As the white-clothed figure repeated its mechanical words, Lin Yun slowly got to his feet and examined the wound on his chest. The injury was pretty serious, even with the Dracophant Battle Physique. But rather than saying that his defense was formidable, the white-clothed figure had gone easy on him.
Looking at the white-clothed figure, Lin Yun spoke out, “You’re strong and you have the ability to kill me any time. It’s impossible for me to kill you, but this is ultimately a test. Your objective isn’t to kill me. So it will be my win if I can stab you.”
Lin Yun was now confident of landing a hit after their previous exchange. There were two methods for him to land a hit. One was to decode his opponent’s movement technique and the other was to attack the moment he received an attack.
The former required him to find a loophole, while the latter forced the white-clothed figure to reveal a flaw. After a brief pause, Lin Yun continued, “You can choose to injure me or not to injure me. But since you’ve chosen to injure me, this means that you’re clearly revealing a flaw on purpose. You’re giving me the opportunity to land a hit on you, right?”
The white-clothed figure seemed to pause briefly before it repeated the same mechanical phrase, “Stab me and you win.”
“I don’t like it when someone purposely shows me a flaw to catch. You won’t be able to injure me anymore,” said Lin Yun as he dashed forward with his sword, executing the Seven Profound Steps.
With a single breath, Lin Yun took nine steps and created nine afterimages. Each afterimage swung out a sword after they surrounded the white-clothed figure. However, it didn’t matter if the attacks were real or fake, all of them missed their target.
The movement of the white-clothed figure seemed like a cloud. Lin Yun felt as though he was stabbing a cloud.
“Interesting.” Lin Yun’s eyes glowed when he saw how exquisite the movement technique was.
“Like I said, you won’t land another hit on me!” Lin Yun spread his arms apart and the nine afterimages overlapped together. His body retreated, causing the white-clothed figure to miss its attack.
In the blink of an eye, the two clashed together once more and Lin Yun perfectly executed the Aquaselenic Sword.
“Ice!” Lin Yun’s face turned cold as he executed the Aquaselenic Sword’s ultimate move, Myriad Frost. Even if the white-clothed figure was a cloud, he would still obediently freeze from the attack.
Layers of ice covered the narrow passage and Lin Yun’s attacks landed on the white-clothed figure from all directions, covering it in ice. Using brute strength was also a method to break his opponent’s movement technique. With a golden flash, Lin Yun appeared before the ice sculpture and stabbed his sword out.
“You lost.” His sword landed on the ice scripture, but there was no one in it when the scripture broke apart. This made Lin Yun’s face change. He quickly turned around and a cold light stopped at the center of his forehead.
He didn’t dare to move. The cold light penetrated through a layer of his skin and faint droplets of blood dripped down. The white-clothed figure could have claimed his life if his sword went an inch deeper.
“Stab me and you win.” The mechanical voice sounded once more. But all of a sudden, the white-clothed figure finally spoke something else, “You’ve passed the test. It was easy for you to grasp the flaw that I’m revealing on purpose with your strength.”
The white-clothed figure disappeared and returned to the azure lotus. Shrouded in a blurry radiance, the white-clothed figure continued, “You’re confident of yourself, but the world is vast. I kept my strength at your cultivation, but my insight in the cloud surpassed yours. I won’t tell you about the secrets. Find me in the tenth level if you want to know why your sword failed to hit me.”
The white-clothed figure then vanished along with the azure lotus. This made Lin Yun feel heavily relieved. He touched the tiny wound on his forehead and smiled bitterly. His journey in the Demonlotus Realm had been smooth, even when he faced Mu Xiuhan. This made him feel overconfident.
But this battle had woken him up. He believed in the white-clothed figure’s words because the latter had no reason to lie to him.
“The tenth level? I’ll be there,” muttered Lin Yun.
“One more thing. Someone has already reached the sixth level. If you’re not able to reach the sixth level in one day, then you will be teleported out according to the Black Lotus Palace’s rules. Don’t waste your time.” A voice suddenly sounded out in Lin Yun’s mind, probably fearing that Lin Yun would spend too much time on the fifth level.
“Someone already reached the sixth level?” Lin Yun wasn’t too shocked. After all, anyone could find the flaw that the white-clothed figure was revealing on purpose if they focused. It shouldn’t be difficult to the core disciples of the four major sects.
Lin Yun rested briefly before he proceeded with full speed. He no longer had any intention of hiding his aura. He passed through many secret chambers where people were fighting over the ownership of treasures. However, Lin Yun didn’t pay them any attention.
Half an hour later, Lin Yun finally arrived at the Lotus Treasure Hall. The Lotus Treasure Stage was glowing and the treasure still hadn’t shown itself. There were two people standing on opposite sides of the stage, staring at the stage greedily.
Lin Yun didn’t retract his aura, so the two people who were guarding the Lotus Treasure Stage instantly sensed his arrival.
“Another one came to die?” The two sneered as they turned around. But they were dumbfounded when they saw Lin Yun.
“What a coincidence. I was just thinking how it would be a pity if I didn't run into you guys,” said Lin Yun. The two were naturally Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming of the Primal Origin Sect. Then again, it was also a coincidence that they ran into each other with so many Lotus Treasure Stages.
Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming were both briefly shocked before they recovered their composure. The two had a decent harvest in the Black Lotus Palace, reaching the threshold to the tenth stage. Their aura was powerful and now they felt like two powerful beasts.
“What arrogance! If it wasn’t for your senior brother who exhausted a large quantity of our origin energy, do you think that you could suppress us with your half-baked Dracophant Battle Physique?!” Zhao Quan snorted with killing intent flashing through his pupils.
“Let’s just slaughter him. This saves us the trouble of looking for him,” smirked Xiao Ming.
“My Dracophant Battle Physique might be half-baked, but my sword isn’t!” The moment Lin Yun drew his sword, it created a natural raining phenomenon. He was like the moon that shined brightly in the clouds.
Under the empowerment of his quasi-xiantian sword intent, he tore through Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming’s aura. When he landed on the ground, he swung his sword and his aura surged out like a tidal wave.
But before Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming could adjust to the surging waves, Lin Yun’s aura suddenly changed. It felt as though Lin Yun had turned into the wind as his sword rays quietly drilled into Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming’s bodies. The two tried to retaliate by throwing out punches, but it felt like they were hitting cotton.
“Damn it!”
“What the hell is going on?!” Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming were enraged and shocked.
After ten-odd moves later, Lin Yun sheathed his sword and looked at the two coldly.
“Is that all you got?” Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming raised their brows as they charged at Lin Yun.
However, Lin Yun had disregarded them and walked towards the Lotus Treasure Stage with his hands placed behind him. The stage flickered and the treasure finally appeared. It was a painting, which Lin Yun firmly grabbed onto.
On the other hand, Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming, who were charging at him, suddenly threw up mouthfuls of blood. Their faces changed drastically as they could sense the wisps of sword aura in their bodies suddenly converging together. But there was nothing they could do to stop it.
When Lin Yun unrolled the painting, dazzling sword rays exploded from Zhao Quan and Xiao Ming’s bodies before they were turned into two lumps of blood mist. They looked like a blooming flower.
This filled the remaining Primal Origin Sect’s disciple with fear. He quickly held his mouths and tried to become invisible. He didn’t know that Lin Yun had already noticed him. Lin Yun just couldn’t be bothered with him.
Lin Yun’s attention was focused on the painting. It was a Dao Insight Diagram constructed with spiritual runes. The ancient dracophant on it looked alive. Lin Yun might have practiced the Dracophant Battle Physique, but he had no idea what a dracophant looked like.
He heard that the Primal Origin Sect had a painting and that only core disciples were qualified to observe it. But Lin Yun could sense that this diagram was many levels above the painting of the Primal Origin Sect.
The dracophant on the diagram was extremely detailed. Lin Yun stored the diagram and revealed a gratified smile. There were many treasures in the Black Lotus Palace, but he had coincidentally obtained a dracophant diagram.
But was it really a coincidence? Lin Yun didn’t believe in such coincidences. He originally wanted to obtain an ancient beast’s diagram to understand the dragophant, but he didn’t think that he would be so lucky to obtain a dracophant diagram directly.
If he was correct, it should be something prepared for him by the white-clothed figure. It looks like he now had another reach to ascend the tenth stage.
Lin Yun smiled and he stepped into the Lotus Treasure Stage.