Ye Qin concluded his two transactions with the Saint Sovereign and immediately left the palace to locate the hidden, small teleportation array mentioned by the Saint Sovereign, preparing to exit the Underground Imperial Tomb.

Passing through the tomb corridors, Ye Qin spotted the damaged Silver Armored Guard lying on the ground. His heart stirred, and he stopped. Previously, being trapped within the Imperial Tomb and possessing a perfectly intact Gold Armored Guard, he hadn't paid much attention to this broken Silver Armored Guard. Now that he was on the verge of leaving and had returned the Gold Armored Guard to the Saint Sovereign, this damaged piece held immense attraction for him.

Ye Qin walked over and carefully inspected the damage to the two-zhang-tall Silver Armored Guard. Its chest was deeply concave, the damage not too severe; he wondered if repair was possible. He could figure out a way to fix it after leaving the tomb.

This was a Ninth-Tier Puppet, its power second only to the Gold Armored Guard. Such high-tier puppets could only be crafted by Nascent Soul cultivators and were incredibly valuable—impossible to purchase even in the markets of various Cultivation Worlds. If he could repair it, it would be a deal with infinite returns.

Most importantly, its size wasn't excessive. Coupled with the silver spear magical artifact lying beside it, it could barely fit into his storage bag for transport. As for the other two, the Iron Armored Guard and Bronze Armored Guard, their bodies were too massive to be stowed in a storage bag. Even if he wanted to take them, he couldn't manage it.

He had promised the Saint Sovereign not to further damage the imperial palace and to leave the Gold Armored Guard, but he hadn't agreed not to take other items. Therefore, taking the Silver Armored Guard did not violate his agreement with the Saint Sovereign.

Ye Qin chuckled at the thought. He took out a portable storage bag, emptied its contents, and tucked the damaged Silver Armored Guard inside, then swiftly left the palace to find the small teleportation array that would lead him out of the Underground Imperial Tomb.

........

In the Land of Chaos, deep within a secluded mountain cave, a dusty, small teleportation station suddenly shimmered with yellow light, and the space around it began to distort—an omen that someone was about to arrive via teleportation.

Then, a young cultivator in plain cyan robes materialized abruptly above the small teleportation array. This was Ye Qin, having just emerged from the subterranean Imperial Tomb. Despite escaping the sealed underground mausoleum, no joy showed on his face; rather, it was etched with worry.

He was acutely aware that in the year-plus he spent trapped in the Underground Imperial Tomb, he had severely offended and provoked the Nascent Soul cultivator, the Saint Sovereign.

The Saint Sovereign had let him go only out of necessity, wanting to prevent him from further vandalizing the mausoleum palace. This did not mean the Saint Sovereign would forget the slight or forgive him for destroying the shred of divine consciousness within the Gold Armored Guard. If, forty or fifty years later, Ma Dongyan miraculously procured a supreme physical body with spiritual root potential exceeding eighty, and the Saint Sovereign performed a body seizure to reemerge from the Underground Imperial Tomb, Ye Qin was certain he would face dire consequences. Once the Saint Sovereign emerged, he wouldn't even need to act personally; a mere word could likely motivate countless Foundation Establishment or Core Formation cultivators in the Land of Chaos to eagerly volunteer to hunt Ye Qin down furiously.

This was a massive latent threat. Until this problem was resolved, his life would be in peril. He had to find a way to prevent Ma Dongyan from acquiring a suitable body for the Saint Sovereign's seizure, and if possible, directly eliminate Ma Dongyan to cut off the root of the trouble.

Ye Qin quickly surveyed the cave. It was a natural formation, a dwelling place for common mountain bats and spiders. Ordinary cultivators would never frequent such a location. The Saint Sovereign establishing a small teleportation array in such an unremarkable place as a backup passage in and out of the tomb clearly showed long-term preparation.

Ye Qin crawled out of the cave, marking its location. Then, he pondered where he should go next: seek out Ma Dongyan, or return to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World.

He mused for a moment and then urged his Dark Cloud Screen artifact toward the ruins of the Saint Sovereign City.

According to the Saint Sovereign's account, there was an ancient long-distance teleportation array in Saint Sovereign City that could instantly connect to the various Immortal Fate Cities. As long as he had enough spirit stones to activate the ancient array, returning to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World from the Land of Chaos would be instantaneous.

He needed to check if that ancient teleportation array was still there. If it was, he could return to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World in a very short time.

Saint Sovereign City was already a sprawl of rubble and ruins, overgrown with weeds among fallen flagstones. After several days of effort, prying away the scattered rocks within the ruins, Ye Qin finally found a large teleportation array buried deep beneath the debris at the center of the ruin.

This array was hexagonal and quite massive, easily over ten zhang in diameter—dozens of times larger than any teleportation array Ye Qin had ever seen. The six angles were covered in dense arrays of sockets meant for inserting Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

Each pair of corners on the array corresponded to one Immortal Fate City: Spirit Mist Immortal Fate City, Sky Vault Plain Immortal Fate City, and Ten Thousand Moon Lake Immortal Fate City. It could transport directly to these three locations, each of which possessed an identical ancient teleportation array.

"This must be the ancient teleportation array... The two corners corresponding to the Spirit Mist Immortal Fate City have sixty-seven sockets. It looks like sixty-seven Mid-grade Spirit Stones are required for transmission!"

Ye Qin clicked his tongue. That was equivalent to sixty-seven hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. He only had a few remaining Low-grade Spirit Stones in his possession—nowhere near enough. His Treasure Gathering Gourd only produced one Low-grade Wood Spirit Stone per day.

Ye Qin considered his options and then piloted the Dark Cloud Screen toward the Land of Chaos market. If he wanted to gather such a massive sum of spirit stones in the shortest time possible, only the Land of Chaos market would suffice.

........

Within the main stockade of the Land of Chaos Market, in a stone hut, Hou Qianji was haggling over a trade with a customer, while Tie Dadan stood guard boredly outside the door, ensuring no one intruded.

A year ago, the two of them had met Ye Qin in the Flaming Mountain Range and, having pressed him shamelessly, followed him to this market. Then, when Ye Qin, Shi Hanyang, Ma Dongyan, and other Foundation Establishment cultivators ventured into the Underground Imperial Tomb, they, being only Qi Refining cultivators, were unable to join and had to wait in the market for Ye Qin's return.

They had no idea when Ye Qin would return, yet they were unwilling to leave. After all, the opportunity to follow a promising Foundation Establishment cultivator was rare indeed. They had even quit the Red Cloud Sect for this chance, hoping that if Ye Qin ever established his own sect, they would become founding elders, skyrocketing their status.

Ye Qin's return left them both somewhat anxious. Fortunately, Ye Qin had left them several hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. After deliberation, Hou Qianji and Tie Dadan decided to set up a small business trading low-priced raw materials within the market while awaiting Ye Qin’s return.

As cultivators at the sixth and fifth layers of Qi Refining, they struggled to gain traction in the market. Although Hou Qianji possessed a head for business and Tie Dadan had sufficient courage, their low cultivation base and lack of backing meant they dared not expand their trade. It barely covered their daily expenses.

On this day, a Foundation Establishment cultivator in cyan robes landed swiftly within the market settlement. He began selling various low-grade spirit pills in bulk to the cultivators operating their stone huts, exchanging them for Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

Tie Dadan spotted the cultivator's appearance from a distance, froze for a moment, and gasped aloud before frantically pounding on the stone hut, urging Hou Qianji to come out quickly.

"Old Tie, what is it? Didn't I tell you to stand guard outside?" Hou Qianji, interrupted while conducting a sale, emerged from the hut with clear annoyance.

"My eyes aren't that sharp, Old Hou, look quickly! Is that Senior Qin?" Tie Dadan ignored Hou Qianji's displeasure and pointed excitedly into the distance.

"It is indeed Senior Qin! He’s back! Hurry and come with me to greet Senior Qin!" Hou Qianji looked over and was overcome with surprise and joy.

Forgetting the customer entirely, he rushed out with Tie Dadan toward the figure in the distance.

"Senior Qin!"

The two of them ran up to the cultivator in cyan robes and bowed deeply with emotion.

"You two are still here?" Ye Qin was slightly taken aback, then chuckled. After more than a year away, returning to the Land of Chaos, he had assumed they would have left the market long ago.

"Senior Qin, you instructed us to wait here, so we remained in this place day after day, eagerly anticipating your return. It's just that Senior was delayed for so long. However, we trusted your good fortune meant no harm would befall you, and we never left. Indeed, Senior has returned after just over a year; our wait was not in vain," Hou Qianji said, his face flushed with excitement.

Ye Qin felt a touch of emotion and nodded. Regardless of their reasons for staying in the market, the sentiment was commendable.

However, he found it strange: after only a year and some change, the largest market settlement in the Land of Chaos was eerily quiet, with hardly any cultivators in sight. This was a stark contrast to the bustling crowds he had seen when he first arrived. Even when he tried to sell spirit pills, few cultivators bought them. He asked Hou Qianji for an explanation.

"Senior has been away for over a year and is unaware of the situation here. Two years ago, the five great sects of the Land of Chaos launched a massive offensive against the Spirit Mist Cultivation World, drawing nearly half of the Land of Chaos's cultivators away. Then last year, Sect Master Shi returned hastily from the Imperial Tomb and immediately gathered a group of trusted subordinates to attack the Spirit Mist Cultivation World. For some unknown reason, other seniors seemed to hear something, suddenly gathering their own forces and following Shi to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World. As a result, over ninety percent of the cultivators in the Land of Chaos have gone to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World. Only those with low cultivation bases, or those who stayed for other reasons, remain here. Naturally, this market has become increasingly desolate, with fewer than a mere few dozen merchants left, along with some cultivators who occasionally come to purchase items. Tie Dadan and I stayed precisely because we were waiting for Senior," Hou Qianji explained mournfully, his raw materials business suffering directly because of the market's slump.

Hearing Hou Qianji's account, Ye Qin frowned instead.

When they initially entered the palace within the Imperial Tomb together, there were more than ten high-level Foundation Establishment cultivators who met the Saint Sovereign, many of whom were famous sect masters from the Land of Chaos. However, only Shi Hanyang managed to exchange a massive sum of wealth with the Saint Sovereign to acquire that extremely valuable intelligence regarding Core Formation. The others lacked the necessary wealth for such an exchange.

Shi Hanyang taking a group of trusted subordinates to the Spirit Mist Cultivation World was certainly related to this matter. The other masters, aware of this development, followed Shi with large contingents of their people, naturally hoping to seize the spiritual treasures for themselves. It seemed this conflict was unavoidable.