Ji Wutong wasn't unfamiliar with killing intent, having had his fair share of close encounters, but the killing intent he detected earlier was abnormal. To be more precise, it was closer to a premonition of death than mere killing intent. After all, killing intent was something that came from an individual, but the feeling he felt earlier was more comprehensive, as if the world wanted him dead.
It was a sensation that Ji Wutong had never felt before. Facing the unknown, Ji Wutong always raised his guard to the maximum. In his hundred plus years of life, Ji Wutong had come close to death a total of three times.
The first time was during his Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation. In his youth, he had ignored his intuition due to his pride and overlooked how terrifying heavenly tribulations could be due to his arrogance. From this experience, Ji Wutong learned never to allow arrogance to cloud his judgment.
The second time Ji Wutong came close to death was when he was betrayed by a friend he made outside the Bright Ascension Sect. He had left the sect to temper himself after entering the Core Formation Realm and happened to meet this friend due to a coincidence. From there, they experienced many life-and-death situations together.
It was only later that Ji Wutong discovered that everything had been a scheme from the beginning. His friend was actually an assassin sent by the Nihility Sect.
Although the Nihility Sect had no qualms about killing anyone except those from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, they never did so without reason. So for an assassin from the Nihility Sect to come after him, someone had to have commissioned them for his assassination. No first-rate sect wanted their competitors to grow stronger, so it was hard to determine which or how many sects wanted him dead.
However, Ji Wutong learned an essential lesson from this ordeal—never fully trust anybody. Although, Ji Wutong felt that Bai Weiwei was different. She was unlike all the others stained by the darkness of the world.
The third time Ji Wutong came close to death was when he had concocted a rank six or Transcending Mortality Realm level pill as a nascent soul grandmaster. The pill heavenly tribulation that had appeared would have killed him had it not been for his master's interference.
It was his greatest accomplishment to date, outshining his achievement of concocting a rank four or Nascent Soul Realm pill as a core formation master. It was only after this event that the Bright Ascension Sect began to pay serious attention to him, no less than that of an immortal seed.
From this ordeal, Ji Wutong gained an insight into harmonization between heaven and earth, almost guaranteeing his ascension into the Unity Realm. All Ji Wutong had to do was not die.
"Where should we go after this?" Bai Ningwei asked after she had finished her meal.
Cultivators who had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm and above did not need to consume food in order to survive, but ever since entering Demon Cage Realm, where spiritual qi was sparse, food, especially those cooked from demon or monster meat, became an important source of qi.
"What do you mean by that? We still need to hunt for some more demonic cores so that Daoist Ji can concoct pills to increase your cultivation." Bing Huoyuan said as he looked unkindly at Ji Wutong. It'd be best if Ji Wutong died from overworking, but Bing Huoyuan knew that it wasn't likely.
Ji Wutong rolled his eyes.
Truth be told, using demonic cores to concoct pills to raise Bai Weiwei and Ninwei's cultivation was a waste of the cores and Ji Wutong's talent, not to mention he had to be careful to reduce the aftereffects as much as possible, further wasting the material.
Bai Ningwei shook her head, "I'm talking about the people following us. We can't just bring them to fight demons, most of them aren't even cultivators."
Along their journey, the quartet had encountered many destitute humans. Bing Huoyuan, Ji Wutong didn't want to bother, and Bai Ningwei felt sorry for them but knew that it wasn't realistic to aid them. Only Bai Weiwei stretched her hand out towards the refugees.
Although both Bing Huoyuan, Ji Wutong, and Bai Ningwei didn't think it was possible to help, all three conceded to Bai Weiwei's request. The disciples from the Huang Realm could temporarily shield them while it was still the Demon Slaying Expedition, but what about after? They would have to leave, and the refugees would still meet the same end.
Bing Huoyuan glanced at the groups of refugees that numbered in the thousands. At first, there weren't so many, only a hundred at most, but as time went by, more and more humans started to follow them without the group's permission seeing the trailing people already following them.
"Should we bring them to the fortress town? Even if they only live near there, the demons won't dare to attack since so many of us cultivators are always present." As for what happened after they left, that wasn't in Bing Huoyuan's considerations.
Bai Ningwei thought about it and discussed it with Bing Huoyuan and Ji Wutong. After Bai Weiwei returned from distributing rations to the refugees, all four came to an agreement.
The next day, Bing Houyuan and Ji Wutong brought out their immortal boats and ferried the people to the edge of the fortress town. Letting the refugees walk by foot would have taken far too long. However, when the quartet arrived at the fortress town, they were surprised by the new addition to the scenery.
Nine islands, each composed of a mountain situated upon a black lake, floated in the sky surrounded by rings composed of millions upon millions of rocks.
"What is that?" Bai Weiwei asked what was on the mind of the four cultivators.
They quickly relocated the refugees near the edge of the fortress town and instructed them not to enter the town without permission before entering the town. After asking around, they finally uncovered what had happened during the few months they were away.
During this time, the son of the legendary Sword Empress had exited from his secluded cultivation and shocked the disciples. He created a domain that had a first-rate environment for cultivation, which wasn't inferior to any specialized cultivation grounds in the disciples' sects. As a result, many disciples had begun to relocate and cultivate on Tianyi's Vast Heaven Islands.
Aside from the central mountain, Xi Tianyi didn't care what the other disciples did on the other eight mountains. Because of this and the limited space, it resulted in the disciples competing against one another for the best cultivation spots.
On a side note, it seemed that the miniature realm wasn't fully self-sufficient, as Tianyi needed to be constantly present within Vast Heaven Island. Otherwise, it would collapse. So Tianyi had been working to change that, wanting to convert Vast Heaven Islands into an artifact so that it was portable and not stationary.
Going back, when the disciples discovered that Tianyi created an artificial miniature realm, they felt as if they had misheard. The creation of a realm, artificial or otherwise, was something only heard of in legends. It was an act that the legendary immortal emperors could not replicate, at least to their knowledge.
This single act from Tianyi elevated his status and position from an elite disciple in the eyes of the disciples to someone far above them. Some disciples already thought Tianyi's ascension to the Immortal Realm was a guaranteed fact.
Ji Wutong sighed in defeat. Everyone always secretly compared themselves to others, and he was no different. Although he had heard of Tianyi's strength that resulted in his moniker, the Vast Heaven Young Master, to be propagated among the scions of various sects, Ji Wutong felt that he wasn't any bit inferior in terms of accomplishment.
His combat prowess wasn't the best, but Ji Wutong was an alchemist, and what he had confidence in was his pill concoction abilities. In his area of expertise, Ji Wutong didn't feel any bit inferior to Tianyi at all—until now, that is.
Ji Wutong sighed again before a thought occurred to him. He wanted to analyze the Vast Heaven Islands. Perhaps he could gain some insights. After all, Xi Tianyi was still a nascent soul grandmaster when he accomplished this. This meant that other nascent soul cultivators should be able to replicate such an act if they had the right prerequisites.
Full of motivation, Ji Wutong and his companions flew towards the Vast Heaven Islands.
All of the spots had all been monopolized by the elite nascent soul grandmasters, and core formation masters were too weak to dispute this. Ji Wutong knew that he wasn't likely to be their opponent as his combat prowess wasn't outstanding without using pills. However, Ji Wutong had a unique advantage.
He was an alchemist. Why did he need to fight when he can just exchange some pills?
Ji Wutong did precisely that and secured three spots: one for himself, another for Bai Weiwei, and the final for Bai Ningwei. As for Bing Huoyuan? Wasn't he confident in his battle prowess? Fight for a spot!
So under Bing Huoyuan glare, Ji Wutong happily brought the Bai sisters onto the third island away from the central mountain.
The quartet stayed for a few months, taking advantage of the Vast Heaven Island's superior environment to cultivate. To Ji Wutong's delight and shock, he discovered that the pill tribulations that occurred within the Vast Heaven Islands had been dramatically weakened. Although this decreased the pill's quality, this meant that he had fewer scruples concocting superior pills.
During this time, Xia Yushan returned with his squad.
I've been trying to catch up to Tianyi's back all this time. Before I even have the chance to reach the same height as him, he already flew to a height too high for me to comprehend.
Xia Yushan sighed as he recalled the heights Tianyi had reached over twenty years ago, his mood low. Tianyi had just reached the Core Formation Realm, and he had just entered the Nascent Soul Realm. Xia Yushan still had confidence in his own talents, but as time passed, Xia Yushan grew to despise his inferior talent.
His companions, such as Daoist Moneybag, elected to stay for a few months to experience the miraculous Vast Heaven Islands for themselves, leaving Xia Yushan without a squad.
When Daoist Moneybag started to compete for a spot, Tianyi directly allocated a spot for him due to remembering the favor of Daoist Moneybag gifting him the Jade Diffraction Sword during the Fortune Banquet. This action caused numerous disciples to gnash their teeth in envy.
Xia Yushan didn't want to compete for a spot, so he never stepped on the Vast Heaven Islands. Competing for a spot made Xia Yushan feel as if he was beneath Tianyi and needed Tianyi's aid to progress.
Cultivation paid heavy attention to the cultivator's heart. If a cultivator lost confidence in himself or admitted defeat, his potential and accomplishment would very likely be impacted. So Xia Yushan's decision prevented his potential from being lowered, but that didn't mean Tianyi's accomplishment didn't impact him at all.
On the contrary, Xia Yushan felt a sense of urgency and intensified his search for a crow demon with the pure bloodline of the Golden Crow Ancestor. It was to the point that Xia Yushan started to roam alone without a squad, which significantly increased the risks he had to take.
As time passed, the number of refugees began to increase dramatically. The nameless settlement near the fortress town began to grow and grow until it became known as Fan City because its inhabitants were mortals, and it was located near the cultivator's town, whose inhabitants they considered to be immortals.
If Tianyi were to visit, he would have undoubtedly recognized the vice city master because he was Azure Leaf. After leaving Azure Leaf City, the people had drifted and eventually found their way to Fan City. It really was a series of coincidences.
Unknowingly, three years had passed before Tianyi was finally able to make it self-sufficient. He had yet to convert Vast Heaven Island into an artifact, but he was finally able to leave.