First of all, what can be confirmed is that Celestial God followers are not naturally born, but can be transformed. The experiences of this Constellation in front of him are the best proof. He was originally a cultivator from another domain in this home galaxy, and had even fought fiercely against Celestial God followers. Unfortunately, his strength wasn't enough, and he was beaten half to death.

As for the birth of Celestial God followers, it must be directly related to that gigantic Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron. Lu Ye hadn't been able to fully spy on the other party's memories, but he could roughly guess it: this half-dead guy was thrown into the Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron, then gained a new life and was transformed into a Celestial God follower!

Furthermore, when a Celestial God follower revives, a blood flower appears above his head, and a blood-colored radiance carries vital energy down into him—yet Arbuluo actually can't see it.

Lu Ye also couldn't see it before, but today he could.

He vaguely suspected that this was either related to him having spied the Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron from the Celestial God follower's memories, or related to the bit of telepathy he had used on the Celestial God follower.

After this divine rune was activated, all sorts of memories of the Celestial God follower were laid bare for his investigation, allowing him to glimpse the profundities.

But in any case, this was no bad thing. At the very least, research into Celestial God follower resurrection had made substantial progress! He already roughly understood the secret of their resurrection.

He had been puzzled before—how could a Celestial God follower have that much vital energy in his body to use? Now it seemed that they indeed didn't have that much inside them. The vital energy they used for resurrection was being cast down across space by that blood-colored radiance connecting to the blood flower.

And the source… must be that gigantic Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron!

At this thought, Lu Ye's eyes lit up. If he could destroy that Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron, wouldn't that solve the problem at its source?

Once they lost that Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron, Celestial God followers would no longer have the ability to resurrect, because they would have no vital energy to use.

The brown star… the Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron is hidden somewhere on that brown star!

Lu Ye hurriedly took out a jade slip, his Mental Consciousness surging as he branded a great deal of information into it, including the appearance of the Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron and the brown star.

Then he looked at Arbuluo and handed him the jade slip. "Make a run. Give this to Tian Hong, and have him think of a way to pass it on to the galactic alliance forces."

Arbuluo's face instantly turned into a bitter gourd. "I've only got half my battle merit left…" Last time Lu Ye had him go capture a few Celestial God followers, Tian Hong had given him a vicious dressing-down and chopped his battle merit by half. If he went again this time, not only might he lose all his battle merit, Tian Hong might really nail him with dereliction of duty.

"Relax, this is a major matter. Tian Hong definitely won't punish you for it. And you just go and come back quickly, there won't be a problem."

"Don't lie to me!" Arbuluo was full of suspicion, but Lu Ye's tone was so solemn that he also sensed how important this intel was. He didn't trust anyone else with it; he had to go himself.

With that, he picked up the jade slip and dropped the Celestial God follower he'd just knocked unconscious.

A short while later, Arbuluo left.

Lu Ye looked at the Celestial God follower in front of him, lightly waved his hand, Mana surging, and that Celestial God follower was instantly killed on the spot.

But very soon, the dead Celestial God follower showed signs of reviving, his injuries rapidly recovering. Lu Ye focused his attention and again saw the blood flower and the blood-colored radiance that appeared out of thin air.

Since he could see it… could he break it? If he could, then without fresh vital energy being injected into the Celestial God follower's body, he would be unable to resurrect!

Thinking this, Lu Ye began to act. To his surprise, although he could see the blood flower, it was ethereal and formless; no matter what method he used, he could not touch it.

The Celestial God follower's revival simply couldn't be stopped. After a moment, the dead Celestial God follower was once again brimming with vitality.

But this time, the moment the other opened his eyes, Lu Ye killed him again.

Over the next few attempts, he still got nowhere.

As he watched the Celestial God follower about to revive yet again, Lu Ye suddenly thought: since that vital energy is being poured in from a distance, then if he could completely isolate the Celestial God follower, would that prevent his resurrection?

With that in mind, Lu Ye immediately set about arranging a Formation to isolate inside from outside.

Array banners shot out, and very soon a Formation was completed.

The next instant, Lu Ye revealed a look of excitement, because within the Formation, the Celestial God follower—who should have been rapidly reviving—seemed to be hindered by something, and his injuries stopped recovering.

As Lu Ye watched intently, the blood flower above the Celestial God follower's head was still blooming, but there was no longer any blood-colored radiance.

After a moment, the blood flower atop the Celestial God follower's head gradually shrank and slowly vanished.

Almost the instant the blood flower disappeared, the Celestial God follower's corpse turned into motes of fluorescent light and dissipated.

It worked! Lu Ye was overjoyed. This kind of isolation really was effective, and extremely so.

A figure flickered in front of him; Arbuluo had returned, face full of excitement. "What intel did you send over? After Tian Hong read it, he was very happy and immediately gave us a reward, granted us a lot of battle merit."

Battle merit was naturally useless to the two of them here, but when the trial ended and everything was tallied, battle merit would definitely be converted into Asura Seal rewards.

"Bring another Celestial God follower over." Lu Ye didn't respond to him, just gave an order.

Arbuluo hadn't even steadied his body before he turned and left again.

Next, Lu Ye used another Celestial God follower for an experiment. He set up a Formation to isolate him, then killed him. After a while, he indeed turned directly into fluorescent motes and disappeared.

Arbuluo's eyeballs were about to pop out at the side. "What kind of principle is this?"

Lu Ye narrated his earlier findings in detail. Listening, Arbuluo's eyes lit up and he exclaimed with admiration, "I really admire you brainy types. This intel is definitely worth a lot of battle merit. I've got to hurry and send it to Tian Hong."

"No rush." Lu Ye waved his hand. "I still have other directions I want to try."

Most importantly, Lu Ye still wanted to pry into the secrets of that Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron.

One Celestial God follower after another was brought over by Arbuluo; Lu Ye repeatedly used his Single Flash of telepathy. The process was painful and torturous, but to probe the mysteries of the Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron he could only grit his teeth and bear it.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, there was no major progress. Every time he was just about to succeed, that blood-colored single eye would suddenly appear, and then the Celestial God follower would self-destruct.

This made Lu Ye realize that his probing must inevitably be triggering the restriction in the Celestial God follower's Divine Sea, something he couldn't avoid. Unless he personally went to the location of that Blood-Colored Furnace Cauldron to investigate, relying on Single Flash of telepathy alone would no longer yield any further progress.

Isolating the Celestial God followers and then killing them was indeed the best way to deal with them. Beyond using Formations to isolate them, Lu Ye also tried taking the Celestial God followers into his own Small Flower World, and the effect was the same.

Once the Small Flower World's portal closed, the degree of isolation between inside and outside was even stronger than a Formation.

Arbuluo had already passed this intelligence on to Tian Hong, and as expected, he received another reward.

Lu Ye, however, wasn't particularly pleased. This method worked against Constellation and Moon Jade Celestial God followers, but what about Sun Blaze?

When Sun Blaze cultivators fought, the commotion was enormous. What method could possibly isolate their resurrection? Formations definitely wouldn't work. No Sun Blaze would stupidly stay in place and let someone set up a Formation over them; once they sensed something was off, they would surely escape. Even if you barely managed to set it up, an ordinary Formation couldn't withstand the shockwaves from a Sun Blaze clash.

If this problem couldn't be solved, then the war against the Celestial God followers would never end.

"Senior Brother!" A crisp voice rang out. Lu Ye turned his head and saw Aqiduo.

"How's your injury?" Lu Ye asked with concern. If Aqiduo hadn't risked her life to shield him before, he would definitely have had to use a red talisman just to hold out until Tian Hong's support arrived.

The value of a single red talisman was immense; if he could avoid using it, so much the better.

"I'm fine now." Aqiduo replied with a smile, then her expression suddenly turned solemn. "By Senior Sister's order, starting today, I'll be serving as Senior Brother's personal bodyguard."

Her performance earlier had clearly earned Sun Nianyue's approval, and Sun Nianyue had specially transferred her over.

Lu Ye, though, felt it was likely a misunderstanding on Sun Nianyue's part, because when he handed Aqiduo over before, he had asked Sun Nianyue to tell Aqiduo to come find him once she'd recovered.

But it was no big deal.

"Come with me." Lu Ye beckoned and stepped off to the side.

Aqiduo had no idea what was going on, but obediently followed.

A short while later, Lu Ye and Aqiduo sat facing each other. Aqiduo asked curiously, "Does Senior Brother have any instructions?"

"Give me your hand," Lu Ye said.

Aqiduo extended her hand.

Lu Ye raised his own hand and placed it on hers. "It'll feel a bit uncomfortable. Try to endure it."

Aqiduo nodded. "Alright."

Lu Ye closed his eyes and focused. In an instant, invisible roots extended from their point of contact and burrowed into Aqiduo's body.

Immediately after, Lu Ye activated the power of the Talent Tree. Aqiduo's expression tightened at once, because in that instant she clearly felt a burning power arise inside her, causing some pain. Yet she didn't make a sound; instead, her eyes gradually brightened.

At this moment, Lu Ye was examining his Talent Tree.

Thick gray mist was billowing up from the Talent Tree…

This made him frown. It seemed his previous discovery hadn't been mistaken.

Aqiduo had been wounded before by a Sun Blaze Celestial God follower, her body eroded by the opponent's Mana. Lu Ye had used the Talent Tree to help her resolve it, but at the time he'd discovered something strange.

Namely, though there was clearly no trace of the Celestial God follower's Mana remaining in Aqiduo's body, the Talent Tree was still reacting abnormally.

Back then Aqiduo's injuries had been quite serious; Lu Ye couldn't afford to delay and had no choice but to hand her over to Sun Nianyue for treatment.

Only today, after she'd fully recovered, did Lu Ye have the chance to examine her again.

Judging from the Talent Tree's feedback alone, the situation inside Aqiduo's body was clearly very bad.

"You're poisoned?" Lu Ye opened his eyes and looked at Aqiduo.

He saw Aqiduo staring at him, face full of excitement, as if she'd just discovered something novel.

Hearing his question, Aqiduo came back to herself and hurriedly shook her head. "No." She looked utterly confused, as though she wasn't lying.

Lu Ye found it strange as well, because judging from the Talent Tree's reaction, if Aqiduo really were poisoned, it would have to be some kind of deadly toxin. There was no reason she could still be perfectly fine.

But if it wasn't a deadly poison, then what was causing the Talent Tree's reaction? The great billows of gray mist, and the rapidly depleting reserve of fuel, all pointed to a major problem in Aqiduo's body.