The enlightenment tree appears once every four thousand years, and its enlightenment fruit ripens at the same interval. I managed to obtain a few in the world of Emperor Qing last time, but it seems they've all been used up.
Everyone listened, speechless. The Enlightenment Fruit can only be consumed once; consuming more yields no additional effect.
However, Li Qingyun continued, "But my world is also based on the enlightenment tree. The World Tree within it is the enlightenment tree. Once the enlightenment tree matures, we should have plenty."
Everyone's eyes lit up again. Li Qingyun was truly a walking treasure trove!
Wang Teng excitedly asked, "Little brother, when will your enlightenment tree mature?"
Others also looked at Li Qingyun with anticipation. Li Qingyun, however, scratched his head awkwardly. "You see, my Dao fruit is integrated with my Qinglian Realm. The next transformation of the Qinglian Realm requires me to ascend to the Immortal King realm. Once I become an Immortal King, the Enlightenment Fruit will mature."
The corners of everyone's mouths twitched slightly. What kind of logic was this?
For them to directly obtain the Enlightenment Pill, they first had to wait for Li Qingyun to become an Immortal King. Only then could he obtain the raw material, the Enlightenment Fruit, for refining the Enlightenment Pill. After obtaining the raw material, they would still need to hand it over to the ninth-grade alchemists for refining.
They also knew that alchemy was not a hundred percent successful. Even when everything was prepared, there was still a possibility of failure.
"That might be too long a wait. How many lifetimes will it take for your enlightenment tree to mature?"
Others waved their hands listlessly.
However, Li Qingyun smiled and said, "Do my brothers not believe in my talent? Becoming an Immortal King is not that difficult for me, you know!"
"Then how much more do you need?"
Li Qingyun coughed twice and said, "Not much more, but I need some help from you all."
"What kind of help?"
Li Qingyun produced a Creation Green Lotus. He said sheepishly, "We've fought so many enemies, and we've confiscated a lot of immortal artifacts, haven't we? You don't have much use for them anyway, so why not give them to me? My Qinglian Realm needs to devour a lot of immortal artifacts to evolve. These immortal artifacts contain some heavenly rules, which can perfect my world."
Bai Nianchen asked doubtfully, "How many immortal artifacts does this thing need to devour to evolve?"
"About a thousand..."
"Pfft!"
Everyone's faces darkened, and they spat out the water they had just drunk.
A thousand immortal artifacts! How many worlds would they have to plunder to collect that much?
Although they had indeed killed many Sky-Slayer Clan members above the eighth realm during this period, the spoils of war they had collected were not that many.
"How about we pool our resources?"
Everyone took out the immortal artifacts they had. Soon, a pile of immortal artifacts, stacked like a small mountain, appeared before them.
They were stunned by the sight.
"Holy cow! How are we so rich?"
"It's not just what we took from those Sky-Slayer Clan members; many are gifts from people we saved after completing missions."
"This is quite interesting. I didn't think we had so many, but it looks like there are almost a thousand!"
"This still won't feed your Creation Green Lotus? Honestly, these immortal artifacts could be traded for two Emperor Artifacts!"
"..."
Li Qingyun also didn't expect them to gather so many immortal artifacts. Since all their resources were provided by Chu Yang, they had no concept of wealth. Furthermore, because they were constantly fighting, they were too lazy to count how many such treasures they possessed.
An immortal artifact was something that could cause bloodshed in the cultivation world, and they had a thousand of them.
The artifact spirit of the Creation Green Lotus, Little Lotus, also sensed the rich scent of immortal artifacts. Her eyes gleamed as she emerged from the Creation Green Lotus, saliva dripping from her mouth.
Li Qingyun asked her, "After devouring these, will the enlightenment tree mature?"
Little Lotus tilted her head and whispered, "Little Lotus doesn't know..."
"Let's devour all of these first."
Upon hearing that all of them would be devoured, everyone's hearts tightened, and they felt a pang of pain.
They had never done such a wasteful thing in their lives, and they hoped it would have some effect.
If devouring these allowed Li Qingyun to advance to the Immortal King realm, it wouldn't be a loss for them. But if it didn't, they might be so heartbroken they couldn't breathe.
All one thousand immortal artifacts were absorbed into the Creation Green Lotus, serving as nourishment for the enlightenment tree in the Qinglian Realm.
The small world began to evolve rapidly. The enlightenment tree, rooted in the Qinglian Realm, greedily began to devour the heavenly rules extracted from these immortal artifacts, feeding them back to the world.
The Heavenly Dao became more complete, capable of supporting higher cultivation levels.
Half a day later, everyone stared at Li Qingyun, finding no apparent change in him.
"Brother Qingyun? What are you doing? You've finished eating the immortal artifacts, can you break through?"
Li Qingyun looked at everyone and revealed a confident smile.
"World evolution takes time. It will take at least a year to digest so many immortal artifacts, but... we can go fight. Fighting can promote the digestion process of world power."
"How so?"
"Let's go and have a big fight! This world hasn't been settled yet. Give me some pressure then, and I'll show those Sky-Slayers what a surprise is!"
Wang Teng burst into laughter, "That's exactly what I wanted! I thought you were going into seclusion to cultivate!"
Recently, the number of Sky-Slayer Clan members had increased significantly. The high-end combatants, those above the seventh realm, had also grown, but not as outrageously as before.
However, those below the seventh realm had increased in number many times over.
Previously, an army of Sky-Slayer Clan members in one world numbering tens of millions was considered quite large. Now, sometimes they encountered armies of hundreds of millions or even billions.
The cultivators in any given world are limited. True cultivation worlds are actually mostly populated by mortals.
It's not possible for everyone to cultivate like on Blue Star, where anyone can cultivate.
Those who can go onto the battlefield are lucky if there are a hundred million. Here, those who can go onto the battlefield refer to those above the Golden Core stage.
Therefore, in almost every world, humans fight outnumbered.
Without the assistance of the Ice Sword mercenary group, the win rate would become very, very low.
They had been in this world for over three years, but it was still a stalemate.
The kings of the Sky-Slayer Clan also dared not enter the void to fight, as leaving the Ice Sword mercenary group on the battlefield was like a dimensional strike.
Li Qingyun said with a solemn expression, "As long as one more Immortal King emerges between us, the balance of this world can be broken!"