Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 182 Disciple Pleads for Help
In the ancient Chaos City, deep within a special space-time, scattered with dilapidated corpses.

A pair of deep pupils, as if containing an endless starry sky, slowly opened.

"Contributing hundreds of sets of precious artifacts at once?"

A slight ripple appeared in his deep pupils.

Items of this caliber are naturally nothing to an ancient being like him.

However, the fact that hundreds of items were contributed at once, and most of them were of the same type, meant that the significance behind this could not help but attract his attention.

Even the core of the virtual universe's intelligence sent him a reminder about this.

After all, even a top-tier race like humanity would almost never be able to mass-produce the exact same type of treasure.

The scarcity of blacksmiths of the corresponding level is one reason, but another is that the materials needed to forge treasures of the highest quality are also extremely precious and scarce.

With such materials, the focus would naturally shift to tailoring suitable treasures to the specific needs of different powerful individuals, rather than mass-producing identical equipment indiscriminately.

"How did he acquire these treasures? Could it be that he knows a blacksmith skilled in crafting such treasures? Or perhaps an extremely wealthy blacksmith?"

His deep gaze flickered slowly, before gradually dimming after a long while.
Since making contributions at the City Lord's Mansion and exchanging for treasures, Shangqing's clone has returned to his residence in Chaos City to cultivate in seclusion.

He has now almost reached the limit in his understanding of the laws of time and space.

Moreover, he had unexpectedly absorbed a wisp of mysterious, dark energy in that 'singularity' space, which caused his soul to undergo an incredible transformation, making it incredibly compatible with the origin of the universe. He also gained a vague understanding of the final step in breaking through the laws of time and space.

It is estimated that within a few decades to a few hundred years, he will be able to naturally control the complete laws of time and space and become the true master of the universe!

In this state, he needs more inspiration than diligent study of the laws.

Therefore, with more free time, Yuqing and Shangqing's clones focused more on improving their secret techniques.

His improved understanding of the laws, coupled with spending over three thousand years in the core of the Time-Space Prison, constantly sensing the pulsation of the 'singularity' and observing the mysterious network structure, gave him many new insights into the secret arts.

His next task was to incorporate these insights into his own secret techniques and further refine them.

Thus, Yuqing and Shangqing's clones only retained a trace of their perception to monitor the final step of the progress in the laws of time and space, while focusing their energy on the research of secret techniques.

Meanwhile, Taiqing's clone and main body continued to study the "Twenty-Three Chapters of Heavenly Craftsmanship" that they had previously returned, while teaching their disciples.

Such a systematic and comprehensive blacksmithing tradition involves a vast amount of knowledge.

Now, hundreds of years later, Qi Yuan only dares to say that he has a rough grasp of it.

To transform this rough grasp into mastery, besides relentless study, hands-on experimentation is also essential.

"The materials for refining powerful treasures are too precious. I'm only just starting out, so I'd better try refining some 'immortal divine weapons' to hone my skills first."

He had already obtained a lot of materials for forging immortal-level weapons and equipment by killing and enslaving a large number of king-level alien races in the Time-Space Prison.

By further expanding upon the perfect tool-like being 'Tianyuwang,' whose base return multiplier reaches 60 times, he can naturally squander his wealth at will.

The main body and its three avatars each performed their duties, and their days were quite fulfilling.

In this peaceful life, 30 years passed in a flash.

Thirty years later, a phone call request from a disciple temporarily shattered this tranquility.

"You said you're about to perish, what's going on?"

In the virtual universe, in the palace at the foot of Thunder Island, Qi Yuan frowned as he looked at his second disciple, Liao Li, who stood respectfully before him.

"Master, I am currently trapped in a perilous area within the Cloud Lake Secret Realm. I am being parasitized and controlled by a powerful enemy within the area using some kind of secret technique. I am unable to break free and am preparing to self-destruct before completely losing my consciousness. That is why I have come to bid you farewell, Master!"

Liao Li was dressed in blood-red armor, and her long purple hair was still tied into small braids. However, her face no longer had the girlish innocence it once had, and instead, it carried a hint of coldness.

Even when the topic of 'self-destruction' came up, her gaze didn't change at all.

"Parasitic control?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Yuan's gaze darkened slightly.

Once parasitized and controlled, it's almost like being enslaved by the soul; even reversing time and resurrection can no longer work on it.

"How much longer can you hold on?" Qi Yuan asked immediately.

"About...about another month."

Liao Li hesitated and looked at Qi Yuan, "Teacher..."

"A month? That's enough!"

Qi Yuan interrupted him directly, "I'll set off now. Send me your exact coordinates. We'll talk about the rest later!" "Teacher! You don't need to take the risk!"

Upon hearing this, Liao Li immediately became tense. "Teacher, I heard from the enemies who captured me that their leader is an extremely powerful cosmic venerable."

"It's alright, I have my own plans. Just send me your coordinates!"

Qi Yuan's tone was firm and unyielding.

Liao Li looked at Qi Yuan with some hesitation. As one of Qi Yuan's earliest disciples, she had been following him for nearly five thousand years.

Over the course of nearly five thousand years, she has witnessed her teacher rise from the initial stellar level to an unparalleled height among immortals, and her reverence for her teacher has become almost blind.

After a slight hesitation, she finally sent her spatial coordinates to Qi Yuan's virtual universe account.

"Teacher, I am currently in a special space within the Cloud Lake Secret Realm. This is my exact location."

"The Blood Soul Pool, it really is there."

Qi Yuan nodded, then solemnly gave a word of advice.
"I will arrive at your location soon. In the meantime, just wait patiently and do not do anything to provoke the enemy. Also, if any unexpected changes occur, remember that it is better to self-destruct than to be enslaved or parasitized by someone's soul!"

The Cloud Lake Secret Realm, with a maximum diameter of 21 light-years and a minimum diameter of 12 light-years, can only be considered an ordinary small secret realm in the endless universe.

The overall danger level of the Cloud Lake Secret Realm is moderate, making it a relatively suitable cosmic secret realm for immortal gods to explore and adventure.

In the entire secret realm, there are only a handful of areas, such as the 'Blood Soul Pool', that can threaten experts above the King level.

On a desolate planet approximately 1.3 million light-years away from the Cloud Lake Secret Realm.

"Om~~~"

A vibrant green light permeated the air.

Immediately afterwards, an immortal beast with ferocious four hooves and a black-haired youth in dark gold armor appeared on this desolate planet.

“Master’s master, this is the closest location to the Cloud Lake Secret Realm among the keepsakes I left behind. It is about 1.3 million light-years away from the Cloud Lake Secret Realm.”

The ferocious four-hoofed beast prostrated itself in reverence.

Qi Yuan once enslaved a large number of alien kings and immortals on the battlefield outside the domain. Some of these alien kings and immortals would also enslave some of their subordinates. Layer by layer, the number of immortal lives he directly or indirectly controlled reached an astonishing number.

Thanks to the numerous relics left behind by the immortal beings of various alien races under their command, they were able to find this location closest to the Cloud Lake Secret Realm.

"Yeah, well done."

The Shangqing clone nodded and directly stored the four-hoofed beast immortal into the world ring.

"1.3 million light-years. With my current teleportation speed, I should be able to get there very quickly!"

With a thought, his entire figure vanished instantly, and when he reappeared, he was already hundreds of thousands of light-years away!
His will had reached the level of a cosmic master, and after his soul transformed, he was in perfect harmony with the origin of the universe, so the distance he could teleport was naturally extremely exaggerated.

With each teleportation, he quickly entered the Cloud Lake Secret Realm and arrived near the Blood Soul Pool, one of the five most famous forbidden areas in the Cloud Lake Secret Realm.

Qi Yuan stood in the void, gazing across the vast starry sky at the 'liquid celestial body' that floated in the void, resembling a blood-red ocean.

Blood Soul Pool is one of the five most dangerous places in the Cloud Lake Secret Realm that have been explored.

The overall danger level of the Cloud Lake Secret Realm is not too high; even ordinary immortals can enter to explore and train.

However, even universe venerables dare not enter the five forbidden areas, such as the 'Blood Soul Pool', in the Cloud Lake Secret Realm, otherwise they would easily perish there.

Leaving aside the other four forbidden zones, let's just talk about the 'Blood Soul Pool'.
Countless ages ago, a special life form was born in this 'Blood Soul Pool', and its name was 'Blood Soul'.

As a naturally occurring special life form, this 'Blood Soul' has a life gene level that, while not excessively exaggerated among special life forms, is still 300 times higher.

In addition, it has extremely high talent and broke through to the realm of the Universe Venerable at a very early age.

Now, countless years have passed, and its strength has become extremely close to that of a top-tier cosmic overlord, thus earning it the title of 'Lord of the Blood Soul Pool' from many powerful figures outside.

However, whether due to loneliness or some other reason, the Lord of the Blood Soul Pool would often randomly capture some other races that came to the Cloud Lake Secret Realm, erase their consciousness using some peculiar method, and then put them into the Blood Soul Pool for nurturing.

After a long period of nurturing, when new consciousness is born anew from these 'corpses' that have lost their independent thought, they will spontaneously consider themselves to be members of the 'Blood Soul Clan'.

Today, apart from the first naturally born Blood Soul being, all the Blood Soul Clan members living in the Blood Soul Pool were 'cultivated' in this way by the Blood Soul Pool Master.

Two highly skilled and daring cosmic venerables even ventured into the Blood Soul Pool, but ultimately met the same fate as those 'Blood Soul Clan' members.

This is why Blood Soul Pool is known as a forbidden land!
When Qi Yuan heard Liao Li say that he was trapped in a certain forbidden area of ​​the Cloud Lake Secret Realm, he immediately thought of the legend of the 'Blood Soul Pool'. After following the coordinates, he didn't expect that it was really here.

"The Lord of the Blood Soul Pool is a special life form with a genetic level 300 times higher, possessing strength incredibly close to that of a top-tier cosmic overlord."

Qi Yuan Shangqing clone recalled information about the Blood Soul Pool Master in his mind, but his entire figure had already stepped into the floating, flowing crimson 'blood pool' in front of him!
(End of this chapter)