Chapter 2012: Chapter 2010: Jiu Yan’s Return

"Sword gourd, pill gourd..." Tang Jun looked utterly dumbfounded. "Just how many treasures do you have?"

The existence of the pill gourd counted as a secret on Three Worlds Island, known only to a handful of people, Tang Jun being one of them.

But the pill gourd was ultimately only used for Alchemy, not suited for combat, so in some respects its value was far less than the fire gourd of Yiyuan World.

He had never expected that Lu Ye would suddenly pull out another sword gourd out of nowhere.

Looking at it now, this thing had been in Lu Ye’s hands for a long time; he himself had simply been blind to its true face.

"Just a few pieces." Lu Ye replied casually.

The sword gourd, pill gourd, Small Constellation Palace, and Dice of Fate were all affiliated treasures, and the Asura Field back in the Nine Provinces was as well.

Tang Jun stared at him in a daze, not knowing what to say for a moment.

A short while later, Old Tang left, and Lu Ye continued urging the sword gourd to devour the many magic treasures. Within the space inside the gourd, that sword body was becoming more and more solid and complete.

Only after it successively devoured quite a few more magic treasures did the sword body suddenly flash with radiance, and the entire blade turned from solid into transparent.

At that instant, a certain feeling stirred in Lu Ye’s heart.

He vaguely sensed that the Sword Qi inside the sword gourd had already been nurtured to its peak; the slightest attempt at perception gave him a feeling of stabbing pain in his psyche.

Lu Ye himself didn’t know what kind of power this Sword Qi could unleash if he fired it out, but judging from the fire gourd’s performance before, the lethality of this Sword Qi was anything but ordinary.

There were still some magic treasures in front of him. After thinking a bit, Lu Ye pointed the mouth of the gourd at those treasures and slightly activated the might of the sword gourd.

He discovered that the sword gourd could no longer devour additional magic treasures. This undoubtedly confirmed his earlier speculation: after the sword gourd devoured magic treasures, some inner profundity would rapidly refine them, turning them into capital to strengthen that Sword Qi.

Now that the Sword Qi had been nurtured to its peak, there was naturally no need to devour more magic treasures.

Lu Ye roughly estimated that the total value of the magic treasures consumed to nurture this Sword Qi was around five hundred million spirit jade.

This expenditure was anything but small; only now that Three Worlds Island was wealthy enough to rival a nation could it bear such a cost. If it were an ordinary domain, even if it obtained such an affiliated treasure, it would be hard-pressed to bring out its full power.

The sword gourd was like this; the fire gourd should be about the same. He just didn’t know how Yuan Se was nurturing the uncanny fire inside the fire gourd—there should be some special method involved.

As for other offensive-type affiliated treasures, most of them weren’t without price when activated.

No wonder such things were rarely seen under normal circumstances and were usually treated by major domains as world-stabilizing treasures; there really were compelling reasons for that.

By comparison, Little Fella activating the might of the Three Treasure Wishing Coins was practically too convenient. With so much seawater in the All Phenomena Ocean, no matter how much it devoured, it was impossible for it to run dry.

Picking up the sword gourd, Lu Ye walked out of his pavilion and soon arrived beside Three Worlds Island, then plunged straight into the sea, diving all the way down.

He wanted to test the power of this Sword Qi. Right now, on the surface of the All Phenomena Ocean, there was nothing suitable to test it on, so he could only search beneath the sea.

The number of star beasts living in the depths of the All Phenomena Ocean was not small, but they mostly moved about in the deep sea, so ordinary people never saw them.

Lu Ye spent a full day before finally discovering traces of a Sun Blaze Realm star beast. This star beast wasn’t weak in strength, but acted purely on instinct. After sensing Lu Ye’s presence, it swam toward him without the slightest hesitation; from its posture, it was clear it came with ill intent.

Lu Ye stood where he was without moving a muscle. Only when the star beast drew within a thousand zhang of him did he suddenly circulate Mana and trigger the might of the sword gourd.

The sword gourd in his hand gave a slight tremor, and a streak of white light surged out of the mouth. Its speed was astonishing; the instant it appeared, it was already a thousand li away. The deep waters of the All Phenomena Ocean seemed to offer it no resistance at all.

The Sun Blaze star beast, which had been swimming toward him, suddenly split open with a huge gash on its belly. Blood gushed out, and through that opening, faintly visible organs twitched within.

It wasn’t dead.

It wasn’t that the sword gourd’s Sword Qi lacked power; it was that the Sword Qi was too fast, and Lu Ye couldn’t completely control it for the moment, causing his aim to be somewhat off.

A strange beastly roar echoed out. Though the star beast’s spiritual intelligence wasn’t high, it still knew how to avoid harm and seek benefit. Sensing that something was wrong, how could it dare remain? It immediately turned around, intending to flee.

But it was already too late. The white Sword Qi a thousand li away swept back once more, piercing precisely through its body and stabbing a large hole through its massive frame.

Lu Ye raised his hand and grabbed, catching the returning Sword Qi in his palm. In an instant, his hand was drenched in blood.

His powerful physique actually couldn’t withstand the spread of that Sword Qi’s might, and at such close range, even his psyche throbbed with pain.

The Sword Qi in his hand carried a wild, unruly air. It twisted slightly; around the white light, fine rays darted about. Lu Ye felt as though what he was holding wasn’t a strand of Sword Qi, but a Thunderbolt that could explode at any time.

His expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly sent the Sword Qi back into the sword gourd.

Looking down, he saw that the wounds on his hand were not healing immediately, because remnants of the Sword Qi’s power still lingered on his flesh, constantly tearing at his blood and meat. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

This thing... must not be touched!

That thought sprang up in Lu Ye’s mind at once. Fortunately, the Talent Tree reacted, and as the Raging Flames of the Talent Tree burned, the remnants of Sword Qi power on his hand gradually showed signs of dissipating.

Only then did he let out a breath of relief.

Looking up again, he saw that Sun Blaze star beast had already gone silent; under the raging aftershock of the Sword Qi, its enormous corpse dissolved into a mist of blood, not even bones left behind.

The power of the sword gourd was this terrifying!

Delighted, Lu Ye’s figure flickered as he followed the way he had come and returned.

This trial of the sword gourd’s might had undoubtedly left him very satisfied, but after returning to Three Worlds Island, Lu Ye discovered another problem.

Namely, the Sword Qi being nurtured within the sword gourd had clearly suffered no small loss, because the sword gourd could once again continue to devour magic treasures...

Looked at this way, this strand of Sword Qi only had its greatest might when it was first unleashed, but every activation incurred loss; converted into the value of magic treasures, each activation cost roughly a hundred million spirit jades!

If he activated it many more times, this Sword Qi’s power would undoubtedly be greatly diminished.

Using the sword gourd against an enemy was basically just burning money.

But compared to how formidable the sword gourd was, this price seemed not entirely unacceptable; it just meant he had to carry more magic treasures on him for the sword gourd to devour.

This wasn’t hard to handle; of the magic treasures Tang Jun had delivered before, there were still many unused, all of them stuffed by Lu Ye into the Small Flower World.

The matter of the sword gourd came to a temporary close.

Next he had to resolve the issue of that black fruit on the Talent Tree.

This was something that brooked no delay; he couldn’t end up in a big fight with someone and accidentally lose control and devour them. That would be walking further and further down Chao Nian’s path.

He had already formed some ideas about this earlier; now what he needed to do was put those ideas into actual practice.

According to his previous attempts, condensing a Talent Tree Avatar could siphon off a portion of the black fruit.

But the Talent Tree could not be discarded and would ultimately have to be reintegrated, so such division was meaningless.

Since a Talent Tree Avatar wouldn’t work, then what about a Treasure Blood Avatar?

The Talent Tree Avatar indeed could not be abandoned; a Treasure Blood Avatar posed no such problem.

What Lu Ye had to do now was attempt, while condensing a Treasure Blood Avatar, to split off a portion of the black fruit into the avatar. As long as this idea worked, then by abandoning Treasure Blood Avatars, he could continuously weaken the black fruit, thereby ultimately achieving the goal of completely plucking this black fruit.

Time flicked by; half a month passed.

During this recent period, Three Worlds Island had been exceptionally lively; the entire All Phenomena Ocean was slowly recovering its former prosperity. One might even say that because of the prior great battle, the All Phenomena Ocean now had far fewer disturbances, which was actually a good sign.

In the bamboo building, Lu Ye sat silently with eyes closed. All of a sudden, he opened his eyes and gazed in a certain direction.

The next moment, he rose to his full height, flashed outside, rose to travel through air, exited the protective array, and stood outside Three Worlds Island.

Luan Xiao’e and Yann Miao both sensed something and were about to hurry over to him, but he intercepted them with an audio transmission.

Only one person flew to his side—it was Chu Shen.

"Big Brother." Chu Shen, full of worry, followed Lu Ye’s gaze. Vaguely, he could see a streak of flowing light rapidly approaching from that direction, and from within that light came an aura extremely familiar to him. "Mother seems very angry. Big Brother, please be a bit more tolerant."

Jiu Yan was back!

Chu Shen had been worrying all along about what it would be like when his mother and Lu Ye met again after this upheaval in the All Phenomena Ocean. But no matter how much he worried, this was something he could not prevent.

At this moment, feeling his mother’s awe-inspiring Sun Blaze aura, his heart was full of trepidation.

Lu Ye smiled. "It’s fine."

He let out a long breath in his heart; by the looks of it, things were not that bad.

For Jiu Yan to come over in such an aboveboard way meant she intended to talk with him, which was precisely what Lu Ye hoped for.

In the entire All Phenomena Galaxy, everyone else he could afford not to take seriously—Jiu Yan alone was an exception. From the bottom of his heart, he did not wish to become enemies with Jiu Yan. This was not only because of Chu Shen; even more so, it was because Jiu Yan herself had treated him quite well. Yet as a cultivator of the All Phenomena Galaxy, Jiu Yan simply could not step out of the whirlpool of resentment between Three Worlds Island and All Phenomena.

This time All Phenomena had lost several Sun Blaze experts and suffered such huge losses; there was no way Jiu Yan could sit idly by. If that led them into opposition, it was not what Lu Ye wished.

The flowing light drew ever closer. A moment later, the radiance gathered away, revealing Jiu Yan’s plump figure.

Lu Ye pushed his Ocular Power to the limit and looked toward her face, yet still could not make out her features. As always, a layer of spirit light covered and concealed her face.

She had been like this back when she was in Moon Jade; now Lu Ye was already in the Sun Blaze Realm, and he had thought that even if he still couldn’t pierce this spirit light, he would at least make some progress.

But in truth, whether Moon Jade or Sun Blaze, his Ocular Power could not penetrate this layer of spirit light.

Lu Ye understood inwardly: Jiu Yan’s strength was indeed formidable, far from comparable to the other Sun Blaze cultivators of the All Phenomena Galaxy.

"Lu Ye pays his respects to Senior. Welcome back, Senior." Lu Ye gathered his thoughts and gave a polite bow.