Haki Ziwei, not only are you acting cute, but you've also learned to play the victim, haven't you

Chen Yi was rather disappointed.

This semi-cosmic-level Abyssal Matriarch was even more ancient than the one beyond the borders of the Azure Cloud Continent, yet it still failed to provide any useful information.

That said, the place capable of birthing such an Abyssal Matriarch must hold some significance!

The Cosmic Evolution Path and the Universal Evolution Path—though neither could be considered righteous, even bordering on heretical—were undeniably rooted in the fundamental concepts of space and time, and not just in the conventional sense. These paths expanded into broader definitions, branching into numerous derivatives!

If one ignored the immense resources required for such evolution, these paths held considerable reference value. And the birthplace of such evolution paths could hardly be an ordinary place, could it?

Unfortunately, none of the captured Abyssal Matriarchs retained any relevant memories, making it impossible to pinpoint their origins for further investigation.

"Forget it. I keep my word—I’ll make this quick for you."

Chen Yi sighed faintly before slowly raising his halberd.

The Abyssal Matriarch shrieked in terror, "No, wait!!!"

"I—I remember now! I know where I was born! Don’t kill me! I’ll tell you everything, I’ll—"

Before it could finish—

Thunk!

Its grotesque body was instantly obliterated into nothingness, leaving only a severed head with lifeless, wide-open eyes.

The cunning Abyssal Matriarch had tried to lie to save its own skin. Naturally, Chen Yi wasn’t fooled by its nonsense.

He could discern truth from deception just fine on his own.

"Wow, you actually killed it? You’re amazing!"

Staring at the severed head of the semi-cosmic-level Abyssal Matriarch, the chubby orange cat that was the Divine Land’s Heavenly Dao was thoroughly impressed.

Well, if it had to be exploited either way, at least this bandit had done something good for it. Better to be drained by him than to be sucked dry by the Immortal Realm while also being preyed upon by the Abyssal fiends!

"Now, will you willingly proceed with the reforms?" Chen Yi asked with a smile, casually twirling his halberd.

"Sure thing, boss! No problem, boss! Whatever you say, boss!"

The Divine Land’s Heavenly Dao stretched lazily before immediately implementing the optimized incense divinity system reform plan as demanded by Chen Yi.

Buzz… buzz… buzz!!!

In an instant, the heavens and earth trembled faintly.

"What the—? We’re supposed to serve the masses now? And even let them supervise us? This is sheer madness!"

"This new promotion system is interesting… A Merit Evaluation Court? Isn’t that just the Ministry of Appointments? Is the Heavenly Dao reclaiming local appointment authority?"

"Any brothers working in the Discipline Inspection Department? Got a little favor to ask..."

"Are you stupid? That department doesn’t have any gods! It’s a direct channel for the masses to reach the heavens. The Heavenly Dao is serious this time!"

"Damn it! I didn’t dare use a single wisp of incense—it’s all here! I was just scared of being poor..."

"Hey, hey—my divine position! Why is my divine position gone?!"

"..."

The reform of the incense divinity system surged forward like a tidal wave, sweeping up every living being in its path. The most blatantly exploitative incense gods were immediately dismissed without investigation.

As for the more cautious ones, their cases were temporarily set aside—after all, removing too many at once would leave no one to maintain order. If chaos erupted, even the Divine Land’s Heavenly Dao, with all its accumulated reserves, couldn’t withstand the fallout.

So, for now, it had to remove some, suppress others, and promote a few to stabilize the situation.

Sigh… What a pity—all that hard-earned divine essence was about to be squeezed dry.

The pain… the sheer pain…

Fortunately, Chen Yi had a kind heart. He was more than happy to take in the deposed incense gods, preventing them from destabilizing the world even after losing their divine positions but retaining their power.

Inside the Illusory Star Pocket Realm, Chen Yi’s true form flung out nine Chaos-Colored Pearls, weaving a cross-realm teleportation array in the sky to connect with the Divine Land. The dismissed incense gods would ascend here to serve as variables!

Of course, back when he was so poor that all he had were Tribulation Lightning Essences, he could never have pulled off such an extravagant move!

After all, cross-realm teleportation arrays consumed an astronomical amount of energy!

But now? Like the little golden dragon, he had skimmed quite a bit from Ling Xiao’s treasury—over 80 billion Immortal Yuan Stones alone! He had capital to spare!

Honestly, Ling Xiao was filthy rich. Even after embezzling so much, he had barely made a dent—just one hundred-millionth of the treasury’s total reserves!

If only that treasury weren’t such a hot potato, he wouldn’t have held back at all!

Naturally, such extravagance immediately caught the attention of the Purple Star Heavenly Dao.

It was dumbfounded.

A cross-realm teleportation array?!

The amount of Immortal Yuan consumed in a single second surpassed the total daily output of all the immortal veins across the Purple Star Continent!

Since when was Brother Yi this loaded?!

Where did he get so many Immortal Yuan Stones?

Sure, he had taken in cultivators from the Falling Star World before, but back then, he had used a special teleportation channel—nothing as blatant as this grand array.

Ah, Brother Yi… hiding such wealth until now? How could you?!

"Meow~"

The eager Purple Star Heavenly Dao immediately paused its refinement of the True Immortal-level Heavenly Dao essence from the Azure Cloud Continent, transforming into an adorable kitten and darting into the Illusory Star Pocket Realm.

"Brother Yi, Brother Yi! What if I can’t pay wages anymore?"

"All the kids sent over from Little Falling Star have been assigned posts, but they need to eat too! I’ve got nothing left to give them. What do you think?"

The greedy little kitten circled Chen Yi, licking its lips and meowing incessantly, dropping not-so-subtle hints.

Chen Yi: "..."

He had expected this move to lure out the greedy kitten, but he hadn’t anticipated it resorting to both cuteness and pity.

What a shameless tactic… Hmph, Purple Star, you little—

Of course, Chen Yi was long desensitized to such antics. His resistance was well-trained, so he remained unfazed.

But Xu Jinghong, standing nearby while cradling the Xiuzhi statue, wasn’t as composed.

Though he was a Profound Immortal, his Dao heart wasn’t as unshakable as one might expect. The moment he saw the adorable kitten bouncing around, even his sharp sword-immortal gaze softened.

Wow, such a cute cat… I bet Xiuzhi would love it—

Wait, no!

This was the Purple Star Heavenly Dao in disguise—Chen Yi’s treasured companion! How could he entertain such improper thoughts?!

Shame on me… shame on me…

Suppressing his fluttering heart, Xu Jinghong turned away silently, dragging a group of still-sleeping Azure Cloud cultivators deeper into the pocket realm to give the senior some privacy.

Good kid… Chen Yi nodded approvingly before turning back and pressing a hand on the greedy kitten’s head.

"Alright, alright. These Immortal Yuan Stones aren’t clean—eating them will give you a stomachache. Let me purify them first before handing them over."

"Okay, Brother Yi! Whatever you say."

The Purple Star Heavenly Dao trusted Chen Yi implicitly. If he said there were impurities, then there were impurities.

Once he finished, it would finally have the funds to pay the kids!

Licking its lips again, it asked, "Brother Yi, the people coming through the teleportation array this time aren’t from the Azure Cloud side, right?"

"I haven’t fully merged with that True Immortal-level Heavenly Dao essence yet. If too many come over, I might not be able to accommodate them all."