Yuan’s Ascension

A streak of black light sliced through the air with breathtaking speed, hurtling directly into a small cave no more than a hundred li in diameter.

Violent spiritual qi fluctuations erupted from the cave, accompanied by a series of terrified screams. Two figures frantically bolted out from different exits, their faces contorted with fear.

"Run!"

"It's a second-tier Bloodforge Seed." Their eyes were wide with terror.

They fled desperately, but their efforts were futile. They had barely covered a hundred li when the streak of black light burst from the cave, moving at nearly ten times their speed. In a heartbeat, it closed the distance between them.

Its wings glinted like razor-sharp sabers.

"No!" One of the fleeing participants, a sturdy man encased in black armor, roared in defiance.

His body swelled, muscles bulging beneath his armor as he swung his saber with immense force. The blade cleaved through the air, aimed at the incoming streak of light. An imposing earthy-yellow aura radiated from his entire being.

Ether Art! Earth Domain!

In a battle involving billions of Golden Core cultivators, his strength ranked in the top five percent.

Wham! The streak of light effortlessly evaded his saber, its wings striking his body with precision.

Thwack! The impact sent him flying, his skin splitting open as blood gushed forth.

Still alive? Wu Yuan's eyes flickered.

Without hesitation, his hand expanded to a thousand zhangs, sweeping across dozens of li to slam into the armored man once more.

Wham! Unable to withstand the overwhelming impact, the armored man's body exploded into a fine, crimson mist.

He was dead.

One more. Wu Yuan's gaze shifted to the other escaping figure in the distance. In a flash, he closed the gap.

The second cultivator met the same grisly fate as the first.

How easy. Wu Yuan mused, his expression a mask of indifference. Many of these cultivators are only at the early-stage of the Golden Core phase, merely here to offer up Blood Devil Tokens.

This armored man was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator and a body refiner, his strength was pretty decent.

Had he not crossed paths with Wu Yuan, the armored man might have survived the next six months.

"What a pity," Wu Yuan murmured, his heart remaining cold and detached.

His gaze swept across the expansive passageway stretching thirty thousand li in width. Though called a cave, it was a world unto itself, so vast that its wrinkled walls resembled mountain ranges.

The passage walls were dotted with countless small caves, ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred li in diameter, interconnected like a labyrinth.

The entire Bloodforge Battlefield is essentially an incredibly vast, three-dimensional space resembling an ant nest, Wu Yuan realized. The Soul Force range of most Golden Core cultivators is typically only dozens of li.

In short, if all Golden Core participants chose to hide until the end, locating them would be a difficult task.

Of course, that didn't include those with extraordinarily strong souls, like Wu Yuan himself. With a mere thought, he could scan everything within a nine-hundred-li radius. His search efficiency dwarfed that of ordinary Golden Core cultivators by hundreds, if not thousands of times.

In areas where Wu Yuan had scouted with his Soul Force, few could hope to evade his notice.

Yet, even though there were 580 billion participants, they were scattered across a spherical battlefield with a diameter of a hundred million li.

Blood Devil Tokens. Wu Yuan gave a mental command, and the thread of consciousness he left in the Bloodforge Immortal Voidrealm instantly retrieved the corresponding information.

Blood Devil Tokens: 1542

Rank: 832

In one day, I've advanced hundreds of thousands of li, slaughtering hundreds of immortal cultivators, But most were just ordinary participants; killing them only yielded one Blood Devil Token each. Only two were elite participants. Wu Yuan felt somewhat helpless.

If not for his relentless slaughter of other participants, how could he have accumulated this many Blood Devil Tokens? It was easy for him to obtain the Blood Devil Tokens of ordinary participants, but it was highly inefficient.

If I could find a Bloodforge Seed or an immortal nation participant, that would be far more satisfying. A trace of killing intent flashed in Wu Yuan's eyes.

Killing one would yield at least a thousand Blood Devil Tokens. Killing ten would allow him to meet the requirement of ten thousand Blood Devil Tokens.

Judging by the ranking, those with three to five thousand Blood Devil Tokens must have defeated other Bloodforge Seeds or immortal nation participants. Wu Yuan deduced. But Ao Qi and Dongfang Hongguang, these first-tier Bloodforge Seeds, aren't ranked very high.

Could it be that they haven't encountered particularly strong opponents, like in my situation? Wu Yuan speculated.

In fact, Wu Yuan's guess was correct. Though the Bloodforge Battle was relatively fair, the starting positions of the top-tier geniuses were not actually randomized. Rather, they were deliberately dispersed to avoid early collisions among top-tier geniuses and to prevent weaker participants from taking advantage of the situation.

In simple terms, the stronger one was, the weaker the participants in their starting location.

However, as time passed, the combat space would gradually shrink. With the top-tier geniuses making their way through the passages, they would eventually encounter.

Moreover, the weaker participants are starting to band together. Wu Yuan observed, his gaze sweeping over the corpses of the two participants he had just slain, then the cave that had served as their temporary refuge.

Earlier, these eight participants had gathered not to fight, but to discuss forming an alliance.

It only took one day!

Faced with the pressure from the top-tier geniuses, countless ordinary participants realized that mutual killing was futile; they must band together to survive the first six months. Otherwise, they'd be picked off by top-tier geniuses one at a time.

Go ahead. I was afraid you wouldn't cooperate. Wu Yuan chuckled.

Without powerful array disks, groups of dozens or hundreds of Golden Core cultivators could only form ordinary arrays.

If he were a second-tier Bloodforge Seed with strength barely reaching the Amethyst Cradle phase, handling such a large group of participants at once would be difficult.

But for Wu Yuan? It didn't matter whether ten or a hundred teamed up; even a thousand participants posed no real threat to him.

A flock of sheep can't defeat a lion. Wu Yuan was that lion.

In terms of Dao comprehension, Wu Yuan surpassed ordinary participants by a large margin; in terms of foundation, he had reached the minimum baseline for Shambhala; in terms of ether arts, he was also top-tier!

While other participants searched for the artifacts dropped throughout the trial grounds, Wu Yuan didn't bother.

Why? First, choosing to focus on increasing his killing rate would yield far more artifacts, granting him a wider array of choices and a higher chance of obtaining suitable equipment.

Moreover, the True Celestial Body Wu Yuan had cultivated through the combination of two Intermediate Laws had strengthened his body to a level comparable to fourth-grade spirit equipment.

And this was just from him harnessing the Celestial Body Dao, without unleashing the Longevity Dao in combat.

Kill! Even with just the Celestial Body Dao, let's see who can stop me. Wu Yuan's battle intent soared.

The passage stretched thirty thousand li wide, with new passages branching off every million li, and countless small caves. This labyrinthine structure made the battlefield incredibly complex.

But Wu Yuan didn't care about routes, acting as he pleased.

Found a participant? Kill!

Encountered ten participants teamed up against him? Kill!

Even if a hundred participants gathered to oppose him, Wu Yuan charged headfirst into their midst with unbridled arrogance

Time went by.

Wherever Wu Yuan tread, battles raged as mana surged like a tempest. Blood splattered the ground, and heads rolled with each decisive strike.

The tally of Blood Devil Tokens under his name soared, propelling his rank ever higher with each opponent encountered.

Most importantly, within his upper dantian lobe, the blood mist swirling around the black pagoda reached an unprecedented volume, surging and accumulating without end.

…

The Bloodforge Battle, the highlight of the Bloodforge Devil Hall, naturally drew attention from countless powerhouses across various divisions.

From the high and mighty Archimmortals to the High Immortals and Earth Immortals of various divisions, and even numerous Void Refiner and Amethyst Cradle cultivators—all watched the trial intently.

When it came to true geniuses like the Bloodforge Seeds, immortal cultivators (those below the Archimmortal phase) had no right to witness the participants' battles directly. This applied to High Immortal Wu Tian as well. All they could see was the constantly shifting Blood Devil Token rankings.

"Wu Yuan is quite ruthless!"

"He entered the top thousand on the ranking right from the start, and his Blood Devil Token count is consistently on the rise. He's overwhelmingly strong."

"It's a shame we can't witness his battles firsthand." A sea of immortal cultivators had gathered in the Redmoon Division’s observation space in the Bloodforge Immortal Voidrealm.

"Haha, I was the one who discovered Wu Yuan," Protectorate Xiong Yuan boasted loudly, puffing out his chest with pride. "Look, Wu Yuan's Blood Devil Token count has increased again!"

Numerous Void Refiner and Elysian Field protectorates nodded, their eyes never leaving the ever-changing numbers on the leaderboard.

It was truly astonishing. Every few breaths to a quarter of an hour, Wu Yuan's Blood Devil Token count would change, a testament to his non-stop killing spree.

"His rank has risen again. He's now in the top three hundred!" someone exclaimed. A Blood Devil Token rank in the top three hundred was already a dazzling achievement, especially considering the billions of participants.

"His Blood Devil Token count has surpassed five thousand."

"And it's only the third day," a Void Refiner protectorate marveled, unable to hide his admiration. "At this rate, accumulating ten thousand Blood Devil Tokens should be a breeze for him."

…

In another observation space, High Immortal Wu Tian couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he boasted to a group of High Immortals. "Look, Wu Yuan is indeed impressive."

"At the start, not many strong participants landed in the vicinity of the top-tier geniuses. Therefore, the geniuses accumulated fewer Blood Devil Tokens at first, and their ranks weren't high."

"Now, all of the top fifty are first-tier Bloodforge Seeds."

"Even in such a scenario, Wu Yuan's rank continues to soar," High Immortal Wu Tian grinned, his pride evident. "When the duels between geniuses begin, he could very well break into the top hundred."

The surrounding High Immortals nodded, their expressions thoughtful. They understood the patterns of Bloodforge Battles well, having witnessed the event many times. The top-tier geniuses would gradually gain momentum, ranking higher and higher as the battle progressed until they left the other participants far behind.

"At the very least, it seems likely that our Redmoon Division will produce a Bloodforge Marquis this time. That's a good thing."

"Bai Li is also doing well. She's already entered the top ten thousand. With time, she may eventually break into the top thousand."

"Shui Heng is a bit lacking, unfortunately."

These High Immortals of the Redmoon Division constantly checked the rankings, confirming the standings of the geniuses under their respective command.

…

The Eternal Sun Immortal Realm was an extremely high grade voidrealm with coverage that spanned the entire Eternal Sun Immortal World.

With a special temple, a young man in white robes gazed intently at two enormous light screen projections before him.

The first light screen displayed the rankings of the Silvermist Division's Golden Core Bloodforge Battle.

The other light screen monitored a single participant – Wu Yuan.

"Not bad at all," he murmured.

…

In the Bloodforge Immortal Voidrealm, within the observation space of the Silvermist Division, a group of Archimmortals watched the projections closely.

"Some of the geniuses that ranked in the lower rungs are making a strong push!"

"These first-tier Bloodforge Seeds are all performing admirably."

"There aren't any duels between geniuses yet, so these top-tier geniuses have yet to suffer losses."

"The top-tier geniuses from the Silvermist Immortal Nation are also quite formidable." These Archimmortals casually commented.

A silver-haired woman turned to Astral Lord Yin He with a smile. "Yin He, your Wu Yuan is indeed fierce and ruthless.”

"He's not bad," Astral Lord Yin He replied, though he couldn't hide the smile tugging at his lips.

Clearly, he was very pleased with Wu Yuan's performance.

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