“Why are your injuries so heavy?” The face of the Sevendespair Palace’s elder changed when he saw Jing Jue’s wounds. The cut nearly split Jing Jue into two. In fact, Jing Jue was lucky to be alive.
“Lin Yun robbed me of my interspatial pouch,” said Jing Jue with a dark face. He didn’t say anything else aside from that. He couldn’t admit that he was beaten like a dog by Lin Yun even after joining hands with Shui Wuhen.
“What?!” The elder’s face changed. Jing Jue naturally had a great harvest since he made it to the ninth level and many elders had placed their hopes in him. After all, their foundations were a lot weaker than the four major sects.
This meant that Jing Jue’s loss was a great blow to them. On the other hand, Jing Jue didn’t feel too bad about his loss aside from losing the ancient cosmic artifact saber.
“I’ll make my breakthrough to the tenth stage of the Profound Martial Realm first. We’ll talk after Lin Yun comes out,” continued Jing Jue coldly. He was already at the ninth stage of the Profound Martial Realm before he entered the Demonlotus Realm. So he could now make a breakthrough.
In another location, Shui Wuhen remained silent. Compared to Jin Jue, he only lost a bottle of Coldcloud Pellets. Naturally, he didn’t suffer as great a loss. But he couldn’t help feeling disappointed that he lost the chance to forge another legend in the tenth level.
“Junior Brother is the only one left.” The elders and disciples of the Sword Firmament Pavilion were feeling nervous. Lin Yun had been creating miracles the entire time. So after he became the final winner by defeating Shui Wuhen and Jing Jue, the atmosphere in the Sword Firmament Pavilion’s camp started to become odd. They knew that they would be targeted by everyone if they were careless.
Xin Jue glanced in the Primal Origin Sect’s direction and noticed the Primal Origin Sect’s elders glaring at them.
“There’s something amiss about the Primal Origin Sect. None of their three core disciples came out, which means that they must’ve died inside,” said Xin Jue.
“Could it be that junior brother killed them?”
“All three core disciples died. Wen Yanbo will definitely be punished if he goes back to the sect.”
“Well done!” Luo Feng snorted coldly. “So what if Lin Yun killed them?”
“The Bloodbone Sect, Demonflame Sect, and the Sevendespair Palace are looking at us strangely too.”
“Since there are winners, there are also losers. They must have suffered by our junior brother’s hand.”
“After junior brother comes out, a fight is unavoidable. The demonic cultivators won’t let it go so easily.”
“The Primal Origin Sect will surely poke their nose in this matter.”
Great achievements also meant great pressure. Lin Yun’s achievements were practically reaching the limit of what the Sword Firmament Pavilion could bear. All the elders and disciples could sense something amiss about this situation
“Observe the situation and act accordingly. The Sword Firmament Pavilion never causes trouble, but that doesn’t mean we’re afraid of troubles,” said the Sword-Bearing Elder.
The Sword-Bearing Elder came with a Firmament Sword, which made the elders and disciples feel comforted. But Luo Feng still gave Xin Jue and the other elders an eye signal for them to make preparations.
After resting for a bit on the Black Lotus Palace’s ninth level, Lin Yun directed his attention to Jing Jue’s interspatial pouch. When he poured everything out from the interspatial pouch, there wasn’t a mountain of treasure like he had imagined there would be.
Jing Jue only kept precious treasures. They were either incomplete cultivation techniques, high graded spiritual pellets, second grade spiritual jades, or other bizarre treasures. But the one that attracted his attention the most was an ancient saber that felt like a fierce beast.
“A cosmic artifact?” Lin Yun was shocked and he grabbed onto the saber to feel it. It was a genuine ancient cosmic artifact, a perfect one that hadn’t been corrupted by demonic miasma. There was also an ancient word engraved on the blade, Thoughtful.
It hadn’t been corrupted, which meant that it couldn’t be used in the Demonlotus Realm like the Scarletflame War Banner. Lin Yun didn’t think that the Sevendespair Palace would give Jing Jue a cosmic artifact. So this meant that Jing Jue must have gotten the sword on the eighth level.
Lin Yun now understood the resentment in Jing Jue’s eyes before he left. After all, Lin Yun also wouldn’t feel great if he was forced to hand over the Flower Burial Sword. But Lin Yun wouldn’t pity his enemy. Jing Jue deserved it. Lin Yun couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless.
Aside from the saber, there were five other treasures – an ancient jar of wine, an incense cauldron, an ancient painting, a fruit, and a bizarre flower.
“This is…?” Lin Yun’s eyes lit up when he saw the flower. The flower’s petals were shaped like snowflakes. “The Azuresnow Flower?”
Lin Yun wasn’t sure about the flower’s species, but he was sure that this flower wasn’t ordinary. It came just in time because the Flower Burial Sword was stuck at the pinnacle transcendent grade profound artifact. He immediately crushed the flower before placing the petals into the sword box.
He then turned his gaze to the ancient jar of wine. He didn’t know what wine this was, but it wasn’t any inferior to the one given to him by the princess. As for the fruit, it was emitting a chilling aura and looked like a gem. It looked like the Profound Frost Fruit recorded in books.
As for the painting, it wasn’t a Dao Insight Diagram related to the sword or the physique. So it wasn’t useful to Lin Yun. On the other hand, the incense cauldron was something that could assist his cultivation, just like the mat he had gotten.
“This fellow has gotten quite a bit. He probably robbed many people along the way, but it’s a pity that they’re all mine now.” Lin Yun waved his hand and put everything into his interspatial pouch before turning to the sword on the Lotus Treasure Stage.
With a faint smile, Lin Yun stepped forward and grabbed onto the sword. “Bleed.”
The sword’s name was Bleed, which made Lin Yun feel curious about its origin. But just when he was about to grab onto the sword, Lin Yun suddenly recalled something and stopped what he was doing. He had hesitation on his face and he let out a sigh.
He ultimately suppressed his curiosity and didn’t reach for the sword. He was afraid that this sword would break, just like every other sword he held onto. Lin Yun couldn’t bear to risk breaking such a precious sword.
“Forget it.” Lin Yun ultimately didn’t have the courage to gamble and stored the sword in his interspatial pouch.
Then, Lin Yun stepped onto the Lotus Treasure Stage. He was finally heading to the tenth level, but he had no idea what sort of test was waiting for him.
When his world started spinning, Lin Yun felt his body being stretched and his consciousness gradually fading. When he regained his vision, he found himself covered in mist by the surroundings. There was only a river in front of him and across the river was a palace.
“What is this place?” Lin Yun frowned. This was nothing like the test on the ninth level. Could it be that the tenth level was an isolated space? The tenth level was a legend, and no one knew what was in the tenth level. Perhaps he might die or perhaps he might be trapped here for eternity.
But Lin Yun knew that he had no alternative paths left. Without any hesitation, Lin Yun stepped onto the lake. The lake was cold, much colder than the Black Lotus Lake. WIthout warning, rain started falling down and a black lotus floated over from the opposite shore.
Lin Yun stopped walking and he couldn’t help feeling uneasy. The nine levels were all white lotus stages. Black lotuses were common in the Demonlotus Realm and they would become azure after being purified.
Black, azure, and white. Do they have any relation to each other? Lin Yun never considered this problem in the past and purely treated this place as a secret realm since he was only a passerby. But he couldn’t help to think about it now that he reached the tenth level.
But before he had more time to think about it, the black lotus stage gradually approached him. There was a black-clothed man standing on it and the black-clothed man’s cultivation was the same as his. But for some reason, Lin Yun felt threatened by the black-clothed man.
“Rain is always neglected. Rain is the combination of happiness and sorrow.” The black-clothed man stretched his palm forward and looked at the dark clouds in the sky.
“You’re not the one that I’m here to see,” said Lin Yun calmly.
The black-clothed man stood up from the black lotus stage and smiled, “He’s the cloud, while I’m the rain. I’m the manifestation of his sins.”
The rain suddenly stopped and the black-clothed man waved his hand. A longsword flew into his hand from the lotus stage. The black-clothed man flicked the body of the sword and the water droplet that was on it started trembling under his sword intent.
Lin Yun frowned and drew his sword to put up a defensive pose, blocking the droplet of water that was targeted at his forehead. The clash caused a huge explosion and raised a screen of water between Lin Yun and the black-clothed man.
