Lin Yu and Lin Xuan didn’t concern themselves with the cultivators in the formation any longer. After raising cupped fist salutes to Lu Yun, they took their leave. Anyone who’d offered a bounty of a hundred billion crystals for Donglin Taihuang was a friend of the Lin Clan. In their eyes, House Donglin was filled with traitors who all deserved death.

“Activate the formation with this and eliminate the cultivators here,” Lu Yun said, handing the little nun a spirit stone.

“Why aren’t you doing it yourself?” Eyes wide, the girl uneasily took the stone. Suddenly, an idea came to her and she warned, “I’m Lu Yun’s dao partner. Don’t you dare get any funny ideas about me!”

Lu Yun rubbed his forehead and showed her the jadeite-colored scroll. “There’s a combat art in here that will benefit me greatly. I have to practice it before ascending.”

He was now at peak life core realm, a step away from origin core realm. Since the origin core realm was when a cultivator began nurturing their nascent spirit, it wouldn’t be as easy to practice the combat art then. Once he ascended to the spirit realm, he wouldn’t even be able to learn it.

The combat art was highly important to Lu Yun. He’d shamelessly accepted the gift earlier only after taking a peek at what it was.

“Alright then!” Confusion still lingering on her face, the little nun injected the spirit stone with her internal energy.

Bam!

The killing intent within the formation grew tenfold stronger. Cultivators who’d been struggling to maintain their footing were instantly eliminated. Face flushed, the little nun made a great leap through the core realm and reached peak nascent spirit realm.

“Finally… finally! I’ve returned to the spirit realm at last!” She whistled with delight. Silver moonlight burst forth from her body and a terrifying presence rippled in all directions with her at the center.

“You...” Lu Yun jumped. The power she was demonstrating didn’t rival Wu Tulong from when he’d attended the Dusk Tournament, but it was a near thing. However, Wu Tulong had been a peak transformed spirit cultivator at the time, while the girl now was merely at peak nascent spirit realm! There was a difference of two realms between them!

“I’ve recovered some of my strength, so I’ll protect you from now on!” She cracked a self-satisfied smile and smacked Lu Yun on the shoulder.

“Then I’m entering closed door cultivation,” Lu Yun said bluntly. “Look after me!”

……

He really did need to cultivate. He was a life core realm cultivator at the moment. Once he left the central world and recovered his original cultivation, he wouldn’t be able to practice the combat art at all.

“The Ten Thousand Sword Immortal in the ancient times was only a peerless immortal, but he could call upon ten thousand swords with each move...” Lu Yun sat cross-legged in a dark cavern, studying the book with great concentration. Made out of a jade slip, the book was to be read with the consciousness.

Lin Yu and Lin Xuan had given it away so easily because the legacy contained within it had only belonged to a peerless immortal.

Origin dao corpses litter the ground everywhere here, casually discarded like they didn’t matter. However, the legacy of the Thousand Sword Immortal was found in a burial mound. Whoever buried the book must’ve believed the peerless immortal to be more powerful than origin dao immortals.

“Sword Atlas.” Lu Yun smiled at the combat art recorded in the book. “Endless Cosmic Ocean, the fourth sword technique I’ve created, can only reach its full power by deploying a hundred and eight thousand flying swords at the same time. However, they’re too heavy to manipulate simultaneously. Even if all of them are the lowest-rank flying swords, I still can’t bear their weight.”

In hell, Lu Yun had upgraded his sword intent to the cosmic sword ocean and invented his fourth technique. He was now able to divide the Sugato Sword into a hundred and eight thousand immortal swords and critically injure the prisoners in the depths of the netherworld, but that was only thanks to the bolstering effects of hell. When outside, he couldn’t use the technique, but the Sword Atlas would help him overcome this problem.

Countless swords could be merged into an atlas, and the atlas could be stored on his person and be his to command. However, he had to etch the atlas into his golden core or life core. Once his nascent spirit was fostered, he wouldn’t be able to acquire the combat art.

“The Thousand Sword Immortal was able to create an atlas of ten thousand immortal swords at the same time. I can’t do that yet, but I can create an atlas of a thousand and eighty flying swords!

“Once I’ve created a hundred sword atlases, I’ll have a hundred and eight thousand flying swords at my command!” With this in mind, Lu Yun began cultivating the combat art.

……

The central world was silent, save for the sounds of conflict from clashes between cultivators. There were no living things, only barren burial mounds, terrifying skeletons, and spirits inhabited the land.

Lu Yun had secluded himself within a cavern, the little nun standing guard at the entrance. She’d studiously guarded him all this time, driving away monsters and cultivators alike that approached the cavern. She wasn’t in a rush to ascend.

After returning to the nascent spirit realm, she’d noticed numerous minute flaws left in her cultivation from back when she was inexperienced and impatient. Although there was no telling what fixing the flaws would do once she returned to her true body, she still made an attempt to do so.

…...

Ten days passed.

It’d been seventeen days since the cultivators arrived at the land of darkness, and twenty days since the Sovereign Meet had commenced. Many had grown accustomed to the environment and raised their cultivation through hunting.

Ten days ago, there’d only been a handful of void realm cultivators, and they were considered the best of the best. Now, most cultivators had reached the spirit realm, and a good number had recovered to their peak—the void realm.

The dark land of unknown size saw surging immortal light every so often over the past few days, indicating that more burial mounds had been broken into and their legacies unearthed. Many cultivators reached new heights after obtaining these legacies, exceeding their peak and reaching even the unravelled void or the returned void realm!

Slowly but surely, the mysterious veil concealing the truth of the land was being lifted. Small burial mounds were located on the fringes, while behemoth burial mounds stood at the heart of the land, each of them towering like a mountain.

That was where the legacy of the true heavyweights was buried.

A great number of cultivators had been eliminated, leaving only a little more than a hundred thousand. Ten powerful leaders were born among them, and they’d gathered their own followers to use as scouts in the behemoth burial mounds.

……

Bam!

On the seventh day, there were finally signs of Lu Yun’s closed door cultivation coming to an end. Powerful sword energy soared into the sky, triggering natural phenomena that were as dramatic as those the ancient legacy had triggered.

“Help, little female!” The little nun was about to look in on Lu Yun when a voice wailed at her.

She turned, and her eyes widened in recognition.

“Oh, it’s you.”