The Sovereign's Ascension

The blizzard continued to blow in the North Barren Land. Xin Yan traveled swiftly in the snow after coming out of the monastery. Behind her, two men and a horse were following closely.

As time continued to pass, Li Wuyou and Lin Yun both discovered that it was getting difficult for them to keep up with Xin Yan. Xin Yan might seem to be traveling at a decent pace, but a single step allowed her to cover over thirty meters.

Half an hour later, she came to a stop and looked at Lin Yun and Li Wuyou with smiles. The two of them gasped for air and looked at her with their red faces. 

“The two of you aren’t half bad to be able to keep up with me. Why don’t we start with an introduction?” Xin Yan clutched her arms together, squeezing her ample chest.

Li Wuyou’s gaze was totally glued to her chest. He smiled, “I’m Li Wuyou. I’m fifteen this year and I’m in the sixth orifice of the Xiantian Realm. I’m only lacking the Heart Orifice. Big sister, you’re pretty…”

“Where exactly am I pretty?” Xin Yan smiled, captivating Li Wuyou’s soul. Her smile had instantly brought warmth to the frozen night.

“E-everywhere.” Li Wuyou replied with a silly smile.

“But where’s the prettiest?” Xin Yan asked. She was smiling, but her eyes had narrowed. Even her voice was filled with charm.

“Hehe. Y-your chest…” replied Li Wuyou.

“You brat!” Xin Yan suddenly released her sword aura and blew Li Wuyou’s clothes apart.

Li Wuyou suddenly felt as if he was falling from the sky. The cold wind sent a biting chill to his skin and woke him up. His legs trembled when he saw Xin Yan smile at him and also from the biting cold. Li Wuyou smiled bitterly, “B-b-big sister, I’m sorry.”

“Hehehe…” Lin Yun bore his laughter, but the Dragon Blooded Horse couldn’t. Revealing its signature buck teeth, the horse started to chuckle.

Hearing the horse chuckle, Xin Yan directed her curious gaze over. “What an interesting horse.”

When the Dragon Blooded Horse saw her gaze, it immediately stopped laughing and hid behind Lin Yun.

“Lin Yun. Fifteen. I’m in the fifth orifice. I still have my nose and heart orifice left… I also possess an incomplete sword intent.”

Lin Yun wondered whether or not he should reveal his grudge with Bai Lixuan. But in the end, he chose to keep his mouth shut. It wasn’t certain that he could join the Sword Firmament Pavilion, so he decided to keep quiet about it. After a brief pause, he also added, “I have a poor aptitude.”

However, Xin Yan wasn’t bothered by that. She smiled, “Don’t worry about it. Reaching the fifth orifice at the age of sixteen barely meets our requirement. By grasping the incomplete sword intent, you’ve already surpassed many people. Furthermore, you even practiced the Thunderblitz Battle Physique. I have high hopes for you.”

“Here are two jade tokens. It can help exempt you from some tests. You can also flash it in the North Barren Land to save your life. Any bandits that see it won’t have the guts to touch you two.” Xin Yan handed two exquisite tokens to Lin Yun and Li Wuyou.

“Senior Sister, you’re not taking us to the capital?” Li Wuyou suddenly realized that they weren’t going to travel together.

“Calling me Senior Sister so quickly? Don’t forget that you’re still not a disciple of the Sword Firmament Pavilion. But it’s fine. I’m under orders, so I will be staying in the North Barren Land. I will pick the two of you up in the capital.” Xin Yan replied, blowing fog out of her mouth as she spoke.

Those words made Li Wuyou feel somewhat disappointed, so he muttered, “Don’t we have a backdoor opened for us? Why is it just a jade token…”

“Hehe. Isn’t it good that you get to know me?” Xin Yan chuckled as she approached Li Wuyou. 

Li Wuyou immediately tensed up and replied, “That’s for sure. Getting to know you is my fortune.”

“Aw. You’re sweet.” Xin Yan pinched Li Wuyou’s cheeks. She then blew a whistle, which summoned a sharp cry in the horizon. In the next second, a powerful aura with an unparalleled sword aura dove down from the horizon. It was a Sword Condor.

They were true to their name. They’d rather break than bow. By nature, they were Xiantian demonic beasts. However, they only had a lifespan of ten years. If they couldn’t reach the Profound Martial Realm in ten years, they would die.

This wasn’t Lin Yun’s first time seeing one. He had seen some when the Azure Sun Realm opened up. Almost every single Sword Firmament Pavilion’s disciple was riding on one.

Whoosh!

The Sword Condor stood firmly on the ground like a sword. When it flapped its wings, it raised a tornado of snow.

“Take care of yourselves. See you two in the capital!” Xin Yan jumped on the Sword Condor and disappeared into the horizon.

“She left…” Li Wuyou pouted. He turned to look at Lin Yun with a fawning smile, “Lin Yun, lend me a set of clothes.”

Looking at the naked Li Wuyou, Lin Yun couldn’t help laughing and took out a set of clothes from his interspatial ring and threw them over.

“Thanks!” Li Wuyou took the clothes and ran off.

Meanwhile, Lin Yun fell into deep thought. Xin Yan must’ve left to find more budding candidates to recruit. He had no idea if there was something special this year or if it had always been this way in the past. The three sects went as far as dispatching Profound Martial Realm cultivators to fight for disciples in the North Barren Land. The Heavenly Profound Sect even sent Drifting Goblet, a genius whose name resounded throughout the entire Heavenly Qin County.

A brief moment later, Li Wuyou returned. Looking at Lin Yun staring at the sky, he smiled, “You’ve taken a fancy to Senior Sister Xin Yan as well?”

“I suggest you restrain yourself. Someone who appears together with Drifting Goblet can’t be simple.” Lin Yun smiled.

“Hehe. Senior Sister Xin Yan isn’t that terrifying.” Li Wuyou laughed. He didn’t seem too bothered by Lin Yun’s words.

Lin Yun found Li Wuyou rather forgetful. He was naked just a moment ago.

“Where are we going now?” asked Li Wuyou.

“This place isn’t within the range of the blizzard. We can clean this place up and rest briefly.” Lin Yun spoke as he began to clear the snow. He took out some dried leaves and laid them on the ground before taking out a snow-white demonic beast’s pelt.

Very quickly, Lin Yun finished setting up a campsite. Lying on the demonic beast’s pelt, Li Wuyou felt a little too comfortable and became embarrassed, “Big Brother Lin, I wasn’t able to help you out…”

“It’s fine. Get some rest,” replied Lin Yun.

“Hehe. I’ll sleep then,” said Li Wuyou, “it has been half a month since I’ve gotten any decent rest.”

Up in the sky, Xin Yan stood on the Sword Condor, witnessing the entire scene. She smiled, “Lin Yun is cautious despite resting. He must have his fair share of experience.”

Whoosh!

The Sword Condor turned around and left. It didn’t take long for Li Wuyou to fall deeply asleep at the campsite. But Lin Yun was unable to sleep. As he got closer to the Sword Firmament Pavilion, there was an increase in the pressure he felt. He couldn’t withstand the pressure from Bai Lixuan simply with ambition alone. He could predict that it wouldn’t be easy surviving in the Sword Firmament Pavilion. He needed strength.

As Li Wuyou fell asleep, Lin Yun took out a bamboo slip and studied it. The weight of this ordinary-looking bamboo slip was unbelievable.

He had been studying this bamboo slip for the past two months. Now, he finally had an idea about it.

“The Iris Sword Sutra is already in the fifth stage. So tonight should be good enough.” Lin Yun grew a little nervous as he looked at the bamboo slip. At the same time, xcitement flickered in his eyes.

Looking at Li Wuyou, who fell deeply asleep, Lin Yun left the campsite for the blizzard. After making sure that there was no one around, Lin Yun took a deep breath. His gaze became solemn.

Throwing all unrelated thoughts away, the Iris Flower in his Dantian began to ignite. He started extracting the flames around the Iris Flower and poured them into the bamboo slip.

As flames poured into the bamboo slip, the weight started to decrease. The words on the bamboo slip gave him enlightenment. It allowed him to discover the secrets hidden in this bamboo slip.

But according to what Yue Weiwei said, the flames on the Iris Flower had no vitality. So if he used too much of it, he would risk extinguishing it. But every time he got close to it, he would be forced to stop.

Now that his Iris Sword Sutra reached the fifth stage, the flames were more refined. As he poured flames into the bamboo slip, the weight of the slip started to drop. It started to become lighter in his hand. But it didn’t take long for him to use up a whole lot of flames from the Iris Flower.

“It’s not enough?” Lin Yun grew nervous. If this much wasn’t enough, then he could only try it again when his Iris Sword Flower reached the sixth stage.

Just when he was feeling nervous, the bamboo slip started to ignite and hovered in the sky.

Whoosh!

The bamboo slip transformed into a streak of light and flew into his brow. Shortly after, a buzzing noise echoed in his mind. Unknown scenes started to appear. He could see an alchemist seated before a cauldron, engraving something into the air.

As he had expected. This bamboo slip had something to do with refining pellets. Yue Weiwei was right. But for some reason, something was amiss. The runes engraved into the air seemed alive as they flickered. Those runes seemed completely different from each other and yet they matched so well together.

Boom!

The cauldron suddenly exploded. A pellet flew out from the cauldron and was grabbed by the alchemist. The runes engraved in the air also formed a picture before being engraved on the pellet.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The alchemist seemed proficient in what he was doing. Every time a pellet flew out, he would gently tap out the air to engrave the runes onto it.

There were engravings on the pellets that flickered. It was completely different compared to a second go.

“It hurts!” Lin Yun’s mind was on the verge of exploding when he observed the picture. The picture also trembled before breaking up into countless memory fragments. Those fragments gathered and formed two words in his mind.

Age Sutra!

Lin Yun opened his eyes and looked at the ordinary-looking bamboo slip. It was like a sword that dropped towards the ground. When Lin Yun recalled the huge commotion caused by the bamboo slip in the past, he immediately reached out for it.