The silver-haired girl that was the Silvermoon Wolfking looked at Qing Han in surprise.

“Why?” Why not pick up the treasure when it was right there?

“This is the Sword of Dao. Once I pick it up, I will no longer be myself.” Silver flashed through Qing Han’s eyes when they settled on the sword.

Picking it up would subsume her emotions and everything that made her an individual. She would become nothing more than the Dao Sovereign, governed by the immortal dao. In the end, she would become… its will.

This was a trap for Qing Han.

“Anyone who wants it is welcome to it.” Qing Han went back to reading her book. The girl transformed back into a little wolf and snuggled up to the human.

The will of the Dao Flower thrummed through Qing Han, urging her to take the sword and become the true dao sovereign. However, there also seemed to be a counterforce at the same time, keeping the will from overly influencing the disguised girl.

Jadeite Manor, Destiny City.

Ge Long opened his eyes and yawned leisurely, a black figure flashing through his gaze.

……

“Strange, why are my injuries worsening, rather than healing?” Yuan Tong had healed completely, while the little nun’s complexion remained sickly and her presence weakened by every passing minute.

“You’ve suffered a dao injury in your nascent spirit.” Black light flashed through Lu Yun's eyes as he carefully scanned her condition, his brows furrowed. “Did you try recording the immortal light with your nascent spirit?!” His head snapped up in shock when understanding struck him.

The little nun’s unique nascent spirit showed great potential. Anything she saw, she could copy with her nascent spirit. That was how she was able to use Lu Yun’s Vast Dragon Seaturner and the Silvermoon Wolfking’s natural talent. She’d managed to record many ancient legacies from the beams of immortal light that soared from the burial mounds in the Sovereign World.

However, this particular one was too powerful. The little nun failed to record the legacy, and instead suffered a dao injury in her nascent spirit.

“I...” the little nun despaired. “Does that mean I’m dying…? I’m going to be eliminated?”

Clatter! Without further ado, she promptly dumped out all of the ancient legacies she’d acquired during the competition and shoved them at Lu Yun.

Lu Yun paused. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m doomed in this condition. It’s better that you take these, since I can’t take them with me!”

Cultivation nurtured during the competition could be brought out with a contestant once they were eliminated, but every item, outside of those they’d taken with them into the competition, would be left behind.

“Doomed?” Lu Yun smiled slightly. “It’s just a little dao injury. You’ll be fine.”

“So some fishies have slipped by us!” a voice growled, followed by a blanket of blinding sword energy descending upon the three of them.

“Void realm!” Lu Yun’s heart pounded.

They’d been hiding within a crack in a large burial mound, escaping multiple detections. However, the void realm cultivator had discovered them with a single glance.

It was time- and energy-consuming to set up formations here, so Lu Yun had set up only a simple presence concealing formation, which apparently hadn’t been enough to hide them from a void realm cultivator.

“Grrr!” Snarling, the silverback gorilla raised its iron rod and charged at the coming sword energy. Lu Yun kicked it outside.

Bam!

An earth-shattering explosion rocked the area as the burial mound was razed to the ground. Lu Yun glared at their attacker, bleeding hands blocking the coming attack. He hadn’t had the time to use any combat arts; in the heat of the moment, he’d wrapped the sword atlas around his hands and raised them to meet the slash.

“How can an origin core cultivator block my attack?!” Tall and burly, the athletically-built void realm cultivator wielded a large, golden glaive and looked at Lu Yun in surprise. Although he’d taken the form of a human, the horn on his head made it apparent that he was a monster spirit.

“So it’s a great genius. What a shame that you won’t get the chance to go any further. I’ll send you outside myself!” Roaring, the monster spirit flourished his sword with the combination of a combat art. His weapon burst into a golden radiance as blinding as the sun; his slash left a deep wound on the very earth, and the excavated burial mound began crumbling.

The little nun reflexively looked up at the sword energy, but Lu Yun quickly covered her eyes. Her nascent spirit had already suffered a serious dao injury. If she tried recording the combat art, not even he would be able to save her.

Swoosh!

With a wave of his hand, an atlas flew out and transformed into a river of sword energy that expanded and filled the air. The powerful slash hit the sword atlas with great ferocity, but sank soundlessly into it like it was an ocean.

“Impossible!!” Expression dark, the monster spirit made another powerful slash at the invisible atlas.

“Die!” Lu Yun trembled, blood streaming down from the corner of his mouth.

He made a hand seal and turned the thousand and eighty flying swords on the atlas into a sword formation; he’d found the way to do this through experimenting over the past few days. The Sword Atlas was highly flexible and could be used to power any combat art or techniques. Lu Yun thus opted for a sword formation, rather than the Endless Cosmic Ocean.

Hum.

The formation activated with a soft whir. In the blink of an eye, the formation rendered the monster spirit into ashes. All the ancient legacies and treasures he’d collected, the golden glaive included, fell to the ground. Lu Yun took them with a wave of his hand.

Then, a thrill passed through his body. Killing a perceived void realm cultivator had pushed his cultivation further into the nascent spirit realm.

“Take this and heal your wounds.” Lu Yun threw a bottle of medicine to the little nun.

It was a medicinal ointment that’d been refined by Su Xiaoxiao before he’d departed for the Sovereign Meet. While it wasn’t a pill, it was more effective than many immortal pills. The girl would be able to fully recover with this medicine.

……

“Hm?” By the tomb, a slim figure turned around and looked into the distance. “My brother has been eliminated!” he said with a scowl. “Someone’s hiding in the shadows.”

This was a cultivator clad in purple with a single, gold-violet horn on his head. He was known as the Thunder Lord, one of the ten lords of the realm, and had reached peak unravelled void realm.

“That hidden threat must be removed,” the Monster Lord growled.

The ten lords were rivals, but they’d reached an agreement in order for all of them to enter the final round and would maintain a temporary truce until the third round began. Otherwise, others would be reaping the benefits if they mutually destroyed each other.

“He Ming, find our lurker and kill them,” the Thunder Lord said to one of his subordinates.

“Understood.” The figure departed while the crack on the tomb continued expanding.