Yuan’s Ascension

The gates of the black pagoda? They're opening? Wu Yuan's mind churned.

Though he remained calm outwardly, his heart was in turmoil. This had never happened before.

Wu Yuan's meteoric rise wasn't only due to his own efforts, but also thanks to guidance from the Fourth Eldritch Realm Master, Fang Xia, High Immortal Nan Yin, and others.

His success was also inextricably linked to the black pagoda. Without the black pagoda, Wu Yuan could still become a qi refiner or even a body refiner. Given centuries of cultivation, he might even reach the Golden Core phase. However, he wouldn't have survived the worm devil catastrophe.

With the black pagoda and Wu Yuan's own diligence, he had climbed unimaginable heights, rapidly rising above the masses.

His qi refiner self was recognized as a peerless genius that only appeared once in ten thousand years in the vast Silvermist Immortal Nation.

Over the past decades, I've tried various methods to uncover the black pagoda's secrets, but to no avail. Countless thoughts flashed through Wu Yuan's mind.

A black pagoda also hovered in the upper dantian lobe of his qi refiner self. After his soul reached the Soul Will level, he tried to interact with it, but achieved nothing. His soul essence couldn’t even get close to it at all. [1]

His body refiner self tried integrating his blood mist with the colossal black stone pillar atop the black pagoda. However, it only caused the stone pillar to emit a blood-red glow.

The blood-red light had formidable soul defense capabilities and defense functions. Back then, he survived the worm devil's last-ditch attack thanks to the black pagoda's stone pillar protecting his soul.

But beyond that, Wu Yuan's attempts to trigger new functions were fruitless.

As for reaching the critical limit of the blood mist? Wu Yuan sensed the dense, nearly-black blood mist around the black pagoda, surging like a tide.

During the battle against the worm devil, he killed countless devil soldiers. At one point, the black pagoda stopped releasing more blood mist, meaning he had reached the saturation limit of blood mist at that time.

However, the pagoda did not show any abnormalities at that time, let alone the gates opening.

Could it be that I was too weak in the past? Now that I have evolved to a higher order of life, the blood mist capacity of the black pagoda has increased? Wu Yuan pondered.

By reaching new critical limits, I can trigger the black pagoda's hidden abilities?

Following the worm devil catastrophe and his subsequent breakthroughs, his external conditions no longer allowed for rampant killing to obtain more blood mist.

Furthermore, since Wu Yuan's two true selves reached the Golden Core phase and Spiritual Body phase, killing those in the Qi Sea phase or Communion phase wouldn't produce blood mist from the black pagoda.

Based on the previous patterns of the black pagoda, he needed to defeat opponents of comparable strength to release blood mist.

Missing the right external conditions, along with misconceptions of the previous results, led to Wu Yuan subconsciously assuming that reaching the blood mist’s saturation point granted no additional benefits. Thus, he never attempted it.

That was, until this Bloodforge Battle.

Given the conditions of the trial, Wu Yuan embarked on a true killing spree, slaughtering over ten thousand immortal cultivators, including many peerless geniuses. This relentless carnage caused the black pagoda to spew blood mist incessantly.

The current volume of blood mist in his upper dantian lobe was ten times more than the total he had accumulated in the past. Much to Wu Yuan's surprise, the black pagoda's blood mist output seemed limitless.

But after killing thousands of immortal cultivators without any changes taking place, Wu Yuan stopped paying attention to the blood mist, believing that it was merely an increase in capacity. That was until today, when the blood mist seemed to reach a certain limit, triggering the opening of the black pagoda’s gates!

In that instant, countless thoughts raced through Wu Yuan's mind, leading to various speculations.

Boom~ In his upper dantian lobe. The gates at the ground level of the black pagoda swung open, resembling a massive vortex, akin to the awakening of a gluttonous beast.

The boundless, dense blood mist surrounding the black pagoda immediately surged into it,

This! Wu Yuan's soul essence observed the changes unfolding in shock.

So far, none of these changes affected Wu Yuan's soul essence.

Blood mist originates from the black pagoda, so why is it now absorbing it back? Wu Yuan wondered.

He didn't understand.

The blood mist had originally flowed out from the windows of the upper levels of the black pagoda. Now it was being devoured by the entrance at the base.

It seems the black pagoda's absorption of the blood mist will take some time. Will it absorb everything? In the real world, Wu Yuan scanned his surroundings.

Everything was silent.

Let's find a secluded place for now. Once the black pagoda finishes absorbing the blood mist, I’ll study what changes have occurred. Wu Yuan decided. Also, it's a good time to rest.

Whoosh! Wu Yuan moved swiftly, covering thousands of li in mere moments. Then, he darted into an inconspicuous cave passage.

Following that, Wu Yuan made his way through the labyrinthine tunnels randomly, traveling over ten thousand li in total before he finally came to a stop.

This should be enough to throw off any pursuer. Wu Yuan glanced around. I’m about four hundred li below the passage at the ground-level.

Apart from those with very strong souls like Gao Yun, no one should be able to detect me.

Gao Yun was acknowledged as the strongest Golden Core cultivator among the 580 billion participants. How many immortal cultivators had souls powerful enough to match Gao Yun's?

Moreover, Wu Yuan's soul was exceptionally powerful. As long as it wasn’t a monstrous prodigy at the Soul Will level, he would be alerted the moment anyone probed him with their Soul Force.

Wu Yuan sat in lotus position and waved his hand, setting up an array to restrict his aura within a radius of dozens of li. The array was one of his spoils of war. Though not particularly sophisticated, it could still hinder ordinary Golden Core cultivators.

But for true geniuses? It was of little use. Wu Yuan was merely going through the motions.

Then, Wu Yuan closed his eyes, appearing to adjust his breath, though more than ninety percent of his mental consciousness was focused on his upper dantian lobe. Only a small part remained vigilant of his surroundings.

Still absorbing blood mist? Wu Yuan waited patiently, both anxious and excited. He wasn’t certain about what sort of transformation the black pagoda might undergo.

But past experiences suggested that everytime the black pagoda underwent a change, it brought immense benefits to him.

...

"What is Wu Yuan doing?"

"Resting, perhaps."

"He hasn't been fighting for long; he shouldn't need to rest yet." Being one of the hottest participants, Wu Yuan's sudden odd behavior naturally drew notice from many Archimmortals and Astral Lords.

However, these Astral Lords and Archimmortals simply took note of it briefly, soon turning their focus to other geniuses.

Such occurrences weren't rare on the Bloodforge Battlefield. Occasionally, geniuses would go into seclusion for days after a sudden epiphany during battle. The longest period of seclusion they had seen was a month. Thus, Wu Yuan's actions weren't particularly strange.

Could he have gained a sudden epiphany during battle? Astral Lord Yin He and Astral Lord Chen Deng paid close attention to Wu Yuan.

However, separated by spacetimes and observing him through the Bloodforge Immortal Voidealm's projection, they couldn't discern Wu Yuan's true state.

…

In the depths of the Bloodforge Battlefield, Wu Yuan sat in lotus position for two hours. His brow twitched, but his eyes remained closed.

It’s completely absorbed? Wu Yuan's mind was entirely focused on his upper dantian lobe, where his soul essence was staring in bewilderment at the towering black pagoda.

At this moment, every last wisp of blood mist had vanished completely from the mysterious space within his upper dantian lobe. Only the black pagoda remained standing, its gates on the ground level wide open.

Wu Yuan felt that the black pagoda had undergone some mysterious transformation, though he couldn't pinpoint what it was. It was all very strange.

The black pagoda's gates are still open. Is it inviting me in? This thought naturally surfaced in his mind. Or perhaps it was sheer curiosity. Wu Yuan was indeed incredibly curious about the black pagoda.

Let's go! Wu Yuan's soul essence attempted to enter the black pagoda.

Unlike all his previous attempts, there was no obstruction or resistance from the black pagoda, as if it had completely lifted its barriers.

Wu Yuan easily stepped through the black pagoda's gates, heading inside.

From the outside, the black pagoda seemed enormous. However, the inside wasn’t large at all. From Wu Yuan’s estimations, the hall had a radius of merely a dozen zhangs.

The eight pitch-black walls were made of unknown materials, yet incredibly smooth. At the center of the hall stood a crystalline jade platform, looking extremely out of place.

A jade platform inside the black pagoda? Wu Yuan murmured to himself, taken aback.

One must understand that this was not the world outside; he was within the black pagoda of his upper dantian lobe, his consciousness present in the form of his soul essence.

Wu Yuan’s gaze fell on the jade platform. Though the hall was completely silent and still, he could almost hear a near imperceptible voice whispering in his ear to ‘sit on it.'

'Sit on it. That is a treasure. Something good will happen when you sit on it,' the formless voice was imbued with a strange power, subtly influencing Wu Yuan.

Even someone as mentally strong as Wu Yuan was unknowingly drawn toward the jade platform.

He sat down. The moment he did, a cool sensation emanated from the jade platform, instantly clearing Wu Yuan’s mind. He jolted in surprise.

What happened? How did I end up sitting here? A trace of fear instinctively arose in Wu Yuan’s heart.

How terrifying. That invisible guidance, where did that power come from? He did not notice anything from start to end.

This black pagoda is too strange. Wu Yuan thought, preparing to stand and leave the black pagoda.

At that moment, countless points of light converged without a sound, and a black, four-legged beast appeared within the hall.

It resembled a black panther, but with two pairs of eyes that gleamed with ancient wisdom. It appeared less like a mere beast and more like an entity embodying boundless knowledge. Its gaze was fixed intently on Wu Yuan.

A living being? Is this black pagoda a physical object? Does it have a master? Wu Yuan was stunned, thoughts racing.

He had speculated endlessly about what he would find inside the black pagoda, but he had never imagined it would be this.

1. soul essence refers to the soul phantom ☜

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