Change fathers?
Ye Xuan shook his head with a bitter smile.
Was a father something you could just swap out?
At that moment, the Small Tower suddenly snorted, “The master’s just not fair. He always says you rely too much on Destiny Sister and him, but he never considers one thing—your enemies, little master! Back in his day, he didn’t have so many powerful foes, but your enemies have always been abnormal! Look at you—you’re only at the tenth stage, yet the enemies you’re facing now are all twentieth-stage! How’s that even playable?”
Ye Xuan chuckled, “Actually, I can understand my old man!”
The Small Tower was puzzled, “Understand? He treats you like this, and you still understand him?”
Ye Xuan fell silent for a moment before saying, “It’s undeniable—I’ve relied too heavily on Qing’er! Look at me now. Without the Qingxuan Sword, I’m like a helpless lamb, completely at the mercy of others!”
The Small Tower went quiet.
Ye Xuan said softly, “I need to change myself!”
In some unknown stretch of starry sky, the green-robed man suddenly withdrew his gaze. He laughed heartily, “Brother Xiao, let’s go!”
With that, he let out another loud laugh and vanished into the starry horizon.
…
Beside the blood sea, Xue Tong said nothing more. She sat on the rock, licking her candied hawthorn, gazing silently at the distant sea of blood.
Ye Xuan stepped to the side, opened his palm, and a sword appeared in his hand. He slowly closed his eyes, gradually merging with the sixth layer of time and space.
Without the Qingxuan Sword, he could still fuse with the sixth layer, though he no longer dared to be as reckless as before. Now, he couldn’t ignore the temporal abyss or the spatial pressure of the sixth layer!
When the Undead Emperor saw Ye Xuan enter the sixth layer, its brows furrowed, “You’re only at the tenth stage—how can you enter the sixth layer of time and space and merge with it?”
Ye Xuan, puzzled, asked, “Couldn’t you enter the sixth layer when you were at the tenth stage, Senior?”
The Undead Emperor stared at him, “No!”
Ye Xuan was confused, “Why not?”
The Undead Emperor said gravely, “What I want to know is how you can!”
Ye Xuan thought for a moment, then said, “I just tried it, and then I merged with it!”
Undead Emperor: “…”
Ye Xuan asked, “Senior, what’s this ‘Wujian Domain’ that Miss Aluo Sheng mentioned earlier?”
The Undead Emperor glanced at him, then said, “After the twentieth stage, if you advance further, you reach Wujian. It means ‘no boundaries in space, no boundaries in time’—the eighth layer of space! The eighth layer of time and space is also called the Wujian Space!”
Ye Xuan said solemnly, “Senior, when I entered the eighth layer of time and space before, I saw someone who looked exactly like me. What was that…?”
The Undead Emperor suddenly interrupted, “You’ve been to the eighth layer?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “Yeah!”
The Undead Emperor stared at him intently, “Are you joking?”
Ye Xuan shook his head, “No!”
The Undead Emperor pressed, “You’ve really been there?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “Really!”
The Undead Emperor gave him a deep look, “You’re very abnormal.”
It believed Ye Xuan because if he hadn’t been to the eighth layer, he wouldn’t know what it was like inside! Still, it couldn’t fathom how he’d managed it.
Ye Xuan suddenly asked, “Senior, what exactly is Wujian?”
The Undead Emperor paused, then said, “I don’t know how to explain it to you. Your current realm is a bit too low! And your aura’s somewhat unsteady—not very solid. It’s clear you’ve taken shortcuts.”
Ye Xuan gave a wry smile. A true expert indeed!
The Undead Emperor added, “You’re a sword cultivator?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “A sword cultivator!”
The Undead Emperor smiled, “I once knew a sword cultivator and discussed swordsmanship with him, gaining some insights into the sword path! Come, show me a sword technique, and I’ll give you some pointers!”
Ye Xuan nodded, then swiftly drew his sword and slashed!
Sword Draw: Life or Death!
Two thousand eight hundred stacked Sword Draws: Life or Death!
With that strike, the space around them tore apart!
Xue Tong, sitting nearby, suddenly turned to look at Ye Xuan, her brows furrowing.
The Undead Emperor’s expression turned grave upon seeing the move, “You… who taught you this sword technique?”
Ye Xuan said earnestly, “I created it myself!”
Self-created!
The Undead Emperor froze, then asked, “You made this sword technique?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “Yes!”
The Undead Emperor looked at him deeply, “Impressive!”
Ye Xuan added, “I have another sword technique!”
With that, he unleashed another Sword Draw: Life or Death!
Seeing this, the Undead Emperor’s expression grew even more serious, “This one’s self-created too?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “Yes! It took me ten days to create it!”
Undead Emperor: “…”
Ye Xuan wasn’t showing off. He’d displayed these two techniques as a means of self-preservation.
The more exceptional he appeared, the better his chances of survival!
The Undead Emperor said gravely, “Little brother, your background isn’t simple!”
Ye Xuan replied earnestly, “Please guide me, Senior!”
After a moment’s silence, the Undead Emperor said, “I’m not qualified to critique your sword techniques, but… I do have some personal insights!”
Ye Xuan quickly bowed respectfully, “Please enlighten me, Senior!”
The Undead Emperor said solemnly, “Your realm is too low. If you reached the twentieth stage, with the sword techniques you just showed, you’d be nearly invincible below the twentieth stage and could even challenge Wujian realm powerhouses! So, you need to break through your realm first and reach the twentieth stage!”
Ye Xuan nodded, “Alright!”
The Undead Emperor hesitated, then added, “But to reach the twentieth stage, you’ll need soul crystals—at least five hundred thousand of them!”
Ye Xuan was puzzled, “What are soul crystals?”
The Undead Emperor looked confused, “You don’t know what soul crystals are?”
Ye Xuan nodded, “No idea!”
The Undead Emperor’s expression turned odd. After a moment, it explained, “Soul crystals are essences condensed from souls. Their energy is incredibly potent, far surpassing ordinary crystals. In a sense, one soul crystal represents a person’s lifetime of effort. The stronger the soul, the more powerful the crystal! To reach the twentieth stage, you’ll need at least five hundred thousand soul crystals!”
Five hundred thousand soul crystals!
Ye Xuan looked at the Undead Emperor, who quickly waved its hands, “Don’t get any ideas about me—I don’t even have a single hair!”
Ye Xuan glanced at it. Indeed, not a hair—just bones.
The Undead Emperor cast a look at Xue Tong nearby but said nothing.
Ye Xuan understood its meaning and turned to Xue Tong… She must have a ton of soul crystals!
Xue Tong glanced at him, “One candied hawthorn for ten thousand soul crystals!”
Ye Xuan froze.
One candied hawthorn for ten thousand soul crystals?
Then she added, “Deal or no deal?”
Ye Xuan thought it over, then said, “How about two candied hawthorns for ten thousand soul crystals?”
Xue Tong looked at him, “Why?”
Ye Xuan said seriously, “Because we’re friends! If it’s one candied hawthorn for ten thousand soul crystals, my conscience would ache! I’ve had a bumpy life precisely because I’m too honest—sigh…”
Nearby, the Undead Emperor’s mouth twitched.
It wanted to hit someone!
Xue Tong might not know what candied hawthorns were, but how could it not?
Two candied hawthorns for ten thousand soul crystals?
Damn it, this guy was insane!
At that moment, it felt a pang of frustration. If it had known this Xue Tong bigshot liked candied hawthorns, would it have ended up in such a sorry state?
The thought brought a wave of sorrow!
For hundreds of thousands of years!
It had spent hundreds of thousands of years dancing to please this Xue Tong bigshot, while this human waltzed in and became her friend with candied hawthorns!
Candied hawthorns!
Damn it, why hadn’t it brought some candied hawthorns?
Not far off, Xue Tong glanced at Ye Xuan. After a moment’s silence, she said, “You’re not bad!”
With that, she waved her hand, and a hundred thousand soul crystals appeared before Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan quickly handed her five candied hawthorns, thought for a second, then added one more, “Here’s an extra one!”
Xue Tong looked at him, took the candied hawthorns, and said, “Thanks!”
Ye Xuan hurriedly replied, “No need to thank me!”
With that, he walked over to the Undead Emperor, “Senior, I’m going to push for the twentieth stage!”
Undead Emperor: “…”
In the days that followed, Ye Xuan began his ascent to the twentieth stage!
Though he was only at the tenth stage, he could already enter and merge with the sixth layer of time and space. What he needed now was a deeper grasp of the laws of time and space, along with experience.
The Undead Emperor’s guidance perfectly filled that gap!
The Undead Emperor was quietly shocked. Ye Xuan’s cultivation speed was astonishingly fast. Being able to enter and merge with the sixth layer at just the tenth stage was downright abnormal.
It grew increasingly curious about Ye Xuan’s origins.
It had initially shown kindness to Ye Xuan because it sensed he was extraordinary—perhaps this human could change its current predicament!
As time ticked by, Ye Xuan progressed at a breakneck pace. In less than a month, he reached the twelfth stage. With the Undead Emperor’s guidance, his mastery and understanding of the laws of time and space grew ever more refined.
While Ye Xuan cultivated, Xue Tong sat silently by the blood sea each day, neither speaking nor moving.
Another month passed, and Ye Xuan hit the thirteenth stage. Though only at the thirteenth stage, his current strength—without the Qingxuan Sword—made killing a seventeenth-stage opponent a breeze.
Cultivation truly devoured soul crystals. Reaching the thirteenth stage had consumed at least a million of them!
Luckily, he had plenty of candied hawthorns, or he couldn’t have progressed so quickly!
A month later, Ye Xuan reached the fourteenth stage!
Just as he prepared to continue, the blood sea in the distance suddenly boiled, and an overwhelmingly terrifying pressure surged from its depths…
