Chapter 67: Visitors from Beyond the Sky

Qingxi looked at the spiritual threads tied around the Dragon Horse and then at the way it pawed the ground, ready to dash off at any moment. Its behavior was uncannily similar to that of a silly, adorable husky. He thought to himself, after all, a Dragon Horse was a hybrid between a celestial dragon and a thousand-li steed—how could its intelligence be so lacking?

But after a moment's reflection, he realized the Dragon Horse’s intellect was equivalent to that of a young child. Perhaps such antics were to be expected.

Suddenly, the system assistant delivered a killer line: “Just following its master’s example!”

Hearing this, Qingxi couldn’t help but clench his fists, roaring inwardly at the assistant, “Draw your sword!”

“Please abandon such unrealistic thoughts. Your attention should be on the meteorite. Based on the scan before it landed, there’s treasure within, but also danger. Treat it with caution,” the assistant replied.

Heeding the reminder, Qingxi’s gaze returned to the surging, turbulent river. He grabbed the Dragon Horse’s ear, stopping its digging, and asked Qiu Yingying, “Senior Sister, are we really going?”

“Extraterrestrial objects often contain materials unknown to the cultivation world. It’s an opportunity we can’t miss.” Qiu Yingying was bold and skilled—she dared to trespass even in the forbidden zones of Lianyun Prefecture. An unknown meteorite didn’t frighten her.

She didn’t bother with Qingxi or the Dragon Horse’s reactions. Wrapping them in spiritual threads, she guided her metallic sword soul to fly low over the water, quickly reaching the river’s heart.

At that moment, a swordfish burst from the water, its razor-sharp bony sword glinting with icy light as it struck. With a casual flick, Qiu Yingying split it in two with golden sword energy.

Qingxi reacted swiftly, sending out two spiritual threads to retrieve the swordfish. He immediately absorbed and converted its blood essence and elemental origins.

Although it was merely a mid-tier human-grade swordfish, it still contained a hundred or two threads of elemental origin.

Along the way, they discovered that after the meteorite’s impact, countless dead fish now floated on the river’s surface, while the survivors were driven into a frenzy—attacking anything in sight, having lost all sense of reason.

However, the Western Sands River rarely harbored profound-grade beasts. Even in their frenzy, none could withstand a single stroke from Qiu Yingying.

“We’ve struck it rich!” Qingxi, without hesitation, used spiritual threads to gather the dead fish along the way, unleashing his full power to convert their elemental origins and blood essence.

As the number of elemental origins in his system’s space surpassed a thousand, a smile crept onto his lips.

“My master truly isn’t normal!” The Dragon Horse watched Qingxi collect and then discard dead fish over and over, utterly baffled.

Qiu Yingying, however, ignored all this, assuming he was searching for something.

When they reached the river’s center, they found only a whirlpool where the meteorite had struck—an impression as if the riverbed itself had been pierced, drawing the water down in reverse.

“Was the meteorite really that powerful?”

Qiu Yingying looked puzzled. She said to Qingxi, “I’ll go down and take a look. You stay here and don’t wander off.”

Wrapping herself in the metallic sword soul, she dove into the whirlpool.

Left alone on the river, Qingxi watched the dead aquatic beasts floating by, his smile growing more gleeful.

Under the Dragon Horse’s astonished gaze, Qingxi was soon busy gathering, discarding, and gathering again, thoroughly enjoying himself.

“My master doesn’t seem too bright… Maybe I should just run!” The thought crossed the Dragon Horse’s mind, a sly grin spreading across its face as it darted away across the water, disappearing in an instant.

But as it ran, the Dragon Horse found itself missing its master more and more. After several miles, the feeling grew unbearable, and in the end, it dashed back to Qingxi’s side.

Yet, no sooner had it returned than it saw its silly master still busy fishing. Annoyed, it galloped away again.

Qingxi had just tossed aside a lesser human-grade electric black eel, its elemental energy completely devoured.

Glancing in the Dragon Horse’s direction, he muttered, “Assistant, do I really not need to worry about it?”

“Why bother? Once a spiritual beast acknowledges a master through the system, a ‘longing for master’ imprint is planted deep in its soul. The farther it goes, the stronger the yearning. No matter what, it can’t escape,” the assistant explained smugly. “In fact, the further away they are, the stronger their longing grows. Even if they’re lost, they’ll eventually find their way back to you by an unseen pull.”

“You’re quite something, assistant. But this ‘longing for master’ mode is really effective—ensures my spiritual beasts can’t run off.”

Qingxi relaxed completely, no longer worried about losing his new companion, and focused even more on absorbing the origins of the dead aquatic beasts gathering near the whirlpool.

In less than ten minutes, the total elemental origins in his system’s space exceeded ten thousand. Gold and fire were still under a thousand threads each, but the other three surpassed three thousand.

“This meteorite arrived at the perfect time—what a windfall!” Qingxi felt an urge to throw his head back and laugh.

The gloom from having just exhausted his elemental origins was swept away, replaced by excitement and joy.

Suddenly, with a thunderous “boom,” the whirlpool beneath his feet erupted, sending a geyser of water soaring hundreds of meters into the air.

Caught off guard, Qingxi was blasted backwards.

By coincidence, the Dragon Horse, drawn back by the “longing for master” effect, happened to be returning and was struck directly by Qingxi.

With a simultaneous wail, both man and horse plunged into the river’s depths.

Fortunately, both were strong enough to escape with nothing worse than aching backs and sore waists.

When they surfaced, they sensed a heavy tension in the air. The whirlpool was gone, replaced by the confrontation of two figures across the water.

One was, of course, Qiu Yingying. She stood atop the waves, her metallic sword soul hovering at her back, radiating a fierce sword intent. Every wisp of aura around her was like a razor-sharp blade, capable of splitting mountains and cleaving the earth.

Not far away stood a strange entity. Though humanoid, its body was an amalgamation of fish bones, scales, rocks, bizarre fluids, unknown ores, and more.

Its face bore only a single gemstone eye, gleaming with intimidating light.

Its body flowed like liquid; one arm elongated into a sharp spear, and with a casual thrust, it churned the river, sending massive waves crashing toward Qiu Yingying.

But a flash of sword light split the torrent in two, sending water crashing to either side in a torrent of foam and thunder.

Qingxi fixed his eyes on this bizarre figure. Instantly, the system panel displayed a detailed analysis:

[Species: Extraterrestrial Fiend]
[Name: Ibushita (localized)]
[Cultivation: ?? (equivalent to Innate Perfection)]
[Spiritual Root: None (this race cultivates by devouring, not by spiritual roots)]
[Age: 442 years]
[Note: A race from beyond the heavens. Any invader not belonging to the cultivation world is termed an Extraterrestrial Fiend. Currently in a severely injured state, its effective strength is at the peak of late-stage Innate.]

Reading the introduction of the Extraterrestrial Fiend “Ibushita,” Qingxi could not hide his astonishment.

This was truly a visitor from beyond—and not just any, but one bent on invasion, classified as an Extraterrestrial Fiend.

Even gravely wounded, it could still fight at the peak of late-stage Innate. It was indeed terrifying.

Qingxi glanced at Qiu Yingying, and seeing that she remained unharmed, finally let out a breath of relief.