Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

A horse was galloping across the plain outside of Beiluo City. Li Sansui's Daoist robe was blowing.

 She sensed something was wrong that night. Xie Yunling went down the mountain without telling anyone. She tried her best to chase him but just could not catch up with him.

 If she had not received the news that Xie Yunling had shown up in Beiluo City, she might not have been able to locate him for a long time.

 “Whoa.”

 She pulled the reins to slow the horse down.

 Li Sansui stopped before the city gate of Beiluo. She did not ride the horse into the city. Instead, she got off the horse and led it into the city on foot.

 Luo Cheng, in armor and carrying his knife at the waist, stopped Li Sansui.

 “Li Mo Chou from Daoist School.”

 “I'm Luo Cheng, general of Beiluo City.”

 Luo Cheng had just come back from the Dragon Gate. He had abundant Qi and blood in his body. The Spirit Qi in his Qi Core was tumbling. He was giving off powerful oppressive energy.

 Li Sansui was stunned.

 This was the first time someone addressed her as Li Mo Chou.

 She cupped her hands to greet him back. Throwing Luo Cheng a glance, she was surprised to find his energy oppressive.

 “Are you here to see Senior Xie?” Luo Cheng asked.

 Li Sansui's eyes lit up. She slightly nodded.

 “His Excellency left in the night the day before yesterday. I had no idea what happened. I followed him, but lost his trace,” Li Sansui answered.

 Luo Cheng smiled. He did not tell her Xie Yunling had been possessed and attempted to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lu Fan.

 He led Li Sansui to Lake Island.

 It was Li Sansui's first time in Beiluo City and her first time on Lake Island.

 It was a big shock to her.

 The Spirit Qi here was much richer than that in the Dragon Gate Secret Realm. That and the cultivators working hard on the island were eye-opening for her.

 Li Sansui saw Xie Yunling immediately…

 Because Xie Yunling was sitting cross-legged right on the sh.o.r.e. He was gazing at the lake motionlessly as if he was in meditation.

 Li Sansui looked around with curiosity.

 She lifted her head automatically to look at the pavilion.

 However, she felt overwhelmed.

 “Sansui, you are here.”

 Xie Yunling opened his eyes and saw Li Sansui. He looked like he was feeling complicated to see her.

 “I was possessed by an evil spirit. Young Master saved me, but my soul was injured. So I need to stay on the island to recover. Don't worry about me.”

 “You go back to Daoist Pavilion on Tiandang Mountain to succeed me as the leader,” Xie Yunling said.

 The hair around his temples had grown white. Looking at Li Sansui, he smiled.

 Li Sansui was greatly shocked. Xie Yunling just appointed her as the next leader of Daoist Pavilion?

 With her mouth open, Li Sansui wanted to say something.

 However, Xie Yunling waved his hand at her before she could.

 “The rejuvenation of Spirit Qi has brought us opportunities as well as crises. Daoist Pavilion has a huge responsibility. Sansui, when you go back to Daoist Pavilion, close the main gate and stop taking more disciples. Just focus on training cultivators…”

 “I saw Young Master deploy a formation yesterday. I gained some insights from it and created a formation based on those insights. The formation is called Sealing Demon Formation. You take it back to Daoist Pavilion. Put some effort into studying it. Let disciples who got Spirit Qi study how to deploy the formation. It will be helpful in the future.”

 Xie Yunling took out a piece of paper, on which his thoughts were densely written.

 Li Sansui took the paper. She quickly looked at it and was then immediately attracted to the mysterious and profound formation.

 She was an expert in Daoist methods, and formation was a part of Daoist methods. There was a huge gap between this formation drawn by Xie Yunling and his previous formations.

 It was because of the insights he had gained from Young Master Lu's formation deployment?

 “Go back.”

 Xie Yunling waved his hand.

 “Don't worry about me. I will go back to Tiandang Mountain when my soul has completely recovered.”

 Li Sansui did not insist. She took a step back and then bowed at Xie Yunling.

 She realized how resolute Xie Yunling was.

 So she did not hesitate. She turned around to get onto the wooden boat.

 Looking back at Lake Island, like an immortal island shrouded in the misty Spirit Qi, Li Sansui took a deep breath.

 She caught a glimpse of a teenager in white in White Jade City Pavilion, who looked like a fallen immortal. He seemed to be smiling and nodding at her.

 She got onto the sh.o.r.e.

 Luo Cheng saw Li Sansui out of the city gate in person.

 Li Sansui put away the formation diagram Xie Yunling had given her. Then she jumped onto the horse and left.

 Standing before the city gate with his knife hanging at his waist, Luo Cheng saw Li Sansui disappearing from his sight. Then he turned around to climb onto the city tower immediately. Standing by the parapet, he gazed at Li Sansui again, who was farther and farther, until even the dust raised by her horse was completely unseen.

 On Lake Island.

 Lu Fan touched the wheelchair gently.

 By far, the eight Dragon Gate Secret Realms had all been opened, and Wuhuang Continent was at a crucial moment to obtain an upgrade appraisal.

 Lu Fan did not choose to construct another Secret Realm.

 According to that Lord of the Plain…

 Cultivators in a world had their limits.

 Cultivators in a Low Level Martial World could probably reach the Internal Organs Realm and refine all of their five organs at most, but elemental Spirit Qi might not be produced.

 No wonder when Lu Fan was creating the ancient Qi Refiner in the central palace through the Dao Impartment Platform, he could not make the latter achieve the level of producing elemental Spirit Qi.

 It turned out the world had hit a bottleneck.

 Unless he made Wuhuang Continent upgrade to Mid Level Martial World, except Lu Fan, no one here would be able to break the barrier of realms or penetrate the mysteries of elemental Spirit Qi.

 Lu Fan was tapping his fingers on the armrest.

 “Well, despite the fast improvement in realms, I should focus more on fighting methods.”

 “Fast improvement in realms isn't always good, because polis.h.i.+ng the movements would then be compromised.”

 Lu Fan pondered.

 After quite some time…

 He looked at the Dragon Gate from the pavilion.

 The battle there had lasted one day and one night. It was about to end.

 Central palace, Dragon Gate Secret Realm.

 The Overlord was sent flying for the eighteenth time. He was already an expert in attracting attention and hatred.

 Ning Zhao and Li Sansi were panting heavily and nonstop. The battle had lasted a day and a night. Their stamina and the Spirit Qi in their Qi Core had been greatly consumed.

 Although their Spirit Qi could recover much faster since they were in Internal Organs Realm, such a long-drawn-out battle was quite exhausting for them.

 Fortunately, Ning Zhao got many Gathering Qi Elixirs from Ni Yu. It was thanks to the Gathering Qi Elixirs that they had managed to hold on until this moment.

 Despite the time that had pa.s.sed, this ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator who had refined all of his five organs was still dreadfully strong.

 “The Spirit Qi swirl of his heart hasn't been broken. We'll have a chance to kill him once we break it!” Nie Changqing shouted from far away.

 His butcher knife was spinning at high speed in his hand that even the air around him seemed to be shaking.

 This was the most powerful knife attack he could exert after he had concentrated his energy.

 Li Sansi and Ning Zhao launched a ruthless attack.

 The wooden sword and the Cicada Wing Sword were pressed against the swirl where the heart of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator was.

 To their surprise, they heard a repeated metallic ringing sound.

 However, when Li Sansi's wooden sword broke, the Spirit Qi swirl also exploded and vanished in the air.

 Nie Changqing's eyes lit up.

 He brandished his arm upward.

 The butcher knife, together with its ma.s.sive outline made of Spirit Qi, was thrown upward.

 Nie Changqing had concentrated all of his energy into this knife attack. It seemed it could even cut the air in half.

 Without the protection of the Spirit Qi swirls of the five organs, Nie Changqing's knife was able to pierce through the body of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator.

 Abundant black Spirit Qi continuously gushed out of the body of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator, and it spread throughout in the central palace. Suddenly, the entire palace started to shake violently.

 The mural along the corridor of the palace started to crack, with huge, terrifying fissures appearing on it.

 Nie Changqing took the butcher knife back to carry it at his waist. A serious expression was etched on his face…

 Because the chain on the body of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator had begun to shake.

 On the second floor of White Jade City Pavilion.

 At the sight of this, a smile tugged at the corners of Lu Fan's lips.

 “He is finally dead.”

 Ning Zhao, Nie Changqing, and Li Sansi were only beginners in the Internal Organs Realm, but it took the three of them along with the Overlord a day and a night to defeat the opponent even though they fought together. This meant their fighting skills did coincide with their strengths of Internal Organs Realm.

 Lu Fan took a chess piece out of the chess box.

 Then he placed the chess piece on the chessboard.

 Immediately, a clear sound rang all over the entire place.

 Then a Spirit Qi wave gathered outside of the Dragon Gate, and it rushed into the Dragon Gate at high speed.

 In the corridor of the central palace.

 The mural had been broken. Nie Changqing and the others put on serious faces. They smelled death.

 They really thought they would get an Immortal encounter after killing that ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator.

 But it did not seem so.

 Boom! Boom! Boom!

 When the mural had been completely broken, it seemed the images on it had come alive.

 All of their attention was drawn to the mural; they were immersed in it.

 The image before their eyes kept changing.

 They heard deafening war cries, which shook the whole world.

 It was a magnificent and tragic scene.

 The Overlord, carrying his long axe, was standing in this world watching that earthshaking battle. His eyes narrowed to slits.

 The world was tinted the color of blood.

 Then an opening appeared in the sky, and numerous dreadful creatures flew out from that opening.

 And under that sky…

 There were a few magnificent immortal palaces, including paG.o.das soaring into the clouds and palaces with carved rails and jade stairs. It was shrouded in immortal energy, yet there were deafening war cries coming from the place.

 One by one, a cultivator in Qi Core Realm; one after the other, another cultivator in Internal Organs Realm…

 They charged into the clouds to fight those strong creatures that came in through the opening.

 It was an unrecorded battle.

 The battle was critical, and the result was catastrophic.

 The palaces and the paG.o.das all collapsed. That world was completely destroyed. Then a big fire started that not even a torrential rain could put out.

 Men strong enough to control winds and clouds fought the dreadful creatures in the opening.

 Yet they all died, and blood rained down.

 At this sight, the Overlord, Nie Changqing, Li Sansi, and Ning Zhao all felt as if they were experiencing it in person…

 Until the image disappeared.

 They touched their faces and realized they were crying.

 That chain started to shake.

 One by one, a screaming black shadow ran out from the other end of the corridor.

 They were escaping in all directions.

 The Overlord and the other three held their breaths, waiting. Those black shadows with shrill voices seemed tangible, but in fact, they were not.

 They pierced through the Overlord and the other three's bodies and ran out of the corridor. Soon, they were out of their sight. Cheering, as if they were celebrating freedom and victory, they were about to disperse and each head home.

 However…

 Nie Changqing and the other three suddenly had a shocking feeling.

 They looked up and looked out of the Dragon Gate.

 They saw a giant palm made up of Spirit Qi emerge in the sky and shut.

 Countless black shadows, in panic and screaming fragilely, were smashed into pieces. But some of them still escaped and vanished from their sights like a school of fish swimming away.

 “It's… It's the Young Master!” Ning Zhao said involuntarily after recognizing the energy in that giant palm.

 “What on earth did we do so that the Young Master acted in person?!”

 Nie Changqing looked like he was still in shock.

 “Get your trophies and come out.”

 Nie Changqing, Ning Zhao, and the other two heard Lu Fan's plain voice.

 They came to themselves and looked at the far end of the corridor.

 Swallowing their saliva, they walked deeper into the corridor.

 However, when Nie Changqing was pa.s.sing by the body of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator, he saw a few glittering and translucent gems that looked like crystals floating over the body.

 “These are…”

 Nie Changqing recalled Lu Fan had told them the ruler in the Secret Realm had treasures on him, and only the person who really killed the ruler could get the treasures.

 The Overlord and Li Sansi tried to pick them up, but they found these gems were like shadows. Their hands pierced through them when they were trying to grasp them.

 The same thing happened to Ning Zhao.

 Nie Changqing bent down to pick them up, and he felt he grasped them for real.

 “These are Spirit Stones that the Young Master had mentioned?!” Nie Changqing said after taking a deep breath.

 The Spirit Stones could help with cultivation. The pure Spirit Qi contained in them could be directly taken in.

 Nie Changqing put a precious Spirit Stone into his pocket.

 The Overlord and Li Sansi were really envious, but there was nothing they could do since they could not get ahold of the Spirit Stones.

 They continued walking down the corridor and into the stone chamber at the end of the hallway.

 The stone chamber was extremely s.p.a.cious. It was more appropriate to call it a stone cave. There were also tens of thousands of tiny stone niches carved on the wall of the stone cave. In every stone niche, there was a skeleton sitting cross-legged.

 The skeletons all had a chain on them. They were all tied to the body of the ancient Internal Organs Realm cultivator.

 “Were those black shadows…”

 Li Sansi thought of something. He turned pale.

 There were so many skeletons, so he a.s.sociated them with the countless black shadows that had just escaped out of the cave.

 Li Sansi and the other three all felt kind of heavyhearted.

 Other than these skeletons, there was a stone platform at the center of the stone cave. On the stone platform, there were four jade tokens and ten-odd dusty Spirit Stones that scattered around.

 So those were their trophies.

 The four exchanged looks. They did not feel glad at all for finding the Immortal encounter and carving up trophies.

 Each of them took a jade token, and they carved up the Spirit Stones. Then they left the stone cave with a heavy heart.

 They a.s.sociated what they had seen in the stone cave with the images that had made them feel they were actually there.

 They seemed to realize they had accidentally learned some heavy history of the ancient times.

 The Overlord left the central palace. He still did not break through to the Internal Organs Realm in this battle, and he was really unhappy with the result.

 Li Sansi also left the Dragon Gate to go back to Daoist School.

 The moonlight was cold and pure.

 Nie Changqing and Ning Zhao both had something on their minds. They walked out of the Dragon Gate, exhausted. However, despite the weary feeling, they still went to the second floor of the White Jade City Pavilion.

 On the second floor of the pavilion, Xie Yunling was sitting cross-legged quietly in a corner.

 On the gold-rimmed nanmu table, the green plum wine was on the stove.

 “Young Master.”

 Ning Zhao and Nie Changqing bowed. They did not pay attention to Xie Yunling.

 Shone by the cold moonlight, everything looked a little bit freezing.

 Lu Fan was sitting in the Thousand Blades Chair under the moonlight.

 He was sitting by the rail facing Beiluo Lake, where the moonlight was reflected, with his back facing them.

 Looking at him from behind, Nie Changqing and Ning Zhao suddenly felt a pressure that made them unable to breathe.