Fear finally broke through the calm mask of the divine in Lu Yun’s grasp.

Toss him into the Blood Sea?

The last stretch of the Ingress Path arched right above the Blood Sea, which painted the sky with crimson. There was no telling what would happen if a cultivator fell in.

Many had noticed by now that they weren’t here with their real bodies, but as replicas that were identical to their true selves. Dying here would only get them eliminated. Nevertheless, they still deeply dreaded the Blood Sea.

The Ingress Path was incomparably wide, but all the cultivators clustered near the center and stayed far, far away from the crimson waters on the sides. The rippling waves and monsters’ roars were a constant assault on their nerves.

“No, you can’t do that...“ Mad struggles ensued as the divine sought to gain his freedom from Lu Yun’s hand.

“The successor of that sword has come as well, haven’t they?” Lu Yun transmitted suddenly.

Color drained from the divine’s face after a stunned pause.

Swoosh!

Lu Yun seized the opening and hurled his opponent toward the crimson sea.

Bam!

A tremor passed through the air as an invisible barrier shattered and the divine cultivator vanished into the vast sea of blood.

“There’s a barrier between the Blood Sea and Ingress Path!” exclaimed a monster spirit. “I tried to throw a human cultivator into the Blood Sea earlier, but I failed. How powerful is Qing Yu’s Sidekick to break the barrier??”

The speaker was an enormous gorilla more than forty meters tall with strong, thick arms. He could only be described as a towering behemoth.

Previously, a human cultivator had unwisely attempted to make it their mount and been hurled into the sea for their troubles. However, there existed a tremendous barrier between the sea and the path, and the cultivator had only broken every bone in their body instead of falling into the waters.

Yet Lu Yun had smashed the barrier from thousands of kilometers away and lobbed the divine into the sea.

……

Destiny City.

Within a great manor, a black-clad man’s eyes flew open, fear coursing through them. Crimson light then burst forth from his body, churning him to pieces.

However, none were the wiser since everyone’s attentions were on the images projected by the Sovereign Ranking.

……

“Those divines holding the longswords...” Qing Han gave Lu Yun a look of dread.

“That’s right, it’s him.” Lu Yun nodded gravely. “The sword has found its new master, and the two have emerged in the world.”

The Sword of Chaos embodied the will of the ancient divine court. It hadn’t emerged to protect the descendents of the ancient divine court, but to reestablish its rule!

That would… hardly be ideal.

The wielder of the Sword of Chaos had intervened twice at Dusk. First to sever the road the long-haired black monsters walked, then a second time to rescue Scarlet Ape from Lu Yun.

“No wonder the curse in the Skandha Extinction Tomb has never been able to fully destroy the divine race, and they’re able to revitalize themselves again and again. The Sword of Chaos has been guarding the last of their fortunes.

“Since the successor has come, however, I’ll find them...” Lu Yun narrowed his eyes.

He then took a step forward and threw a punch, blasting a black figure out from the air. This was the second divine who’d come to assassinate Qing Han. His goal was simple: Kill with a single move!

“Come on!” Scowling, Lu Yun grabbed Qing Han and barrelled forward, yelling at the silverback gorilla and Silvermoon Wolfking, “Stop fighting and come with us, you two!”

Chills ran down his spine. These assassins were… deathsworn!

Countless divine deathsworn were hidden in the area, locked on to Qing Han. They wouldn’t stop until they killed their quarry!

Lu Yun’s instincts rang the alarm loud and clear. Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen were dead, and divine deathsworn now targeted Qing Han… Nothing good would come out of this.

Qing Han’s heart pounded at the killing intent surrounding her.

……

Jadeite Manor, Destiny City.

A faint shadow easily slipped through the formations in and outside the manor and located Lu Yun and Qing Han’s true bodies.

Swoosh!

It manifested a long sword and shot at Qing Han’s forehead in a drilling stab, but—

Bam!

Something round collided with the head of the man in black, exploding the assassin’s head like an overripe watermelon.

The round thing revealed itself to be a human head, one that quickly sucked in the dead man’s escaping nascent spirit before returning to its own body—the head belonged to none other than Ge Long.

Lu Yun and Qing Han had only brought the rimesnake king Bing Ling with them on this adventure, leaving everyone else behind in Dusk Province. However, Ge Long was mysteriously on the premises.

His gaze was uncharacteristically deep, and he looked up at the Sovereign Ranking without sparing the headless body a glance.

“Speculations from back then are now reality,” he muttered. “The will of the immortal dao has yet to recover from its destruction, so who or what is pulling the strings?”

He sat down cross-legged beside Lu Yun and Qing Han to protect their bodies.

……

Divine deathsworn continuously flickered into existence and lunged at Qing Han with ferocious killing intent, undeterred by the prospect of death.

Lu Yun and Qing Han pulled no punches and knocked them away, making their way to the black island ahead of them. The divines were too difficult to track. They were able to blend into the air without leaving any traces, and Lu Yun was only able to see them with his Spectral Eye.

Relying purely on instinct, Qing Han managed to pull off dodge after dodge, always by the skin of her teeth. The silverback gorilla and the Silvermoon Wolfking had rushed over to help, but to no avail. They couldn’t even sense the divines’ presence.

“They’re shadow divines! The shadow guards of the divine court from eighty thousand years ago!” Many in Destiny City voiced their shock when they saw the mysterious divine tribe.

“So that tribe has reappeared as well. Is the divine race planning on returning to the world of immortals?” The possibility weighed heavily on everyone.

A powerful monster spirit had just emerged and established a sacred land of its kind in the North Sea, and now the dreadful tribe of shadow divines were making an appearance as well.

The shadow divines had prowled in the shadows eighty thousand years ago, earning themselves a reputation as the most lethal of the divine tribes. No one knew just how many elites from different races had been assassinated by them.

“With the nine celestial emperors passing down their thrones, the nine majors of the humans are experiencing great instability. The monster spirits are poised on the sidelines, waiting for the optimal opportunity to strike, and even the divines are growing restless.”

……

“This is...” Warding off the assassins, Lu Yun and Qing Han finally set foot on the black island.

Qing Han’s eyes widened in shock and she blurted out, “The central world! This is the twenty-fourth facet of the world of immortals, the central world!”