The voice wasn’t loud, but all the cultivators present were powerful enough to hear it.

“Someone’s in there!”

“You in there, surrender the ancient legacy!” They hollered demands with eyes glinting of avarice, wanting nothing but to make the legacy their own. Here in the land of darkness, ancient legacies granted cultivators an edge over everyone else and could make them the leader of a small group.

The ‘immortal light’ had just faded, so the heritage must have just been unearthed and not yet refined. They still had a chance to lay hands on it!

Though there were countless burial mounds and thus inumerable legacies here, that didn’t mean everyone could acquire one.

……

“Ancient legacy?” Lu Yun paused. Ah, he finally knew what was going on.

Over the past ten days, he’d refined a thousand and eighty flying swords into a sword atlas. At the precise moment the atlas was completed, it’d sent sword energy soaring into the sky, unimpeded by even the mountain over his head.

“Er, all of them are spirit realm cultivators. It seems that a lot of things have happened during my closed door cultivation.” Lu Yun took a good look at the cultivators outside. They’d all formed their nascent spirits, and the strongest of them had ascended to the transformed spirit realm.

“A little life core cultivator. It’s rather fortunate for someone of your level to have survived to this point!” The cultivators sighed in relief when they checked Lu Yun’s cultivation.

It was fortunate that whoever had discovered the legacy wasn’t as perverse as the little nun. This young man wouldn’t be a threat, no matter how talented he was. Only geniuses could’ve survived to this point. Even if the young man had great potential, his lackluster cultivation meant he’d fallen behind.

“He’s latched on to the thigh of Lu Yun’s dao partner,” someone mocked when he saw Lu Yun’s befuddled face. “Tsk tsk, no wonder he’s survived to this point.”

“Lu Yun’s dao partner?” Deadpanning, Lu Yun turned and looked at the little nun.

Her face was pale from narrowly dodging the previous attack, but she straightened her back and flashed a proud look when she heard the cultivator’s words.

Lu Yun slapped his forehead.

“Master, why are you still in the life core realm?” Yuan Tong pulled a long face.

“Since when did I become your master?” Lu Yun glowered. He hadn’t planned to make the gorilla his spirit pet; it’d simply been a useful mount on the Ingress Path.

He hadn’t even thought about looking for the gorilla once they’d arrived in the central world. Why would the spirit monster return to him and call him master? Was he such a masochist that he wanted to be someone’s ride?

Yuan Tong pulled a pitiful face.

“So you’re Qing Yu’s Sidekick, the one who killed many contestants before reaching this round!” someone recognized him.

In the last stretch of the Ingress Path, Lu Yun had fought the divines and thrown many of them into the Blood Sea, earning himself a formidable reputation. Many had thought he must’ve already recovered to his peak and become one of the greatest in this land, but… here he was, still a core realm cultivator.

“Ten lords are more than enough for this world. We don’t need another leader… Kill him!” growled the transformed spirit realm cultivator.

Although Lu Yun was merely a life core cultivator, he’d more than proven himself before. Though it was a mystery why he hadn’t already ascended to higher realms, given enough time, he was bound to rise in power.

“Kill!” echoed the cultivators around the transformed spirit cultivator. Just as they’d attacked the little nun and shattered the mountain earlier, they sent another thousand slashes at Lu Yun.

“Get out of the way!” the little nun yelled with a pale face. Even she would be disintegrated if she was hit by such a concerted attack.

“I said I’d test my technique on you. I’ll make full use of this opportunity since you’ve arrived on my doorstep!” A faint smile tugged at his lips.

With a wave of his hand, an atlas unfurled with a gracious swoosh and released a thousand and eighty flying swords. With another wave of his hand, the flying swords and atlas simultaneously rushed toward the dense thicket of sword rays.

A sword atlas was comprised of sword intent, rather than embodied by a physical atlas. There were very few in the long history of the world who were able to form their sword intent in only the core realm. Not even Lu Yun had managed to achieve such a feat back then. Thus, the Sword Atlas had been a combat art that’d gone extinct.

The Thousand Sword Immortal had been a peerless immortal when he passed on, and not even he had deployed the combat art to its limit. His mediocre fame had resulted in his legacy being buried in an unassuming burial mound on the fringes of the central world.

Lu Yun had manifested an atlas with his cosmic sword sea and incorporated a thousand and eighty flying swords into it, tapping into the power of the combat art.

Endless Cosmic Ocean!

This was also the debut of his fourth sword technique, its first appearance in the public eye. Its full power required the manipulation of a hundred and eight thousand swords at the same time; this attack had tapped into only a hundredth of its power.

Bam!

An earth-shattering explosion rocked the air as the sword atlas instantly dispersed all of the light descending upon Lu Yun.

Pah!

Flying swords were directly connected to one’s nascent spirit. The impact left many cultivators reeling and throwing up blood. Lu Yun’s face paled, and blood streaked down from the corner of his mouth.

“He’s hurt. Let us—gah!” A cultivator’s bloodthirsty howl was interrupted by another upwelling of blood. He collapsed to the ground, exhaling his last breath.

He was dead!

One after another, the weaker cultivators toppled to the ground under the impact. Meanwhile, Lu Yun calmly took out a pill and popped it into his mouth.

“He… he!” the transformed spirit cultivator spoke up in shock. “He wasn’t collecting an ancient legacy. The sword light was triggered by him practicing a combat art! Run!”

Scared witless by Lu Yun’s demonstration of power, the speaker jumped onto a sword and fled. Equally intimidated by the observation, the other cultivators scattered in all directions.

“Kill!!” Yuan Tong raised his iron rod to rush after them, but the little nun yanked it back by the scruff of its neck.

“Why aren’t we going after them?” the gorilla asked, blinking in confusion.

Lu Yun shot him a look. “I need time to recover!”