Tianyi watched with interest as Daoyi discovered a lingering ghost spirit and devoured it into her body. He strained his eyes and made out the human-ish features on the illusory being. Ghosts could only be seen by Nascent Soul Grandmasters and a few Core Formation Masters such as Daoyi. 

Strictly speaking, ghosts were vagrants of the Huang Realm, beings that should not belong and thus belong on a different plane of existence. Like karmic virtue and sin, ghosts were beings that only those past a certain realm could see. Unity Realm Venerables were able the discern the secrets of heaven the earth the best. This was due to them harmonizing with heaven and earth, able to wield the powers of the world with their power. 

Tianyi being able to peer at the Xi Emperor's karmic virtue all those years ago was due to him gaining the Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Vein. That was how much of a cheat a Dao Spiritual Vein was. Just by having it, they could glimpse at the secrets of heaven and earth even as a mortal. 

But now, instead of being able to discern even more karmic virtue or sin, he had actually started seeing less after he entered the Core Formation Realm. It weakened even more when he entered the Nascent Soul Realm. He had a hypothesis as to why to his case. 

It all boiled down to his Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Vein. The Heavenly Dao had already tried to kill him the moment he obtained the Dao Spiritual Vein. Although it resonated with heaven and earth, unlike the Dao Chaos Spiritual Vein, which conformed to the will of the Heavenly Dao, the Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Vein was created due to Tianyi stealing the Heavenly Dao's authority, the tribulation essence. How could the Heavenly Dao allow a thief to steal its authority?

Well, not that it mattered much to Tianyi. But in order to enter the Unity Realm, a cultivator must be able to harmonize with the power of heaven and earth. Tianyi was slowly losing the ability to do that since heaven and earth rejected him due to the Heavenly Dao. His ability to absorb the spiritual qi was already decreasing. Perhaps, he would be no longer able to absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth before long. 

Tianyi didn't mind. The Heavenly Dao was already starting to irritate him long enough. But the greater problem was what Tianyi had to do to ascend to the Unity Realm. Since one had to harmonize with heaven and earth to enter the Unity Realm, Tianyi wouldn't be able to enter the Unity Realm. Tianyi's face grew serious as he pondered about the issue. He didn't believe that he wouldn't be able to enter the Unity Realm or an equivalent realm; all he needed to do was develop a method. But such a thing was easier said than done. 

Sensing something, Tianyi glanced up. Speak of the devil, and here he comes, or tribulation in this case. With a bored expression, Tianyi allowed himself to be bathed in the tribulation lightning. The Heavenly Dao didn't tire and continuously attacked him like a machine, a smart machine that knew when to take opportunities, but a machine nonetheless. Compared to a sentient being's cunning, it was too naive and tender.

Tianyi was about to leave with Daoyi after she absorbed the ghost, but he stopped when he sensed people approaching. The three waited until they saw a group of twelve approaching them. By their attire, they were local cultivators and seemed to part of Paradise Sand City's forces. There was a peak core formation master and a weaker acupoint opening master in the group, a rarity in the Earthsea Land.

"Senior, did you discover the treasure that was born?" The apparent leader asked.

Tianyi was confused for a moment before he realized what happened. Due to the tribulation lightning from earlier, they thought that a treasure had been born. As for why it wasn't a forged treasure, no sane cultivator would do it outside of their base. A cultivator's base had many formation and tricks to help resist against tribulation when they forged treasures such as when an alchemist refined a pill.

"No," Tianyi said. He couldn't tell if the group believed, but he didn't care. He didn't hide his Nascent Soul Realm cultivation. Even if they didn't believe him, they wouldn't be able to do anything to him. 

Just as he turned to leave, Daoyi stopped him. "Senior Brother, they are members of the Lei Clan."

Tianyi paused in his movement and observed them. Due to Su Bojing, he got a detailed intelligence report on the Lei Clan, but aside from the patriarch and Nascent Soul Grandmaster, he didn't bother to remember anyone else. 

He raised an eyebrow after confirming with Daoyi that those two Core Formation Realm level cultivators were indeed elders of the Lei Clan. One of them was even a nascent soul grandmaster candidate. Just what was such a core member of the clan doing outside of Paradise Sand City? 

Tianyi stretched his hand out and lightning pillars instantly formed around the group. As a young master background character, he would be shaming his role if he didn't make trouble for a protagonist's clan. But before he could seal all their movements, Daoyi stopped him.

"Senior Brother, can you let me fight them? I haven't experienced many life-and-death battles. It would be a good experience for me." Daoyi said as she looked towards the panicking Lei Clan Members. 

Tianyi thought about it for a moment and asked. "You just refined a ghost earlier. How is your condition?"

"No worries, it was only time-consuming. If I'm in trouble, then you have the chance to save the beauty, isn't that right?" Daoyi smiled. Tianyi rolled his eyes, but he allowed Daoyi to battle. He was in no rush.

Elder Cai of the Lei Clan felt his intestine turn green with regret. Why did he have to investigate whether a treasure had formed in the desert? He should have ignored it and directly gone back to Paradise Sand City. And now, the mysterious nascent soul grandmaster seemed to want to deal with him for some reason despite not interfering in matters for two years. But he didn't give up so soon.

"Senior, I'm a member of the Lei Clan!" He had some hope that the mysteriously young nascent soul grandmaster would have some reservation if he knew that he was a member of the Lei Clan. 

But Tianyi's reply disappointed him. "I know, I did this because you are members of the Lei Clan. However, I will leave a way out for you. My junior sister just so happens to lacks some opponents to spar with. If you can defeat her, I'll let you go." 

Elder Cai sunk into despair. Win in a spar? Who knew whether the nascent soul grandmaster's were truthful or not, but what choice did they have? Naturally, Tianyi's words were lies. So what if he lied, what were they going to do? Get revenge? Tianyi felt like his thoughts were becoming more young master-like recently.

Walking through the entrance opened in the electric cage formed around the lightning pillars, Daoyi sized up her opponent. Although her spiritual core was no doubt a higher grade and her cultivation method superior, her opponent was still a peak core formation master with countless years of experience. 

Seeing as the opponents were just observing her, Daoyi decided to make the first move since they weren't attacking. Daoyi pointed her hands at the group, and nothing happened. Or rather, nonething seemed to have happened until the the core formation and acupoint opening masters leaped away as if dodging some invisible object. The foundation establishment members weren't so lucky as they mysteriously slumped onto the ground unconsciousness. 

"What happened!? I just felt a chill and danger, so I moved away!" The acupoint opening master screamed out. 

Elder Cai, a peak core formation master, had a never-before-seen serious expression on his aged face. "She seems to be a soul cultivator! I've once witnessed a soul cultivator attack, so I'm very familiar with the feeling. But only nascent doul grandmaster can be soul cultivators!" 

At Elder Cai's words, the acupoint opening master felt his heart tighten. Soul cultivators were the type of opponents that all other cultivators avoided fighting. Their methods were esoteric and hard to defend against, making for the worst type of opponents. Especially for martial cultivators like him.

Tianyi, who was outside, saw everything. When Daoyi had pointed her hands at the group, invisible soul-like threads had shot out from her sleeve and struck them. And with a slight jolt to their souls, all of them fell unconscious. They would have a head-splitting headache once they woke up.

He pointedly ignored how spider-like that move Daoyi used was and ignored the words at the edge of his mind, and refused to ponder over it. 

Back within the cage, both Lei Clan elders were speeding towards Daoyi from two different directions in a two-pronged attack. The simplest method to deal with a soul cultivator is to take them down as quickly as possible if you didn't have any methods to defend against them.

Elder Cai unleashed a bolt of lightning towards Daoyi, and the acupoint opening master followed suit. The Lei Clan were most famous for their lightning techniques. But to their dismay, the bolt of lightning fizzled out just moments before reaching Daoyi.

Unfortunately for the Lei Clan elders, after years of knowing Tianyi, Daoyi was very proficient in defensive spells against lightning. Even Su Bojing, who knew Tianyi the least amount of time, had begun to learn some defensive. Although none of them had been struck by any stray tribulation lightning bolts yet, just being near Tianyi without any defensive means was a harrowing experience. Each bolt of tribulation lightning contained the power of a peak nascent soul grandmaster. For Daoyi, it was even more critical as she cultivated a yin-type method. As a primarily yang-type energy, lightning was even dangerous for her.

Forming several hand seals, Daoyi opened her mouth, and two core formation realm equivalent ghosts appeared. Tianyi could easily make them out as they were closer linked to Daoyi than the world itself. 

Wearing ghostly garments, the two stoic-faced ghost servants separated towards each of the Lei Clan elders. They didn't have any weapons, but their long and terrifyingly sharp nails were dangerous enough. Elder Cai felt something dangerous even though he could not sense anything, so he immediately abandoned his attempt to reach Daoyi and made evasive maneuvers.

The acupoint opening master wasn't so lucky. He was weaker and had less potential than Elder Cai. Not to mention he was a martial cultivator, so his sense of danger towards soul attacks was the weakest among the three main types of cultivators. With a howl of pain, the acupoint opening master started to plummet towards the ground. His every thought was filled with soul-rending pain, making it difficult to do anything else.

But he wasn't out of the battle yet. Controlling the ghost, Daoyi inflicted even more pain to the hysterical acupoint opening master until he fainted. Now Elder Cai had to deal with two ghosts.

To an observer, it would look like Elder Cai was just randomly swerving at random moments, but he was actually dodging Daoyi ghosts' attack quite well. But there was only so much he could do when he couldn't even sense the ghosts' presence. Not long after, an attack struck Elder Cai, and he screamed in pain, not even able to endure it for a moment. 

Each of Daoyi's ghosts could be considered a mobile soul attack. Just by controlling the ghosts, she could unleash soul attacks without expending any qi. But the effectiveness would drop to any who had any defensive measures. But the two Lei Clan elders were unable to even force Daoyi to do that.

"Disappointed?" Tianyi asked as he walked next to Daoyi.

She nodded. "It can't be considered even a fight, more like a one-sided beatdown."

Tianyi nodded in agreement. "I've always heard that a soul cultivator was the worst type of enemy, but I've only witnessed that today. Even among sects, soul cultivators are rare. So it's not weird that they are so weak to your attacks, not to mention they are only cultivators from a backwater place like this."

Daoyi sighed, honestly disappointed at their performance. She didn't even need to bring out her guqin. 

Tianyi rounded up the Lei Clan members. He only needed the leader, so he only awakened Elder Cai. When Elder Cai woke up, he hissed in pain, and when he saw Daoyi, he unconsciously shrunk in fear as if Daoyi was the literal devil. Tianyi chuckled.

"Speak, what were you doing in the desert." Tianyi asked after he had his laugh.

The blurry and dazed Elder Cai immediately regained clarity at Tianyi's words. "N-nothing, we were hunting a demonic beast, but we failed."

Tianyi raised an eyebrow. "You sure have quite a bit of leisure time. Your clan is being besieged by the other great clans, yet you still have time to hunt a mere demonic beast."

Elder Cai's pupils shrunk as a terrifying thought occurred to him "You! You allied with the other great clans!"

"Allied? I'm not allied to the other great clans. To be exact, you should say I hired them to be more precise." Tianyi gave a slight smile at Elder Cai's uncomprehending face and continued. "I've already given the three clans over a million mid-tier spirit stones. And my only condition was for them to suppress and make trouble for the Lei Clan. Such a good deal, who wouldn't do it. All they have to do is speed their plans and get paid handsomely for it."

Elder Cai stared at Tianyi in fear. Even for the four great clans, a million mid-tier spirit stones accounted for nearly fifty percent of all their wealth. And this Nascent Soul Grandmaster just used that to make the great clans suppress the Lei Clan. What grudge did he have? And more importantly, who was backing him? "W-why!?"

Tianyi's smile deepened. "Of course it's because of my old friend. His name is Lei Jingye."

Elder Cai found it ridiculous. All this for the patriarch's son, who was only a qi gathering pupil when he left! How could Lei Jingye offend such a figure!? At most, the current Lei Jingye should be a foundation establishment disciple at best according to Elder Cai's prediciton. How could he interact with a Nascent Soul Grandmaster? Elder Cai even began to suspect that Tianyi was from a first or second-rate sect. 

"H-h-how?" His voice was dry and coarse as he forced the question out. 

"He tried to assassinate me on our first meeting. This grudge, don't you think I should repay it?"

A clan must bear the actions of its members. Elder Cai felt his eyes dim. But his mind blazed as he thought of another method. As long as he didn't speak, if the clan can refine the treasure, they would have a hope of survival. Not to mention...

"Lei Jingye has an Immortal Realm master!" Elder Cai screamed out. This was his trump card. Even a first or second-rate sect would reconsider before making enemies with an Immortal. 

Tianyi blinked in surprise. Elder Cai started to smile but quickly became baffled when Tianyi started to laugh. "So that's what he told you? Let me ask, did you receive information about treasures in Earthsea Land that no one knew about from Lei Jingye, or maybe an immortal cultivation manual. And all those came from Lei Jingye's mysterious master who you've never met?"

Elder Cai felt his face pale at Tianyi's words. Why was the youth so familiar with them? No, it must be because the youth was trying to shake and bluff him! He glared defiantly at Tianyi's smug smile.

"Senior Brother, you really look like a villain right now." Tianyi paused at Daoyi's words. Thinking about it, he really did appear like a villain, didn't he? And it was the young master type as well!

Tianyi could already picture the scenario. Due to sowing enmity with the young master-ist young master of Buzhou Immortal Sect through no fault of his own, Lei Jingye's clan is targeted by that young master. At the brink of the clan's destruction, he appears and saves everyone while defeating and maybe even killing the young master. But as a result, the Buzhou Immortal Sect will hunt him down. Eventually, he will become powerful enough to destroy the Buzhou Immortal Sect and become the number one expert. Then he will ascend to a higher realm.

AS IF!

First of all, Lei Jingye tried to kill him first. And there was no higher realm than the Huang Realm. There is one other realm equal to the Huang Realm known as the Numinous Realm but no higher realm. He had already asked his mother before he even started cultivating.

Tianyi turned his sight back on Elder Cai, his amusement gone. "Are you going to take the easy route or the hard route?"

"Puh!" Elder Cai spat his saliva at Tianyi. The saliva fizzled into nothing before it could even go near Tianyi. Tianyi rolled his eyes, and Elder Cai was immediately cloaked in lightning, causing him immense pain. When the lightning disappeared, his body was quite literally smoking hot.

"So, you going to try that again?" Tianyi asked. Elder Cai said nothing and just glared back. "Junior Sister, want to test your soul techniques against him?"

Daoyi turned her gaze towards Elder Cai, causing him to shiver. That soul attack was even more painful than Tianyi's lightning. "Sure, thank you, Senior Brother." Daoyi's milky white hand reached out towards Elder Cai.

When it touched Elder Cai's face, Daoyi stopped. Even this fearful, Elder Cai still refused to betray his clan, which Tianyi had to commend him for. "Senior Brother, you really want me to interrogate him?"

Tianyi shook his head. He wasn't going to make his Daoyi dirty her hands by torturing a person. In his eyes, that was worse than killing them. Instead, he made Elder Cai gazed into his eyes. When Elder Cai gazed into Tianyi's eyes, he felt as if they were the most beautiful pair of eyes in the world. No, not just the most beautiful eyes, but the most beautiful object in the whole universe! He felt that he could even see another world, one with eight suns and one planet.

Elder Cai's eyes glazed over as his facial features slacked. His mouth might even leak drool at any time. "What were you doing out here? Were you on a secret mission for the Lei Clan?"

Elder Cai opened his mouth, but only noise came out, no words. Tianyi sighed. Charm techniques could be considered a pseudo branch of the soul branch, but Tianyi wasn't skilled with it. He was more skilled in fortifying and defending the soul than attacking other souls. It looked like he won't be able to make Elder Cai spit anything out. He looked towards the other unconscious Lei Clan members. If Elder Cai won't speak, one of them had to. But their information wouldn't be as good.

But before Tianyi could move to do so, Elder Meng spoke. "Young Master, how about I soul search him?"

Tianyi paused. Although Elder Meng was his guard, Tianyi had no authority to order her around. At most, he could request her to do something. It was up to her if she wanted to do it. Since she offered, Tianyi naturally accepted.  

With Elder Meng's aid, she easily extracted the information from Elder Cai's soul. Tianyi was impressed. She was able to extract the information without harming Elder Cai's soul, something that transcending mortality sages and earth immortals had a hard time accomplishing.

It turned out that there was an immortal realm artifact buried secretly in the Earthsea Land. Because it had existed for so long in the Earthsea Land, its aura had become almost natural to the region, making it difficult to spot. The Lei Clan had chanced upon it and prepared to excavate it before secretly bringing it back to their clan.

Tianyi nodded. Was this discovered in Lei Jingye's first life? I don't know since I only followed Xi Longyi's view. Or perhaps this is a change unique to this life? How convenient for him, getting real main character vibes now. But too bad, it won't happen with me here.

After trapping Elder Cai and the Lei Clan members in a formation, Tianyi and Daoyi followed Elder Meng to the immortal realm artifact's location. The location was really barren, with no distinctive landmarks. It was really a wonder anyone could discover the immortal artifact. 

"It's here." 

Tianyi looked down at the indistinguishable landscape. Spreading out his spiritual sense, Tianyi pinpointed the concealment formation. Under his lead, the group entered the formation and into the hole that led to a grotto. Once inside, Tianyi was immediately buffeted by a strong aura.

Daoyi's eyes widened as she felt the aura. Rather than an immortal realm artifact, it felt closer to the divine shard of the Spectral Rising Jewel, only far more potent. Doayi could sense this, much less Tianyi, who actually owned several immortal realm artifacts.

Tianyi's lips twitched. He was really glad he decided to pay a visit to the Lei Clan. If Lei Jingye really attained a divine artifact, then it wouldn't be a joke anymore, even to the Buzhou Immortal Sect. But just to make sure.

"Elder Meng, is this a divine artifact or did I sense incorrectly?"

Elder Meng furrowed her brows as she closed her eyes. "Judging by the aura, it should be a divine artifact related to the Queen Mother of the West."

Tianyi's eyes widened. Although he was surprised by how familiar Elder Meng acted with divine artifacts, he was more shocked by what she said next. Queen Mother of the West, wasn't this the ancestral lineage of Jade Peak?