With that one sword thrust, the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts was annihilated!

Upon unleashing this technique, Lu Yuan’s peak momentum receded. He realized he had expended a full thirty percent of his vital essence—meaning he could only execute such a sword strike three more times. Sword Five, the technique known as Wei Jian (Sole Sword), truly could not be used lightly due to its staggering cost.

And with the slaying of the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts, the Ancestor's personal dimension began to collapse. The first to emerge was Ji Qianyu.

Inside the Beast Space of the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts, Ji Qianyu had expected to endure utter humiliation. She had considered suicide but hesitated, loath to abandon her cultivation. She was a cultivator at the third heaven of the World Realm—a formidable level, not easily attained. Cultivating immortality was difficult enough; reaching the third heaven of the World Realm was exponentially harder. If she died now and underwent reincarnation, the chances of regaining the World Realm level were slim.

As she wavered between taking her own life and enduring, the Ancestor’s space violently ruptured.

She shot out immediately, only to find a young man in green robes smiling at her. On the other side lay the corpse of the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts.

“You killed the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts?” Ji Qianyu’s astonishment was boundless.

“Yes. There were a few unexpected turns, but ultimately, I killed him,” Lu Yuan replied with an unconcerned shrug. After answering Ji Qianyu, he paid no further mind to the shock of the bystanders. Instead, he began sweeping all the remnants spilling out of the Ancestor's personal space into his own Sword Space.

The Ancestor of the Battle Beasts was a cultivator of the fifth heaven of the World Realm. A power level like that was respectable even within the entire "Central Heavenly Dynasty." Naturally, the possessions he left behind were substantial.

Lu Yuan’s consciousness dove into his Sword Space.

The Ancestor had indeed left behind a vast collection, meticulously categorized. One category was the Manual of Atrocities, detailing the Ancestor's cruel methods: whips and candles, burning with Yin flames, creatures of torment, and so forth—the sheer volume was unimaginable. There were even categories like "Thirteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Forms of Sensual Play," which was frankly breathtaking; Lu Yuan inwardly noted that this Ancestor was truly a perverse deviant. Such items were naturally not kept. A true flame erupted from his palm, incinerating the entire collection in a flash.

Next came the items infused with the Desolate Attribute. The Ancestor had even managed to taint his Earth-rank Spirit Stones with the aura of Desolation using a special method.

Lu Yuan decided to let his Desolate-Restraining Sword absorb it all. With a sweep of his hand, he summoned the Desolate-Restraining Sword, channeling his essence into it. The sword began to ravenously devour the surrounding Desolate objects—whether they were spirit stones suffused with the Desolate aura, Desolate Sabers, Desolate Cauldrons, or whatever else. Everything was sucked dry by the Desolate-Restraining Sword.

The only thing not entirely absorbed was the soul of the Illusion God Butterfly. After processing the soul with his sword, Lu Yuan found it had another, separate use.

For now, the priority was upgrading the Desolate-Restraining Sword.

As Lu Yuan refined the sword, this time it didn't lengthen into a thicker, cruder form. Instead, the entire blade became more condensed, more solid. The original sword had possessed a slight feeling of thinness, but now that fragility had significantly faded.

As it neared completion in absorbing the primordial Desolate objects, the Desolate-Restraining Sword vibrated with a boom, and a single character burst forth.

It was the character Kè (Restrain/Overcome), which seemed to sketch out countless fundamental principles.

The moment this character manifested, the Desolate objects beneath it were pressed down and suppressed utterly.

Heaven creates one thing to restrain another. In this epoch, the most potent character is Huang (Desolation/Primordial), yet the Huang character is specifically overcome by the Kè character. No matter how powerfully the Lord of the Primordial Civilization refined the Huang character...

Naturally, what Lu Yuan had acquired was not the true form of the Kè character, but a cloned avatar of the character, just like his Dao character avatar.

In the void, both avatars shimmered with light.

Finally, the Kè character avatar had been nurtured. Lu Yuan hoped that one day he might birth the true Kè character.

Only after the Desolate objects were fully absorbed did Lu Yuan turn his attention to the Illusion God Butterfly. The illusions of beasts like the Illusion God Butterfly ranked third across the entire Primordial Lands—their techniques were astonishing. Lu Yuan intended to use the butterfly's soul to refine the illusionary aspects of his own technique, Floating Life, Fleeting Dream, making it even more perfect.

By this point, all necessary cleanup from the battle with the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts was finished. When he finally returned his focus to the present, he realized one thing: his decisive killing of the Ancestor had been so shocking that it allowed Bu Mi, who had set up the Maze Array, to seize the opportunity and escape. That Bu Mi was truly cunning to have fled in such a manner.

The immediate problem was getting out. The Maze Array was still active.

Ji Qianyu spoke up, “Regarding the Maze Array, I do have a method to break it. My Thousand Waters True Scripture allows control over mist. Although the Maze Mist is an ancient, strange fog expelled by the Lost Owl, it is fundamentally mist. Give me fifteen days, and I can crack this formation.”

That settled it.

The next phase was Ji Qianyu breaking the array while the others either cultivated privately or engaged in casual conversation, as they pleased.

Jian Ruhai of the Hidden Sword Sect immediately vanished into seclusion. He was a mysterious assassin who rarely showed his face in public. Among this group, the only person capable of engaging with Jian Ruhai was undoubtedly Lu Yuan.

The wind howled across the Beast Soul Mountain. Lu Yuan stood atop a high peak, with Jian Ruhai beside him.

“You played a very high-stakes game this time. Slaying the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts, for example—that has caused too great a stir. A figure at the fifth heaven of the World Realm is not easily killed, and it makes it easy for others to deduce that you possess something capable of restraining the Desolate Attribute. If that deduction is made, the Primordial Civilization will come calling. Therefore, once we leave, I will use my connections to spread rumors that the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts was part of a scheme I orchestrated from the beginning, and that we collaborated to kill him, while subtly implying I took the lion's share of the credit.” Jian Ruhai said, “As the most mysterious assassin among sword cultivators, I possess a certain air of enigma. If I claim I was involved, some people will believe it.”

Lu Yuan naturally understood that Jian Ruhai wasn't here to demand credit. Jian Ruhai wasn't that petty. And truthfully, sharing some of the glory from such a staggering achievement would be safer for him. He was clearly no match for the Primordial Civilization yet; the time to confront them had not arrived. However, one day, when his blood boiled over, he would fight the Primordial Civilization.

On that day, the Primordial Civilization would learn what a sword truly means.

He practiced the sword because he loved the sword intrinsically. But he also wanted the Primordial Civilization to taste the sharpness of his swordsmanship.

“Speaking of which, the incident on Dragon Earth Star seems mostly concluded. What do you plan to do next?” Jian Ruhai inquired.

“If nothing unexpected happens, I’ll return to Sword Gate,” Lu Yuan shrugged. He currently had nowhere else to go. If he didn't return to Sword Gate, where else would he go? Still, he suspected that when Yan Cangtian and Zhou Qingxuan returned, things would become more interesting, setting the stage for the future confrontation with the Primordial Civilization.

“Oh, is that so?” Jian Ruhai looked at Lu Yuan. “You are currently at the third heaven of the World Realm. Why not try to break through to the fourth heaven? You're idle anyway.” He understood Lu Yuan’s disposition well enough to frame it as simply passing the time.

“The fourth heaven of the World Realm? How does one break through?” Lu Yuan asked.

“The fourth heaven of the World Realm is the Realm of Material Exchange. In this stage, one can alter the forms of objects—turning stone into gold, transforming a person into a dog, and so on. These are the abilities of this realm. Earlier, when the Ancestor of the Battle Beasts turned you into a white crane, that was precisely an ability of the fourth heaven, the Realm of Material Exchange.”

Jian Ruhai explained.

Hearing Jian Ruhai’s description, Lu Yuan was instantly reminded of his fight with the Ancestor, when he was forcefully transformed into a white crane. If the Ancestor’s Desolate essence hadn't been consumed by the Desolate-Restraining Sword, reverting to his human form would have been difficult. Lu Yuan hadn't been eager to pursue the fourth heaven of the World Realm; by his usual habit, he needed some rest. But now, hearing this, he dismissed any thought of resting. He resolved to reach the fourth heaven of the World Realm as quickly as possible. He certainly didn't want to be turned into a white crane, a cat, or a dog again next time.

A person should remain human; he had no current interest in becoming an animal.

“How does one break through to the fourth heaven, the Realm of Material Exchange?” Lu Yuan immediately asked.

Seeing Lu Yuan’s sudden eagerness, Jian Ruhai nodded slightly, stroking his beard. “The fourth heaven, the Realm of Material Exchange, allows you to turn people into dogs, stone into gold, water into fire. Your biggest confusion is likely how these abilities are cultivated.”

“Between heaven and earth, all things seem contained within the Five Elements, but using the Five Elements to explain the abilities of the Realm of Material Exchange clearly doesn’t quite suffice,” Jian Ruhai continued. “Based on the research of past predecessors, everything in the world of our epoch is composed of an extremely minute substance.”

“This extremely minute substance is also known as an element.”

“And according to the investigations of predecessors, the elements of our epoch total one hundred and twenty kinds.”

“These one hundred and twenty types constitute the very building blocks of all things.”

“Everything in existence, whether living or non-living, is composed of these one hundred and twenty elements.”

“As long as you can master these one hundred and twenty elements, you can grasp all material transformations, because matter itself is constructed from these one hundred and twenty elements.”

“The so-called turning stone to gold, person to dog, or water to fire, is merely the controlled transformation between these one hundred and twenty elements.”

“Each of these one hundred and twenty elements has its own name. One only needs to comprehend sixty or more of them to attempt breaking through to the fourth heaven of the World Realm, the Realm of Material Exchange.”

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