Lu Xuan After His Breakthrough

PS: Many thanks to fellow Daoist Dung-Picking Bug for the support of eight monthly votes. Dragon Soul offers his thanks. Kowtow...

As the Great Dao Law of Time merged into Lu Xuan's body, a phantom image of the River of Time manifested above his head.

Lu Xuan exhaled a breath of turbid air and sighed. "What a pity it's only a phantom of the River of Time. If it were the true River of Time, who in the Primordial World would I have to fear?"

Indeed, the River of Time and the River of Fate were the most mysterious existences, places even Sages dared not set foot in. If Lu Xuan could control them, the extent of his terror was easy to imagine.

The next moment, Lu Xuan vanished directly from the Pangu World-Opening Map. When he reappeared, he was already above Wuyi Mountain.

For others to break through to the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm, they first had to sever one of the Three Corpses. That was what was known as becoming a One-Corpse Quasi-Sage.

Yet Lu Xuan had not achieved his breakthrough into the early Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm through such a process. Instead, he had done so by evolving a phantom of the River of Time.

Thus, the moment Lu Xuan appeared above Wuyi Mountain, Hongjun in Zixiao Palace opened his eyes.

His gaze swept across the entire Primordial World, but in the end, he shook his head with a grave expression and sighed. "Impossible. I clearly sensed it—why can I not find where that anomaly is?"

The next moment, Hongjun's consciousness sank directly into the Heavenly Dao, borrowing its power to peer into the entire Primordial World.

At the instant Lu Xuan had appeared in the Primordial World, Hongjun had sensed a lineage of Dao different from his own manifesting within it.

To Hongjun, this was a challenge to his authority. He had to find this anomaly. Yet even after borrowing the power of the Heavenly Dao, he found nothing.

Though he had failed to locate the anomaly in his eyes, Hongjun merged that faint trace of perception into the Heavenly Dao.

In other words, so long as that anomaly revealed itself beneath the Heavenly Dao, Hongjun would immediately receive feedback from it.

That was the benefit of merging oneself with the Dao: one could borrow a portion of the Heavenly Dao's power for one's own use. Of course, the price was that one could not easily interfere in the affairs of the Primordial World.

In the original course of the Primordial World, after Hongjun's Three Pure Ones of Zixiao Palace, he only appeared once in the Primordial World, at the end of the Investiture of the Gods Calamity, to make the Three Pure Ones take the Sage-Slaying Pill.

Other than that, at most he issued decrees. As for personally fighting anyone, that had never happened even once.

Yet Lu Xuan, the culprit behind all this, paid it no mind. After all, with the Pangu World-Opening Map on him, Hongjun simply could not sense his existence.

Even if Hongjun appeared before him, he would only feel that he could not see through Lu Xuan. He would be unable to sense any karma related to Lu Xuan.

As for why Lu Xuan had leaked a trace of his aura just now and been sensed by Hongjun, it was because his cultivation had now reached the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm, triggering a resonance with the Primordial World.

Great Luo Golden Immortals and those below them could only be called cultivators. But once one reached the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm, it was equivalent to having one foot in the Sage Realm. Thus, Primordial Unity Golden Immortals were also called Quasi-Sages.

However, a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal was still only a Quasi-Sage, and the resonance it could evoke from the Primordial World was extremely limited. If one attained the Dao as a Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal, then heavenly phenomena would truly descend.

At that time, even with Lu Xuan holding the Pangu World-Opening Map, he could not conceal the heavenly phenomenon of someone attaining the Dao and becoming a Sage. At most, he could leave Hongjun unable to determine who had attained the Dao as a Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Therefore, Lu Xuan had not the slightest awareness that he had already drawn Hongjun's attention. At this moment, he gripped the Compliant Iron Rod and pointed it directly at Taiyi.

"You bird... yes, I mean you... weren't you acting pretty arrogant just now? Come on, let's fight again."

As he spoke, Lu Xuan swung the Compliant Iron Rod without a care and smashed it directly toward Taiyi.

Taiyi knew this was not the time to fight, but with the other party attacking him, he could hardly sit still and await death.

With a thought, the Chaos Bell appeared above his head, forcibly blocking Lu Xuan's earth-shattering blow.

The moment he saw the Chaos Bell appear above Taiyi's head, Primordial Heavenly Venerable subconsciously inspected the Pangu Banner. Sure enough, the Chaos Bell that he had wrapped within the Pangu Banner had already been recalled by Taiyi.

That was the nature of a natal spiritual treasure. Unless its holder was willing to sever their bond with it, even if it were imprisoned by an Innate Supreme Treasure, its holder could retrieve it with a single thought.

It seems I was right not to snatch the Chaos Bell outright. As long as Brother can give Taiyi a thorough beating later, he'll have to offer up the Chaos Bell himself.

Why did Primordial Heavenly Venerable believe that Lu Xuan could give Taiyi a thorough beating? Because he had already sensed that Lu Xuan had broken through into the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm.

With Lu Xuan's physical strength and combat instincts, once he stepped into the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm, challenging opponents above his level would no longer be a problem.

And the outcome did not disappoint Primordial Heavenly Venerable. Lu Xuan wielded the Compliant Iron Rod with such force that it howled through the air, clashing head-on with Taiyi every time he swung it.

This inevitably ignited Taiyi's true fury. He immediately slapped the Chaos Bell, preparing to use the same trick again and draw down the power of the stars.

Unfortunately, Lu Xuan merely sneered. "Using that move again? Don't you have anything new?"

"If you don't, then I'm about to put on a show. I hope you can withstand the blow later. Don't let your jaw drop."

As he spoke, the Compliant Iron Rod in Lu Xuan's hand had already been put away. His figure transformed into specks of starlight and vanished directly from Taiyi's side.

The next moment, a star map appeared out of thin air, absorbing all the stellar power Taiyi had drawn down into itself.

This gave Taiyi the feeling of striking cotton. No matter how he drove the Chaos Bell, he could not feel any feedback that his attack had struck its target.

Just as Taiyi was reeling in shock, a ruler flew out from within the star map—the Heaven-Earth Sea-Calming Ruler.

The Heaven-Earth Sea-Calming Ruler transformed into a dragon soul (not the author himself) and lunged directly at Taiyi. Midway, it split into thirty-six dragon souls, forming a Dragon Soul Prison.

Each dragon soul possessed the power of a small world. The Dragon Soul Prison formed by thirty-six dragon souls was equivalent to thirty-six small worlds imprisoning Taiyi within.

This finally made Taiyi panic. He desperately drove the Chaos Bell, trying to break the Dragon Soul Prison. Yet within the Dragon Soul Prison, one dragon soul began to slowly solidify.

As that dragon soul gradually became corporeal, Nuwa could not help revealing a shocked expression. In the end, she blurted out loud.

"Ancestral Dragon? Is that the Ancestral Dragon? How is that possible? How could the Ancestral Dragon appear in the Primordial World again?"

Nuwa was not the only one shocked; even the Three Pure Ones found it somewhat hard to believe. Lu Xuan could actually use a magic treasure to summon the Ancestral Dragon into the Primordial World.

The most important thing was that it was not merely a phantom of the Ancestral Dragon, but the genuine true body of the Ancestral Dragon. If not for the lack of life in his eyes, even the Three Pure Ones might have believed that the Ancestral Dragon had been reborn.