“Oh, that’s perfect then,” Lu Yun grinned. “Isn’t it nice I have this sword to beat the crap outta you with?”

He raised a hand and sent another slash at the purple bale spirit. An enormous water ripple of sword light pierced through the heavens and slashed everything within five kilometers in half.

The purple spirit shrieked with alarm and shot fifty kilometers away, slowly coalescing into tangible form. It emitted energy suffused with death and swirled it into a terrifying tornado that churned toward Lu Yun.

This was pure strength.

Lu Yun leapt into the air like an enormous dragon arcing out of a deep sea. Vast Dragon Seaturner!

This was the first sword technique he’d ever invented and the first step of initiation into his own sword dao. The technique had reached great perfection and the ocean of sword qi was now a real ocean with no hint of the energy that formed its building blocks. The sword dragon that frolicked in its depths was also a true dragon with scales, claws, and the look of a flesh and blood body.

It’d achieved Return to Origin—the hallmark of the final realm of great perfection.

“Awooo!” A long dragon croon swept the land, rolling outward in all directions as soundwaves of sword qi brimming with the richest energy of a realm. It disintegrated any yin and dead spirits it grazed, turning them into dust.

The energy of a realm was anathema to all yin and dead spirits. Since the scarlet bale spirits were intelligent, they furiously burrowed beneath the ground the moment the sound rang out. Retreating underground far enough would bring them out of range of the devastating energy.

These spirits were formless and intangible, like a cloud of smoke. Dirt was no obstacle in their eyes and they easily darted below ground.

Luan Qi heaved a slight sigh of relief to see huge swathes of dead and yin spirits flying apart on the field. She quickly swallowed a few pills to replenish her internal energy and looked nervously in the direction of Lu Yun and the purple bale spirit.

Purple bale spirits were infamous throughout the multiverse—death and extinction followed wherever they appeared. Even Golden Immortals of Grand Unity had fallen to them before.

……

Boom!

The sword dragon that Lu Yun had transformed into also barreled down into the ground when the scarlet bale spirits tunneled beneath the surface. The earth swiftly turned into an ocean of his sword qi, shaking the fleeing scarlets back out and turning them into dust in midair.

The snarling dragon then shot back out of the ground and made for the purple bale spirit.

“Waughhh!!” Roaring wrathfully, the purple spirit transformed into an unknown beast that comprised of a dragon’s head, tiger’s body, and two pairs of wings on its back. It crashed brutally into the sword dragon that was Lu Yun.

Lu Yun’s sword qi dominated, but the netherfire within the purple bale spirit also exploded with enormous strength to repel his attack.

……

“Hmm? What’s this?” Hiding and observing from the far distance, Luan Qi noticed small scarlet beads on the ground that were the size of rice kernels. She bent down curiously and picked up one of them “These come from the dead scarlets!”

Eyes widening with realization, she released her consciousness for a close examination. Great shock shook her mind when her consciousness touched the bead—her own consciousness and nascent spirit had grown a bit stronger!

Though they hadn’t increased by much, they were still stronger than before. However, the red bead she’d picked up was also gone.

“No! These things are dropped by those bale spirits, so it’ll probably affect my mentality if I brashly refine them.” She strongly rejected a new idea the moment it arose in her mind.

As an extremely rational person, she wasn’t overcome with greed upon finding that these beads could enhance her nascent spirit. Instead, she carefully collected the beads on the ground.

“What are you doing?” A crisp and pleasing female voice sounded from behind her. Jumping in fright, she whirled around and looked warily behind her.

A dusty fox had appeared at some point in time and was looking at her curiously.

“A fox?” Luan Qi gasped. There were no other living creatures on this world as the yin spirits had eaten all of the indigenous residents and Corpse Refiner disciples. Now that an extremely intelligent fox had appeared out of nowhere, she subconsciously felt that it was a second purple bale spirit.

Though the scarlets also possessed intelligence, they couldn’t talk and didn’t have the same level of awareness.

However, she suddenly recalled what the senior brother from the Dao Academy had wanted them to say to the four guides—that a fox had told them to do so.

A fox?! Is it this little gray one in front of me?

“Are you that senior brother’s spirit creature?” Luan Qi asked carefully.

“Spirit creature?” The little fox tilted her head in thought and shook her head slightly. “I’m not a spirit creature. I’m his martial nephew at most.”

Since Hongjun had enlightened the little fox, they were master and disciple in truth, if not in name. As Lu Yun and Hongjun called each other fellow daoist and his disciples called Lu Yun martial uncle, then the little fox was also Lu Yun’s martial nephew.

“I see,” Luan Qi sighed with relief. “I discovered that the scarlet bale spirits leave these beads behind after they die. My nascent spirit grew a bit stronger when my consciousness touched one of them.”

She offered a handful to the little fox. “But since the scarlets drop these things, I don’t dare refine them. What if they affect my mind?”

“These things?” The little fox took a close look at the kernels and nodded slightly. “Your thinking is correct—remnants of the scarlets linger on these. It’s no big deal if you refine one or two of them, but too many will turn you into a human-shaped bale spirit.”

Luan Qi shuddered and impulsively wanted to throw the beads away.

“Don’t throw them away yet, give them to that guy when he finishes up with the purple bale spirit. He’ll have a way of cleansing the beads.” The little fox waved a paw. “The gray and black spirits also drop similar things, but they’re too small for your eyes to pick up.”

Her eyes brightened with a sharp glow and focused on the fine layer of dust covering the earth. It was formed from the droppings of deceased dead and yin spirits.

“These things are the core essence of dead spirits, pure soul force. Given the kind of person he is, he’ll invent a treasure to collect and cleanse these kernels,” murmured the little fox as she watched Lu Yun battle in the air.