Baffled alarm rippled through the Nirvana disciples, they didn’t understand why the treasured sword was leaving them either. Zhou Wumie was already at the end of his tether, they couldn’t allow anything to happen to him.
“Follow him. We need to help!” The disciples stirred to action and quickly followed their palace’s pride and glory.
The remaining ten thousand looked at each other hesitantly. Though Zhou Wumie had remained on his feet only through sheer force of will, the rest of them had been too petrified by the brutal carnage that’d taken place to do anything. With the departure of the Nirvana contingent, that left room for other thoughts to creep into their minds.
“Let’s go take a look as well—Zhou Wumie is heavily injured and the sword just mysteriously left him. We might still have a chance!” Some quickly followed the Nirvana disciples.
The remaining cultivators were also curious as to what was happening, and reason had returned to everyone’s minds. A strange thought blossomed in their minds—if the Inception contingent had left without a scratch, did everything that’d subsequently taken place have to do with them?
……
Lu Yun sat cross-legged in a dip at the foot of the mountain, deep in meditation and fingers frozen in a strange hand seal. Rays of brilliant splendor shone from his body and continuously called out to the sword on the other side of the void.
He’d refined the sword, spending a full hundred thousand years to do so. When he’d laid hands on the treasure, he’d immediately shifted into hell and used its influence over time to speed things up.
Though Lu Yun wasn’t someone whose greed knew no bounds, he also wasn’t the sort to just give up a treasure that’d come into his hands. Surrendering the sword had only been an act to get his side out of danger.
After the others had mostly killed each other off, he summoned the sword back. He was a sword immortal, after all, but he didn’t have a proper sword to his name. He’d returned the Sugato Sword to the Green Firmament, gifted Quietus to Tianqi, and left Violetgrave standing guard at the World Gates…
This sword was precisely what he needed at this time.
“Here it comes!”
A piercing howl broke through the air before sword light descended from the sky like a snowy chain, landing in Lu Yun’s hands.
“You!” Zhou Wumie was hot on its heels and his eyes almost spat fire when he saw the sword in Lu Yun’s hands.
“Form up!” Ying Luo and the others didn’t hesitate to draw close to Lu Yun and fall into the Thousand Obliteration Formation of the Six Royals. Zhou Wumie was the greatest mortal realm cultivator of Nirvana Palace. Lu Yun would never be able to withstand him by himself.
The formation snapped into existence and sent Zhou Wumie flying with a surge of power.
“Wei Yuan!” The genius saw Wei Yuan standing in the center of the formation. “Today, I’ll act on behalf of the sacred palace and cleanse its halls of traitors!”
He hung suspended in midair, two crimson balls of light appearing in his hands. This was the power to be gained from consuming his blood essence. Harrowing power of nirvana coalesced in the air while an enormous shadow grew behind Zhou Wumie.
Wei Yuan turned pale and wavered in his position. He was born and raised in Nirvana Palace. If his home deemed him a traitor, then his entire life was ruined.
“Don’t worry, a mere mortal realm cultivator can’t pronounce judgement on you,” Lu Yun said calmly after taking a look at Wei Yuan. “The inheritance to ascend beyond the chaos is within this sword. I’m going to extract it and gift it to you guys. No one will dare do anything to you then.”
“What? You’re willing, you’re willing to share the inheritance beyond the chaos?!” Wei Yuan shook violently and stared incredulously at Lu Yun.
“We’re the Six Royals. What’s the point of me surviving if all of you are dead?” Lu Yun grinned broadly.
The five of them were still steadfastly standing next to him, even at a time like this. Nothing else tainted their friendship, so Lu Yun naturally wouldn’t hold back with them. Living people were always better than cold, dead treasure.
“Alright!” Wei Yuan recovered his composure and relaxed. Though there were certainly other legacies in this testing ground that exceeded the chaos, it would be an incredibly difficult task to obtain any of them.
Not even the princes and princesses had been able to manage the giant zombie earlier. if it hadn’t been for Lu Yun, the general mission set for the mortal realm cultivators would’ve been a failure. It would be many times harder for the six sacred palaces to win any of the other legacies, given their greater strength.
“Senior brother Wumie, you heard Lu Yun. Please don’t continue your harassment any further.” Greatly bolstered by Lu Yun’s promise, Wei Yuan called back out from the safety of the formation.
“Die!” A crimson flame rose from Zhou Wumie. Whooping a war cry, he charged Wei Yuan.
Share the legacy with others?! All of it belonged to him!
Zhou Wumie’s hand was fading out of existence and turning into a bloody shadow. The image behind him, formed of the purest power of nirvana, took the shape of a pair of wings and adhered to his back.
“Let me!” Wei Yuan stepped forward when he saw that Lu Yun was about to respond. He stood in front of his friend and deployed the greatest combat arts of the Nirvana Palace against his senior brother.
Lu Yun couldn’t take to the field at this time. If he harmed or killed Zhou Wumie, that would cement a death feud between the Nirvana and Inception Palaces.
But things would be different if it was Wei Yuan joining the battle—he was a fellow Nirvana disciple. If he brought back a legacy beyond the chaos, the palace’s senior council wouldn’t punish him on behalf of another mortal realm disciple.
“Zhou Wumie, you say that you’re the greatest disciple of Nirvana Palace, but I, Wei Yuan, do not accept that!” The formation’s power reinforced Wei Yuan and he roared, “Though I borrow outside force at the moment, I firmly believe that you wouldn’t be a match for me if we were the same level!”
He thrust out a palm and summoned a black phoenix shadow behind him.
A nirvana phoenix! One of the strongest races of the nirvana sacred clan!
Wei Yuan wasn’t human. Instead, he was a nirvana phoenix and now made use of the formation to fully release his core essence and return to his true form. A black phoenix thirty meters across unfurled its wings in the void, blazing with dark red flames and bursting with the power of destruction.
“Vile spawn!” His eyes bloodshot, Zhou Wumie snarled when he saw Wei Yuan’s true form. He streaked forward as a beam of black-red light and barreled into the nirvana phoenix.
