The Blood Stele moved nonstop along the river.
Xia Wei sat on the deck with a ledger in her hands, writing as she went. Dozens of storage rings were scattered to either side of her like fallen coins.
"Nearly seven billion spirit stones."
"One million three hundred and twenty thousand spirit crystals."
"Seventy black spirit crystals."
"Sixty-five Tier-4 pills."
"Twenty-six Tier-5 pills."
"Thirteen Tier-7 herbs… one Tier-8 herb."
"Two Grade-6 mystic weapons."
"Three Grade-6 mystic armors."
And that was only the main haul. The rest was a messy pile of odds and ends, all of it valuable.
Xia Wei clicked her tongue. "Why do I feel like these people weren't even that rich?"
They had been Moonwheel Realm experts—dozens of them—yet after stripping everything down, this was all they could scrape together. It left her oddly disappointed.
Then again, by any normal standard, this "little bit" was insane.
Just a casual count put the value at well over a thousand billion spirit stones. Even if you sold off everything the Wind-Thunder Profound Sect owned, it wouldn't come close. But after staying beside Lin Ye and watching him cut down giants like grass… her sense of scale had been smashed and rebuilt.
And after seeing a Tier-7 pill with her own eyes, no treasure pile—no matter how large—could really compete.
Xia Wei flipped to the next page and continued organizing the route with information gathered along the way.
"This time we're heading to the Upper Clear River. They say Tier-6 ferocious beasts show up there often, and sometimes you can even spot traces of Tier-7 beasts."
There were more than thirty thousand major rivers in the world, plus countless branching waterways braided together like veins. Reaching a destination was never a single path. But over the years, people had tested routes and paid with blood to map out a few that were relatively safe.
Some areas were basically beast kingdoms. If you wandered in by mistake, you didn't come out.
"First we pass through the Northwind River…" Xia Wei traced the line on the map. "Total distance is close to a hundred thousand river-li. Even if everything stays calm, it'll take nearly fifty days."
The Blood Stele was fast. That was the only reason it was "only" fifty.
"Fifty days…" Lin Ye frowned. "There isn't a shorter waterway?"
"This is the shortest and the safest," Xia Wei said, not looking up. "We can't shrink the distance, but if we had a Wind-Riding grade ship, we could cut the time down to one-third."
She hesitated a fraction, then added, "But Wind-Riding ships are rare. Only certain sects in Upper Riverlands can build them. In Middle Riverlands, you almost never see one."
"Then move as fast as we can," Lin Ye said.
If they couldn't find one, then they couldn't find one. It wasn't like he could just fly the whole way—though he did have the ability.
But aerial travel was gambling with fate. One special-class storm, one freak current, one wrong turn in a sea of rivers—and getting lost would be the least of his problems. Unless he had no choice, steady and safe still beat reckless speed.
If only they had a Tier-6 flying beast… then things would be clean.
Lin Ye returned to the cabin.
Since they still had time, he would stabilize his state and refine the Sun-Quelling Pill. A Tier-7 pill like that held enough medicinal power to push him another step forward.
At the stern, Luo Gui sat as if he had all the time in the world, holding a long fishing rod over the churning wake.
Xia Wei couldn't help asking, "Senior Luo… can you even catch a fish like that?"
The Blood Stele was moving at high speed. Even if a fish saw the hook, it wouldn't be able to chase it down.
Luo Gui didn't even blink. "Mm. Fate decides. Fishing is about the mind."
Xia Wei nodded thoughtfully, as if she understood. Honestly, she didn't. But it sounded profound enough.
After setting the route, she went back to cultivating whenever she could.
The Wugang Leopard had gotten used to sailing after the last trip. Sometimes a wave would roll in and it would tumble in place several times like a furry boulder… but it didn't affect its sleep at all.
Meanwhile—far away in Zhemei Riverland—
The Zhang Clan's old ancestor, the one who had barely escaped with his life, finally returned home. The moment he heard the rumor Lin Ye had spread, his mind went blank.
"How vicious… how shameless!"
He stomped the ground in rage.
The Plum Blossom Sword Sect had already arrested the Zhang Clan's key members and thrown them into the sect's dungeon. Hearing that, the old ancestor's legs gave out. He sank onto the floor like all the bones had been pulled from his body.
"I never thought… I never thought it would end like this…"
In the end, he chose suicide inside the Plum Blossom Sword Sect to prove his "loyalty."
Only then did some of the Zhang Clan's core members survive.
The Plum Blossom Sword Sect didn't pursue it any further—not because they were kind, but because they understood perfectly: this was Lin Ye's open scheme. They knew it was a trap, yet they still had to step into it.
"We'll decide everything after the Sect Master returns," the Vice Sect Master said bluntly.
The Sect Master still hadn't returned from Upper Riverlands.
They had planned to settle everything in one strike, but no one expected Lin Ye's strength to be that terrifying. The entire Myriad-Images Hall had been erased.
The elders who had been shouting about slaughter and revenge fell silent one by one.
The Myriad-Images Hall's ordinary hired blades didn't matter much, but Zhang Tianran's strength? Everyone knew it. He was easily top ten within the sect—and even he had died.
No one dared move rashly anymore.
They could only keep gathering information, tightening their net, searching for Lin Ye's trail.
Back on the river, the Blood Stele cut forward like an arrow.
Lin Ye adjusted his breathing, then swallowed the Sun-Quelling Pill in one smooth motion.
Gulp.
Warmth spread through him instantly. The pill melted into a torrent, rushing through his meridians and surging straight toward his qi sea.
Boom!
The moonwheel in his body began devouring the pill's power at terrifying speed.
A Sunlit Realm expert had one unmistakable trait: they could condense their moonwheel in the palm, then push it beyond the hands—until it became a blazing "sun" that circled the body.
That was what it meant to truly step into the Sunlit Realm.
With a single move, a Sunlit Realm cultivator could release sunlit power—burn mountains, boil seas—effortless, natural, as if they were swinging a miniature sun at you. Who could resist?
Against Moonwheel Realm cultivators, it was even worse.
A single strand of sunlit power was enough to incinerate a Moonwheel Realm cultivator completely. Moonwheel energy couldn't even get close. That was the gap between realms.
Step into the Sunlit Realm, and you weren't just stronger—you were transformed. Like a flood dragon bursting from the sea, soaring into the sky.
Lin Ye still had a long road before that.
Back when he refined an entire star and forged it into a moonwheel in his qi sea, the advantage he gained in the Moonwheel Realm was endless qi supply—at least a hundred times that of a Moonwheel Seventh Realm expert.
But that was sustained power, not a single explosive strike.
Once he entered the Sunlit Realm, everything changed.
The sunlit power he would command wouldn't be merely "stronger" than normal. It would be dozens—maybe hundreds—of times more terrifying than an ordinary Sunlit Realm cultivator's.
Only then would he reach true dominance.
If he cultivated by conventional methods, even reaching the peak would still leave him weak—just like in his past life—when facing the entire Heaven-Bestowed Imperial Clan.
Only by changing the path, breaking the rules, carving out a new road… could he become truly unstoppable.
The Sun-Quelling Pill didn't only raise his cultivation.
Its most brutal effect was this: it could let him condense a thread of sunlit power in advance.
In Lin Ye's qi sea, the moonwheel kept absorbing the pill's power while another violent force condensed at the same time.
In his palms, a tiny, almost invisible strand of power began to appear.
He had already laid down restrictions around the cabin.
Otherwise, that single moment of heat would have been enough to burn the entire ship down to ash.
Sunlit power.
Extreme heat—taken to its final edge.
And of course, it carried the cultivator's own attribute within it. This was simply "extremity" made real.
"Sunlit power."
In Lin Ye's palm, the strand moved like a small worm of light, writhing and sliding. It circled his body once—then slipped back into him.
He handled it so smoothly not because it was easy, but because he had experience. Control, timing, instinct—those were things earned before.
Once the first thread of sunlit power was formed, the rest would be far easier.
If he had condensed this earlier, dealing with Zhang Tianran and his group would have been even simpler.
Elsewhere—Spirit Medicine Sect—
Xu Yaozi was already at Moonwheel Sixth Realm, yet he couldn't touch the laws of the Sunlit Realm. His cultivation had stalled, and his alchemy had stalled with it.
Now he had obtained a Tier-7 pill from Lin Ye.
How could he not be ecstatic?
After returning to the sect, he arranged everything, then had several elders guard him.
When he refined the Sun-Quelling Pill, Xu Yaozi felt as if divine light poured into his bones. His eyes burned bright. His whole body felt washed by the purest qi in the world.
He felt younger—ten years younger—like he was stepping back toward the peak he once had.
"What a tyrannical pill!"
"So this is a Tier-7 pill?!"
His cultivation broke through on the spot.
Moonwheel Seventh Realm.
And then—when a scorching breath threatened to burst from his palms—Xu Yaozi froze completely.
"This… this is… sunlit power! Sunlit power!"