The emerald bead curtains on the top floor of Drunken Immortal Tower stirred without wind. The mysterious woman leaned against a jade railing, and within the recording stone in her hand was the scene of Lu Chen slaying Wutu.
The Shadow Guard commander knelt on the ground and heard her give a soft laugh. "The Son of Heavenly Dao of Tianyu Academy has had his card torn to shreds!"
With Lu Chen causing such a stir, every evil deed of the Son of Heavenly Dao had been exposed. What dignity could he possibly have left?
"What a pity he killed too few!"
The Shadow Guard commander's mouth twitched.
That was still too few?
Ever since Lu Chen had arrived in Yanjing, how many Golden Core experts from Tianyu Academy had he already slain?
He should know when enough was enough!
Tianyu Academy.
The Purple Robe Elder stared at the row of shattered soul lamps and rasped a question at the scout kneeling on the ground:
"Ten elite Golden Core cultivators, and not even a remnant soul escaped?"
Lu Ran appeared in white robes and sat opposite him. The image from before Wutu's death flickered before him.
"This mysterious furnace is no ordinary thing. The bloodline is mine, and it will be mine too. Heh heh..."
Back in the Lu Family, he had been able to strip Lu Chen of his bloodline. Now that they were at Tianyu Academy, how could he not deal with him however he pleased?
The more wildly Lu Chen leaped about now, the uglier his death would be in the future.
As for why he had not gone out to fight, it was not that he did not want to, but that he could not.
The bloodline he had seized was not so easily fused. Once it went out of control, he would be doomed beyond redemption.
After entering the Golden Core Realm, he had to completely refine it before the New Year martial tournament and awaken his first Martial Dao divine ability.
Then, he would stand upon the world stage in an invincible posture, trample Lu Chen beneath his feet, and avenge his family.
In truth, he was suffering terribly inside as well.
He wanted nothing more than to tear Lu Chen apart alive.
But now truly was not the time.
After slaying ten in succession, no one at the Fifth Level of the Golden Core Realm or below dared step onto the stage again.
Some were awed, some were green with envy, and jealousy arose without end.
He was already this terrifying after having his bloodline stripped away. How powerful would he have been if it had not been taken?
Lu Chen stood where he was, his saber qi glaringly bright in the dusk.
The Asura Furnace hovered above his head, its ghostly light deep as an abyss, casting the gates of Tianyu Academy into alternating brightness and darkness.
He flicked away the last scraps from his shoulder. As he raised his eyes, an Asura phantom manifested behind him, roaring like thunder, its savage might surging like a boundless tide.
"I thought I could fight for three days. Yet before even one day passed, you've already withered. Tianyu Academy, heh heh, nothing but an empty name!"
Lu Chen's aura grew ever stronger, and at one particular instant, it rose another small notch.
The sight startled everyone into taking two steps back.
Another Undying Blood Mark condensed upon the surface of the white sphere within the furnace in his sea of qi.
Lu Chen remained standing there for more than two days, only leaving with carefree ease after three days had passed.
The laughter he left behind sounded incomparably piercing to the disciples of Tianyu Academy.
Though Lu Ran still wore a calm, breezy expression, the hatred in the depths of his eyes grew ever denser.
He also became several degrees more wary of Lu Chen.
Scenes of being suppressed by him back in the Lu Family surfaced once more in his mind.
The word "coward" echoed ceaselessly by his ears.
At some point, his eyes had already turned blood-red.
Had the Purple Robe Elder not suddenly shouted sharply, he might very well have suffered qi deviation.
Lu Chen had taken such a huge risk to come here precisely for this.
He wanted to awaken every scene of Lu Ran once being trampled beneath his feet, preferably causing a heart demon to take root.
Clearly, as the matter continued to ferment, he had succeeded.
Yet at the same time, he had brought a tremendous crisis upon himself.
The moment Lu Chen left, Tianyu Academy dispatched assassins from its shadow division.
Led by a Nascent Soul-level powerhouse, they were to launch an assassination operation against Lu Chen.
Unfortunately, afterward, Lu Chen vanished from the face of the earth.
After leaving, Lu Chen returned to Tianyan Academy, bid farewell to the Old Ancestor, Xiong Yao, and Fang Jiuding, then activated a teleportation talisman and headed for the Blood Fiend Battlefield.
Moreover, he did not act immediately. Instead, he found a cave and entered seclusion first.
The Eighth Level of the Qi Surge Realm was about condensing Undying Blood Marks. So long as he had sufficient energy, condensing them quickly would not be a problem.
Five days later, a tremendous rumble erupted from the cave, as though an unparalleled ferocious beast were awakening.
The monsters roaming nearby were frightened into scattering in all directions.
He had broken through, reaching the Ninth Level of Qi Surge Realm.
One step further, and he could enter the third major realm of Martial Dao Cultivators—the True Martial Realm.
Lu Chen walked out of the cave and looked upon the blood-red sky. The setting sun hung half-fallen, staining the entire wasteland a blinding crimson.
"So this is the ancient Blood Fiend Battlefield!"
Lu Chen's eyes flickered slightly, and anticipation appeared on his face.
Before coming, Old Ancestor Tianyan had explained the Blood Fiend Battlefield to him in detail.
This place held a treasure capable of restoring his bloodline.
That was also the main reason he had been sent here.
Once it was restored, he would have far greater confidence in dealing with Lu Ran.
Yet one point puzzled Lu Chen. That bastard Lu Ran had plundered his bloodline, but the ability he gained seemed somewhat different from the bloodline itself.
Could it truly have mutated?
He crushed half a charred shinbone beneath his foot, and an ear-grating crunch sounded from beneath his boot.
On the distant horizon, several skeletons remained in the postures of their final battle, rusted swords and sabers thrust diagonally between their rib cages.
He flicked out a strand of Gale Force, blasting the carrion crow rushing at him into a mist of blood.
As he walked, he familiarized himself with this land.
Although Old Ancestor Tianyan had given him a brief explanation, it was truly difficult to determine where exactly he was now.
"Hm?"
Faint roars came from afar. A wind laden with a fishy stench swept past his ears, and he caught the crisp ring of clashing metal.
Following the sound through two low hills piled from bones, the sight before him gave him a slight shock.
Five Rogue Cultivators stood with their backs against a rock wall in formation. Their leader, a bearded burly man, swung a massive bronze axe, cleaving the three Blood Fiend Demons pouncing at them until black blood sprayed everywhere.
These Demonic Beasts resembled giant apes that had been skinned alive. Their joints were covered in backward-growing spikes, and the vertical eyes on their foreheads glowed with an eerie red light.
"The formation won't hold much longer!" the female cultivator on the left shrieked in warning. Spiderweb-like cracks had already spread across the formation disc in her palm.
Before her words had faded, a Blood Fiend Demon suddenly leaped up. Its claws tore through her protective Spiritual Light, and it was about to pierce her throat.
Clang!
The Soul Severing Saber shot through the air from a hundred zhang away. Saber light exploded like lightning, pinning the Demonic Beast to the rock wall.
Amid the saber's trembling hum, Lu Chen swept into the field with Wind and Thunder Steps. Three clones, each bearing a furnace, positioned themselves at the corners of a triangle as the Qi and Blood Domain came crashing down.
The Blood Fiend Demons' movements abruptly slowed. The bearded burly man seized the chance and roared, "Strike with everything you have!"
The giant axe swept across like a wheel. Together with Lu Chen's saber qi, it shredded the remaining Demonic Beasts into minced flesh in an instant.
The black blood ignited the moment it touched the ground, billowing into foul-smelling green smoke.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist..."
The female cultivator's words came to an abrupt halt.
She stared at the furnace revealed as Lu Chen sheathed his saber, then suddenly grabbed her companion's sleeve and retreated half a step.
The bearded burly man, however, was forthright. He cupped his fists and said:
"I am Tie Yan, a Rogue Cultivator from Cangwu City. Fellow Daoist, your method of refining demons with that furnace looks exactly like the one spoken of in the rumors..."
"Lu Chen of Tianyan Academy." He calmly took over, and the furnace swept away the demon corpses covering the ground. "Do any of you know where blood jade can be found?"
Tie Yan's pupils shrank slightly, and he hurriedly replied:
"In the core region. I heard there is a blood pool there, where one may have a chance to obtain it, but the risk is enormous..."
He lowered his voice. "People from the Blood Spirit Sect are stationed there, guarding it with utmost strictness. It would be best to go as a group."
A rustling suddenly sounded from the shadows along the rock wall.
Lu Chen's bone saber did not move, but saber qi had already condensed into an invisible blade and slashed toward the source.
Where shattered rocks flew apart, only half a writhing blood vine remained.
A blood-red eyeball was embedded in the vine's severed end.
"It's a Blood Puppet scout!" The female cultivator's face went deathly pale. "Blood Owl must have already noticed us..."
Tie Yan abruptly crushed a teleportation talisman, and azure light wrapped around the group. "Leave quickly!"
He turned to Lu Chen. "If Fellow Daoist intends to go to the core region, be sure to take care. Three days ago, a group of Golden Core cultivators was refined into Blood Puppets there. They did not even have a chance to resist."
Lu Chen nodded. Watching them vanish within the teleportation formation, he bent down and picked up the blood vine.
The vine turned to powder in his palm. Its remaining resentment struck his divine sense, faintly revealing a horrifying scene.
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