“Dragonrise” held a similar status to the place once occupied by Vast Dragon Seaturner—the starting point for all of Lu Yun’s sword techniques and sword dao. He’d invented Vast Dragon Seaturner when he was a cultivator. Though he’d continuously improved and perfected it, it was still the combat art of a cultivator in the end.

Its foundations were too shallow.

Thus, Lu Yun spent the last fifteen years combining everything he knew with the laws of order in the chaos, starting anew on his path of sword dao. After multiple rounds with the three-headed lizard, he’d finally pioneered a sword dao that was completely his and shaken off traces of Violetgrave’s form.

Dragonrise would be the induction to his sword dao. A dragon raises its head and soars through the world. Free and unfettered, the possibilities are endless.

Lu Yun’s creation of sword dao this time was unaffected by anything other than his own methods, accumulated knowledge, and experience. Not even the chaos dragon methods within the Dragonquake Scripture were a factor. Though this first technique incorporated the scripture’s methods, its core essence was still Lu Yun’s own sword intent.

……

With the deployment of Dragonrise, an enormous golden dragon barreled out of Lu Yun’s body and swiped savagely at Wei Yuan in front of it.

“How is this possible?!” Wei Yuan’s eyes went wide open as he clearly sensed the dragon’s horrifying strength. It felt like he was facing the three-headed lizard!

The same terrifying might, the same sense of helplessness.

However, the lizard’s combat arts and techniques were constant. Wei Yuan had challenged it eighteen times before identifying the flaw in its techniques and used them to pass through the trial. Lu Yun’s move offered him no such solution.

Whoosh!

Boom!

The huge dragon slammed into Wei Yuan’s sword and sent it clattering from his hand. The tremendous force also sent him reeling backwards, falling to a sitting position on the ground.

Incredulity reigned dominant on his face, even Ying Luo was taken aback.

“Wei Yuan of the Nirvana Palace?” Lu Yun relaxed from his stance and grinned. “You better go back right now and try the first test again. You’ll just be entertaining a death wish if you continue forward.”

Wei Yuan looked blankly at Lu Yun.

“Do you really think that seeing through the lizard’s techniques and combat arts means that you won?” Lu Yun continued dismissively. “You would’ve died the second it changed its strategy.”

Wei Yuan’s expression sank and he remained unmoving on the ground.

“That’s… right. I should’ve focused on bettering myself and not just on how to counter the lizard’s moves.” Wei Yuan took a deep breath before getting back on his feet. He raised a cupped fist salute at Lu Yun and traveled back to where he’d come from.

Ying Luo heaved a long sigh of relief when Wei Yuan left. She’d really been afraid that Lu Yun might kill Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan had already lit his soul lamp, so he’d be reborn even if he died here. But if that occurred, there would be no question of Lu Yun’s impending death.

If he killed Wei Yuan, he would spark a death feud with Nirvana Palace. Her mention of Inception Palace would likely also start conflict between the two sacred palaces.

“How about you?” Lu Yun turned to Ying Luo. “Did you focus on countering the three-headed lizard in the first test, or did you focus on growing stronger?”

“Me?” Ying Luo blinked, then responded sheepishly, “I don’t know. That lizard was a bit weak actually, I killed it with my third move.”

Wat.

“Ahem! We should search for what can restrain those mosquitoes.” Lu Yun hadn’t actually planned on killing Wei Yuan. For one, he wouldn't be able to manage the feat, and secondly, he very likely would run into more sacred palace disciples later on. He wasn’t a lofty half step sovereign at the moment, just a second level mortal realm ant.

So he’d purposefully done Wei Yuan a favor so to resolve what had happened earlier. If Wei Yuan had doggedly pursued the matter, Lu Yun would’ve had to bring more drastic measures to bear.

Ying Luo understood what Lu Yun was trying to do, so she put the matter out of her mind. In the chaos, wanderers were the most mysterious apart from those of the sacred palace and sacred lands.

The chaos was vast and without boundaries. Though wanderers weren’t strong and could die to any of the unknown existences within the realm, they were also able to obtain treasures that even the sacred palaces greatly wanted to possess.

Ying Luo naturally wouldn’t probe Lu Yun’s secrets, but she’d sensed pure and legitimate Inception presence on the wanderer earlier. This highly shocked and confused her.

The two searched for a long time without finding anything of note in the premises. Lu Yun even tried entering the Blood Sea a few times, but gave up in the end. It was too frightening, far more dreadful than the mosquitoes.

“What are mosquitoes afraid of?” Ying Luo shook her head with great mystification. “Mosquitoes in the chaos also cultivate and have long formed their own faction. It’s a very strong one, so what are they afraid of?”

There were ordinary life forms in the chaos, but no ordinary races. Every race had its experts and weaklings, but no race was completely mundane. There had to be some of their race who cultivated, or they would find it impossible to survive in the chaos.

The weakness of mosquitoes?

They might encounter someone stronger than them and be smacked to death.

“Wait!” Lu Yun’s brow arched slightly. “Wait here, don’t move.”

He took a deep breath and flashed to the skull island again. The crowd of scarlet mosquitoes swarmed out again after half a breath. Shifting slightly, Lu Yun fled as soon as they appeared.

“Did you get a clear look?” he asked Ying Luo.

“I did!” The girl nodded. “They’re not cultivators, they’re just ordinary life forms. They’re on par with peak second level mortal realm!”

Ordinary life forms had their counter and countered something else in return, no matter how strong they were. Only by absorbing the energy of various beings could they break free of such restrictions.

Cats were the natural enemies of mice, but when both of them reached the same cultivation level, this kind of relationship no longer existed.

“Mosquitoes are afraid of the cold,” Lu Yun murmured. “No matter how big they are, they aren’t able to shake off this rule as long as they’re mundane beings. I noticed just now that there’s no frostiness of the realm monsters on that island.

“We’ll be able to cross if we bring the corpse of a realm monster with us!”

He looked up at the dead realm monsters embedded into the air above them.