The Sovereign's Ascension

Lin Yun was left alone to search by himself once Feng Ye left. He would encounter many corpses along the way, but they seemed rather old. Some were killed by others, some by arrays, some by demonic beasts, and some by demonic corpses.

It looked like there was more than one entrance to this passage. However, this passage still seemed rather secretive, so Lin Yun was expecting to have some kind of harvest.

The corpses on the ground naturally belonged to the disciples who came into the Demonlotus Realm in the past. The Demonlotus Realm would open once every two decades and it represented both danger and opportunity.

After looking at the corpses on the ground, Lin Yun understood why the sect’s elders were so cautious about this opportunity and why Xin Yan begged him to give up the quota. These people were geniuses of their own era, but they were all lying here as corpses.

Lin Yun could only say that the path of cultivation was a brutal one. The one who succeeded would become the king, while the one who failed would be turned into a pile of bones. The cultivation path never pitied the weak and stared indifferently from the side.

Lin Yun was filled with emotions. But he was a swordsman, so he would tear anything that stood in his way with his sword. Maintaining his caution, Lin Yun relied on his knowledge in spiritual runes to avoid the traps in the passage.

In the end, it was a safe journey. With his strength, it wasn’t a problem for him to deal with the traps.

“A door?” Lin Yun saw a door at the far end of the passage. This was something fresh because he never encountered any doors along the way. The door had ancient beasts engraved on it. The ground was littered with bones, and there wasn’t a single complete corpse to be seen.

Suddenly, the beast on the bronze door came to life and roared at Lin Yun. But Lin Yun was already cautious, so he drew his sword before the beast got close to him.

His sword emitted a radiance in the darkness that seemed like moonlight. Simultaneously, he released his quasi-xiantian sword intent. When the radiance faded away, something heavy fell onto the ground.

Lin Yun focused his gaze over and saw that the head of the beast engraved on the door was gone. It became a headless shell. He soon figured it all out. The corpses on the ground must be left by disciples who were brutally murdered by the beast on the door.

This made Lin Yun even more cautious about this palace. If he hadn’t been cautious earlier, he also would have ended up as one of the corpses on the ground. Lin Yun stood before the door and continued to swing his sword at the door. “Break!”

The door broke into pieces when Lin Yun sheathed his sword and then it shot towards him. But before the door fragments could get close, they were all torn into pieces by his Iris Sword Sutra. Then again, this was only the beginning.

When the door shattered, countless beasts made of spiritual runes charged out from the hall. Lin Yun faced the beasts calmly and gathered his origin energy into his fist before unleashing the Soaring Dragon.

As the dragon flew out from Lin Yun’s fist, it charged forward like a sword and destroyed all the beasts coming towards him. After Lin Yun was done with everything, he strode into the hall after a brief moment of hesitation.

Behind the door was a massive chamber. The moment Lin Yun stepped into the chamber, he felt a faint fluctuation coming from an array. In the next second, countless beasts dashed out from the walls and charged at him from every direction.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yun manifested a dragon mountain on his left fist and a tiger mountain on his right fist. Bumping his fists together, the two mountains formed a larger mountain.

This was the strongest defensive move from the Dragon-Tiger Fist. Lin Yun stood firmly like a mountain under the attacks. But the beasts were endless and Lin Yun’s face soon changed when he noticed a crack on the mountain.

There was no stop to the surrounding attacks and not even his defensive means could do anything about it. The split second when the mountain broke apart, Lin Yun gathered a huge tiger image and threw his punch forth. He used the Hundred Beast Wave this time.

The chamber trembled violently and all the beasts charging at him shattered under his punch. But before he could rest, the surrounding wall glowed and another endless wave of beasts came again. This made Lin Yun’s face change. He figured that he must be trapped in an array and he would die if he did nothing.

Ignoring the surrounding beasts, Lin Yun closed his eyes and tried his best to recall the Azure Transcript. Just when the beasts were about to devour Lin Yun, Lin Yun suddenly opened his eyes and drew his sword. He looked down and swung his sword at the ground.

Lin Yun’s body rotated as he swung his sword, forming a lotus made of afterimages from sword intent that destroyed the spiritual runes hidden in the ground. This caused a chain reaction and the beasts charging at Lin Yun disappeared like vaporized water.

Sheathing his sword, Lin Yun let out a long breath, “That was dangerous.”

He knew that he was a little reckless to step into the chamber earlier. If it weren’t for the comprehension he got from the Azure Transcript, he would probably be dead.

Lin Yun stood around for an hour to ensure there were no more dangers before he started his search. There was a hidden compartment in the wall and there were many martial technique plaques inside it.

Lin Yun’s face was plastered with joy when he saw the plaques. They represented completed ancient martial techniques, which would save the elders time trying to complete them. After all, the damaged ones would take years to be completed. The jade plaques not only represented the resources he could get from the sect, but they would also strengthen the Sword Firmament Pavilion’s foundation.

Lin Yun waved his hand and stored them into his interspatial pouch without any hesitation. When he looked around at the shattered jade bottles in the corner, he felt heartache because they probably represented ancient pellets. Even the weakest ancient pellet was a priceless treasure. 

“What’s this?” Lin Yun found a yellow gourd after sorting through the mess. Looking at the gourd, Lin Yun opened it up, and a boundless sharp aura started pouring out from the gourd.

Lin Yun raised his brow and closed the gourd with joy flashing in his eyes.

“This is a Hiddensword Gourd!” He had seen it on ancient records. It was a rare artifact that could be used to store and nourish the sword. He even read that someone once stored a hundred thousand swords in a gourd. This meant that a hundred thousand swords would be unleashed when the gourd was opened.

But storing so many swords in the gourd wasn’t always the best option. Different gourds had different uses, so the user had to spend time examining it. But all gourds shared a common characteristic in that they could be used to nourish swords. As long as there were enough spiritual jades, they could even help swords to rise in grade.

“I’ll look into it after I return.” Lin Yun carefully stored the gourd. He really had to thank Feng Ye for this. If Feng Ye didn’t forcibly snatch the other path, Lin Yun would have no connection with this treasure.

Lin Yun continued his search for treasures and found a five petal Demonlotus Core on a stone platform in the corner. Lin Yun fell into deep thought and figured that this place's owner must have encountered a calamity and chose to die peacefully.

“Senior, I’m sorry.” Lin Yun bowed before keeping the five petal Demonlotus Core. When he came out of the chamber, he continued his journey forward, slaughtering his way and obtaining many Demonlotus Cores in the process. However, he didn’t have any more surprises like the Hiddensword Gourd.

Two days later, he finally reached the end of the passage and was teleported out of the underground palace. Compared to him, Feng Ye was very unfortunate. The path he went through was one that no one had gone through, unlike the one Lin Yun took, which was littered with corpses.

Lin Yun already had people scouting the way for him, but Feng Ye didn’t. He was quickly trapped in an array. In the beginning, he didn’t pay any attention to it and charged through everything with brute strength. However, he had some difficulty maintaining this process. Not only did he miss out on any harvests, but his injuries got worse.

Feng Ye wasn’t able to bear it even with his powerful physique. By the time he wanted to treat, he had already forgotten his path back. In the end, Feng Ye collapsed and started hammering at the wall before him and charging through it like a bull.

Two days later, he finally appeared in a hall after charging through countless walls. He had joy revealed on his exhausted face, “I’m finally out! There must be treasures here!”

But he was surprised to discover that there were many people gathered in the hall looking back at him.

“Get lost!” Feng Ye walked over and pushed away the crowd. But he nearly fainted when he got a clearer look at the hall. This was the exact same hall that he started his journey in. The depression made Feng Ye throw out a mouthful of blood and his face turned even paler.

“Brother Feng Ye, your injuries seem serious.” A voice rang out, and Feng Ye turned around to see a bunch of people looking at him with malice in their eyes.

“Hehe. The Hundred Beast Gate’s Feng Ye, you never imagined that you would be in such a sorry state, right?”

“This fellow killed many people, so he must have a lot of treasures on him!”

“Look at his injuries. This might be a huge opportunity for us!” The group gradually approached and glared at Feng Ye with greed in their eyes.

Feng Ye was furious, but he felt a huge pain coming from his chest the moment he circulated his origin energy. He trembled with a sudden realization, he would die at the hands of these clowns if he stayed any longer.

“Attack!” Someone finally ran out of patience and took the lead to which everyone followed close behind.