Only One Realm?

"Are you, a traitorous disciple, truly going to murder your master?" Blackheart Elder did not want to die. Though he was already over a hundred years old, perhaps it was because destruction gave rise to rebirth: after losing both his demonic body and Blackheart, he had unexpectedly brushed against the possibility of advancing further.

That was the realm countless cultivators in the Jia Five Realm dreamed of!

The legendary Immortal Path beyond cultivation!

All he needed was to restore his cultivation, and he could attempt a breakthrough.

"Master, you should be on your way soon. Such stalling tactics are useless against me." Before Tan Shuchang had finished speaking, the jade-white lotuses were already about to overlap with Blackheart Elder's figure once more.

One overlap would refine away half his blood.

If they overlapped a second time, Blackheart Elder would undoubtedly die.

At this critical juncture, Blackheart Elder could no longer concern himself with anything else. He suddenly struck his chest and spat out a blood-colored pill.

The moment that blood-colored pill appeared, a bone-piercing chill spread in an instant, like waves of frost crashing forth. It not only shattered the lotuses, but also vaporized all the blood covering the ground.

This meant that the Blood Refining Grand Formation had been broken, while Tan Shuchang stood there without moving.

Seeing this, Blackheart Elder could not help but throw back his head and laugh hoarsely. "Traitorous disciple, you may have great fortune, but do you think this old man has no trump cards?"

Yet after saying this, resentment appeared on Blackheart Elder's face again. "Damn it! I can only use this Chaos Fate Orb three times, and this is already the last time. After this, the orb will leave!"

This Chaos Fate Orb was a treasure he had gone to great lengths to seize.

Then, looking at Tan Shuchang's motionless figure, fury surged into his heart. "Scatter!"

His voice burst like a thunderclap. At the sound, that figure instantly shattered across the ground. Any living being touched by the power of the Chaos Fate Orb would surely die; a dead corpse would surely turn strange.

"Master, calm your anger. There is no need to be so enraged." Yet although that figure had shattered, Tan Shuchang's voice rang out once more.

Blackheart Elder shuddered in alarm. A girl with an excessively pale face had suddenly appeared before him. Then darkness fell over his vision, and he completely lost consciousness.

The pale-faced girl then emerged from Blackheart Elder's body and entered a pool of blood that had suddenly appeared.

Tan Shuchang's figure rose from that pool of blood, his face filled with regret.

He had wanted to keep the Chaos Fate Orb, but unfortunately, he had failed. A spiritual treasure like this truly depended on fate.

"A hundred years of cultivation truly is worthy of a hundred years of cultivation. If this old devil's demonic body had still remained, and Blackheart had not been used up, then with the cultivation I have amassed over these past few years, I would have certainly died..."

Tan Shuchang looked at Blackheart Elder's corpse. Its life force had completely vanished, and because it had been killed by a ghost, livor mortis had already begun to appear. He began to sum things up.

From the moment he launched his ambush, he had not held back.

He had given it everything he had.

Yet this old devil had been far more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

Had he not been special, and had refining the fierce ghost not allowed him to both use it to amplify his cultivation technique and temporarily merge with it—using the fierce ghost's body to shift between illusion and reality—then his chances against this old devil would not merely have been below fifty percent. He would have had no chance at all.

After all, having cultivated for only a few years, he was merely among the lowest ranks of the younger generation in the Jia Five Realm.

The cultivators of the Jia Five Realm were not divided by realms.

More precisely, it was not that there were no cultivation realms. Rather, cultivators of Jia Five were basically all within the same realm—the Cultivation Realm!

Thus, they simply classified people according to their years of cultivation.

Those below the age of twenty, regardless of whether they had cultivated for one year or ten, were all considered part of the youthful generation.

Those aged twenty or above, but still under thirty, were regarded as the young generation!

Above that were those from thirty to fifty, known as the prime generation!

Those above fifty, up to the age of seventy, were all of the older generation!

Those over seventy were all of the ancestor generation.

Generally speaking, anyone who had cultivated until the age of seventy without dying possessed profound cultivation and had mastered at least one cultivation technique to the major attainment stage. Though they had not reached the ultimate level, the power of a major attainment technique was enough to secure them a foothold in the Jia Five Realm.

Someone like Blackheart Elder, who had cultivated for a hundred years, naturally possessed strength beyond question.

Tan Shuchang searched the residence and found the Blackheart Mountain sect leader's token before leaving. It was not that he looked down on Blackheart Elder's collection; he simply had not found it.

The only valuable thing on the old devil was the Chaos Fate Orb, which had already gained sentience and departed.

When Tan Shuchang walked out of the residence, he encountered the two women who had brought him here. Looking at them now, he discovered that these two "junior sisters" had long since lost all breath and had been dead for quite some time.

They had not been affected by the Chaos Fate Orb's power. Rather, it was because their master, Blackheart Elder, had been killed.

"So they really were living puppets..."

Tan Shuchang sighed softly. This was an exceedingly vicious technique, yet quite a few people used it, whether from the Demonic Path or the Righteous Path.

When righteous sects used it, they changed the name, calling them "strongmen" or "celestial maidens," but their essence was all the same.

Tan Shuchang left quickly, because if anyone discovered that he had killed Blackheart Elder, the Jian Gorge Sect would absolutely demand an explanation from him.

After all, this was a city under their administration.

It did not matter whether Blackheart Elder lived or died, but an incident like this was no different from slapping the Jian Gorge Sect across the face.

However, not long after Tan Shuchang departed, someone quietly arrived at Blackheart Elder's former hiding place. They were several young men and women, led by a man around thirty years old.

This group quickly found Blackheart Elder's corpse. At this moment, the corpse was not only shriveled, but scorch marks had begun to appear all over it.

"Martial Uncle, the old devil Blackheart is dead. How are we supposed to explain this to the sect?" The young men and women were first startled by Blackheart Elder's corpse, but soon revealed panicked expressions.

They were disciples of Sword Disciple Mountain. They had come to Clear River City in order to ensure that Blackheart Elder remained within their control.

Who could have imagined that in such a short time, Blackheart Elder, renowned throughout the Jia Five Realm, would die just like this!

"Do not panic, nephews and nieces. The sect leader sent us here not to protect this old devil Blackheart. It is only because this old devil acquired a spiritual treasure that could play a rather crucial role in our Righteous Path Grand Plan. Moreover, this devil already fears our Sword Disciple Mountain. With a little intimidation in the future, we could tame this old devil and make him obediently serve Sword Disciple Mountain." The man around thirty, however, remained calm.