The fifth level of the Great Azure Cloud Path!
In the training room on the third floor of Mind Cleansing Hall, Lin Xun slowly woke up from his meditation with a cold voice ringing in his mind.
Hu—
Lin Xun exhaled a breath of turbid air as he glanced around the quiet and empty hall.
I’m back.
More than a month had passed since he had challenged the fourth level. Everything felt like a dream. He had gone through life and death situations on Mount Louhou of the Ancient Spirit World and had suddenly returned to the familiar Mind Cleansing Peak.
“If those old people knew that I don’t belong to the Ancient Spirit World, I wonder how angry they would be.”
Lin Xun cast his mind back to the exasperated expressions on the Heaven Ascension cultivators’ faces, and a smile spread across his face.
Soon, he ceased his thoughts and started to summarize his gains from the level.
Swoosh!His mind-sea swayed turbulently for a while. Suddenly, Lin Xun spewed out thin strands of hair-like light from his nostrils.
Upon a closer look, they were pin-shaped insects with entirely black bodies and a chilling aura.
They were tinier than grains of rice, but they could make any cultivator shudder at their name—God Devourer Insects!
Lin Xun had sealed a total of seventy-three God Devourer Insects with his spirit power. He took them all out and stored them in a jade bottle.
Lian Dieyi had thought that Lin Xun was dead meat when God Devourer Insects penetrated his mind-sea in the forbidden area of the Ancient Blood Wasteland.
However, she didn’t know that he had suppressed and sealed the terrifying insects with Star-Cycle when they entered his mind-sea!
It was a mysterious effect of the Little Divine Meditation Art. The art had not only strengthened his spirit-sensing power and improved his comprehension ability, but it also had an incredible effect on his spirit-attacking power. It had helped him through many dangers in the past.
“These are precious treasures. Not even Heaven Ascension cultivators can defend against them and one is enough to inflict heavy damage to the spirit of a Heaven Ascension cultivator and cause terrifying consequences.”
Lin Xun carefully put away the sealed God Devourer Insects. They can be used as trump cards and will be useful in the future.
Lian Dieyi had mentioned that God Devourer Insects were able to devourer the spirits of even divine beings in ancient times.
God Devourer Insects had long been extinct in the Ancient Spirit World, but she had never expected them to exist in the forbidden area of the Ancient Blood Wasteland.
The thought of Lian Dieyi, a sly and scheming woman, made Lin Xun feel a tightness in his chest. He had been extra cautious, but the woman had still managed to push him into a pit.
Her reason for doing so was simply because he had previously refused to cooperate with her.
The more beautiful a woman, the more vengeful they are, is that right?
Lin Xun didn’t believe her ridiculous reason.
“That woman is a five-colored lotus. If I run into her again, I’m going to refine her into a pill!”
Lin Xun gritted his teeth. If he didn’t have a means of escape, he wouldn’t have been able to escape from the encirclement of so many peerless genius cultivators and the watchful eyes of a group of Heaven Ascension cultivators.
His crisis had been brought about by Lian Dieyi!
Before long, Lin Xun brought out a luminous white horn, a jet-black broken blade, and a fiery-red gourd.
They were his biggest harvests from the Ancient Spirit World.
The horn was rumored to belong to Luohou Monster-Beast King in ancient times and was believed to hold the supreme inheritance of Luohou Monster-Beast King
However, Lin Xun had already learned from Lian Dieyi that the horn wasn’t a secret inheritance art from Luohou but a mysterious treasure map instead.
He carefully examined the horn in his hand. It was only half a foot long, but it was brilliantly white and emitted an ancient Dao aura.
It was imprinted with the great Dao and hadn’t been corroded over time!
The horn was extraordinary from just its appearance.
Lin Xun instilled his spirit-sensing power into it, and he instantly saw a vast world, sapphire blue sea, rose-tinted clouds, and divine rays of light shining down.
Ferocious beasts hovered above the ninth heaven, and strange-looking beasts roamed the mountains and rivers. It was like the vast plains of ancient times.
Old vines hung across the towering sacred mountains, and ancient trees towered into the sky. The divine medicinal plants produced a dazzling sheen and everywhere was vibrantly colored. The place was like a paradise for immortals.
A thin figure sat in front of a stone house, shrouded in divine light. It was so hazy that it was impossible to see what was happening.
But he held a treasure map in his hand.
“Is the Blood Wasteland a land of burial or a place to ascend to the Dao? Jade Pearl Map has presented itself, a great change has descended—to go or not to go?”
Vaguely, a sigh sounded. It sounded conflicted, bleak, and lost.
Suddenly, all the illusions shattered and turned into a treasure map. Two ancient and strange characters were written on the treasure map: Jade Pearl. The map was glowing brightly and covered with grid patterns. It seemed to be the map of a mysterious area.
“As expected, the horn is just a treasure map.”
Lin Xun withdrew his spirit sensing power, but his mind was still in a daze. Everything he saw was too magnificent and astonishing.
The immortal mountain, ferocious birds, exotic beasts, and divine medicinal plants all looked extraordinary. The skinny old man was likely Luohou Monster-Beast King of ancient times!
Once Lin Xun settled his emotions, he quickly deduced that the treasure map named Jade Pearl was connected to the Ancient Blood Wasteland that he had previously entered!
In other words, the map led Luohou Monster-Beast King to the Ancient Blood Wasteland, but he, unfortunately, perished there!
Inexplicably, the scenes of the Ancient Blood Wasteland flashed across Lin Xun’s mind. The river flowed silently, the ancient corpses bobbing along the blood river, the solitary tomb, and the ancient tablet.
Then, he remembered the sword qi rushing out from the rolling blood-colored fog, the endless battle cries, the booming war drums, and the fluttering flags before he left the world.
That was the forbidden area of Blood Wasteland!
However, what exactly happened there? Were gods really buried there? Did Luohou Monster-Beast King launch a bloodbath there?
Lin Xun was lost in thought for a good while. In the end, he shook his head and put away the Luohou horn. If I have a chance to enter the Ancient Spirit World again, I will explore it further.
But I can’t right now.
He then picked up the fiery-red gourd. The treasure was called Refining Gourd and was equally as mysterious as the horn. It belonged to an ancient sect called Pure Land of Supreme Unity.
A drop of purple blood was sealed inside the gourd and contained the skills and learnings of an ancient powerful figure.
The aura of that drop of blood was so powerful that Lin Xun had only obtained some vague information from it despite him exhausting all his means. He only learned that the owner of the drop of purple blood had once held three thousand Dao truths, possessed extraordinary abilities, and wielded earthshaking powers!
However, he was plotted against and died a tragic death. The three thousand drops of blood essence, each containing one of his abilities or learnings, had been gouged from his heart.
The drop of purple blood sealed in the Refining Gourd was one of them.
Lin Xun had attempted to refine the drop of purple blood to grasp the cultivation it contained, but he almost caught fire when he tried.
The power of the drop of purple blood was too tyrannical and terrifying. Even if it was only a tiny drop, it contained a majestic power that could trigger the eruption of a terrifying thunderbolt from just the slightest contact!
Lin Xun couldn’t refine the power with his current strength.
”Unfortunately, I can’t use this treasure for now,” he said helplessly.
The Refining Gourd was no doubt extraordinary to be able to seal the purple blood, but it was of no use to Lin Xun.
Unless he could refine the drop of purple blood one day.
“Fine, there’s still the broken blade!”
His gaze drifted over to the broken blade. Its body was jet black, and it was unknown what it was cast from, but it weighed tens of thousands of pounds.
Its hilt was marked with dark-red blood stains that hadn’t faded despite the years that had passed. Moreover, it emitted a chilling aura like a god who had been stained with blood.
A simple pattern was engraved across the surface of the blade, but it didn’t resemble runes or Dao characters. Its origin was unknown.
It made it more mysterious.
Lin Xun still remembered the broken blade roaring under the vast sky and producing a wave of dazzling silvery starlight the first time he saw it. It had slaughtered countless cultivators like a river of stars engulfing the world. Everyone fled frantically, and no one was able to subdue it!
It was just a broken blade!
It was controlled by no one, but its fierceness and power still shook the world. How terrifying would it be in its perfect state?
Lin Xun had previously fought a fierce battle with it and almost lost. Fortunately, he finally succeeded in transforming his Origin Aeth Artery and managed to subdue it.
However, he knew that he hadn’t completely controlled the blade because it had its intelligence and was still attempting to break free of his control. It was unwilling to coordinate with Lin Xun.
Otherwise, it could unleash even greater power!
Buzz!
Lin Xun clasped the broken blade and applied strength to it. Silvery starlight flowed around the surface of the blade and illuminated the entire quiet room with an illusionary starry glow.
“It is indeed ancient and unpredictable and contains incredible legends and powers. I wonder who made the broken blade for it to have such magnificent power,” Lin Xun marveled.
He was a rune grandmaster and also proficient in casting aeth tools, but he couldn’t identify the materials, grade, and origin of the broken blade. It seemed like a masterpiece of heaven.
The broken blade was still resisting, refusing to submit, which made Lin Xun smile slightly. He looked forward to the day when the blade would obediently bow its head and pledge allegiance to him!
Lin Xun put away the broken blade and counted his other harvests from the Ancient Spirit World such as the aeth crystal obtained from slaughtering the wood charm spirit, a storage ring obtained from Qian Huai, a Heaven Ascension cultivator, and pieces of skins, bones, teeth from monster-beasts and other rune materials.
Those items might not be a big deal in the Ancient Spirit World, but in the Ziyao Empire, materials obtained from the monster beasts were rare treasures with remarkable value.
Lin Xun had also suffered some losses in the Ancient Spirit World. His aeth treasure Purple Soul Blade had been destroyed by the broken blade.
In addition, he had used up his storage of aeth medicine and elixirs to stabilize his Origin Aeth Artery.
However, those losses were nothing compared to his harvests.
“I wonder how the outside world is after one month.”
He stood up and walked out of the training room.