"Soon, soon."
He had already reached the fourth level of Tribulation Crossing. With Li Qi's current state, if he truly wanted to break through to the seventh level, it would take at most a few hundred years, no more, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The desolate space behind him was still working to absorb the meager spiritual energy resources and feed them back to Li Qi.
With a slight shift of his mind, Li Qi closed off the desolate space.
With a flick of his finger, the formation that had concealed his presence for a hundred years completely dissipated.
The moment the formation vanished, many of the surrounding meteorites, which had been repelled by the formation, began to hurtle directly towards Li Qi.
However, Li Qi didn't even spare them a glance.
As these meteorites approached within a thousand meters of Li Qi, they would utterly shatter and vanish into nothingness, not even leaving behind a speck of dust.
"Right, how long have I been in seclusion?"
Li Qi muttered to himself.
The next second, a look of surprise flickered in his eyes.
"Over a hundred years? Why did this seclusion take so long? Was my luck that bad?"
He shook his head slightly.
As usual, the first thing Li Qi did upon emerging from seclusion was to receive information from his natal spirit puppets.
This time, there wasn't much information from Puppets Number One and Number Two.
A hundred years ago, after Li Qi's Penguin Pharmacy Pavilion had demonstrated its true formidable combat power, all the strong cultivators in the Void Black Market around the Silver Slant Domain no longer dared to challenge the authority of the Penguin Pharmacy Pavilion.
As a result, the business operations of the Penguin Pharmacy Pavilion reached an all-time peak.
In terms of both influence and the annual income of spirit stones, they were incomparable to any other merchant guild.
If this were in the past, Li Qi would have been somewhat pleased.
After all, the annual income of spirit stones was now greater than ever before.
However, now that he had arrived in the prosperous region, Li Qi wasn't overly surprised.
The reason was simple: the experiences of Puppet Number Three over the past century had transformed into a colossal torrent of information that flooded into Li Qi's mind.
It was too prosperous.
A prosperity that was utterly incomparable.
The Void Black Market was unimaginably vast, with an incredible flow of cultivators.
Countless powerful individuals roamed freely, and cultivators at the peak of Tribulation Crossing were not an uncommon sight.
Moreover, there were countless varieties of rare, high-level resources and all sorts of heavenly treasures.
All of this was far beyond what the remote, small regions like the Silver Slant Domain could compare to.
It was precisely for this reason that Li Qi no longer found the annual resources earned in the Silver Slant Domain to be particularly extraordinary.
Although there were still countless impoverished cultivators in the prosperous region, and treasures that could be bought for a few or a few dozen spirit stones were not uncommon, there was a saying that held true: ninety-nine percent of wealth was held by one percent of the cultivators.
However, given the immense population base, the number of wealthy cultivators was still substantial.
As for Li Qi, while he wasn't poor, he certainly wouldn't be considered among the wealthiest cultivators in this prosperous region.
At most, with the vast resources accumulated by his Penguin Pharmacy Pavilion over the years, Li Qi's net worth could only be considered average.
It was fortunate, however.
A hundred years ago, when Li Qi dealt with the Qin Yang Merchant Guild, he had also plundered their entire headquarters' treasury.
Although many of the heavenly treasures within were difficult to appraise, the wealth in terms of Heavenly Dao Wills and spirit stones alone was a colossal sum for Li Qi.
But only Li Qi knew.
Even though the resources plundered from the Qin Yang Merchant Guild headquarters were immense, and would likely last even a peak Tribulation Crossing cultivator for a very long time, as it represented the accumulated wealth of a renowned merchant guild in the Qing Rao Domain over a lifetime, these resources would not last long for Li Qi if he intended to use them to sustain himself, his desolate space, and the gluttonous Heavenly Dao of his Earthly Void Realm.
Speaking of Heavenly Dao Wills, Li Qi suddenly thought of something.
He raised his hand slightly, and a spatial ring appeared in his palm.
The resources he had plundered from the Qin Yang Merchant Guild were stored in this spatial ring.
He had left in a hurry back then and hadn't had time to sort through them. Coupled with his subsequent long period of seclusion, Li Qi had even less time to organize them. Now that he had broken through to the fourth level of Tribulation Crossing, Li Qi finally had the leisure to examine the resources he had plundered.
His divine sense probed into the ring as he searched for a specific location.
Suddenly, his divine sense found its target.
In a corner of the spatial ring.
Clusters of Heavenly Dao Wills, exuding an incredibly powerful pressure, were sealed.
And the level of these Heavenly Dao Wills was all within the Tribulation Crossing realm.
Three were at the first level of Tribulation Crossing, one was at the second level, and one was at the third level.
A total of five Heavenly Dao Wills from the Tribulation Crossing realm!
Upon seeing this, Li Qi's eyes gleamed with pleasant surprise.
Five Heavenly Dao Wills from the Tribulation Crossing realm.
Back in his small region, he wouldn't even have been able to see such things unless he had personally gone out to harvest from known small worlds with Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Dao Wills.
However, having no enmity or grievance, Li Qi would not have done so.
And now, Li Qi had effortlessly obtained five Heavenly Dao Wills from the Tribulation Crossing realm.
His thoughts coalesced, and Li Qi pondered for a moment.
The Dao Fall fragments he had given to the Earthly Void Heavenly Dao some time ago had likely been mostly consumed by now.
According to Li Qi's estimation, if the Earthly Void Heavenly Dao had completely digested those Dao Fall fragments, it should have reached a strength of the sixth or seventh level of Tribulation Crossing.
And now he had acquired five more Heavenly Dao Wills from the Tribulation Crossing realm, albeit at the initial stages.
"Combined, it should be enough to slightly elevate the strength of that gluttonous beast at home."
Li Qi murmured to himself.
"These Heavenly Dao Wills should be sent back quickly."
With a thought, he directly issued a command to his natal spirit puppets.
The command was addressed to Puppets Number Two and Number Three.
As for Puppet Number One, Li Qi still instructed it to remain in the Silver Slant Domain.
After all, although the situation in the Silver Slant Domain no longer required Puppet Number One to act, and no one dared to attack the Penguin Pharmacy Pavilion, these natal spirit puppets served another purpose besides being expendable soldiers: they acted as his eyes and ears in other locations, instantly informing him of events elsewhere.
While the Silver Slant Domain was cost-effective, it was still his base of operations, and the Earthly Void Realm was located within the Silver Slant Domain.
If he were to summon all his natal spirit puppets away, leaving none behind, he might not even know if the Silver Slant Domain was facing annihilation one day.
Therefore, it was imperative to leave one natal spirit puppet in the Silver Slant Domain as a lookout.