"It is precisely this demonic cultivator! Some days ago, your junior and two early Nascent Soul stage cultivators searched everywhere around *Sword City for any trace of this demonic scout, but sadly found nothing at all. Who would have thought Senior would take action and slay it. Eliminating this stealthy demon race spy means one less trouble for Purple Sword City, and your junior has also completed the mission entrusted by Sect Master Zhou, allowing me to leave without any lingering concerns and journey with Saint Sovereign Senior, Ghost Lord Senior, and Hatred Mountain Senior to the Demon Realm in search of spiritual items. Many thanks, Saint Sovereign Senior!"

Ye Qin was stunned for a good while before snapping back to reality, remembering to thank Saint Sovereign's Lotus Flower Clone.

"No matter; slaying this demonic cultivator was a trivial matter that required no effort," the Lotus Flower Clone replied, hands behind his back, smiling faintly as he shook his head. "Furthermore, the hide of this eight-tentacled Demon Squid is quite good; it can be refined into a decent stealth armor magical artifact. Moreover, its demon core is quite high-grade and can be used to refine spirit pills. Aren't you an alchemist? You might as well take it for pill refinement."

"This demonic cultivator is being given to your junior?" Niu Qin asked in surprise.

"Indeed. I am the Lotus Flower Avatar; I rely on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and cannot cultivate by consuming spirit pills. My true self's cultivation has long surpassed the late Nascent Soul stage, so this eight-tentacled Demon Squid is of no use to me. Throwing it into the sea would be a waste. Take whatever you find useful on its body."

The Lotus Flower Clone said calmly.

Ye Qin pondered for a moment, then looked toward the distant Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord and Old Monster Hatred Mountain.

At this time, Saint Sovereign was inside a temporarily carved-out cave on the island, refining Silver Armored Guards. Meanwhile, Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord and Old Monster Hatred Mountain occupied separate corners of the island. These two formidable cultivators at the peak of the late Nascent Soul stage did not spare even a glance for the tenth-rank Demon Squid, clearly too disdainful to bother. Both of them were cultivators aiming to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage; unless it was a top-tier heaven and earth treasure, nothing else would catch their eye.

"Very well then, your junior shall not refuse!"

Seeing that the Lotus Flower Clone, the Ghost Lord, and Old Monster Hatred Mountain showed no interest in the demonic cultivator's corpse, Ye Qin had no choice but to accept it and slowly approached the Demon Squid's body.

This Demon Squid was gravely wounded, yet not completely dead; its massive tentacles were still twitching incessantly.

It had suffered the worst of luck.

With its divine abilities, it could conceal itself extremely well in the waters near Purple Sword City. Ordinary cultivators attempting to locate it in the vast ocean would find the task almost as difficult as ascending to heaven. Who knew that today, just as it surfaced and poked its head out, it was beaten half to death by the Lotus Flower Clone and captured to this desolate island, completely unable to resist.

Ye Qin controlled the Silver Flood Dragon Blade; with a hiss, it tore through the tough, smooth hide, extracting a tenth-rank Wood Elemental Demon Core and a Wood Elemental Spiritual Root Bone from its body. Demonic cultivators, just like human cultivators, have eight different elemental spiritual roots; demonic cultivators also possess eight different elemental spiritual root bones.

Subsequently, Ye Qin continued searching within the corpse for the Demon Squid's demon spirit.

Suddenly, a ball of light with eight tentacles shot out from the eight-tentacled Squid's broken body, swiftly fleeing towards the sea outside the island.

"Spirit Capturing Bottle, receive!"

Ye Qin's gaze turned cold. Being prepared, he patted his waist storage pouch and summoned a yellow, crystalline bottle-shaped magical artifact. This bottle, he had specifically purchased from the mercantile pavilion in Linhai City for capturing demon spirits of the tenth rank and above.

As the bottle spun in mid-air, it immediately generated an immense suction force, sweeping towards the small ball of light with a furious gust. Unable to resist the powerful suction of the Spirit Capturing Bottle, the eight tentacles thrashed about, struggling with an "iyi ya," before being drawn inside the bottle.

Ye Qin's face lit up upon securing the demon spirit; this was what he truly desired. This eight-tentacled Demon Squid was a Wood Elemental Manifestation Demonic Cultivator; the spirit for the Wood Elemental Flying Sword, one of the Eight Trigrams Sword Array's components, finally had a source. However, he did not yet know what innate divine ability this demon spirit possessed.

Ye Qin did not immediately proceed to refine the sword; a small-divine ability tier flying sword could not be refined well in a short time.

After dealing with the Demon Squid's corpse, Ye Qin used a communication talisman to send a message back to Sect Master Zhou in Purple Sword City, informing him that the demonic cultivator scout outside the city had been handled and there was no need for further worry. Furthermore, due to urgent temporary matters, he was heading deep into the Blood Sea and would not be returning for a while, asking him to convey this to the cultivators of the Azure Pill Palace.

More than ten days passed before Saint Sovereign finally emerged from the island cave dwelling, a faint smile gracing his face.

The cultivators on the island immediately understood that the ninth-rank Silver Armored Guard must have been successfully refined into a tenth-rank one, which was why Saint Sovereign was so satisfied.

Saint Sovereign, Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord, Old Monster Hatred Mountain, the Lotus Flower Clone, and Ye Qin—a party of five Nascent Soul cultivators—rode their respective magical artifacts and sped towards the eastern direction of the Blood Sea.

Their destination was the Demon Sea, the nest and main base of the Demon Race cultivators, a place that struck fear into the hearts of the East Sea cultivators. Several months later, they entered the depths of the Blood Sea, an area devoid of any established strongholds built by cultivators. Long-distance teleportation was impossible; everything relied on flying via artifacts.

The depths of the Blood Sea were extremely perilous, with swarms of high-level sea beasts appearing, and demonic windstorms erupting without warning. Because they were getting closer to the Demon Sea, they could even occasionally encounter Demon Race cultivators—it was a forbidden zone of death for East Sea cultivators, with very few daring to venture deep into the Blood Sea.

However, for their group of cultivators, these dangers amounted to nothing.

Five streaks of rapid rainbow light zipped across the high skies.

Ye Qin had just entered the early Nascent Soul stage; his cultivation among this group was undoubtedly the most "fragile." Although the gap between early Nascent Soul and late Nascent Soul might not seem vast, perhaps dozens or hundreds of the current Ye Qin combined would still be no match for any single one of Saint Sovereign, the Ghost Lord, or Old Monster Hatred Mountain; they would only be bullied.

Ye Qin had personally witnessed the Ghost Lord instantly kill seven or eight early to mid-Nascent Soul cultivators, and he had also seen how Saint Sovereign fiercely fought the Ghost Lord. Although he had not seen Old Monster Hatred Mountain's true strength, the old monster's demeanor suggested he was on par with the Ghost Lord, meaning his power was certainly not far behind.

This was not because Ye Qin was too weak, but because the power of these three peak late Nascent Soul cultivators was terrifyingly immense; few in the entire East Sea could match them. The five Sect Masters of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the five titans of the Heavenly Demon Alliance seemed incapable when standing before these three powerhouses. Naturally, Ye Qin appeared extremely weak in front of the trio.

Old Monster Hua Hatred Mountain was very dissatisfied with Ye Qin's presence in the party, not even granting him a proper glance.

The three original powerhouses had expected Ye Qin's strength to possibly slow down their progress.

But over the course of this month, Ye Qin actually managed to make the three of them feel a touch of surprise, even earning a new level of respect.

Ye Qin had many tricks up his sleeve; his Great Winged Warship was extremely fast, capable of keeping up with these mid to late Nascent Soul cultivators without falling behind. When they encountered large groups of eighth and ninth-rank demonic birds harassing them during their sea crossing, his Great Winged Warship unleashed ten cannons simultaneously, killing a number of low-grade demonic birds not much less than the other three late Nascent Soul cultivators. Of course, the other three late Nascent Soul cultivators had not exerted their full strength; they weren't deliberately competing to see who killed more.

Ye Qin's performance did not stop there.

Ye Qin almost never showed any signs of mana exhaustion; he was always in a state of abundant spiritual power.

Flying long distances over the Blood Sea often meant encountering an island only once every ten days or half a month. Once mana was depleted, one would fall into the sea and be relentlessly attacked by swarms of sea beasts, leading to certain death. The three late Nascent Soul cultivators possessed tremendously deep mana reserves and could fly at full speed for nearly a month without stopping. However, even they had to rest on islands they encountered mid-journey to recover their mana; they could not maintain artifact flight continuously.

But Ye Qin did not need to stop.

The reason was simple: Ye Qin possessed the top-tier Thousand Blossom Spirit Brew in the entire East Sea Cultivation World, used for mana recovery. Even while hunting demonic birds and flying simultaneously, he never needed to halt.

As for the Ghost Lord and Old Monster Hatred Mountain, regrettably, neither of them could achieve this.

Desolate Spirit Ghost Lord was a Ghost Cultivator and fundamentally could not use spirit brews to recover consumed vital energy (corpse qi). Once the corpse qi in its body was depleted, it had to replenish it from dead corpses, meaning its recovery speed was naturally very slow. It also could not use East Sea Cultivation World artifacts or talismans, relying only on the ghost-element magical artifacts it refined itself.

Old Monster Hatred Mountain had lived in seclusion in his lair, Hatred Mountain, for years, with almost no interaction with the outside world. Before heading to the Demon Sea, he somewhat casually purchased some ninth-grade Spirit Brew in Purple Sword Immortal City—this was the highest grade of spirit brew available in the market—which recovered very little mana. A large gulp might restore one-thousandth of his mana at best, far inferior to the supreme Thousand Blossom Spirit Brew personally brewed by Ye Qin.

Saint Sovereign was the best prepared, but even he could not obtain the best spirit brew supply materials. The best resources, raw materials, and refined products in the East Sea Cultivation World were monopolized by the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance; more accurately, these supreme resources rarely flowed out of the hands of members of the Immortal Alliance Elder Council. Saint Sovereign was no longer a titan of the Heavenly Demon Alliance, so naturally, he did not benefit from these advantages.

Coincidentally, Ye Qin was a member of the Immortal Alliance Elder Council and was qualified to trade with all members of the Council.

No one knew the tremendous advantage Ye Qin possessed from having an entire Purple Mansion.

No one knew that he used his Purple Mansion to elevate his auxiliary abilities to a monstrous level. It was precisely due to having vast amounts of raw materials that he could improve his alchemy and brewing arts. The quality and grade of the spirit wines and spirit pills he refined were considered supreme in the East Sea Cultivation World, almost reaching the pinnacle.

Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded throughout the journey to the Demon Sea.

The Ghost Lord, Old Monster Hatred Mountain, and Saint Sovereign, after long periods of flying, would find their mana gradually depleted and have to stop at mid-way islands to recover. Yet, they would see Ye Qin still full of mana and lively, with no intention of resting or recovering, even having the leisure to hunt rare sea beasts.

The occasional glances they cast towards Ye Qin turned strange.

Previously, the three great powerhouses, who considered themselves peak late Nascent Soul cultivators, thought that Ye Qin, the weakest among them, might drag down the pace. Now, seeing him perfectly fine while they had to pause intermittently, they felt somewhat embarrassed.

"Saint Sovereign, where did you find this brat? This kid is certainly no ordinary figure; give him another three to five hundred years, and perhaps the three of us combined won't be able to deal with him. Why are you promoting him so highly, even willing to share the yet-to-be-acquired Purple Spirit Returning Yang Grass with him? What is your true intention?" The Ghost Lord gazed intensely at Ye Qin, who was hunting sea beasts in the distant sea, then turned to Saint Sovereign, his voice laced with a chilling, icy suspicion.