"Mere Heaven-rank weapon wielders amount to nothing more than this."
After a hundred breaths, Qi Yuan returned.
His green robes were untainted by blood, though several additional storage artifacts hung at his waist.
At the sight of him, Tu Sihai drew in a deep breath.
Although they had witnessed Qi Yuan kill Mo Sankong with a single punch, doubts had lingered in their minds—what if that bizarre ability was only a one-time trump card?
Facing those dozen-odd Heaven-rank weapon wielders, while they had continuously "ridiculed" Qi Yuan on the surface, they had actually been under immense pressure.
Now, seeing Qi Yuan return unharmed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Brother Qi's prowess truly deserves the title of... domineering wild matrilocal husband!" Tu Sihai could not help but exclaim in admiration.
The others chimed in one after another.
"The number one matrilocal husband of the State of Ning belongs to none other than Brother Qi!"
"Twelve Heaven-rank weapon wielders..." The charming young woman's eyes rippled with emotion.
Witnessing such might from Qi Yuan, she dearly wished to offer herself to his bed. Unfortunately, though she was willing, he was not interested.
At that moment, the blind old man spoke up. "Senior Qi, those Heaven-rank weapon wielders... were likely from Rakshasa Country. The one leading them was surnamed Diwu, so he must have been a member of their imperial family."
As the blind old man said this, a hint of apprehension showed on his face.
Rakshasa Country was once the foremost empire in the Qingshan Realm.
A century ago, internal upheavals had diminished its national power, yet it remained among the top three nations of the realm.
It possessed several God-rank weapon wielders.
If Heaven-rank weapon wielders transcended mortal limits, then God-rank weapon wielders... were veritable True Gods.
The blind old man had once had the privilege of glimpsing a God-rank weapon wielder, who held a soaring mountain in one hand, trod upon the vast ocean, and departed riding the waves.
What living being who witnessed such a presence would not prostrate themselves in worship?
The strength of Heaven-rank weapon wielders was still within the realm of the blind old man's comprehension.
The God-rank... exceeded the bounds of imagination.
That was no longer human; that was a god!
"Rakshasa Country has God-rank weapon wielders. If their imperial court learns what happened here, I'm afraid..." The blind old man was rather fearful.
He wanted to suggest to Qi Yuan that they thoroughly clean up the traces here to prevent Rakshasa Country from finding out what had transpired.
"Now that's the flavor." Qi Yuan looked at the blind old man and nodded in satisfaction.
This was precisely the dramatic flavor he wanted.
The others exchanged bewildered glances.
"Sigh, I know many people in this world speak their true thoughts disguised as jokes. There is no need for such pretenses with me. Even if Rakshasa Country doesn't come looking for trouble with me, I will still go looking for trouble with them," Qi Yuan said with a tranquil gaze.
Once his roleplay as a matrilocal husband concluded, he would set out for Rakshasa Country.
For one thing, the Divine Wood Abyss was close to Rakshasa Country; for another, how could his roleplay as Divine Descent not bring him back to Rakshasa Country, the very place of its origin?
"Young Master is a Heavenly God descended to the mortal realm! A mere Rakshasa Country isn't even worth mentioning!" Chen Kangbao seized the chance to declare.
Beside him, the Confucian-robed scholar stared at Qi Yuan, his expression a mix of bafflement and disorientation.
This Qi Yuan was truly bizarre.
"Let's go. We'll head deeper inside and see what this so-called Tianyuan really is," Qi Yuan said.
Since they were already here, they naturally had to forge ahead and see this so-called Tianyuan.
The Confucian-robed scholar's nerves abruptly tightened.
He, too, wanted to see what kind of thing Tianyuan was—a creation forged from the flesh and blood of three hundred thousand implement masters.
Even if it had failed to receive the favor of a god's descending gaze, it was still the life's blood of his elder brother and the others.
Tu Sihai and the rest raised no objections.
Objections were useless anyway.
Though their hearts hung in suspense and they dreaded encountering danger, they figured that if a great figure like Qi Yuan dared to go, what did they have to fear?
Qi Yuan walked at the very front, descending flight after flight of stairs as they ventured into the depths of the subterranean palace.
Along the path, shattered bones were visible everywhere.
The further inward they went, the more crystalline and starkly white the skeletons appeared.
Before long, they came upon the skeletal remains of two more God-rank implement masters.
"My name is Xuanfeng. I leave behind a forging mantra, engraved upon this stele."
Such were the characters inscribed beside the corpse of one God-rank implement master.
This God-rank master had left few parting words, merely engraving his self-created forging mantra here to prevent his lineage from dying out.
Seeing this, everyone present silently committed the mantra to memory.
The value of this technique surpassed even that of a Heaven-rank artifact!
Qi Yuan did not stop them; he memorized the mantra on the stele as well.
To roleplay a blind implement master, he needed to master more forging mantras.
Back in the Tiankun Curious Land, he had acquired quite a few, but it was still not enough.
*Perhaps I could create an implement-crafting mantra of my own,* Qi Yuan mused.
The blind implement master harbored immense ambition; even being a God-rank implement master might not be his final destination.
To become a truly formidable implement master, one had to not only stand on the shoulders of giants, but also forge a path entirely their own.
"Alright. Now that you've memorized it, let's keep moving. Stay alert," Qi Yuan cautioned.
The ground ahead was clean, bearing nothing besides bones, yet through Qi Yuan's vision, he could tell that a living being seemed to have passed through here not long ago.
"Understood, Mr. Qi."
The crowd acknowledged his words and continued forward.
The deeper they ventured, the more implement-crafting furnaces lay scattered around, with mineral debris discarded in heaps.
Yet these objects, once exceedingly precious, had long since lost all spiritual essence, reduced to mere slag.
"This Tianyuan... devoured the spiritual essence of so many treasures, along with... the flesh and blood of three hundred thousand implement masters. Just what kind of horrifying thing is it?"
The further inside they went, the more shaken the crowd became, and the more terrifying they felt Tianyuan must be.
Yet even after all that, Tianyuan had still failed. Was a fragment of a curious treasure of light... truly that difficult to forge?
"Almost the entirety of the Qingshan Realm's elite implement masters gathered here, yet it still failed. A fragment of a curious treasure of light... can anyone truly forge such a thing?" Tu Sihai lamented.
And that was merely a fragment.
What kind of terrifying existence would a genuine curious treasure of light be?
Everyone marveled, their apprehension mounting the deeper they pressed on.
Along the way, they saw countless fragments of precious materials.
They could name barely half of them; the rest were completely unheard of.
In their complete state, many of these materials would have been worth a fortune, more than sufficient to forge divine artifacts.
Right then, Qi Yuan's attention was suddenly drawn to his Divine Wood Token.
"Brother Cleaver, I heard a Curious Domain has appeared in the State of Ning. Since you're currently in Ning, could you do me a small favor inside the Curious Domain? If you help me, I will immediately urge the people of Thorn Blood to cultivate diligently. Once you reach the Divine Wood Abyss, I will even have a small gift for you."
Unsurprisingly, the sender of the message was the Thorn Blood staff member.
"You should cultivate diligently too, instead of slacking off while they cultivate," Qi Yuan admonished. "What kind of favor?"
"I took on a minor mission to record certain events. Well, I need some detailed intelligence on what transpired inside the Curious Domain," the Thorn Blood staff member quickly replied.
He had accepted numerous tasks within the Void Paradise.
Gathering information and records on the Curious Domain was one such task.
The issuer of that task was also a resident of this embryonic universe, someone who seemed to be traveling across the various realms, recording history to write a book.
"Just that?" Qi Yuan considered it and saw no reason to hide anything.
Since the Curious Domain was already exposed, information about this place would likely spread across the world before long.
Keeping it secret served no purpose.
"Inside the Curious Domain, there are countless skeletons. Stone slabs also bear writings left behind by God-rank implement masters. They rushed to the Curious Domain and lived under assumed names for decades, all at the invitation of the Radiant Society, to forge..."
Qi Yuan relayed the details he had gleaned from the Curious Domain to the Thorn Blood staff member.
Naturally, he omitted mention of his roleplay as a matrilocal husband, the arrival of people from Rakshasa Country, and the like.
"It failed?" The Thorn Blood staff member's tone held a touch of melancholy. "A Curious Domain like this... a small realm might only be able to construct a single one in its existence, whereas certain great realms can muster quite a few, maybe even ten. Still, if two or three out of ten succeed... that's already considered quite fortunate."
"Other realms have them too?" Qi Yuan caught the key piece of information.
"A curious treasure of light—how could a single realm forge one? Even if it's just a fragment, it's not something a mere God-rank implement master can meddle with." When the Thorn Blood staff member mentioned curious treasures of light, deep reverent awe filled his gaze.
"Shiwanshanjue of the State of Ning... such a thing actually happened there?" Ji Wuyun sent a message. In the real world, an inexplicable sorrow washed over her.
Thorn Blood coveted the Divine Wood within the Divine Wood Abyss, seeking to corrupt it into a guiling.
Outside the Qingshan Realm, things were far from peaceful either, as three hundred thousand men of purpose had concealed their names and marched to their deaths just to bring a ray of light to the realm.
In the eyes of the common multitude, the Qingshan Realm had merely seen a slight increase in guiling recently; in truth, nothing seemed to have changed.
Yet Ji Wuyun knew that the Qingshan Realm was already teetering on the brink of collapse, like a leaking hot-air balloon.
"The waters here run extremely deep. Even reaching the God rank only gives one the right to know a shred of the truth. Brother Cleaver, I advise you not to meddle too deeply, or I'm afraid you won't make it to the Divine Wood Abyss. And then I won't be able to give you the grand gift I prepared for you," the Thorn Blood staff member cautioned.
"What is the relationship between the Radiant Society and Thorn Blood?" Qi Yuan asked, struck by a thought.
"Hostile, I suppose. Both believe they are saving the world," the Thorn Blood staff member chuckled.
They were all cultivators, each possessing their own philosophy and worldview, unable to convince one another.
Just like Thorn Blood, whose doctrine preached that transformation into a guiling was simply an alternative form of continuation.
Yet what ordinary person would willingly become an unthinking, irrational guiling?
"There should be a Tianyuan inside the Curious Domain. Since they failed, that Tianyuan... probably only holds a bit of collector's value. If you can bring Tianyuan to me, I can help you escape the Qingshan Realm... or even this dilapidated Chaotic Star Domain," the Thorn Blood staff member urged temptingly.
In his view, the fate of the Qingshan Realm was already sealed. The Divine Wood would ultimately turn into a mighty guiling, and this world would collapse noiselessly into the silent night. No one would realize that the opening of the Divine Wood Abyss was the unlocking of a demon's gate.
"No thanks. I'm playing a game; I don't want to log off."
Qi Yuan withdrew his consciousness from the Divine Wood Token, his mind calm.
The background lore of this game was growing increasingly convoluted.
Thorn Blood sought to turn living beings into guiling, obviously playing the villain.
The Radiant Society had gathered three hundred thousand implement masters to forge a curious treasure of light. Though they seemed extreme, for now they could be considered an extremist righteous faction, though that remained to be seen.
Regardless of whether they were righteous or villainous, to Qi Yuan they were all just NPCs. If any were old and refused to bathe, they might even earn the honor of becoming his white moonlight.
The party advanced deeper into the subterranean palace.
The further they went, the heavier everyone's hearts grew, weighed down by immense pressure until no one dared utter a word.
Abruptly, Qi Yuan halted his steps.
Up ahead in the subterranean palace lay a corpse, accompanied by a standing figure.
The weapon wielders stopped, their expressions turning solemn.
The corpse sprawled on the ground appeared to belong to a Heaven-rank cultivator as well.
The standing figure resembled a servant, radiating an eerie, bizarre aura.
At that moment, the figure whipped his head around. When his eyes fell upon Qi Yuan, an expression of disbelief flashed across his face.
"Qi Yuan!"
"Fang Shisan?" Qi Yuan's expression was indifferent.
The figure before him looked identical to Fang Shisan of the Radiant Society.
And according to the information his eyes perceived... this person did indeed qualify as Fang Shisan.
Yet had Fang Shisan not... committed suicide?
Back in the dungeon, Fang Shisan had ended his own life right in front of Qi Yuan.
"To think... you could make it all the way here. Could it be... that you, too, are favored by this world?" Surprised wonder showed on Fang Shisan's face.
"Could you be a respawning NPC?" Qi Yuan asked with genuine interest.
In all his time gaming, such NPCs were rare. They were common back on Blue Star, but after arriving in the Canglan Realm, he had barely encountered any.
Puzzlement crossed Fang Shisan's face; he could not comprehend Qi Yuan's words, though he roughly grasped the underlying meaning. Smugly, he said, "Are you curious how I'm still alive? Do you want to know the reason?"
What living beings sought throughout their lives was nothing more than power, wealth, and longevity.
Of course, certain degenerates sought a few pairs of breasts on top of that.
Resurrection from the dead was enough to shock any living being and incite fervent yearning. Otherwise, why had so many emperors on Blue Star pursued immortality?
"Not particularly curious. Isn't it easy to understand? Either you have a respawn point, or... you're a clone," Qi Yuan remarked impassively.
Having played so many games and watched so many animated shows, Qi Yuan found nothing shocking about it.
He had heard of plenty of locked-room murder methods as well.
Fang Shisan froze.
*He's this calm?*
In the past, whenever he died before someone in the Qingshan Realm and later reappeared, the expressions of those who saw him were hilarious—shocked, terrified, as if seeing a ghost.
Yet Qi Yuan was utterly unfazed, making Fang Shisan wonder if he had recognized the wrong person.
"Do you... harbor no longing for such an ability?" Fang Shisan asked in bewilderment.
Returning from the dead was a power capable of driving anyone mad with desire.
"I do, but... I prefer to rely on myself," Qi Yuan said serenely.
Fang Shisan's resurrection certainly did not come from his own power.
Translated into gaming terms, some programmer had simply written a script to continually respawn him.
If Qi Yuan were to do it, he would be the programmer's boss, not the line of code.
Fang Shisan fell silent, then sneered with contempt. "What brazen arrogance!"
The surrounding Earth-rank weapon wielders were entirely bewildered by the conversation. A few seemed to grasp fragments of it, their faces blanching with horror.
Fang Shisan added another remark: "You haven't inherited a shred of your father's humility."
As he said this, an irrepressible sorrow surfaced in his expression.
He had been acquainted with Qi Yuan's father; back then, Qi Yuan's father had entered the Curious Domain precisely through his recommendation.
"Did you come here... just to spout this nonsense?"
Qi Yuan dearly wished for an argumentative mouthpiece to quarrel on his behalf.
Although he had bickered daily with that member of the Holy Light Clan back in the Tiankun Curious Land for years on end, being bad with words was still being bad with words.
He could never bring himself to utter the sharp internet forum insults like, *"You're just intentionally posting controversial garbage so you can set your phone on vibrate and shove it between your buttcheeks."*
Even if he plagiarized them, his social anxiety kept him from speaking them aloud.
"I merely came to confirm once more whether it truly failed... to see where the flaw lay." As Fang Shisan finished speaking, the light in his eyes dimmed.
He died.
Since it was a failure, the Tianyuan here had lost all value.
If any value remained, it was at most a sliver of novelty as a collector's item.
Few people would care about a failed Tianyuan.
Fang Shisan's body collapsed to the ground, coming to rest right beside the other corpse.
Both corpses looked as though their spiritual essence had been thoroughly drained.
Seeing this bizarre scene, Tu Sihai, the Confucian-robed scholar, and the others all felt a trace of dread rise in their hearts.
Meanwhile, Qi Yuan wore a thoughtful expression. *If his resurrection consumes no energy or resources, haven't I discovered an infinite resource glitch?*
Killing Fang Shisan once yielded one corpse.
The others found his line of thought utterly baffling.
Chen Kangbao's eyes went wide, his breathing growing ragged. Suddenly struck by a thought, he lamented with deep anguish, "Why couldn't Fang Shisan be a steamed bun!"
If he were a steamed bun, wouldn't there be an endless supply of buns to eat?
Qi Yuan's eyes lit up. "Truly worthy of being my strategist! You've enlightened me in a single phrase! Why couldn't Fang Shisan be my white moonlight!"
If he had such a white moonlight, Qi Yuan could gallop every day without ever growing tired of it.
Hearing the exchange between the two, the lingering dread in everyone's hearts vanished entirely.
"They must have died to Tianyuan," Tu Sihai said gravely at that moment. "Where is Tianyuan?"
He looked around, yet saw no sign of Tianyuan.
They had already reached the deepest part of the subterranean palace.
Aside from the two corpses, there was nothing else here.
Just then, another message came through the Divine Wood Token.
"Tianyuan has no form or shape. It requires a Divine Wood Token to serve as its vessel."
The message was sent by the Thorn Blood staff member.
"Is that so?"
At that exact instant, Qi Yuan inexplicably sensed an aura of death, rot, and decay.
He looked up and saw a withered leaf fluttering down. It resembled a ginkgo leaf, yellow in color.
The leaf drifted down and landed softly in Qi Yuan's palm.
*[Tianyuan, bearer of Heavenly Mandate. Failed to convert into Divine Illumination of Light... Contains several flaws... According to... can be repaired, can be reversed into... Mortal Illumination of Light.]*
A colossal flood of information surged into Qi Yuan's mind.
For a moment, his body felt somewhat weak.
The information was so immense that the physical strength of his current body could not absorb it all at once.
*This Tianyuan can actually be repaired?* Qi Yuan's mood brightened.
A failed Tianyuan held only collector's value, worth less than even an ordinary Heaven artifact.
However, if it could be repaired, or even refined into a fragment of a curious treasure of light, that... would be an entirely different story.
After all, back in the Tiankun Curious Land, Qi Yuan had heard of curious treasures of light.
Such treasures were said to be even more powerful and terrifying than offensive Creation Treasures.
Back in the Sixth Heaven of the Immortal Realm, he had exerted so much effort just to forge a single Human Sovereign Banner.
Relying on the Human Sovereign Banner, paired with the Supreme Ultimate Principle and his own painstaking efforts, he had swept across the Sixth Heaven of the Immortal Realm.
If he obtained a curious treasure of light, to what heights would his combat prowess soar?
Facing the mysterious and inscrutable Sole Palace, he might actually have the strength to fight.
He gazed at Tianyuan with delight.
The withered yellow leaf melted into his palm, leaving behind only a faint mark before vanishing completely.
The surrounding weapon wielders, including Chen Kangbao and the rest, had not noticed the withered yellow leaf at all.
"Alright. The treasure hunt is complete; it's time for us to leave."
Hearing this, the others felt a twinge of disappointment, as they had not seen the legendary Tianyuan.
Still, since Qi Yuan wished to depart, none of them dared linger. If another Heaven-rank weapon wielder showed up, they would likely die here.
"Let's go."
The group departed as swiftly as they had arrived.
As the final figure stepped out of the Curious Domain, the subterranean palace—which had stood for less than a century—collapsed with a deafening roar, crumbling into dust as though it had never existed.
The Confucian-robed scholar wore a desolate expression, which ultimately dissolved into a long, sorrowful sigh.
Three hundred thousand implement masters, his elder brother... all buried alongside Tianyuan in the forgotten corners of history.
He wondered if, a thousand years from now, anyone would still remember this Curious Domain.
Chapter 522