Though the Sword Atlas was heaven-defying, Lu Yun was still in the life core realm at the end of the day. Meeting the attacks of more than a thousand spirit realm cultivators—and geniuses at that—head-on had left him with severe injuries.

After killing the weaker cultivators, he’d ascended to origin core realm. With the combat art successfully mastered, the ascension didn’t matter much anymore.

Three days passed before Lu Yun fully recovered from his exertions. Yuan Tong, the silverback gorilla, looked at him with puppy dog eyes when he ended his seclusion.

“What’s its deal?” Lu Yun threw the gorilla a confused look. Why does it look at me like I’ve wronged it?

“It’s worried that you might abandon it,” sighed the little nun. “It betrayed its tribe three days ago in order to protect you.”

“Betrayed its tribe?” Lu Yun’s eyes shot wide with surprise. “Your body is still in the outside world!”

Lu Yun had found the gorilla’s tracks when he was looking for Qing Han, but he hadn’t sought the spirit creature out. They’d left their physical bodies outside, and there’d be consequences from their time in here to deal with once they returned.

“My physical body is with the Wolfking, rather than my tribe,” Yuan Tong pouted. “Don’t abandon me!”

The pitiful look it cast raised goosebumps all over Lu Yun’s body. “Fine, fine, you’re with me.”

“Thank you, master!” Joy swept away its earlier despondence.

Back in Destiny City, all monster spirits of the silver bloodline shot hostile looks at the silverback gorillas, who in turn were scowling deeply.

“Wolfking!” a silverback gorilla called out to the old wolfking.

“The silver bloodline doesn’t have many descendents,” boomed the old wolf.

“Then please return our traitor to us!” forced out a glowering silverback elder through clenched teeth.

Yuan Tong had publicly betrayed them, seeking out humiliation as bad as being slapped in the face!

The silverback gorillas had joined the banner of the Levitating Island Sacred Land, and their new leader was so hostile to the human race that it even forbade monster spirits from taking human form. However, Yuan Tong had willingly sided with a human cultivator for all to see. Unlike the young wolfking, it hadn’t even been enslaved! That was beyond unacceptable for the silverback gorillas.

“We’ll wait for when they return from the Sovereign Ranking.” The old wolfking maintained an impassive expression, but its green eyes kept shifting in the direction of Jadeite Manor. If they could kill that Qing Yu, then their young wolfking would have a chance to regain her freedom as well!

……

It’d been twenty days since the start of the second round, and this segment would be over in another ten days. During the last stretch of the competition, the cultivators grew even fiercer in eliminating their competition.

Those who had survived to this point were mostly divided into various factions. The ten most powerful of the factions were the ones led by the ten lords.

As time went by, many recovered to their peak cultivation and found it extremely difficult to improve further. Thus, vying for heritages and opportunities became mainstream strategy.

……

Another three days passed.

Lu Yun and the little nun maintained their original cultivation—origin core and nascent spirit realm, respectively. They were in no rush to break through.

Meanwhile, the silverback gorilla had made a dramatic leap in cultivation, exceeding even its original level and reaching the refined spirit realm. Its potential was immense, as it was able to go tit-for-tat against transformed spirit cultivators while it was still in the nascent spirit realm.

Most cultivators were working toward restoring their cultivation and recovering their full strength, but very few had been able to further ascend like Yuan Tong had.

Over the past three days, the three of them had unearthed some ancient legacies, which was how Yuan Tong had broken through. Lu Yun had also refined its iron rod and turned it into a permanent weapon, rather than the cheap expandable it’d been.

The ancient legacies might seem valuable, but they weren’t of any help to Lu Yun. Still, he divided the legacies between himself and the little nun. He didn’t have any use for them now, but that might not be the case in the future.

“Are you going to stop looking?” the little nun asked curiously, looking at Lu Yun’s calm face.

Lu Yun paused. “Looking for what?”

“Qing Yu,” the little nun responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Your lover.”

“Lover...” Lu Yun grew embarrassed.

“It was so obvious with the way you kept throwing flirty looks at each other,” the little nun giggled. “Your companion is actually a woman, isn’t she?”

Lu Yun nodded.

“So you’re not gonna look for her anymore?” The little girl had been wondering about that for a while. In the beginning, Lu Yun had been doing nothing but look for Qing Yu. Now, though, it was as if he’d forgotten all about her.

“I’m not.” Lu Yun shook his head and smiled wryly. “She’s been hiding from me, so I can’t ruin what she’s trying to do for me.”

Qing Han knew what Lu Yun was thinking, and the inverse was true as well.

With Empress Myrtlestar personally guiding her and the Dao Flower marking her as the only Dao Sovereign beneath the immortal dao, she was no less powerful than Lu Yun. Nothing in this world would be able to threaten her, so Lu Yun wasn’t concerned for her safety.

“I don’t get you two,” the little nun mumbled and then flashed a sweet grin. “Lu Yun and I would never do that to each other!”

Lu Yun did a mental eyeroll.

“A silverback gorilla with the silver bloodline travelling with two human slaves?” The sound of swords piercing through air rang out as a few cultivators landed in front of the gorilla from the sky.

“There’s still core realm cultivators even now? How rare! Are you one of the Monster Lord’s?” asked a humanoid cultivator.

“Monster Lord?” Confusion flashed through the gorilla’s eyes.

“Ho? You’re not? Take them down then!” Seven transformed spirit realm cultivators moved to capture Lu Yun and the others. They didn’t take their quarry seriously, since the gorilla, the most powerful of the group, was merely a refined spirit realm cultivator. These three were otherwise as weak as insects.

Wham!

To their shock, Yuan Tong manifested a silver rod and knocked them off their feet with a single sweep, then took a step forward and slammed it down on one of their heads.

Bam!

The transformed spirit realm cultivator’s head exploded like a rotten watermelon.

“Don’t you dare!!” the other cultivators called out in panic. “We serve the Dragon Lord! You can’t hurt us!”

“Dragon Lord or Pathetic Worm Lord, you’ll die for insulting my master!” Yuan Tong advanced again, prepared to kill the six surviving cultivators.

“Wait!” Lu Yun stepped in. “Who’s this Dragon Lord you’re talking about?”

“We serve the Dragon Lord, one of the ten lords of the Sovereign Realm,” one of the cultivators declared haughtily, his tone dripping with venom. “If you dare get on our lord’s wrong side, you’ll be decimated even after you leave the Sovereign Realm!”