Lin Yun was seated on top of a hill as he looked at the Azure Dragon’s blood essence and fell into deep thought. He could sense the immense power contained within the droplet of blood. But right at this moment, Lin Yun’s eyes flashed with surprise, “Hmmm?”

He could sense that a vague aura had enveloped the blood essence. If he didn’t sense it with his heart, he wouldn’t have noticed it even with the blood essence in his hand. After a brief moment of pondering, Lin Yun guessed that there was a protective membrane. It must be similar to how pellets had a layer of beeswax on it to prevent any interaction with the atmosphere.

After all, there was also a lot of filth in the atmosphere that could ruin the pellet. In the end, a pellet might end up becoming a poison. So it made sense that a similar method was used to preserve this blood essence.

Lin Yun’s eyes flashed as he flicked with his right hand, unleashing a silver sword ray at the blood essence. But just when it was about to come in contact with the blood essence, the sword ray was devoured by the membrane around the blood essence and burned.

When the sword ray was completely incinerated, the blood essence reappeared in his hand as if nothing had happened. Lin Yun looked at the blood essence as he muttered, “Interesting…”

It looks like it won’t be easy to refine it. Lin Yun flicked his hand again and unleashed more strands of silver sword rays. But all of them were devoured when they approached the blood essence.

“It doesn’t work?” Lin Yun frowned as he snorted in his heart. He refused to believe that he couldn’t tear this membrane apart.

When he summoned his xiantian sword intent at complete mastery, a sword buzz rang out from Lin Yun’s body that caused clouds to start rolling in the sky. A powerful aura exploded from Lin Yun as his presence completely merged with heaven.

Under his immense sword intent, the blood essence in his hand began to tremble as a black flame blazed on the blood essence. The mysterious membrane covering the blood essence was slowly crumbling under Lin Yun’s sword intent.

When the black flames burned, wind began to gather that instantly covered the sky with thunderclouds.

“Just what the hell did he get from the empyrean’s tomb?” The Nethercloud Ghost’s expression became grave when he looked at the phenomenon on the hill with greed flashing in his eyes.

He initially thought that Lin Yun only obtained the Astral Pearl, but it looks like Lin Yun’s harvest was more than he had imagined. He wasn’t too interested in the Astral Pearl since he was already in the Yin-Yang stage. Even if he obtained it, he could only swap it for other treasures that could help him make a breakthrough to the Heavenly Soul Realm.

But judging by the phenomenon before him, even an idiot could tell that Lin Yun was refining something powerful. With this thought, Nethercloud Ghost’s face became grim with a killing aura surging in his pupils, “It doesn’t matter what it is. I’ll find out after I kill you.”

Lin Yun was already cautious enough since he trained for half a month after he recovered from his injuries before refining the blood essence. But it was a pity that he ran into Nethercloud Ghost, who planned on assassinating him despite having a cultivation in the pinnacle Yin-Yang stage.

The Nethercloud Ghost was like a viper and it was practically impossible to defend against him. Now that Lin Yun had to focus on refining the blood essence, he would be more or less distracted. So if the Nethercloud Ghost launched a sneak attack on him right now, Lin Yun would probably die.

But something bizarre happened as the smile on the Nethercloud Ghost’s face froze when he took a step out. He cautiously retracted his feet as he could hear a sneer by his ears. It appeared out of nowhere and startled him.

After he retracted his feet, he began to look around to find out where the sneer had come from. However, he couldn’t find any traces of a person.

Was that an illusion? Nethercloud Ghost began to second guess his ears before taking another step.

“Hmph!” Right at this moment, a snort rang out that instantly caused Nethercloud Ghost to retract his gaze. He had fought with Heavenly Soul Realm experts in the past, so he could protect himself with his demonic arts. But this person could completely conceal their existence from him. Just how powerful was this person?

Damn it… Just who the heck did I offend?

“S-S-Senior, who are you?” Nethercloud Ghost had offended many people in the past, so this situation made him feel afraid.

“Who I am doesn’t matter, but you’re not allowed to touch this person. I might not like this brat, but you’re in no position to interfere.” An aged voice echoed out that made Nethercloud Ghost panic. In that split second, he felt as if the mysterious person was everywhere around him.

“I’ll leave immediately. I swear that I won’t touch him,” said Nethercloud Ghost.

“Too late.” An indifferent voice replied to him before he watched in fear as the towering tree before him began to distort. He was within the distorted space and couldn’t move. But before he could even react, stars began to blossom in the distorted space as a hand fell onto his head. When the hand left his head, Nethercloud Ghost was reduced to a puddle of blood.

When everything cleared up, an old man suddenly appeared. Just like that, the infamous Nethercloud Ghost was killed in the Nether Prefecture. If Lin Yun was here, he would surely recognize the old man as the old man who stood in his way like a mountain back in the Great Qin Empire’s imperial palace.

Right at this moment, an eerie light began to rise up from the puddle of blood. The eerie light looked like vengeful spirits from hell, but the vengeful spirits could only tremble in fear before the old man as they fled.

“A demonic cultivator? This old fellow must have refined many vengeful spirits in his lifetime…” The old man glanced at them briefly before waving his hand. Then, the vengeful spirits were reduced to ashes. Standing with his hands behind his back, the old man looked at Lin Yun who was shrouded by the thunderclouds.

When he saw the black flames, he was surprised. “Nether flames?”

He was surprised to see the nether flames. After all, they were flames that existed between reality and illusion. So, nether flames were rare and bizarre. What’s in the flame?

The old man, who initially wanted to leave, suddenly became interested as the scenery on the hill became clear before him. When he saw what was enveloped in the black flames, the old man exclaimed, “Azure Dragon Blood!”

Then again, Lin Yun was an oddball to try and destroy the flame using his sword intent, but that was probably his only method of removing it. The old man was truly surprised that Lin Yun had such attainment in his sword intent at such a young age.

The old man looked at the youth enveloped by the thunderclouds with interest. “But that's pure Azure Dragon’s blood. Without any outside help or a senior helping him, it won’t be easy for him to refine it relying on his physique alone.”

The old man was really curious if Lin Yun could subdue the blood. It would probably be hard, but for some reason, the old man had a feeling that there would be a surprise waiting for him. Since that was the case, the old man was no longer in a rush to leave as he decided to stay. “Let me see what makes you so attractive to the saintess.”