In the time that followed, Ye Yunfei continued moving through the city accompanied by the two Xiao sisters and the two Peng siblings.
As his Mental Force energy and Heart Force Laws continued to improve, the special mental force laws that permeated this city no longer had any effect on him. Ye Yunfei could now perceive further and further out, clearly sensing the situation dozens of streets away.
He discovered intense battles raging in many streets, all fought over Heartforce Tokens.
Different factions were clashing violently; some factions were even experiencing internal strife, turning on and slaughtering each other. The scenes were extremely brutal.
One had to remember that in order to leave this bizarre city, one must collect at least three Heartforce Tokens; otherwise, they would be trapped here. Thus, everyone was desperately trying to gather tokens.
Some powerful experts who wished to obtain the treasures left behind by the city's master were aiming to collect thirty tokens.
In short, everyone understood the precious value of these Heartforce Tokens.
Ye Yunfei also noticed that quite a few people had already gathered their three tokens and teleported away.
Suddenly, a dozen Golden Immortals came face to face with Ye Yunfei's group. Seeing that there were only five of them, the Golden Immortals immediately had thoughts of robbery.
“Hand over everything you have immediately, or you die!” someone shouted.
“Those three women look quite good. Capture them and take them away!” someone else said, eyeing the two Xiao sisters and Peng Rou with ill intent.
“You’ve come looking for trouble yourselves. Good.” Ye Yunfei gave a cold laugh.
Given Ye Yunfei's personality, if these dozen or so Golden Immortals hadn't provoked him first, he likely wouldn't have bothered with them. But since they had actively sought trouble, they gave him a reason to act. With a thought, Ye Yunfei unleashed his Formless Heart Sword.
Aah! Aah! Aah...
As if struck by lightning, the dozen Golden Immortals were sent flying backward. By the time they hit the ground, they were already corpses.
From these Golden Immortals, Ye Yunfei found six Heartforce Tokens.
“It seems as time passes, more and more tokens are being found. These guys were utterly mediocre, yet they managed to get six tokens,” Hun Lao's voice chimed in.
“That's fine by us. We don't even need to look for them ourselves anymore; we can just take them,” Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm said.
In the following time, Ye Yunfei continued moving through the city. Whenever he sensed people fighting over Heartforce Tokens somewhere, he would rush over and join the fray.
With Ye Yunfei’s current strength, no one could out-compete him. Even if he encountered a Primary Heavenly Immortal, a single use of his Formless Heart Sword was enough to defeat the enemy. After the encounters he'd had within this city, both his Mental Force energy and Heart Force Laws were rising rapidly. Now, he could easily handle Primary Heavenly Immortals.
He even believed that if he encountered an Intermediate Heavenly Immortal now, he would have the power to fight, unlike before when he could only flee at the sight of them.
Under these circumstances, the number of Heartforce Tokens Ye Yunfei seized began to increase significantly.
“I now have nineteen Heartforce Tokens on me! I only need eleven more to reach thirty, giving me a chance to obtain the treasures left by the city’s master,” Ye Yunfei thought with a surge of excitement and anticipation.
“There’s another fight up ahead! Several groups seem to be fighting over Heartforce Tokens. I can sense… there are two tokens there! Let's hurry over!” Just then, Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm suddenly yelled.
The Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm possessed a special spatial talent. Although this city was saturated with strange mental force laws that greatly suppressed perception, the creature had been inside for some time now. Gradually, relying on his clan's innate spatial gifts, he had begun to familiarize himself with the spatial characteristics here, allowing him to perceive an increasingly large spatial area.
“Indeed, I sense it too. I'll head over right now to join the fight. Those two Heartforce Tokens are currently unclaimed. Whoever has the higher skill gets them,” Ye Yunfei said with a smile, having already sensed the situation as well.
Activating his movement technique, Ye Yunfei quickly arrived at the street where the battle was taking place.
Three distinct groups were fighting over the two Heartforce Tokens. Ye Yunfei noticed that one group seemed to belong to the Heavenly God Hall. Another group was emanating thick, ominous death energy.
“Could these guys be from the Great Netherworld?” Ye Yunfei wondered silently as he observed.
Each of the three groups was led by a Heavenly Immortal.
“These two tokens were discovered by us first, so they should rightfully belong to our Great Netherworld. You dare to fight for them, clearly showing you don't put our Great Netherworld in your eyes. Are you deliberately trying to provoke us?” a middle-aged man wearing a white, pointed hat and holding a black-and-white striped rod said in a sinister, furious tone.
“Heavenly treasures are masterless possessions, attainable by those who are fated to have them. How can you claim they belong to your Great Netherworld? Enough talk, let's rely on our own abilities!” a tall, slender man holding a long spear retorted.
“You from the Heavenly God Hall are going too far! Don't think our Great Netherworld fears you!” the middle-aged man with the white hat raged.
“Hahaha... Our Heavenly God Hall isn't afraid of your Great Netherworld either! If you want these two tokens, let's see whose skills are superior. Don't think you can scare us off with a few empty threats!” the man from the Heavenly God Hall laughed heartily.
“Well said! Whoever wants these tokens must rely on their own ability! Our Xuanwu Sacred Land certainly won't back down,” a white-robed middle-aged man from the third faction added calmly.
“So that guy is from the Xuanwu Sacred Land! It seems that ancient faction still has an ongoing legacy,” within the Illusionary Tower, the remnant soul sent a voice transmission to Ye Yunfei.
During this period, the remnant soul had mostly been in seclusion, rarely communicating with Ye Yunfei.
“Oh? Senior, you know of the Xuanwu Sacred Land? Is this faction famous within the Chaotic Void Sea?” Ye Yunfei asked curiously.
“Of course. In my era, Xuanwu Sacred Land was one of the top ten major forces within the Chaotic Void Sea. I'm not sure how their strength has fared after so many years, though. Still, a battered ship has three jin of nails remaining. Xuanwu Sacred Land is an extremely ancient, well-established sect with profound heritage; they definitely won't be weak,” the remnant soul replied.
“I see,” Ye Yunfei nodded, though he wasn't particularly concerned with such matters at the moment. His primary focus was still on those two Heartforce Tokens.
At this moment, the two Heartforce Tokens floated in mid-air amidst the three rival groups.
In a flash, augmented by his Time Boots, Ye Yunfei instantly appeared right next to the two Heartforce Tokens. While activating his Formless Heart Sword, he reached out and grabbed for the tokens.
The three factions were fighting intensely amongst themselves, completely unprepared for someone to suddenly charge into their midst and snatch the tokens. They were caught completely off guard.
Ye Yunfei seized the two tokens with one hand, turned, and made his escape.
“How dare you!”
“Seeking death!”
“Drop those tokens now!”
The three Primary Heavenly Immortals from the three factions roared in fury. But almost immediately, they were struck by Ye Yunfei's Formless Heart Sword, crying out in pain together.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ye Yunfei swiftly retreated, vanishing from sight in an instant.
His arrival and departure happened in mere moments.
However, everyone had clearly seen Ye Yunfei's appearance, and someone quickly recognized him.
“That was Ye Yunfei from the Three Thousand Worlds!”
“Dammit! An ant from a remote world cluster dares to steal our Heartforce Tokens? Too arrogant!”
“After him!”
The three groups were enraged and immediately gave chase in the direction Ye Yunfei had fled.
“Two more Heartforce Tokens obtained. A good harvest!” Ye Yunfei, now on a different street, smiled with satisfaction.
“I told you so, didn’t I? There's no need to waste effort searching ourselves. Just plundering them is the most effective method,” Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm remarked.
“Indeed, plundering is the most direct method. Right now, I’ll specifically look for members of those factions I have grudges with. The moment I spot them, I’ll attack directly,” Ye Yunfei said.
“Ahead! A group from the Dark Faction!”
Not long after, Ye Yunfei spotted a squad from the Dark Faction up ahead. He charged straight at them. After a brief fight, he killed more than half of them and seized two more Heartforce Tokens.
Ye Yunfei continued his search for Heartforce Tokens. As time went on, he acquired more and more tokens. Some were ones he found himself; a significant portion were taken from others, primarily from members of factions he held grudges against, like the Dark Faction, Demon Race, Demonic Race, Black Wind Group, and the Great Netherworld, among other major powers.
Against members of these hostile factions, Ye Yunfei not only seized their tokens but also struck without mercy, killing every one he could.
There were also members of factions with whom Ye Yunfei had no prior grievance. Seeing his apparently low cultivation realm, they attempted to rob him, only to be completely cleaned out by Ye Yunfei instead.
After having their Heartforce Tokens taken by Ye Yunfei, these faction members, understandably furious, began searching everywhere to hunt him down. Gradually, more and more factions joined the chase for Ye Yunfei.
The city's streets were filled with squad after squad rushing about, accompanied by furious roars everywhere.
“Ye Yunfei! Show yourself! You have killed so many of our Dark Faction members and stolen our Heartforce Tokens! You deserve death ten thousand times!” The roar of a Dark Faction Primary Heavenly Immortal echoed through street after street.
Not long ago, the Dark Faction had taken inventory and discovered that over half the members who had entered this city had been killed by Ye Yunfei. The leading Heavenly Immortals were now in a state of frenzied rage.
“Ye bastard! Where are you hiding!?” An Intermediate Heavenly Immortal from the Demon Race also roared, his voice like thunderous celestial anger, for he found that the majority of the demonic force that had entered the city had been slaughtered by Ye Yunfei.
“We must find that Ye bastard! Cut him a thousand times! Shatter his soul so he can never reincarnate through Samsara again!” the Demon Race Intermediate Heavenly Immortal screamed in wrath.
“Damn it! The members of our Black Wind Group are almost completely wiped out by that Ye kid!” In one street, two Heavenly Immortal experts from the Black Wind Group met. One of them let out an enraged, horrified roar.
“At least one-third of our Demonic Race members who entered this city were killed by that Ye! We must find him and exact revenge!” a Demonic Race Heavenly Immortal expert roared with thunderous fury.
“You hear that? Sounds like a lot of guys are looking for you,” Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm said to Ye Yunfei upon hearing the angry shouts.
“Let them search. I don't have time for them right now. I still need two more Heartforce Tokens to reach thirty. That's the most important thing for me right now,” Ye Yunfei replied.
Not long after, Ye Yunfei arrived at a relatively secluded street on the outer edge of the city.
“There! Two Heartforce Tokens!”
Suddenly, Ye Yunfei spotted two Heartforce Tokens hovering above the signboard of a shop right in the middle of the street. His heart leapt with excitement. If he obtained these two tokens, he would have his full thirty!
“Hahaha… There are actually two Heartforce Tokens here! What luck! With these two tokens, I’ll have thirty!”
However, just as Ye Yunfei prepared to rush forward and claim the tokens, a wild, joyous laugh rang out. Turning, Ye Yunfei saw a tall, elegant-looking youth with an aura of majesty appear at the other end of the street, his face alight with excitement. This youth appeared young, but he was actually an Intermediate Heavenly Immortal!
In the next instant, the youth activated his movement technique, charging toward the two Heartforce Tokens in the center of the street.
At the same moment, Ye Yunfei moved as well!
Ye Yunfei activated his Time Boots, sprinting at full speed and instantly arriving at the location of the two tokens. But he discovered, to his surprise, that the youth arrived at the exact same spot simultaneously.
The two stood face to face.
“A mere Golden Immortal possessing such speed in movement techniques is rather impressive! However, it’s best to know your place. Don't aspire to possess things that surpass your strength. Since I'm in a decent mood right now, get lost!” The youth's gaze was fixed on the two Heartforce Tokens, his excitement evident. He didn't even spare Ye Yunfei a proper look, his voice icy as he spoke.
“Where there's a will, there's a way! I've finally gathered thirty Heartforce Tokens! Next, I shall obtain the treasures left behind by the city's master! This is a great opportunity for me! My Mental Force energy has already reached a certain level. I’m confident that after acquiring those treasures, my mental force level will rise significantly. That will greatly enhance my overall combat power, allowing me to easily crush my peers and those of equal rank in the future!” The youth spoke triumphantly, as if victory was already assured.