Qi and Blood Clone

The black-robed crowd fell into chaos, and the bone-whip cultivators shouted furiously for them to form up.

Lu Chen snorted coldly. His Qi and Blood Domain expanded violently, suppressing everyone within it.

He unleashed the Wind and Thunder Steps at full power. His blade wheeled, and heads—human and wolf alike—soared into the sky one after another.

The survivors were scared out of their wits and turned to flee.

But where could they run?

The Qi Sea Domain suddenly trembled, making them all cough up blood. Then the blade light fell, and humans and wolves alike bowed their heads.

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace shook, and every wolf corpse and human corpse vanished.

During the slaughter, their minor leader had already sent the news out.

Lu Chen only needed to wait while continuing to break through.

Half a day later, his qi and blood surged wildly, and he broke through once more, reaching the fifth layer of the Qi Surge Realm.

At this realm, he could refine three Qi and Blood Clones, each possessing seventy percent of the main body's attack power.

They could also use externally refined furnaces.

Lu Chen tempered his realm until it was smooth and rounded, then began refining his clones.

However, before refining them, he first had to make some preparations.

He carved Wind and Thunder rune patterns all around him, all of them insights gained from the Myriad Manifestations Furnace Art.

This was the key to refining clones.

The vast energy of the Myriad Manifestations Furnace erupted like a volcano, pouring through his meridians into his dantian.

The Qi and Blood Furnace roared and trembled as energy churned within it.

Red mist seeped from every pore of Lu Chen's body, gathering into three rolling clouds of blood. The Wind and Thunder rune patterns suppressed them around him.

He held two fingers together like a sword and sliced open his wrist. Three streams of blood shot precisely into the blood clouds.

The mist surged and formed human shapes, their outlines identical to Lu Chen's.

"With blood as bone, with qi as veins—condense!"

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace flew out from his dantian. Its mouth poured out the pure qi and blood accumulated from devouring Prison of Heaven Cave cultivators and wolf corpses.

The blood clouds greedily devoured it, their forms growing increasingly solid until they became three red-robed "Lu Chens."

The clones had cold, stern features. Though they possessed no intelligence, their qi and blood shared the same origin as the main body, moving as easily as his own arms and fingers.

With a thought from Lu Chen, the three clones threw punches at the same time.

Boom!

Sand waves blasted into the air.

A sand dune thirty meters away was leveled to the ground.

Three days later, another Prison of Heaven Cave squad appeared.

There was also a Golden Core expert.

He had not come specifically for this matter. He had merely heard on his way back that their people were being hunted, so he made a slight detour.

He charged straight at Lu Chen in the center of the oasis.

"Take him down!" The Golden Core cultivator threw out chains and roared.

Whether it was him or not, they would capture him first and ask questions later.

If it was not him, they could sell him as a slave for profit.

But suddenly, the ground exploded, and three figures shot out.

Each held a phantom Soul Severing Saber. Their blade qi intertwined into a net and cleaved the three charging men to death in a single strike.

Lu Chen's true body teleported behind the enemy formation. The Barren Lizard Furnace came crashing down from above, refining more than ten Foundation Establishment cultivators in an instant.

"Why are there four of them?!"

Before the cry of alarm could fade, the clones had already formed a triangular battle formation.

Blade light swept out like a blood-red wheel, and wherever it passed, flesh and blood flew everywhere.

The Golden Core cultivator tried to retreat, but his body suddenly grew heavy as four Qi Sea Domains enveloped him.

Though his realm did not fall, his movements were greatly restricted.

The three clones locked onto his aura at once. Blade qi pierced through his chest, and before his corpse could fall, it was drawn into the furnace.

Lu Chen stood where he was with his hands behind his back, the four figures gradually merging into one.

He looked toward the eastern sky, which was beginning to brighten, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

It seemed even more effective than he had imagined.

The loss of a Golden Core cultivator at Prison of Heaven Cave alarmed its upper ranks.

On the fourth day, dark clouds blanketed the sky above the oasis.

An old man arrived upon the clouds, a prison embroidered in golden thread over his chest.

He looked down at Lu Chen, who was meditating beside the pool with his eyes closed, and said coldly:

"You killed the elites of my Prison of Heaven Cave. Today, I will extract your soul and light a heavenly lantern with it!"

Golden Core pressure crashed down like a mountain, but Lu Chen smiled.

The person he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He had done all this precisely to lure over a leader.

The old man flicked a finger, and nine blood nails sealed off every route of retreat.

But Lu Chen flashed three times in succession, vanishing and reappearing out of thin air. Every blood nail missed.

"Teleportation?!" The old man's pupils shrank sharply as twelve flying swords flew from his sleeve and formed a killing formation.

As sword rain poured down, Lu Chen hurled out the Barren Lizard Furnace.

"Explode!"

The furnace exploded with a thunderous crash, and vast energy burst forth.

A massive wave scattered the sword formation, and the old man's protective Spiritual Light fluctuated violently.

Seizing his moment of distraction, Lu Chen teleported close. The Soul Severing Saber, wrapped in wind and thunder, stabbed into his dantian.

The instant the blade tip touched the Golden Core, the Myriad Manifestations Furnace swelled out of Lu Chen's body and swallowed the old man along with his core.

After half a day of frenzied refinement, the old man was completely refined.

Energy surged like rolling waves, directly pushing Lu Chen to the peak of the fifth layer of the Qi Surge Realm.

With a flip of his hand, three more drops of dazzling golden marrow appeared in his palm.

The two great Golden Core experts had contributed six drops in total.

After consuming three drops, Lu Chen tempered the flesh, body, and meridians to their limit.

His physical strength alone had reached a terrifying five hundred Bull Strength.

The power of his qi and blood had surpassed thirteen hundred, exceeding eighteen hundred in total.

"Another Law Fragment!"

Lu Chen flipped his hand, and a silver Law Fragment appeared in his palm.

He had obtained it by refining the old man's weapon after killing him.

As for the first Golden Core immortal cultivator, he had not had one. His natal magic artifact had yet to condense the power of laws.

Lu Chen fused the Law Fragment into the Soul Severing Saber.

The blade trembled, then, beneath his speechless gaze, remained at the peak of a low-grade spirit artifact.

It had not broken through to the mid-grade.

Still, that was already quite good.

Next, he traveled from place to place, finding and killing three third-rank demon beasts in succession. In total, he refined three furnaces, one for each clone.

After transferring them to the clones, even if they detonated their external furnaces, the main body would not suffer any backlash.

During this process, he still broke through under the impact of the surging energy.

The sixth layer of the Qi Surge Realm.

He had wanted to settle his cultivation for a while, but the energy was simply too abundant.

Such rapid advancement could easily make his realm unstable.

To expend the excess energy, he forged another three bone sabers.

Though they were not spirit artifacts, they were absolutely the finest among ordinary weapons.

Three days later, Lu Chen stood atop a sand dune. His black robes snapped in the wind, three clones standing silently behind him while the Barren Lizard Furnace slowly spun in his palm.

In the distance, the fortress walls of the Black Collar Prison Heaven Cave crouched like a giant beast. Cold light flashed from the arrow towers, and the wails of slaves could faintly be heard.

Lu Chen flicked a finger. The furnace hummed, and the clones turned into three blood-red afterimages as they charged straight at the fortress gate.

"Enemy attack!"

The sentries atop the arrow towers shrieked hoarsely. Hundreds of poisoned arrows shot toward them like black locusts blotting out the sky.

Lu Chen stepped through the Wind and Thunder Steps and leaped into the air. Spreading both arms, he unleashed a ten-meter Qi and Blood Domain with a thunderous roar.

The instant the arrow rain touched the edge of the domain, it froze in midair. The arrow shafts cracked with crack-crack sounds, and the poison evaporated into a foul-smelling mist.

"Break!" the clones shouted together. The light of their Soul Severing Sabers surged as three blade lights overlapped and slashed down like blood-red crescent moons.

The fortress gate exploded with a thunderous crash. Splintered wood, wrapped in blade qi, swept outward, and more than ten black-robed cultivators were twisted into blood mist by the blade qi before they could even draw their swords.

Chaos erupted inside the fortress as Prison of Heaven Cave bandits swarmed out of their tents.

Foundation Establishment cultivators formed formations and unleashed techniques. Fire pythons and ice spikes rained down from the sky, only to be forcibly scattered when the clones rammed through them with their external furnaces.

A sweep of eerie light from the furnace mouths devoured all the scattered spiritual power, feeding it back as energy into Lu Chen's meridians.

"Form the formation!" a leader roared. The cultivators bit through their tongues, and Essence Blood condensed into glaring blood-red formation patterns.

The ground trembled as nine blood skeletons crawled out from the formation, venom dripping from their fangs.

Lu Chen sneered. The main body and clones formed hand seals simultaneously, and four layers of Qi and Blood Domains overlapped before expanding with a thunderous crash.