Yun Long took a deep breath, the surging power after his breakthrough flowing through his limbs and bones.
Qi Refining Stage!
This was true transcendence beyond the mundane!
At this moment, he could see with absolute clarity that his father Yun Ji and the others had not been wrong in the slightest.
Xiantian was ultimately only the pinnacle of the Mortal Stage.
Beyond the Mortal Stage lay the first realm: Qi Refining!
And beside the Ninth Prince stood a Qi Refining cultivator of this caliber!
Yun Long's eyes turned cold.
Search the mountain?
With a sweep of a Qi Refining cultivator's Spiritual Sense, everything within several hundred zhang would be laid bare. Why would they need Xiantian martial artists to toil so hard?
That so-called ancient cultivator's ruin had most likely already fallen into someone else's hands.
Those Xiantian martial artists who had vanished had likely become nothing but dry bones.
Yun Long stepped out of the cave.
"Did you really... break through?" Li Pinghu's voice carried a faint, barely perceptible tremor.
Yun Long nodded calmly.
Li Pinghu and Shi Tie both breathed sighs of relief, the taut strings in their hearts finally slackening.
All their efforts and sacrifices had been worth it!
At the very least, their lives were temporarily secure.
"Where do we go now?" Shi Tie asked in a low voice, his gaze vigilantly sweeping the surroundings.
Yun Long's eyes narrowed slightly, and a cold curve touched his lips.
"Nowhere."
He spoke indifferently.
"Someone is coming."
"Later, keep your distance."
The moment those words fell, the expressions of Yun Ji, Li Pinghu, and Shi Tie changed drastically!
Yun Long's tone was so grave. Whoever was coming was definitely no ordinary Xiantian martial artist!
A Qi Refining cultivator!
They had been found!
Yun Long's heart also tightened, and he secretly rejoiced.
Had he not made a prompt decision to swallow all five pills at once, breaking through the bottleneck with the fiercest momentum and stepping into Qi Refining, he would probably have been lambs awaiting slaughter by now.
In less than two breaths' time.
An aged, sinister figure appeared among the trees. After a few flickers, he was already close at hand.
It was Elder Mu, the unfathomable old man at the Ninth Prince's side!
Elder Mu's hawk-like gaze swept across the group before finally settling on Yun Long, carrying a trace of amusement.
"Hehe, you ants really are good at hiding."
"Hand over the inheritance on you. If I am in a good mood, perhaps I will put in a good word for you before the Ninth Prince and grant you a quick death."
Elder Mu stood with his hands behind his back, his bearing lofty and arrogant.
Yun Long's cultivation method was profound, and his aura was perfectly concealed. To outsiders, he was no different from an ordinary martial artist at the peak of Xiantian.
Elder Mu had clearly failed to see through his true cultivation.
"Immortal."
Yun Long cupped his fists, lowering his posture considerably.
"This junior has a few questions. I dare ask the immortal to clear up my confusion."
"Once this junior understands, I will certainly offer up with both hands the immortal's inheritance that the Yun Clan obtained by chance. I only ask... that even in death, I may die an enlightened ghost."
"An immortal's inheritance?" Elder Mu's cloudy eyes abruptly lit up, a flash of greed passing through them.
"So it was indeed so! Mere mundane Martial Dao could never possess such potential as to make even the Ninth Prince view you differently."
His lips split into a cruel smile.
"Very well. I will satisfy your curiosity."
"Ask."
In his eyes, these mortals were turtles in a jar. They could not stir up any waves.
"What sort of ruin did the Ninth Prince have us enter the mountain to seek?" Yun Long asked in a deep voice.
"Ke ke ke..." Elder Mu let out a piercing, eerie laugh, filled with contempt and mockery.
"Utterly foolish mortals!"
"Why would we need useless trash like you to search for it? This so-called ruin was fully explored by me in less than half a day."
"Sending you into the mountain to die was merely to give you a seemingly reasonable burial ground, and also a smokescreen to deceive the world."
"You were all merely nourishment to aid the Ninth Prince in cultivating the Mid-Grade Qi Refining art, Yuan Sect Blood Demon Qi!"
Bloodthirsty light flickered in Elder Mu's eyes.
"Mere mortals, how could you understand the mysteries of Qi Refining? Even if I told you, frogs at the bottom of a well like you would never understand!"
"Thank you, Immortal, for clearing up my confusion."
Yun Long gave a deep bow.
"This junior will now offer up the inheritance."
Before his words had even finished, he had already started forward, seemingly walking toward Elder Mu with respect.
One step, two steps...
When less than three chi remained between them!
Yun Long's gaze abruptly sharpened like a blade!
Boom!
The aura within him erupted without warning!
Great Arhat Fist!
Without the slightest hesitation or flourish, he drove out a punch. The air let out a dull boom, and a golden fist shadow, condensed almost into substance, blasted straight toward Elder Mu's chest!
"Ke ke ke... I knew it. Foolish mortals like you would never willingly accept your fate!"
Elder Mu laughed strangely, his face still carrying the teasing amusement of a cat playing with a mouse.
However, the instant Yun Long's fist wind struck his body, the smile on his face froze!
A terrifying force far beyond Xiantian, accompanied by a wave of true qi that made his heart palpitate, came crashing down!
"No, that is not right!"
"That is impossible!"
For the first time, horror appeared in Elder Mu's eyes!
"You... you are also in the Qi Refining Stage!"
In his haste, a flash of green light appeared over Elder Mu's body as he barely raised a defense!
Bang!
With a muffled impact, Elder Mu's body shuddered violently. He staggered back several steps before barely managing to steady himself!
He felt his blood and qi roil, while one of his arms went numb!
What terrified Elder Mu most was that this brat he had regarded as an ant could actually exchange a direct blow with him, a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator, without falling at a disadvantage!
One had to know that he had condensed a full five strands of Calm Lake Rain Walking Qi within his body!
Every strand was incomparably pure!
Yet Yun Long—he could clearly sense that the other party possessed only a single strand of refined qi!
One strand!
But the quality of that single strand of refined qi far surpassed his Calm Lake Rain Walking Qi!
Condensed! Tyrannical! Filled with an overwhelmingly upright and powerful aura!
"Your refined qi... is not low-grade!"
Elder Mu's eyes flew wide open as greed and killing intent erupted together.
"Ke ke ke! Good! Very good! Heaven truly has not treated me poorly!"
"Brat, your cultivation method is mine!"
Elder Mu instantly understood that Yun Long's earlier act had merely been meant to draw out information.
Yet rather than becoming angry, boundless ecstasy and anticipation surged within him.
A Qi Refining cultivation method of such rank—even if he could not recultivate it himself, exchanging it for cultivation resources would be enough for him to benefit without end!
His thoughts spun swiftly, and a vicious gleam flashed through Elder Mu's eyes.
He knew that a prolonged battle would be disadvantageous, especially with the other party's strange cultivation method.
Attack where the enemy must defend!
While warily guarding against Yun Long's follow-up attacks, Elder Mu fixed his sinister gaze upon Yun Ji and the other two not far away!
Ice Rain Flying Needles!
Elder Mu shouted hoarsely. A stream of green Calm Lake Rain Walking Qi surged from his body, instantly transforming into a sky full of fine icy-blue needles. With shrill whistles, they shot toward the unarmed Yun Ji and the other two like a blanket covering heaven and earth!
Vicious beyond measure!
Yun Long had long expected this. His face was as still as water, without the slightest trace of panic.
Golden Bell Shield!
He shouted in a low voice.
The sole strand of vast, tyrannical Vajra Primordial Qi within his body suddenly erupted!
Hum!
A brilliant golden radiance burst from his body, instantly forming an enormous, incomparably solid phantom of a golden bell around him and Yun Ji's group!
Faint Buddhist scripts flowed over the bell's surface, radiating a heavy aura that no Myriad Laws could invade, an Indestructible Diamond Body!
Clang clang clang clang—!
The dense Ice Rain Flying Needles struck the giant golden bell in a string of crisp impacts, yet they were like ants trying to shake a tree. All were deflected and shattered, unable to move the golden bell in the slightest!
Seizing this opportunity, Yun Long pushed forward beneath the expanded golden bell. Like a moving golden fortress, he withstood any further attacks Elder Mu might launch and charged toward him at full speed instead of retreating!
Before you continue