With his Earth Level Immortal Fire, the speed of his Artifact Refining immediately shot up, and the success rate, in particular, was greatly enhanced. He refined fifteen sets of materials in just a few days. This would have taken over ten days before, but now the time was cut down to just a handful!

"I’ll sell them all!"

Without hesitation, Yi Tianyun sold all twelve Soul Artifacts at once. Three of his refining attempts had failed, leaving the weapons broken. After selling all of them, his Madness Value jumped to just over 1,010,000, and his heart skipped a beat.

’A million! It’s enough!’

He was thrilled when he saw the number. He had finally scraped together one million Madness Value. This was an amount he could never have imagined reaching before, yet he had managed to do it!

’Upgrade!’

Without any hesitation, he immediately chose to upgrade Madness Mode. This was his most important Divine Skill; not only could it increase damage, but it also boosted experience gain. It also had various other miscellaneous effects that provided great advantages.

"DING! Deducted one million Madness Value. Successfully upgraded Madness Mode to Level 3!"

"Madness Mode Level 3: All effects are enhanced eightfold. You can choose to selectively boost damage or the experience multiplier... Upon reaching Level 3, an additional two-times Skill Level multiplier has been gained. Cost: 1,000 points per minute! Next level requires 10,000,000 Madness Value."

Yi Tianyun was delighted. The effect had been enhanced to eight times, just as he had calculated. If this trend continued, the next level would be sixteen times! A full sixteen times the damage or experience—that was truly insane.

Now, there was an additional effect: a two-times multiplier for Skill Level, which was another pleasant surprise. He had every reason to believe that future upgrades would bring even higher multipliers or even add new modes, like a Madness Value doubling mode. All of these were possibilities.

’One thousand points a minute... compared to the Luck Aura, that’s a pretty good deal.’

When Yi Tianyun saw the amount of Madness Value consumed, he thought it was actually acceptable. One thousand points per minute wasn’t a huge problem for him now. The Luck Aura was calculated by the second, while Madness Mode was calculated by the minute, so of course, it was more cost-effective.

’Oh, right. I still have ten Lottery Times. Might as well use them all.’

Yi Tianyun immediately activated the lottery wheel. Since the rewards on it no longer particularly tempted him, he rarely used the lottery anymore. Of course, he was more than happy to use any free Lottery Times he was given.

He quickly used up all ten lottery chances. He got quite a few things, but they were all Experience Pills, some weapons, or armor. There were no Divine Skills at all. It was either because there were no more relevant Divine Skills left in the prize pool, or he was just unable to draw one.

’It’s all just pretty ordinary junk. A shame I didn’t hit the jackpot this time...’ He had become largely indifferent to the lottery prizes; they were of little use to him anymore.

What could a Spirit Pill Stage Cultivator like him even use? Especially since this junk was low-level—weapons and armor of the Mortal Iron Level. They were truly of no use to him at all.

He nodded, thinking it was about time to go out and gather some information. He had been cooped up in this room for a full week.

As he started to walk down from the upper floor, he overheard a discussion before he even reached the bottom.

"I don’t know what’s going on, but a lot of experts from Cyan Profound Mansion have been mobilized. I saw seven or eight Giant Eagles! No idea where they’re headed."

"I heard they’re out for revenge. Apparently, some sect killed one of their disciples, so now they’re going to get even."

"What? What sect is so powerful that they’d dare to go up against Cyan Profound Mansion?"

...

The entire inn was buzzing with discussion on this topic; it was quite lively.

Yi Tianyun’s expression changed. He quickly walked up to their table, slapped a gold ingot down on it, and said in a low voice, "Whoever knows the current situation with Cyan Profound Mansion, tell me everything. This gold ingot is yours!"

The customers whose table had been slapped initially looked displeased, thinking Yi Tianyun was incredibly rude, but their eyes lit up the moment they saw the gold ingot.

"I know, I know!" one of the Cultivators immediately stood up and said, "I know what’s going on! The one who provoked Cyan Profound Mansion is a third-grade faction, a very powerful one at that. Apparently, they killed one of Cyan Profound Mansion’s elders."

"You don’t know shit! If you don’t know, don’t spout nonsense! I heard it was a first-grade faction that provoked Cyan Profound Mansion. They apparently even killed one of their elders, which is why so many experts were mobilized!"

"A first-grade faction killing a Cyan Profound Mansion elder? Aren’t you just talking nonsense! It would take at least a third-grade faction to kill one of their elders!"

The two of them started to argue, neither believing that a first-grade faction could kill an elder from Cyan Profound Mansion. An elder of the great Cyan Profound Mansion would be at least at the Spirit Pill Stage. How could a first-grade faction possibly kill them? Unless the elder just lay on the ground and let them chop away.

"You, tell me," Yi Tianyun said, pointing to the Cultivator who had mentioned a first-grade faction killing the elder.

"Me?" the Cultivator said excitedly. "I just heard that a first-grade faction provoked Cyan Profound Mansion. That’s the gist of it. That’s all I know."

"When did this happen?" Yi Tianyun asked.

"It was a few days ago. Even today, more people from Cyan Profound Mansion have been heading to the Earth Realm Continent one after another. I don’t know what they’re planning to do," the Cultivator said hastily.

’A few days ago...’ Yi Tianyun’s expression darkened. He had thought he would have three months to prepare, but now, not even a month had passed, and they were already mobilizing in droves. This was far too fast.

He fell silent for a moment, then turned and said, "This gold ingot is yours."

With that said, he vanished out the main door. The Cultivator was stunned for a moment, then snatched up the gold ingot and exclaimed in ecstasy, "Yes! This is great! The gold is mine!"

"How is that possible? You’re just talking nonsense! How could a first-grade faction kill an elder from Cyan Profound Mansion?"

"I’m not talking nonsense! It’s just what I heard. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but he believed me, anyway!"

They started arguing again, neither believing the other’s words. But no matter how they quarreled, Yi Tianyun could no longer hear them. He was already rushing hurriedly out of the city.

’Things have changed. Their reaction speed is a bit fast, but it should still take them some time to find the Celestial Sinking Ruins...’ Yi Tianyun thought to himself. This was a classic case of plans being unable to keep up with reality. Three months had been compressed into less than one.

At most, he could still wander around outside for half a month. In half a month’s time, Cyan Profound Mansion would absolutely be able to find Merak Palace’s hiding place. He just couldn’t afford to roam around aimlessly anymore. After all, it’s always the one-in-a-million chance you have to worry about. If something unexpected really happened, it would be all over.

As he made his rapid departure, someone watched his retreating figure and thought about following, but ultimately held back and returned to the Star Pavilion.

"Elder Huang, that person has already left. It seems he inquired about Cyan Profound Mansion and then departed quickly."

The entire Celestial Heart City was filled with their spies, so they were aware of Yi Tianyun’s every move, including what information he was seeking.

"He left immediately after hearing news about Cyan Profound Mansion..." Elder Huang narrowed his eyes. "If this were before, we would have guessed he was connected to Cyan Profound Mansion, but now it seems he isn’t. In that case, he must be connected to Merak Palace... Is he from Merak Palace? But that’s not right. Merak Palace is only a first-grade faction. How could they have such a young male disciple?"

Their information was limited, but based on Yi Tianyun’s previous warning, they had determined he had no connection to Cyan Profound Mansion. If he were allied with Cyan Profound Mansion, he would never have said that they were doomed to perish.

"What should we do now?" the Guard beside him asked.

"Investigate everything about Merak Palace. I want a detailed report!" Elder Huang said in a low voice. "I’d like to see if Zhu Yuwei happens to be in that Merak Palace."

He still hadn’t given up. Regardless of whether Cyan Profound Mansion would be destroyed, he at least had to find out where Zhu Yuwei was. If Cyan Profound Mansion was annihilated, then they truly couldn’t be relied upon as a backer anymore.