“That man is a prisoner from the Celestial Prison,” a sharp voice suddenly rang out. It turned out that among those taking refuge in the Blood Pool Cave, there was one formerly from the Celestial Prison. This individual had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the cohort of prisoners who had broken out of the Celestial Prison and fled here for safety.

The number of people taking refuge in the Blood Pool Cave was considerable, and at first, he naturally paid no attention to Lu Yuan.

However, by chance, he glanced over and spotted Lu Yuan, immediately letting out a shriek.

His scream drew everyone's attention to Lu Yuan. Lu Yuan smiled nonchalantly, “That’s right, I’m no demonic outsider from the Blood Sword Sect.” This immediately stirred up a hornet’s nest.

“Calling us demonic outsiders, judging by that tone, he must be from a righteous Immortal Sect.”

“Hahaha, a person from a righteous Immortal Sect actually dares to barge into the very stronghold of a demonic sect like ours, the Blood Sword Sect.”

“He’s asking for death.”

“He certainly is asking for death; he’s pushing his luck to the extreme.”

“So young, and yet he’s about to die. What a pity.”

“We must kill him.”

“Why rush? Someone from a righteous Immortal Sect so ignorant of death should be tormented slowly. If we don’t torture him for eighty or a hundred days, it just won't do.”

“Agreed.”

“Hey, let me take action this time.” The Daoists of the Blood Sword Sect were all chattering with strange laughter, their faces contorted into bizarre expressions—some a sneer, others a sly grin. The Daoists of the Blood Sword Sect truly felt confident dealing with a mere junior from a righteous sect, especially with so many Blood Sword Sect members present, including several cultivators at the fourth and fifth levels of Longevity.

“Kill him!” Following this shout, dozens of bloody lights lunged toward Lu Yuan. Each of these blood swords possessed its own unique killing technique and move.

The move called Blood Dance Samsara (Xue Wu Lun Hui) saw blood blossoms spinning like wheels. Once unleashed, the attacker's vision would be filled entirely with this whirling bloody light, rendering almost everything else invisible, setting up the target to be struck.

The technique Shadowless Blood Sword (Xue Jian Wu Ying) transformed the sword into the void itself, making it impossible to locate, and then used this phantom weapon to strike the enemy, making it extremely easy for the target to be pierced.

The skill Blood Shadow Illusion (Xue Ying Xu Huan) employed various means to transform a single blade into three, attacking simultaneously. Among these, only one sword was real; the other two were pure illusion. One had to instantly discern the true from the false, or risk suffering greatly under this move.

Frozen Wasteland of Blood Sea (Xue Hai Dong Yuan) attacked from the bottom up, initiating with an intense, numbing cold meant to slow the opponent’s movements.

Birth of the Blood Demon (Xue Mo Jiang Sheng) was designed to manifest a Blood Demon within the enemy's heart.

These techniques were certainly not drawn from the Ancient Demon God Blood Sword Cleaving Heaven Art (Shang Gu Mo Shen Xue Jian Pi Tian Fa); rather, they were unique private skills created by the Old Ancestor of the Blood Sword. When wielded by cultivators at the higher levels of Longevity, they unleashed a tide of blood, causing vital energy to churn and boil—a blood mist that confused the mind.

They wanted Lu Yuan dead.

A person from a righteous Immortal Sect had dared to break into the great base of this demonic and heretical organization, the Blood Sword Sect.

Die!

The bloody light had reached its zenith, and the killing intent and rage in the hearts of these demonic outsiders had reached their peak as well.

Is the momentum at its strongest? Very well, this is the moment to strike. Lu Yuan placed his hand on his sword hilt—at the very peak of their momentum, Lu Yuan drew his blade.

Five swords drawn in succession!

Five-colored sword light churned forth from his Nourishing Self Sword (Yang Wu Jian). The five colors seemed to have formed a perfect cycle—the sword intents of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth churned and rolled, sweeping toward the opposition. Never mind the Blood Dance Samsara, Shadowless Blood Sword, Blood Shadow Illusion, or Frozen Wasteland of Blood Sea; they all fell within the scope of the Five Elements.

The Way of the Five Elements Samsara Sword Dao, break for me!

The long sword in Lu Yuan’s hand rolled and twisted; the Five Elements sword intent surged and twisted. No matter how exquisite the technique or how powerful the ultimate skill, it was devoured by these five strands of sword intent.

Lu Yuan knew that his swordsmanship still held significant room for improvement.

For example, if he could fuse the multiple intents into a single sword strike instead of requiring five successive strikes, he could unleash all five intents with just one blow. Furthermore, if he were to master the Five Emperors Samsara Sword Dao, it would be far more terrifying than his current state.

And then, there existed sword arts in this world equal in rank to the Five Emperors Five Royals Samsara Sword Dao.

A host of thoughts flooded his mind.

Strike them down, knock them all down!

Indeed, Lu Yuan had not exerted his full focus on the attack, but his current strength decisively surpassed that of this assembled group. Moreover, the Five Elements Samsara Sword Dao was astonishingly tyrannical, allowing him to easily subdue all opponents, forcefully shattering their numerous sword moves.

Every single one of them was left dumbfounded. They had never imagined that their combined assault on a junior from a righteous Immortal Sect would result in this situation: being utterly defeated by a few successive strikes from this junior. It was too absurd; they were rendered speechless.

Who exactly was this person from the righteous Immortal Sect?

Were they all knocked down? In truth, this single strike had only felled the majority of the strong cultivators in the outer cavern of the Blood Pool Cave. However, those at the second, third, and fourth levels of Longevity were all subdued. Those remaining were naturally weaker and dared not make a move, simply staring at Lu Yuan with wide, stunned eyes. Lu Yuan paid them no mind; frankly, he was short on time. He immediately charged into the inner cavern of the Blood Pool Cave, where countless magical treasures and resources lay hidden.

He pierced through the rift created by the clash of several Great Dao Realm masters using his sword-flight, arriving in the inner sanctum. Upon entering, he found himself plunged into an ocean of blood—it was as if he had stumbled into a world both icy and visceral. He was submerged, and the surrounding, strange chill was already seeping into his body.

If he had not reached the Longevity stage, he would likely have suffered demonic energy intrusion, gone into qi deviation, and become hopelessly trapped.

Lu Yuan secretly channeled the Cloud Dragon Ten Transformations (Yun Long Shi Bian). Righteous cultivation methods inherently possessed the function of dispelling evil, and his Nourishing Self Sword let out a soft hum, its blade erupting with a series of white lights. The Nourishing Self Sword was, after all, a sword of righteous energy.

As Lu Yuan managed to keep the blood-red essence somewhat at bay, he finally had a moment to assess his surroundings.

It was a dense, bloody mist, saturated with the stench of gore, intensely cold, yet soft and yielding. What was this?

Could it be Blood Clouds?

Taking the Cloud element as an example: the origins of Cloud-type spirit beasts were explained earlier—they formed from an infinite accumulation of white clouds, tempered by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and cultivated for over a thousand years before a spirit beast could be born. The higher the rank of the spirit beast, the longer the required incubation period; a Cloud Whale, for instance, might indeed require ten thousand years.

And the clouds themselves, even those only a few hundred years old, before giving rise to a spirit beast, already possessed an extremely dense spiritual energy suitable for cultivation. The North Peak was shrouded in endless white clouds, but since many on the North Peak practiced Cloud-system mind techniques, the spiritual energy in the clouds above had long been depleted.

This, however, was clearly that kind of spiritually rich cloud, transformed by various evil arts into Blood Clouds. These Blood Clouds were immensely beneficial for cultivating the Blood Cloud Great Law, serving as spiritual stones, or perhaps even better than true spirit stones.

Good heavens, this cave storehouse was filled with Blood Clouds.

So many Blood Clouds! Lu Yuan made no ceremony of it, reaching out with his hand to forcefully scoop the numerous Blood Clouds into his Small Sumeru Pouch. Once these Blood Clouds were washed with Pure Heaven Water, they could be used by him. It would be foolish not to take such advantages. As more and more Blood Clouds filled his pouch, the density of the Blood Clouds in the inner cavern of the Blood Pool Cave naturally thinned out.

As the mist thinned, the outlines of seven or eight-tenths of the inner cavern became visible. Inside, there were numerous magical treasures, dozens of items of all descriptions. Most were tainted by blood energy, but their radiant light proclaimed them extraordinary. There were also hordes of Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts—Heavens above!

Lu Yuan was about to make his move when he noticed a stone, slightly smaller than a palm, not far from him. This stone was exquisitely crystalline, and within it, a flying sword seemed to be dancing. This was a Heaven Understanding Stone (Tian Wu Shi).

Between heaven and earth existed the Ten Great Marvelous Stones.

He had only ever heard of these Ten Great Marvelous Stones; he had never seen one.

For instance, one was known as the Great Vajra Stone. This stone was the hardest material under the heavens; even figures at the Great Dao Realm could not damage it, making it the finest material for sealing treasures. However, this stone was too rare; the Jin Kingdom had seen very few, and the Great Qin Kingdom reportedly had more, yet only the Central Celestial Dynasty possessed large quantities.

Among the Ten Great Marvelous Stones was the Dharma Flower Stone (Fa Hua Shi), which condensed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, holding immeasurable magical power within it, making it exquisitely suited for augmenting one's magical strength.

The lowest-ranked of the Ten Great Marvelous Stones was the Ancient Spirit Stone (Gu Ling Shi). This was the most peculiar of the spirit stones. If one nurtured it with spiritual energy, various bizarre creatures would eventually emerge from the stone—perhaps a celestial crane, perhaps a fire spirit beast, or maybe an ancient demon beast. There was even a recorded instance where someone cultivated an Ancient Spirit Stone, and in the end, a stone monkey burst forth, whose combat power rivaled that of the continent's foremost expert at the time.

And among the Ten Great Marvelous Stones was one ranked quite high, known as the Heaven Understanding Stone (Tian Wu Shi). This stone sealed various intents of heaven and earth's sword techniques. A person who obtained it might comprehend sword intent—note the word might; it was not a guaranteed one hundred percent. Some statistics suggested the probability was around one in ten, but even a ten percent chance made it priceless.

Lu Yuan reached out and effortlessly took this Heaven Understanding Stone, storing it in his Small Sumeru Pouch.

And within the inner cavern of the Blood Pool Cave lay endless benefits. After all, this was the treasury of a Middle-tier Immortal Sect; its reserves were bound to be vast. Lu Yuan was about to begin his harvest—this kind of opportunity might not present itself again for the next thousand years. This was his time to strike it rich.

But just then (Looking back now, we are over three hundred chapters in.)

For more novels, visit storyread.net.