body, he believed he could fully stand on the Tanggu Sea and withstand the heatwaves. Of course, this was because he and the Golden Crow's true form were separated by thousands, or even tens of thousands, of miles. If he were to be directly exposed to the Golden Crow's flames at close range, he would still be incinerated.

"Once my physical body is strong enough and I put on my State Governor's robes, I'll just stay in the Tanggu Sea," he mused. "By leveraging the Golden Crow's ascent, I can absorb its flames along with the Xihe flowers on the sea, and my psychic stars will surely grow rapidly."

Only then did Li Weiyi finally calm down to observe the three psychic stars in his spirit world. Each of them was several times larger than the stars he possessed as a One-Star Spirit Psion. They resembled three golden-red glass orbs, operating according to some wondrous pattern, their energy potent, scorching, and dazzling.

"My psychic spiritual light, influenced by the Fusang Divine Tree and the Golden Crow, is fire-attributed," he thought. "Even without relying on formations or runes, it possesses destructive offensive power, fully capable of contending with martial cultivators at the third heaven of the Dao Seed realm." He continued, "Against inferior Dao Seed realm Third Heaven cultivators like Ye Nanfeng and Ye Beifeng, I should now be able to fight two of them with just my psychic power, or at least achieve a draw."

Li Weiyi had just broken through to this realm, so his three psychic stars still had significant room for improvement. However, now that he no longer had the Star Day Pills, rapidly advancing to the peak of a Three-Star Spirit Psion would not be achievable in a short time. He would need to spend a lot of time accumulating power bit by bit, just like other Spirit Psions. Unless he found Zen Sea Gazing Mist to refine pills again.

Li Weiyi could also try to refine them himself, as he had observed Zen Sea Gazing Mist refining Star Day Pills and knew the formula and necessary materials. However, the materials for refining Star Day Pills were simply too expensive. Zen Sea Gazing Mist had spent over a million Spring Coins to refine twenty-nine of them. Given Li Weiyi's psychic and alchemical attainments, barely qualifying him for pill refinement, attempting to refine high-grade Dharma Pills right away would result in an incredibly low success rate and an unimaginably high cost.

"With the Fusang Divine Tree, the Fusang Divine Tree Meditation Method, and the Cocoon of Time, my accumulation speed is much faster than other Three-Star Spirit Psions," he thought. "Breaking through realms is the real difficulty." He pondered, "The threshold to Four-Star Spirit Psion is a major hurdle, not easily broken through. For now, I need to find ways to earn more money to buy more Spirit Altar Blazing Star Stone fragments and materials for Star Day Pills."

"Yang Qingxi, knowing Wang Shu is not to be trifled with, still stepped into this messy situation," he mused. "It seems the Fourth Divine Son must possess something extraordinary that greatly tempts her."

Li Weiyi decided that after rescuing Qi Xiao and Tuoba Butuo, he would shift the focus of his cultivation to martial arts, aiming to quickly cultivate the Seventh Sea to completion and achieve Dao Seeding. Thinking of this, he took out the Dao Fruit whose Dharma Qi had not yet been fully released, along with the newly purchased spring liquid. He expanded the Seventh Sea to thirty thousand cubic units, completely exhausting the Dharma Qi within the Dao Fruit. Next, he fully immersed himself in tempering his Dharma Qi and solidifying his three psychic stars.

The six small creatures that had consumed dragon seeds, Xihe flowers, and Heavenly Primordial Ganoderma remained sprawled on the ground, their bodies enveloped in flames. They occasionally emitted low, piercing cries that could penetrate metal and shatter stone. Such cries did not sound like they came from moths or butterflies, but more like the calls of divine luan birds and phoenixes.

The Great Phoenix flew to Li Weiyi's shoulder and urgently whispered something into his ear.

"You're saying there's a problem with their metamorphosis?" Li Weiyi asked, his expression turning serious. The Great Phoenix nodded, telling Li Weiyi that the six small creatures had been undergoing metamorphosis for too long—almost three days had passed—and their auras were not growing stronger. Instead, they seemed to be losing vitality, as if about to fall into slumber. It had not experienced such a situation during its own metamorphosis.

Li Weiyi grew concerned. He walked towards the six small creatures, carefully examining their internal conditions and communicating with them using his psychic power. "There's no major harm, but they are gradually falling into slumber," he murmured. "Could it be that the resources they consumed were insufficient, requiring them to enter a dormant state to slowly complete the metamorphosis process?" he wondered.

Li Weiyi had always read books on insect taming, gaining a detailed understanding of the feeding, growth, metamorphosis, dormancy, and control of exotic insects. After all, six creatures were attempting to break through to the Dao Seed realm simultaneously, and half a stalk of Heavenly Primordial Ganoderma divided among them was indeed somewhat insufficient.

After thinking for a moment, he took out the Dao Fruit whose Dharma Qi had been fully released and placed it in front of the six small creatures. At first, the six small creatures nibbled at it intermittently. Gradually, they all became energized and pounced on it, gnawing at the Dao Fruit as if six moths were playing football. Before long, this essence of the Great Dao, which only masters above the Seventh Heaven of the Dao Seed realm could cultivate, was completely devoured by them.

Li Weiyi sighed softly. This Dao Fruit was worth a million Spring Coins, the most valuable item he could sell from his possessions. Fortunately, after devouring the Dao Fruit, the six small creatures regained their vitality, and their physical metamorphosis became intense. On each of them, phantom images of dragons and phoenixes appeared, with dragon roars from within their bodies and phoenix cries from their mouths. The dragon roars originated from the dragon seeds and dragon bones. The phoenix cries were clearly from the origin of their own bloodlines. Such a metamorphosis process was too miraculous; no wonder Tang Wanzhou suspected that they were not Monarch-level.

On the fourth day after capturing Ye Nanfeng and Ye Beifeng, Li Weiyi emerged from the shimmering array, followed the Blood Lake, and arrived at the main hall of Nanqing Palace. The injuries to the limbs of Ye Nanfeng, Ye Beifeng, and Zuo Sheng had improved. With their Dao Seed realm cultivation, as long as their Dharma Qi wasn't sealed, even broken bones could heal quickly. The three of them had many new injuries. Among them, Ye Beifeng was the most miserable; his tongue had been cut off. The flesh from all five fingers of his right hand had been stripped away, leaving only bare bone.

The three looked at Yang Qingxi, who stood with her hands behind her back, with terrified and fearful eyes. They felt that "femme fatale" was insufficient to describe her; her methods were skillful and ruthless. Ye Nanfeng and Ye Beifeng were interrogated separately by her. Ye Beifeng, for lying, had his tongue directly cut off and the flesh from his right hand sliced off piece by piece. Meanwhile, Ye Nanfeng received the "reward" of having his injuries to his hands and feet treated. After that, the three answered her questions without holding anything back, no longer daring to conceal or deceive anything. The three Dao Seed realm experts of the evil cult, who were originally ruthless killers and formidable individuals, were completely subdued by her.

Seeing Li Weiyi appear, Yang Qingxi's eyes above her veil showed clear displeasure. "Where have you been?" she demanded. "I went in to look for you and called out to you, but received no response. You've wasted too much time. If Wang Shu manages to condense his Dao Lotus, how are we going to fight this battle?" She continued, "Now, the entire sect knows that you and I are going to contend with Wang Shu. If we lose, at most I'll suffer some humiliation and lose face. But you will lose your life."

Li Weiyi said, "If Wang Shu had broken through, he would have immediately gone to the Heavenly Principles Hall to request a formation-breaking seal and stormed Nanqing Palace to rescue them. Since he hasn't come, it means he hasn't yet condensed his Dao Lotus. Miss Yang, you haven't broken through to the third heaven of the Dao Seed realm yet?"

"How could breaking through be so easy?"

Yang Qingxi knew what Li Weiyi was wary of. The frost on her face melted, replaced by a captivating smile. "Don't you just want a justifiable reason?" she said. "I've already interrogated Wang Shu for at least two major crimes. Ye Nanfeng, you tell him!"

Li Weiyi had already noticed that the three Dao Seed realm experts before him seemed to have been subdued by Yang Qingxi.

Ye Nanfeng, limping, stepped forward, bowed, and reported, "To obtain cultivation resources, Wang Shu massacred seven sect disciples, to my knowledge." Ye Nanfeng explained in detail, including the identities, names, locations, and reasons for the killings of the seven Divine Sect disciples, all complete. It did not sound like something fabricated under Yang Qingxi's harsh interrogation.

"Another of Wang Shu's crimes is abusing his Divine Son status to embezzle a large amount of the Divine Sect's wealth," Ye Nanfeng continued. "His frequent excursions on missions were for this very purpose."