Ye Qingyi was Ye Qingcheng. Although Ye Bufan had seen the illusion of fighting the Eight-Headed Serpent from Monk Fayuan, he was still somewhat shocked when Ye Qingyi said it herself.
Ye Qingyi told Ye Bufan that the source of all this had to start with the Dragon Emperor Token.
At that time, Yu Xing, the master of the underground city, was about to reach the Nascent Soul stage, but she could feel the suppression from the constraints of Blue Star. That suppression was extremely overbearing.
Under the constraints, there were only two paths to choose: either give up her cultivation and waste hundreds of years of practice, remaining a Core Formation cultivator. Or, disappear under the suppression, and no longer exist in this world.
Yu Xing was unwilling to give up her cultivation just like that and was determined to find a solution.
At this time, she met a bald man again in a secret realm, who was Fayuan, the ancestor of Fayuan Temple.
The two of them obtained the Dragon Emperor Token by chance in the secret realm, but from beginning to end, they could not decipher its secret, and could only slightly mobilize its energy.
Later, the two encountered a mysterious man. The man was chopping wood under the secret realm. When they passed by him, Ye Qingyi felt the Dragon Emperor Token stir.
"Could it be the woodcutter who possesses the last Dragon Emperor Token?" Ye Bufan asked.
Ye Qingyi nodded and said, "That woodcutter was very mysterious. Even with her cultivation close to the Nascent Soul stage, she couldn't perceive the woodcutter's strength."
"What?" Ye Bufan found it hard to believe. Yu Xing's strength at that time should have been the strongest cultivator below the Nascent Soul stage, and even she couldn't perceive the woodcutter's true strength.
However, the woodcutter seemed uninterested in the Dragon Emperor Tokens they had. Instead, he actually knew about the method they were looking for to face the constraints of the Nascent Soul stage.
At that time, after a conversation, the woodcutter gave them a hint.
A dragon can have nine sons, each different, but a dragon has only one dragon pearl, which can be obtained by all nine sons.
Ye Bufan knew that the woodcutter was using the dragon pearl to refer to the inner core of a Core Formation cultivator. Ye Qingyi and Fayuan also understood this, and the secret of how a dragon pearl could turn from one to many lay within the Dragon Emperor Token.
The two spent a long time researching the Dragon Emperor Token—infusing it with true qi, penetrating it with mental power, but they couldn't decipher the secret.
Just as they were about to give up, Yu Xing went out once and passed by a school where the "Tao Te Ching" was being taught—"The Tao gives birth to unity, unity gives birth to duality, duality gives birth to trinity, and trinity gives birth to all things."
Yu Xing felt that this principle was the same as what the woodcutter had said.
So, Yu Xing returned to the underground city, entered a state of cultivation, and at the same time, quietly meditated on the Dragon Emperor Token with her heart.
On the Dragon Emperor Token, there was a pattern of a nine-clawed golden dragon. As Yu Xing began to calm her mind, her perception completely stimulated the Dragon Emperor Token. A dragon pearl-like object emerged from the Dragon Emperor Token, flashing with light, and finally merged into Yu Xing's body.
Yu Xing went into seclusion for three years. By the time her cultivation ended, in the place of her cultivation, she was no longer Yu Xing, but had transformed into two girls, namely Ye Qingcheng and Ye Qingyi.
"Then why did you become two people, but Fayuan didn't?" Ye Bufan asked, puzzled.
Ye Qingyi smiled mysteriously and told Ye Bufan that she had used the energy of the Dragon Emperor Token to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. In fact, Ye Qingcheng was the Nascent Soul transformed from Ye Qingyi.
As for Fayuan, he was more timid. He did not break through to the Nascent Soul stage and then form a Core, so there was a difference here.
The Blue Star constraints did not allow cultivators to become Nascent Soul stage cultivators. Ye Qingyi, through the Dragon Emperor Token, completely severed the connection between herself and Ye Qingcheng, and then transformed her Nascent Soul stage true qi into Core Formation stage cultivators' inner cores, one by one.
Therefore, this explained why the people from the Yin Corpse Sect who traveled to Blue Star through the teleportation array could only hide behind Sakura Island.
Ye Bufan suddenly understood and nodded. Ye Qingyi continued, "Because my connection with Qingcheng was severed, I retained all of Yu Xing's memories, leaving only the beautiful ones. I originally intended for Qingcheng to live as herself, but then we encountered the Eight-Headed Serpent. We used the energy of the Dragon Emperor Token to merge into one, and were then counterattacked by the Blue Star constraints."
"After that, I went into a long period of recovery. But it was from that time that I discovered that even the Dragon Emperor Token could no longer connect me with her," Ye Qingyi continued to explain.
"So that means Ye Qingcheng is now also an independent individual," Ye Bufan said.
Ye Qingyi nodded and said, "So be it. At worst, after the constraints are lifted, I can form a Nascent Soul again. There is no problem with that."
"Alright, now that it's resolved, we can go back," Ye Qingyi said lightly.
"Okay." Ye Bufan and Ye Qingyi moved rapidly through the forest, heading towards the strongholds of various sects and families.
After the two of them left, three figures appeared on the scene. The three were holding swords and looked at the tragic state of the scene with disbelief.
"What is this situation?" The three were disciples sent by Song Mingqin and Qu Fei to gather information, wanting to see the marching routes of the people on Sakura Island.
However, they had only approached here when they smelled a strong scent of blood, and then they saw the scene before them.
"They're all dead." One of the disciples gasped, "Who could kill so many cultivators in such a short time?"
"This place is not suitable for staying long. Let's go quickly and report this news to the Grand Elder and the others." Another disciple pulled the remaining two and quickly left the place. Here, he felt his scalp tingle and was extremely uncomfortable.
This news was quickly relayed back to the sect's main camp. Upon receiving the news, Song Mingqin, Shangguan Chengtian, and Qu Fei quickly rushed to the scene to confirm it again.
"They had almost no power to resist and were killed without any signs of a struggle," Song Mingqin analyzed the situation at the scene.
"We didn't even find any trace of those few experts in the middle Core Formation stage," Song Mingqin gasped. "To be able to deal with so many people in such a short time, at least an expert at the peak of Core Formation stage would be required, right?"
Soon, Song Mingqin shook his head and said, "No, the opponent must have been many people, and their strength was at the peak of Core Formation stage. Otherwise, it would be impossible for everyone at the scene to not react."
"Who or what organization could have eliminated so many peak Core Formation stage experts in an instant?" Shangguan Chengtian began to ponder, looking at the tragic scene.