The Sovereign's Ascension

The number of Dragon-Phoenix Sword Aura strands in his body had reached eighteen when he made a breakthrough and reached the second stage of the Dragon-Phoenix World Annihilating Sword Canon. But this also left a huge threat within his body. The heavenly dragon and divine phoenix had fused to form an ancient cauldron that contained boundless killing intent. It could instantly turn him into a demon, and this was where the threat laid.

He could still suppress it with his elysium core now, but Lin Yun wasn’t sure if he could suppress it while fighting someone. Just like that, four hours passed, and the wait was torture for everyone.

As a huge sword vibration resounded, the spiritual runes on the stage were activated, and the entire mountain began to tremble. As Jue Chen let out a roar, a light shone from the stage that enveloped everyone on it, “Open!”

This also meant that the third stage had officially begun. When the light faded, everyone descended from the sky and found themselves in the Barren Sword Mound. When Lin Yun opened his eyes, he noticed that everyone was still around him, and they weren’t teleported to random places by the teleportation array.

“Don’t spread out!” Ye Ziling said as everyone gathered up. A forest covered in a fog was beneath them, and an endless mountain range was ahead of the woods. There were black lights from the depths of the mountain range that formed into a black fog that enveloped the entire sky.

That was where the sword mound was located. The sword mound was the graveyard for swords. Since it was an ancient ruin, many saint runes with terrifying origins were buried there. It didn’t matter if the owner of those swords were righteous or evil because swords were ominous weapons used to kill.

Every single sword contained a boundless killing aura and sins. So when they were buried, they would become peerless ominous weapons. The demonic beasts in this secret realm were basking in the boundless sword intents containing killing intent since their birth. So they had unerasable sword intents and ominous auras deep in their bloodlines. In other words, they were all mutated demonic beasts.

“So many people.” Lin Yun landed on a tree branch and looked at the people shuttling in the forest. This made him lightly lock his brows because such a huge commotion would attract the attention of those hidden demonic beasts. Once the killing started, the blood stench would make all the demonic beasts here go berserk.

“What should we do now?” Gongsun Yan asked, and everyone’s gazes fell onto Lin Yun.

Lin Yun was stunned because they wanted him to make the decision. So he followed his instincts. He felt that those from Ancient Saint Clans might know something. “Let’s see as we go. Let’s head in the direction of the sword mound. The number of Spiritual Sword Beads is insufficient, and everyone will head to the sword mound.”

“Let’s go! Don’t split up because this place is dangerous.” Ye Ziling had no objection to that.

She then took the lead, with Lin Yun and the rest following after her. As thousands of people entered the forest, the peace in the woods was disrupted with beast roars that could be heard everywhere.

Soon enough, yhe faint blood stench spread throughout the densely packed forest. Lin Yun’s party ran into various demonic beasts, but they weren’t weak. Aside from the Ancient Saint Clans, the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect and Xiahou Saint Clan were the strongest. So none of the demonic beasts they encountered could pose any trouble to them.

When a huge rat demonic beast that walked on two legs dashed towards Liu Qingyan with its claws, Liu Qingyan’s sword only managed to cause sparks on the surface of the demonic beast and couldn’t deal any damage. The demonic beast’s powerful defenses shocked Liu Qingyan. But just when he was about to summon his constellation, an azure figure dashed forth and threw a punch out, sending the demonic beast flying a few hundred meters back.

“Thanks for the help, Junior Brother Lin!” Liu Qingyan smiled, scratching his head.

When the demonic beast that was killed by Lin Yun was cut open, a dazzling sword ray appeared.

“Spiritual Sword Bead!” Everyone rejoiced as they gathered around while Ye Ziling retrieved an egg-sized bead from the demonic beast’s corpse. This bead was white, giving off a peculiar aura that contained a baleful aura, sword intent, and boundless vitality. It was weird because it was like a beast core, but it was also different.

“It looks like we’re pretty lucky.” Ye Ziling smiled. Not every demonic beast possessed a Spiritual Sword Bead, and this was the first one they came across after killing ten-odd Greater Elysium Core Realm demonic beasts.

“It’s no wonder why this demonic beast’s defenses were so strong that even my sword intent couldn’t inflict any injuries.” Liu Qingyan said with lingering fear. If Lin Yun didn’t help him, it would be troublesome for him to deal with this demonic beast even if he summoned his constellation.

“It’s yours.” Ye Ziling tossed the Spiritual Sword Bead to Lin Yun, who was still staring into space.

Lin Yun quickly recovered and caught the Spiritual Sword Bead. When he looked at it, he discovered that there were two golden strands in it, forming a loop each, containing boundless vitality.

“A golden loop represents 100 years; this is a Spiritual Sword Bead of 200 years. Not bad, I guess.” Zhao Yan explained, allowing everyone to understand that the value of Spiritual Sword Beads was according to their age. They were already used to Zhao Yan’s explanations over the past few days. He might seem dull, but he wasn’t stupid.

The entire forest was enveloped in a mist filled with danger. So Lin Yun’s party briefly rested before they continued on their journey. Along the way, they had also gathered some Spiritual Sword Beads.

Four hours later, the group had gathered eighteen Spiritual Sword Beads. They weren’t weak. As long as they didn’t enter the territory of monarch demonic beasts, there wouldn’t be any dangers for them. They only needed two more Spiritual Sword Beads for Liu Qingyan and Feng Zhang to leave this place, and the third stage didn’t seem as difficult as they had imagined.

Just when everyone loosened up, Lin Yun suddenly became alert. The ground was trembling. Before everyone could respond, flames mixed with a poisonous fog turned into a flaming pillar of ten-odd meters that instantly enveloped this entire region.

Before everyone could react, Lin Yun had already charged out and threw a punch, executing the Divine Solar Lunar Fist—Dragon Sun and Moon Cauldron. When he threw his punch, the terrifying flames dispersed like a bubble, instantly corroding a colossal tree.

This made the faces of Ye Ziling and the others change because they could sense a dangerous aura. This aura belonged to a monarch demonic beast. Ye Ziling and Zhao Yan swiftly stood beside Lin Yun.

At the far end, they could see a giant venomous serpent that had a pair of wings growing on its back, looking at them coldly. It had emerald green scales, dragon horns growing from its head, and flames blazing in its pupils. This was a monarch demonic beast in the Greater Elysium Core Realm, and ordinary Heavenly Elysium Core Realm experts would lose their lives when facing it.

“An Azureflame Dracoserpent!” Zhao Yan’s face became ugly. Azureflame Dracoserpents were tough opponents in the outside world, so one that grew up in the Barren Sword Mound would be even more powerful since it had a strong resistance to sword intent.

But Lin Yun was quiet, and no one knew what he was thinking.

“It shouldn’t be too hard if it’s just one Azureflame Dracoserpent. If we can kill it, we might be able to obtain a 500-year Spiritual Sword Bead!” Gongsun Yan rejoiced when he saw the Azureflame Dracoserpent. But the moment he finished speaking, several trees collapsed from far away, and another Azureflame Dracoserpent appeared.

“You should keep that mouth of yours shut.” Zhao Yan glared at Gongsun Yan, and Gongsun Yan could no longer smile at this moment.

The two Azureflame Dracoserpents were ferocious, sealing off this entire region. They unleashed their monarch demonic breast auras on Lin Yun’s party. Aside from Lin Yun, everyone was under tremendous pressure.

But Lin Yun was looking around as if he was searching for something. One Azureflame Dracoserpent might be a coincidence, but two weren’t. They had been avoiding monarch demonic beast territories along the way. If Feng Zhang and Liu Qingyan faced a demonic beast of this level, it was hard to ensure that they wouldn’t be injured. But now, two Azureflame Dracoserpents appeared at the same time.

“What should we do now?” Gongsun Yan nervously asked.

“I’ll face one of them. You guys deal with the other one.” Lin Yun said after taking a deep breath when everyone felt nervous. Waving his hand, he summoned the Flower Burial Sword with a cold light flashing through his pupils. He really wanted to know who the mastermind behind all this was.

Gongsun Yan might be stupid, but he was right. It appeared that Lin Yun wouldn’t be able to maintain a low profile anymore.