Afterwards, Jian Chen and the Thousand Soul Demon Exalt began to work together. The Thousand Soul Demon Exalt was responsible for powering the Energy-devouring Furnace, while Jian Chen controlled the spiritual Qi in the Skyscraping World to prevent the formation from replenishing its energy supply.
However, the secret technique that the Skyscraping Sword Venerable taught Jian Chen only allowed him to control the spiritual Qi in the Skyscraping World. Jian Chen had no control over the spiritual Qi in the formation.
Fortunately, the Thousand Soul Demon Exalt had recovered much of his strength. As a result, despite powering the Energy-devouring Furnace alone, he was not much slower compared to when he powered the furnace with Jian Chen together last time.
The dense spiritual Qi had been forcefully stripped from the sky above the Immortal Cloud Tower’s medicinal garden, forming an almost tangible stream of light that was entirely absorbed by the Energy-devouring Furnace.
The Energy-devouring Furnace seemed to become a bottomless hole despite its size. No matter how much spiritual Qi it absorbed, it never reached capacity.
The tremendous and pure spiritual Qi gathered inside it before being condensed into extremely pure energy crystals.
However, the energy crystals only contained a small fraction of the spiritual Qi absorbed by the Energy-devouring Furnace.
Under the Energy-devouring Furnace’s effects for over ten days, the formation finally ran out of energy. As the formation collapsed on itself, the numerous heavenly resources it protected were clearly revealed before Jian Chen. They were within arm’s reach now.
Jian Chen glanced over them quickly. There were several hundred heavenly resources in total, encompassing a large variety. Half of them were low grade God Tier, while the other half was mid grade God Tier.
As for high grade God Tier heavenly resources, there were only a dozen or so.
“This is a Twin-headed Lotus, a high grade God Tier Twin-headed Lotus. It’s far more precious than any of the other heavenly resources here.” With a flash, Jian Chen immediately arrived at the very centre of the medicinal garden. He carefully dug out the Twin-headed Lotus before him.
He did not pick the Twin-headed Lotus. Instead, he dug up a huge chunk of the surrounding earth with all of its roots, moving it into the Primeval Divine Hall as one piece.
That way, the Twin-headed Lotus could potentially evolve once again.
Jian Chen repeated this with the other heavenly resources and moved over a hundred of them into the Primeval Divine Hall. These heavenly resources all possessed tremendous space for growth and huge future potential. If they were nurtured appropriately, they would evolve further.
As for the remaining heavenly resources that Jian Chen believed to have no more value in nurturing, he picked them all and stored them in jade boxes.
Before long, the medicinal garden that belonged to the Immortal Cloud Tower had been cleaned out by Jian Chen.
However, the Immortal Cloud Tower’s medicinal garden was only the beginning. In order to complete the Skyscraping Sword Venerable’s request, to uproot the parasites that constantly drained the Skyscraping World’s spiritual Qi, Jian Chen was already prepared to clean up the entire place.
“I’ll offend a lot of organisations with this, but the benefits make the risk worth it,” Jian Chen thought. Eliminating these medicinal gardens could not only complete the Skyscraping Sword Venerable’s request and lengthen the lifespan of the Skyscraping World, but it could also bring him a bountiful harvest and replenish his resources, so wasn’t that for the best?
The Thousand Soul Demon Exalt had already returned to the Primeval Divine Hall. Jian Chen continued to search through the Skyscraping World alone.
But now, his goal had changed. He began to specially search for medicinal gardens set up by various organisations.
Having tasted the benefits of this, Jian Chen’s appetite grew unknowingly. Often, he would come across a God Tier heavenly resource or two along the way and he would not even bother to stop to pick it up. After all, he did not want to waste the time.
Finding a medicinal garden often meant hundreds, thousands, or even more heavenly resources, and their quality would all be very high. Basically every medicinal garden would have some high grade God Tier heavenly resources.
In comparison, the one or two low grade God Tier heavenly resources he came across obviously were not worthy of his attention.
At this moment, Jian Chen’s expression suddenly changed. He used the spiritual Qi to inspect the surroundings. He clearly sensed the presence of three Immortal Exalts rapidly approaching from several thousand kilometres away. It seemed like one of them was fleeing with the other two pursuing.
Coincidentally, they were traveling in Jian Chen’s direction.
In just a few seconds, the three figures appeared in Jian Chen’s view. The Immortal Exalt who fled at the front was at the Second Heavenly Layer. He was covered in blood, and his body was covered with vicious wounds. He was heavily injured.
As for the people pursuing behind, one of them was at the Second Heavenly Layer and the other was at the First Heavenly Layer!
Jian Chen recognised all three of them. The fleeing Immortal Exalt was with the Crouching Dragon Master. Outside the Skyscraping World when the Crouching Dragon Master tried to rope in Immortal Exalt Tan Yu, the former had already formed an alliance with the Crouching Dragon Master.
“Zhou Yunzhuang, hand over the Three Lives Samsara Fruit. With your current state, you definitely won’t be able to hold onto it. If you continue with such obstinance, you might not be able to emerge from the Skyscraping World again.” At this moment, a yell rang out. The pursuing Second Heavenly Layer Immortal Exalt bellowed out furiously. With that, the high quality god artifact sword in his hand shone with blinding light, producing a glorious strand of sword Qi that caught up with the fleeing Zhou Yunzhuang, leaving behind a bowl-sized hole in his chest.
Zhou Yunzhuang staggered and almost fell to the ground. He coughed up blood uncontrollably.
He was severely injured. In his current state, he could not even stop a First Heavenly Layer Immortal Exalt, much less a Second Heavenly Layer Immortal Exalt who had grasped the Way of the Sword.
With that delay, Zhou Yunzhuang’s speed greatly diminished. The distance between them immediately reduced substantially.
At this moment, Zhou Yunzhuang also noticed Jian Chen in front of him. Without any further thought, he took out a delicate jade box from his Space Ring and tossed it to Jian Chen. “Quick, take the Three Lives Samsara Fruit and leave here. I’ll draw them away.”
The jade box directly smashed against Jian Chen’s chest before falling into his hands.
Under these circumstances, Jian Chen did not even have the choice of refusing the jade box.
“Run! What are you waiting for?” Seeing how Jian Chen was blanked out on the spot, Zhou Yunzhuang could not help but roar out furiously.
“Hahaha, we saw it all. Zhou Yunzhuang, are you afraid that we won’t be able to obtain the Three Lives Samsara Fruit, which is why you handed it over to an Immortal Emperor?” The pursuing Immortal Exalts laughed aloud. Taking the Three Lives Samsara Fruit from Zhou Yunzhuang would still take some strength.
However, taking it from the hands of an Immortal Emperor was like taking candy from a baby. It would be effortless.
Zhou Yunzhuang’s gaze towards Jian Chen was slightly cold. He did not say anything, turning around and continuing to flee into the distance.
“Little brother, hand over the jade box that contains the Three Lives Samsara Fruit.” The two Immortal Exalts did not continue pursuing Zhou Yunzhuang. Instead, they arrived before Jian Chen and forced out a smile at him.
“You’ve been fooled.” Jian Chen’s expression did not change at all as he opened the jade box. It was empty inside. There was no Three Lives Samsara Fruit to be seen.
“Dammit. Zhou Yunzhuang, how are you still playing tricks on us!” When they saw this, the two Immortal Exalts were irritated. Fortunately, the Immortal Emperor had not fled. Otherwise, by the time they had caught up with the Immortal Emperor, Zhou Yunzhuang would have escaped from their range of senses already.
“You damned junior. How dare you waste our time. You almost screwed us over,” the Second Heavenly Layer Immortal Exalt cursed furiously and directly kicked Jian Chen in the stomach. Afterwards, he continued to chase after Zhou Yunzhuang without sparing a second glance at Jian Chen.
Jian Chen did not defend. He was kicked several hundred metres away before falling to the ground. Afterwards, he stood up like nothing had happened at all. He looked in the direction that the Immortal Exalt had fled as his gaze became icy.