The surging pillar of light wasn’t too far off. They would arrive there after going through the forest and over two mountains. Flying over this distance was a matter of moments, and the gravity here wasn’t that high, so flight wasn’t a problem. However, the Great Maelstrom was so full of danger that it had become a widely accepted rule to just go on foot. Those who kept flying around in the Great Maelstrom usually wouldn’t live past the second day.

Qianye traversed the forest as advised with Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan behind him, cautious about their every step and footprint.

According to prior intelligence, the Constellation Well wasn’t all that dangerous, and most of the people who would come here were Imperial experts. That was because the dark races had little use for origin crystals. The occasional enemy expert would come here to hunt humans, but there were too many Imperial experts here, and all of them were powerful elites who had come to produce origin crystals. It was quite difficult to ambush such experts, and the predator could easily become the prey instead.

Qianye didn’t dare relax because he could still feel that vague pressure. He thus took point to scout the road on his own. Qianye’s survivability in the Great Maelstrom was much higher due to his powerful body and poison resistance. It was only natural that he should take the lead.

The three eventually walked out of the forest and climbed the first mountain. They had just arrived at the summit when three people stood up from behind the rocks, raising their bows and firearms at Qianye’s group.

“Haha, didn’t I say we’ll see people from the Empire if we just wait here? I was right, wasn’t I?” One of them laughed loudly.

The one on the left spat. “It’s just blind luck, what are you so smug about? If you’re capable, then calculate who among us has killed more people. You’re acting as though you know divination.”

The young man behind them said coldly, “Stop bickering! What if those people escape… eh?”

His eyes went wide to discover that not only was Qianye’s group not running away, but they were spreading out to surround them.

Qianye said, “Are these three on the entry roster?”

Li Kuanglan shook her head. “I’ve never seen them before or heard of them. Maybe they were from the last batch?”

Ji Tianqing said, “If they’re from the last batch, they shouldn’t be this weak after staying here for so long.”

“Perhaps they were injured or maybe there’s some other reason…” Li Kuanglan stopped after a few words, feeling that she wasn’t making sense. Even if they were the less talented from the last batch, there was no reason for all three of them to be the same. These fellows were rank twelve in origin power, but their foundations were so unstable that they couldn’t have gotten a quota for the Great Maelstrom.

Qianye spoke up at this point, “Why guess? Just take them down and ask them.”

He had barely finished speaking when he took a step forward to arrive in front of the man in the middle. A punch shot out at lightning speed and landed square on the latter’s face, knocking him out completely. Li Kuanglan flashed behind the young man and felled him with a chop to the neck. Ji Tianqing was more reliant on cheap tricks—she kicked a stone up and sent it flying at her target’s abdomen, making him bend down in pain while gasping for breath.

The three men were of mediocre cultivation, and their combat techniques were nothing to write home about. They were full of openings and weak beyond imagination. Qianye’s punch was just for show, and he had half a dozen more planned for follow-up. In the end, the enemy only remembered to dodge when the fist was in his face. There was no way he would make it.

Not only Qianye, but even Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan hadn’t expected such an outcome. At the same time, they began to suspect how such weak people had ended up here.

Great Maelstrom quotas were exceptionally valuable. One could easily see that from the intensity of the battle between young experts at the city of Indomitable. The neutral lands pa.s.sage was quite special in that those going in after the first few would encounter increasing danger. They would need to wait until the tunnel had stabilized before entering. Even Qianye had encountered some danger inside the pa.s.sage. These three didn’t have what it takes to traverse the tunnel and should’ve been crushed along the way.

Ji Tianqing arrived before the kneeling man and dragged him up by the hair. Looking into his eyes, she uttered, “Reply to whatever I ask you. This is the only way you’ll die a comfortable death, understand?”

The man’s face was twisted from pain. He looked at Ji Tianqing with a weird expression—there was a tinge of mockery and madness.

All of a sudden, Ji Tianqing saw a reflection of herself in his eyes, and the image was growing progressively clearer. Soon afterward, her figure sank deep into those pupils, almost as though it had fallen into a bottomless pit.

Ji Tianqing s.h.i.+vered subconsciously—this scene was simply too odd and incomprehensible even for her. She quickly activated her secret art and changed her appearance. The projection in the man’s eyes changed along with her but soon reverted to her previous form. Much like a breeze blowing away the mist, all illusions were completely dispersed.

Watching her original appearance sinking deep and vanis.h.i.+ng into those eyes, Ji Tianqing felt as though she had fallen into the abyss.

Just as she was having difficulty differentiating between illusion and reality, Qianye’s hand landed on her shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

“Ah, I’m fine. But he…”

“He’s dead.”

Ji Tianqing gasped in surprise. When she had calmed down enough to observe, the man in her grasp was bleeding from the nose and mouth, completely devoid of aura. She had no idea when or how he had pa.s.sed.

She released the corpse, allowing it to fall to the floor on its back. The man’s eyes were still open, gazing at Ji Tianqing with an eerie smile on his face.

For a moment, Ji Tianqing had no idea if he was dead or alive. The scene was so eerie that she took a step back and hid behind Qianye.

Li Kuanglan walked over. “The other two are dead too.”

Qianye frowned. “They died at the same time, it seems there’s some sort of connection between them.”

“Might not be just between them, they should be connected to certain other people as well. People from where they had come, for instance.”

Qianye bent down to pat the three bodies. “The internal structure is human. Although their organs have mutated, the change is not as bad as people like Nangong Tianyu. It seems they’ve been here for less than two years.”

“The Great Maelstrom wasn’t open two years ago.” Li Kuanglan was certain.

“Could it be a new type of native?” Qianye shook his head soon afterward. These three were equipped with Imperial gear and weapons, and their cultivation was daybreak origin power. They were nothing like the natives. Everything else, though, was fairly odd and different from an Imperial expert.

Ji Tianqing said, “Let’s forget about all that and head to the Constellation Well. We’ll deal with it if something happens.”

The Constellation Well was one of their most important stops, especially for Ji Tianqing since she had nine Storm Pearls in her possession. With some luck, that would mean they could produce nine origin crystals and allow the empire to produce a batch of backbone experts. Qianye would also be given abundant remuneration if he were willing to give up the ones he had produced.

The three odd fellows were simply too weak. Even if they had certain powers behind their back, they might not be that formidable.

Nodding, Qianye stepped out of the pit and buried the three bodies hastily. He then ran toward the Constellation Well with the two ladies.

After stepping over the last mountain ridge, the Constellation Well came into view.

This was a ma.s.sive valley over one thousand meters wide and hundreds of kilometers long. The cliffs on each side were distinctly layered, each as smooth and s.h.i.+ny as though they had been shaved off by a razor. It was a mystery how they were formed.

Starting from each end, the ground grew progressively deeper toward the center. Qianye happened to be standing right before the center of the valley, so he walked forward a couple of steps to glance down the precipice. The cliff walls made a sharp turn at the valley floor, forming a giant pit of sorts. This hole was extremely deep, and one could actually see a star-spangled sky at the bottom!

This proved that the Great Maelstrom was as thin as a sheet of paper.

The scenery was indeed beyond one’s imagination. No matter how confident Qianye was, he could feel a sense of palpitation before this worldly phenomena.

Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing had long since heard about the well, but hearsay wasn’t nearly enough to describe what they were seeing.

The three woke up from their amazement only a while later.

Ji Tianqing produced a Storm Pearl but gave it to Li Kuanglan instead of Qianye. “There are many things you need to pay attention to while trans.m.u.ting an origin crystal. The most important thing is not to be greedy and to leave enough origin power to get back up. The bottom of the well isn’t pure void but a tunnel just like the one we came in from. No one knows where it leads to, and the starry sky we’re seeing is a refraction from some unknown place. It’s not even certain whether it’s real or not. I’ll have Kuanglan demonstrate for you, then you can have a try.”

That was a safe plan, so Qianye nodded.

Li Kuanglan took the Storm Pearl and channeled her origin power. The pearl gradually bloomed with light and hovered in front of her chest. She then jumped up and dived headfirst into the well.

After falling rapidly for hundreds of meters, she flipped about like an agile fish and stood inside the well. At this moment, the starry sky was beneath her, and the vast sky was above. The scene itself made everyone’s hearts beat faster involuntarily.

Li Kuanglan’s eyes were half-closed as her body sank down slowly, coming to a complete halt after a dozen or so meters. Specks of aqua blue light spread out from her body, which the Storm Pearl duly absorbed.

The Constellation Well fluctuated all of a sudden, blurring the vision of all spectators. Qianye naturally noticed the change and focused his gaze. He saw many of the stars turning brighter, releasing motes of blue light which began moving slowly toward the Storm Pearl.

Qianye was stunned, wondering whether the starry sky was real or fake.

Ji Tianqing said, “No one knows whether that starry sky is real, but being able to draw upon the power of those stars means that an origin crystal will likely take shape, and its grade won’t be low, either.”

“There are different grades of origin crystals?”

“Of course.”