The Role of the Flower Bud

When Gulanxiu charged into the blood-red mist, he immediately felt a peculiar aura affecting him.

Agitation!

His heart was agitated, as if seized by a desire to kill.

But Gulanxiu's heart was unshakably firm; he paid it no heed and continued diving downward, layer after layer of blood-red mist parting before him, until he finally broke through the last veil.

He looked down from above!

Endless mountains, wastelands, swamps—all manner of terrain stretched below, yet every feature seemed twisted. The mountains looked as if sliced clean off at the top, or severed in places. Across the wastelands, massive craters lay in orderly patterns, each hundreds of kilometers in diameter.

Crater after crater.

Like the footprints of some colossal beast.

Most importantly—every region below was shrouded in a faint red haze. Because of this red mist, anything too far away was impossible to see clearly.

"The Ancient God Ruins? It seems that after all these countless years, nothing has changed up to Luo Feng's era." Gulanxiu sighed softly.

The Ancient God Ruins spanned hundreds of billions of kilometers—a place so absurdly vast that tossing a planet into it was like dropping a grain of sand into a desert.

The ground was barren, devoid of any life.

Gulanxiu descended from the sky and landed at the edge of a massive crater.

"So this is the killing intent?" Gulanxiu sensed an invisible force ceaselessly tempting his heart, while another strange energy burrowed into his body through his skin. This peculiar energy could not be blocked even by his primal energy—it would bore into his flesh and then out again.

Treating his body like air, darting through freely.

"Just as the original text said, it's impossible to resist!" Gulanxiu muttered to himself.

"Wait!" Suddenly Gulanxiu was startled, because he noticed that although the killing intent entered and exited his body, it never entered his sea of consciousness.

Within his sea of consciousness, the green bud emitted a soft green glow, dyeing the entire space a pale green, free of any impurity.

And the invisible killing intent, upon touching that pale green light, seemed to encounter its natural enemy—it directly bypassed Gulanxiu's sea of consciousness and drilled out from elsewhere.

"What is this? The killing intent only enters my body but not my soul? What does it take me for!" Gulanxiu muttered to himself.

"Could it be that the green bud also guards the soul? If so, does that mean the killing intent has no effect on me, and I can roam freely through the Ancient God Ruins without concern?" Gulanxiu suddenly said excitedly.

This was the third function Gulanxiu had discovered since unlocking his golden finger—soul protection. Though he didn't yet know the limits of the green bud, at least the killing intent in the Ancient God Ruins couldn't touch him.

It wasn't surprising he'd only noticed now. During his time in the Axe Death Battles, he'd rarely encountered powerful illusionists. Illusionists were different from warriors—they required inheritance, and any Cosmic Level powerhouse with backing wouldn't risk their life in the Axe Death Battles.

After joining the core of the Axe Fighting Arena, Gulanxiu had rarely fought, and mostly in the Virtual Universe. The green seed's power naturally couldn't affect the Virtual Universe, so Gulanxiu had no way to discover it.

In truth, the green seed was far too uncommunicative. It never spoke to Gulanxiu, never introduced itself—all its abilities had to be explored and developed by Gulanxiu himself, costing him centuries of time.

Of course, Gulanxiu suspected the green seed had been subtly altering his talent from the very beginning. His home planet had never produced a Cosmic Level powerhouse in its history, yet he—starting as a slave with almost no inheritance—had not only reached Cosmic Level but also comprehended the laws, becoming a genius renowned across the entire universe country.

Having discovered the bud's new ability, Gulanxiu was thrilled, but he didn't let it go to his head. This was the Ancient God Ruins, the most dangerous place on the Bloodfall Continent. The danger here came not only from the invisible killing intent but also from the cultivators within the ruins.

Influenced by the killing intent, the cultivators in the Ancient God Ruins were brimming with bloodlust. Even if you didn't provoke them, they might attack you. Some robbed for gain, while others killed simply for the sake of killing.

Gulanxiu moved cautiously through the Ancient God Ruins, activating his Heavenly Eye perspective as he walked, comparing the terrain to the map Liu Qingyuan had given him.

But the Ancient God Ruins were far too vast—dozens of times the size of a World City. Liu Qingyuan's map covered only a small portion. Although Liu Qingyuan had told Gulanxiu roughly where he'd land, even now he still hadn't found any terrain matching the map.

Suddenly, through the perspective granted by the green bud, Gulanxiu sensed a sharp attack hurtling toward him.

He swiftly drew the Blood God Axe and swung it behind him.

With a thunderous boom, Gulanxiu felt a tremendous force slam into him, sending him flying several kilometers.

Fortunately, the figure that had attacked him was also halted by Gulanxiu's axe strike.

The attacker was a burly man about five meters tall, with bull horns sprouting from his head. He was bare-chested, wearing a skirt made of wild beast hide around his waist, and dark red gauntlets on both hands. His powerful aura formed visible currents of air around his body.

"Realm Lord!" Gulanxiu sighed inwardly. Wearing the Heavy Metal Stym armor, his base strength was equivalent to Domain Lord Ninth Stage, and his grasp of the laws was decent. With the Blood God Axe's boost, even an ordinary World Lord First Stage was no match for him. Yet in that exchange, Gulanxiu had come out on the losing end.

This clearly showed the Bull-headed Man's strength.

Meanwhile, the Bull-headed Man was equally shocked. He was a World Lord Third Stage! His base strength was forty times that of a Domain Lord Ninth Stage, yet under his ambush, Gulanxiu had escaped unscathed—how could that not astonish him?

His gaze then fell on his gauntlets. At the center of the dark red metal fist-guard, a crack had appeared—the result of the collision with the blood-colored giant axe.

The Bull-headed Man's eyes burned with greed as he stared at the Blood God Axe in Gulanxiu's hand. He laughed loudly, "Haha! What a treasure! But it'll be mine soon!"

With that, he suddenly accelerated toward Gulanxiu. At the same time, blood-red patterns emerged across his bare chest and exposed face, forming a complex design, and his aura surged dramatically.