Ambush and Breakthrough

The death warriors slipped out of the city and likewise trailed far behind Aman, planning to strike once he reached a secluded, deserted spot.

As Aman traveled, a sudden sense of foreboding came over him. He secretly tightened his grip on his artifact, using it to sense every rustle of wind and grass nearby.

Unfortunately, he was still only at the peak of the Blood Moving Realm and had yet to attempt a breakthrough into Cave Heaven, leaving his divine power somewhat limited. He had always felt that transcending the extreme realm of Blood Moving before breaking through would bring greater benefits.

Just then, a voice reached his ears. "Aman, your Martial King Manor's Fifth Grandfather wants to ambush and kill you."

Hm? Aman kept moving without betraying anything and asked, "Why?"

"I haven't divined that yet, but I think simply killing them would be more practical. Make a big incident of this and expose the fact that you're heading to the Second Ancestral Land. You won't be able to keep that secret anyway." Chen Yao offered his plan.

"Are they strong?"

"One in Spirit Transformation, five in Cave Heaven. The Spirit Transformation cultivator carries an Inscription Artifact, so his combat strength isn't weak for his realm." Chen Yao shared the information he had gathered and waited for Aman's answer.

"...Tell me where they are. I'll summon Fourth Grandfather and have him sweep them away." Aman was merely kindhearted, not a saint. He immediately resolved to kill them.

"Enter the mountains up ahead. The first ambush point is a hundred li in."

The death warriors hid in concealed spots and moved cautiously. Following the information sent back by their accomplices, they blocked Aman's inevitable route. Once they confirmed that no one else was around and Aman had approached their encirclement, they sprang into action!

A crimson flying sword, the Purple Lightning Hammer, the Golden Ring...treasured weapons suddenly shot out in a volley, the light of precious techniques flashing straight toward that petite figure. None of the attacks were lethal, however, and all avoided vital spots. They intended to capture the boy alive.

But the boy seemed to have anticipated them. He revealed a faintly glowing Jade Pendant in his hand, which had actually been activated for some time already. The instant Aman opened his palm, the Jade Pendant blazed with light. A figure lunged out of it and transformed into a golden lion-Fourth Grandfather's spirit body, nurtured through the precious technique of the Primordial Remnant Golden Lion. Ferocious beyond measure, he smashed the incoming treasured weapons with a single swipe of his paw and unleashed a furious roar. Lion's Roar! The blast shook the three Cave Heaven experts charging toward him into powder.

"You've got some nerve! Who sent you? Old Fifth again?!" The lion spoke in a human voice. As the spirit body of an Inscription Realm expert, he did not take this bunch seriously at all.

Protected by his artifact from being shattered by Lion's Roar, the Spirit Transformation death warrior stared coldly and said nothing, directly activating the artifact in his hand. To avoid suspicion and leave no telltale traces, Fifth Grandfather had not left a spirit body within it, merely sealing the soul of a fierce beast inside. Now that soul was ignited as a sacrifice, unleashing a dazzling strike. Runes surged like a sea, blasting cracks across half the lion spirit body and nearly destroying him outright.

"Hmph!" Under the artifact's protection, the Spirit Transformation death warrior flashed forward and reached out to seize Aman, who had been exposed when the spirit body was knocked back, intending to flee swiftly afterward.

"You dare!" Disregarding his injuries, the spirit body pounced again.

That last strike had been far too powerful. He was only a spirit body, and Fourth Grandfather had not fully perfected nurturing spirits within his Cave Heavens back then, leaving him short of the necessary refinement. Now the death warrior wielding the Inscription Artifact forcibly held him back, while the other two Cave Heaven death warriors lunged out. They opened four or five Cave Heavens, their divine power surging irresistibly, intending to cripple Aman outright and take him away.

Suddenly, one man's precious technique struck an invisible barrier and dispersed into streams of air, merely stirring Aman's fine hair. Facing the streams of worldly primal energy that had become a gentle breeze, Aman stepped forward, cracking the ground beneath his foot. His figure shot out like a meteor, and his fist smashed into the death warrior's face.

After breaking through the extreme realm, Aman's physical strength had surpassed one hundred thousand jin. Then he had taken another half step toward transcending the extreme realm, further transforming his body and making it stronger than when he had first broken through. Now, with physical strength alone, a single hand possessed tremendous force exceeding one hundred thousand jin, to say nothing of how much strength bone text reinforcement would add. Yet the death warrior before him inexplicably found his bone texts dimming and his precious technique dissipating, leaving his flesh exposed. That punch blasted his head into a rotten watermelon.

Without breaking through the extreme realm, even a late-stage Blood Moving cultivator reinforced by bone texts possessed only fifty thousand jin of strength. Cave Heaven cultivation focused primarily on divine power and did little to strengthen the flesh. Only upon reaching Spirit Transformation and cultivating fleshly body becoming spirit would the body undergo further tempering. With his flesh now exposed, without bone texts or divine power reinforcing it, he was scarcely stronger than an ordinary Blood Moving cultivator. Against a genius who had broken through the extreme realm, he was killed in a single blow.

Even Aman froze for a moment, never having imagined that his destructive power was so great.

Then he discovered that the few drops of blood essence he had compressed and refined within his body to transcend the extreme realm had become active during the battle, moving with the blood throughout his body. The enemy's blood splashed onto him actually seeped swiftly into his body and was devoured and assimilated by them.

The remaining Cave Heaven death warrior's pupils trembled. He retreated frantically, not daring to clash physically, and hurled a treasured weapon from a distance. But the moment it flew out, something enveloped it. It lost its luster, its divine power dispersed, and it fell to the ground-only to light up again and fly back at him!

Qi-State Origin-Flow transformed myriad arts; Divine Machine Hundred Refinements commanded all things.

Hidden in a crevice of the void, Chen Yao had been protecting Aman all along. Now he used the treasured weapon to block the death warrior's retreat, then dissolved the precious techniques and bone texts on his body, forcing him to face the charging Aman with nothing but his flesh once more.

The death warrior's face turned ashen as he frantically tried to activate his divine power. But Qi-State Origin-Flow had poured out from some unknown place and enveloped the surroundings. He could barely circulate a little divine radiance deep within his body to move his qi and blood, utterly unable to use bone texts to reinforce his physical strength and defense. He could only raise a small shield to block.

Aman kicked the shield. Amid a continuous series of cracks, the bones in the death warrior's arms snapped into several pieces, and his hand bones shattered. No longer held steady, the shield slammed into his chest, breaking his ribs and caving it in. Spraying blood wildly, the death warrior flew backward, already on the verge of death in midair. Yet the blood he spilled was drawn by a peculiar fluctuation and automatically absorbed into Aman's body.

They had human forms, unlike the enormous, thick-skinned pangolin Shi Hao had faced back then. With their divine power reinforcement shut off as well, they could not withstand the attacks of a genius who had transcended the extreme realm. They were wiped out in a single onslaught.

"Useless trash!" The death warrior fighting Fourth Grandfather's spirit body in midair roared. Ruthlessly, he detonated his artifact, accepting severe injuries from the blast at such close range to destroy the lion spirit body. He then swooped downward, the bone texts on his body blazing with light. He forcibly withstood the Transform Myriad Arts Chen Yao unleashed from the shadows, using his abundant magical power to counteract Qi-State Origin-Flow, whose speed at dissolving techniques was limited. His magical power dropped by only fifty percent.

"There really is someone else! Get out here!" He spat out a mouthful of blood and, his face twisted savagely, drew the Blood-colored Longblade, his own treasured weapon. He swung it viciously at Aman, intent on forcing the hidden meddler to reveal himself.

By the time the attack reached Aman, much of it had already dissipated, and he exerted his precious technique at full strength to resist what remained. Meanwhile, Chen Yao used Six Treasury Immortal Thief and Heaven Communicating Talisman Art to conceal himself, slipped behind the death warrior, and grabbed his Blood Blade while the force of his swing was spent and he had yet to recover. Grand Luo Insight did not allow him to attack anything outside while walking through the void. To avoid exposing himself every time he emerged, he always kept himself covered in invisibility effects.

"Hm?" The death warrior's expression changed. At last, he sensed a strange aura coming from the blade, and it seemed that someone was pulling on it.

Yet he still could not sense the other party's presence. He could only strike at the air on instinct, trying to hit blindly.

After several punches struck nothing, he began to feel dizzy, his forehead burning hot. The wounds from his artifact's self-detonation oozed pus, his lungs felt as though they were on fire, and he coughed violently, nearly falling from the sky.

Being exposed defenseless before Chen Yao was fatal. Heavenly Demon Tribulation had already induced cultivator-level inflammation, fever, and an allergic reaction in his lungs. His qi and blood seemed to burn throughout his body as they fought desperately against the abnormalities arising within him, but to little effect. This uncontrolled immune response was about to kill him.

Then he felt the Blood Blade in his hand shudder and slip out of his control, turning to slash at him instead. He reacted hastily and forcibly evaded a strike to his vitals, but the blade cleaved into his shoulder, shattering his light armor. The longblade twisted and severed one of his arms outright.

He fell from the sky, only to see that the boy had already dispersed his earlier slash with a palm strike. Blood flowed from a cut across his right hand, but the blood that emerged shone a molten crimson. As though possessed of a spirit, it surged out and formed a small blood-colored spear, shooting straight toward his wound.

Weakened beyond measure, he failed to block the strike. The spear plunged directly into his wound, and the qi and blood throughout his body poured toward it like a released flood, making it shine ever brighter. His own vitality rapidly dispersed, and soon his vision went black. He fell to the ground, dead.

The small blood-colored spear turned into a streak of bloody light and returned to Aman's hand, flowing back into the wound. Vitality suffused it, and in the blink of an eye, the cut scabbed over and healed.