At that moment, however, a graceful figure white as snow suddenly descended from the sky, landing atop an exposed rock not far away.
Her black hair fluttered in the wind, a light veil covered her face, her brows were dark as ink, and her eyes were clear, remote, and indifferent, as though devoid of any emotion.
There were bloodstains on the hem of her dress—whether they were hers or someone else's was unknown. The moment she appeared, even the surrounding heaven and earth seemed to grow several degrees colder.
"What a beautiful woman..."
Ye Ming looked over, a flash of intense amazement passing through his eyes before he suppressed it.
He could clearly sense that this woman was far stronger than he currently was.
Moreover, she seemed to be somewhat angry. Those clear, indifferent eyes swept across the surroundings, as though she were searching for someone.
"This woman is far too strong for you right now. If you don't want to die, stop entertaining thoughts about her. Be careful, or you may not even know how you died..."
The blood-colored figure slowly vanished from Ye Ming's palm.
Its aged, low voice continued to echo in his mind.
Ye Ming gave a bitter smile. Even if he had the heart of a thief, he did not have the courage of one. He immediately intended to slip away and leave as quickly as possible.
However, a gust of icy wind suddenly blocked his path.
A clear, calm voice accompanied it. "Did you see a man resting here?"
Ye Ming froze. Suppressing his stray thoughts, he shook his head and cupped his hands. "In reply to the fairy, I only just fled here myself. I have not seen anyone..."
The moment he said that, he felt a pair of indifferent eyes assessing him, as though judging whether his words were true or false.
Ye Ming did not dare raise his head. Cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and he felt an immense pressure bearing down on him.
This woman was not only powerful, but also dangerous—the sort of existence who could easily decide whether he lived or died.
"No?" The woman seemed to be asking him, yet also seemed to be speaking to herself.
"Then did you see a man dressed in white?" After thinking for a moment, she asked again.
Ye Ming hurriedly shook his head, but he suddenly recalled the scene in the underground palace. That figure shrouded in blood-colored mist seemed to have been dressed in white.
Could this woman be looking for him?
"Fairy, I suddenly remembered something. While fleeing for my life just now, I seem to have indeed seen a man in white. He headed deeper into the Blood-Colored Plateau..."
Ye Ming immediately said.
Yet before he could finish, the woman before him vanished in an instant. She had already become a fleeting afterimage like a startled swan, rushing toward the depths where the blood-colored mist churned.
Although Ye Ming was puzzled and somewhat envious, he did not dare linger. Afraid that the woman might return, he swiftly fled the area.
The entire Blood-Colored Plateau trembled because of the heaven-shaking phenomenon deep within it.
A great number of demonic beasts rioted. In mountain ranges throughout the region, torrents of demonic beasts surged forth, a vast black mass blanketing the land.
Many cultivators who failed to escape in time were trampled to death.
Deep within, blood-colored smoke billowed like a long whale drawing in water. As it swept about, the Sky Vault rumbled, the sight incomparably terrifying and astonishing, its momentum immense.
In cities thousands of miles away, the closest to the Blood-Colored Plateau, cultivators noticed this phenomenon and felt their hearts tremble in utter shock.
Even from such a great distance, the sight was magnificent and startling.
Strands of blood-colored smoke pierced through heaven and earth, as though they would burrow into the Sky Vault and reach into the stars, shaking even the celestial bodies beyond the heavens until they fell.
For a time, the sects that noticed this astonishing phenomenon began dispatching experts to investigate.
The various cities within Danzhou Prefecture also sent patrol teams over, while reporting the abnormal changes in the Blood-Colored Plateau to the Sky Monitoring Department and the Immortal Suppressing Department.
Such a disturbance suddenly appearing within Great Xia could very well have been caused by some immortal sect lineage or powerful cultivator.
Although immortal sects roamed freely and were not bound by restraint, within Great Xia, they still had to obey Great Xia's laws and were not permitted to act recklessly.
Deep in the Blood-Colored Plateau, Jiang Lan rose from the collapsed underground palace. The blood-colored radiance in his eyes faded, leaving them calm and undisturbed.
He did not continue cultivating. First, he had already absorbed nearly all of the blood-colored mist here, leaving very little behind.
Second, the disturbance here had already alerted the various immortal sect lineages and drawn Great Xia's attention.
If he stayed any longer, someone might inevitably run into him. Especially Li Mengning—that woman would certainly come looking for him out of worry.
"For now, I can finally be said to possess some real strength..."
Jiang Lan was quite satisfied with this journey to the Blood-Colored Plateau.
The Life Dao Fruit was currently only in the first stage of maturity, yet it had been able to absorb and devour, in such a short time, all the power of vital essence and blood that had accumulated here over thousands of years.
That terrifying speed was still far from its limit.
Jiang Lan still did not know how much his wellspring of life had expanded compared to before. Even calling it vast as the sea seemed far from enough.
He could clearly feel that both his body and soul had undergone heaven-and-earth changes akin to rebirth through fire.
Boundless River of Life was, after all, not an ordinary cultivation technique. It was a method of converting the energy between heaven and earth into a wellspring of life, then transforming that wellspring into mana to wield.
Thus, his wellspring of life was equivalent to the Spirit Sea opened by cultivators.
Generally speaking, when cultivators first opened their Spirit Sea upon reaching the Spirit Sea Realm, a range of one hundred zhang was already considered exceptionally gifted.
A range of one thousand zhang could be called a favored child of heaven.
A range of ten thousand zhang was rare throughout all ages.
Yet Jiang Lan's wellspring of life was boundless and endless, without edge or limit. It had no concept of range at all.
In this world, the cultivation realms were divided as follows: First Realm, Body Tempering; Second Realm, Nurturing Qi; Third Realm, Spirit Sea; Fourth Realm, Illuminating the Nether; Fifth Realm, Soul Palace; Sixth Realm, Divine Abilities; Seventh Realm, Dharma Form; Eighth Realm, Tribulation Bridge; Ninth Realm, Ascension...
Going by this division of cultivation realms, since he had not yet reached Illuminating the Nether and condensed his divine soul, he could at most be considered at the Third Realm, the Spirit Sea Realm.
"Now it is my realm that cannot keep up with my mana..."
"In other words, I possess only terrifying brute force, yet do not understand how to use it properly or exquisitely."
"But that does not seem to have much impact on me."
Jiang Lan felt that with the sheer abundance of his current mana, catching an opponent off guard and killing a Fifth Realm expert with one palm strike—or even severely wounding a Sixth Realm expert—would be more than easy.
After all, he had absorbed all the vital essence and blood that had accumulated in the Blood-Colored Plateau for thousands of years.
The strength of his body and soul was enough to support him in wielding such vast, majestic mana. If one palm strike failed to kill, then he would strike a second time, a third time... With his powerful vitality sustaining him, even if his body collapsed, he could swiftly recover to its original state.
As for raising his cultivation realm afterward, there was no need to worry about so-called bottlenecks or obstacles. He only needed to proceed step by step, and everything would naturally fall into place.
A despair-inducing health bar, recovery so abnormal it was nearly unsolvable, and a mana bar that would almost never run dry...
Jiang Lan felt that once he made up for the strength of his divine soul and gained immunity to fatal injuries, he would have assembled a standard boss template.
Then, his figure flickered lightly as he left the underground palace. When he appeared again, he was already within a long, narrow rift outside the Blood-Colored Plateau.
Not far away, chaos reigned. A vast black tide of demonic beasts surged outward like floodwaters, kicking up dust that filled the sky.
Streaks of rainbow light also shot past in the distance, racing across the Sky Vault. They were all cultivators fleeing for their lives.
Jiang Lan suppressed the urge to test his current strength.
After his strength had risen dramatically, his control over vitality had become increasingly profound and terrifying.
He felt that with only a thought, he could harvest this entire horde of demonic beasts as nourishment as easily as cutting grass.
Before you continue