The Sovereign’s Ascension

“That should be a forbidden zone,” said Yang Fan with a grave expression. “Back in Sword Sect’s era, this place probably had a forbidden zone that not even elders dared to approach.”

Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts. He had a feeling that the greatest opportunity in this trip was in that direction. His foundation was sturdy even though he was only in the pinnacle Yang stage. His realm was lacking, but his origin energy was comparable to someone in the pinnacle Yin-Yang stage. Such a foundation was rarely seen even in the entire Ancient Southern Domain.

Although there were many benefits to having a sturdy foundation, there were also many bad sides to it. If he wanted to make a breakthrough into the Yin-Yang stage, it would be ten-fold or even a hundred-fold more difficult than it was for others. Then again, if he managed to make a breakthrough, it would bring a total transformation as well.

Without any opportunities, who knew how long it would take for him to make a breakthrough. So he had to search for opportunities if he wanted a breakthrough.

Even with the two Heavenly Astral Pearls, Lin Yun didn’t think that it was enough. He didn’t like to take risks. After all, if he failed, he would damage his foundation. At that time, he could simply give up on the Draconic Banquet, which was something that he couldn’t accept.

“Let’s go and take a look.” Lin Yun made his decision and rushed towards the core region. When Guo Xu and Yang Fan saw this scene, they both smiled bitterly. After all, aside from powerful wandering cultivators, the seven geniuses were also there, especially Chen Ziyu and Chu Muyan who were the strongest. But Lin Yun really charged over without any hesitation.

“Let’s go.” The two were also curious as to what was in the core region. Even if they couldn’t fight for it, it wouldn’t be bad for them to gain some experience.

It didn’t take long for them to cross a mountain and the scenery before them had transformed completely. What appeared before them was a vast battlefield, covered with a pile of bones and all sorts of collapsed buildings.

The torrential killing aura still lingered in this region, which brought a great pressure to anyone who came through. It felt as though they were thrown into a swamp and it would be hard to even move around. So one had to exhaust their origin energy to protect themselves. Otherwise, it would be hard for them to even move.

As for Lin Yun, he was fine because he had the Azure Dragon Battle Physique. It only felt slightly terrible, but it would be fine after he got used to it. After stepping into the battlefield, everyone’s faces became grave as those forces who attacked the Sword Sect had started a war here.

“How terrifying…” Guo Xu and Yang Fan could feel a chill down their spine with goosebumps rising. Aside from killing intent, there were all sorts of negative emotions that lingered and mixed into the surrounding atmosphere. These negative emotions tried to invade everyone’s mind at the same time.

“That’s…” Guo Xu’s face changed drastically as he pointed at an empyrean’s corpse.

Right at this moment, there were some who couldn’t be bothered by the surroundings and they charged toward the empyrena’s corpse. Guo Xu and Yang Fan were also tempted because they heard that Lin Yun had obtained a Heavenly Astral Pearl in the secret realm. After all, they naturally wanted one as well.

“Don’t.” Lin Yun stretched out to stop the two of them. Others didn’t know, but Lin Yun knew that he was lucky to obtain the Heavenly Astral Pearl. If the soul fragment in the broken sword didn’t help him, he would surely be dead. As for Guo Xu and Yang Fan, the two of them would be dead if they went over.

Furthermore, this empyrean’s corpse wasn’t like the one he encountered back then. The power contained in this empyrean was still terrifying. After all, the corpse he encountered back then could unleash an entire night of black wind.

Everything proceeded as Lin Yun had expected. When other people got within a hundred meters of that empyrean’s corpse, they were all blown up into a bloody mist. They didn’t even know how they died and this scene had caused many people’s faces to turn pale as they quickly retreated.

Guo Xu and Yang Fan’s faces had turned pale as they knew that Lin Yun had saved them.

“An empyrean cannot be humiliated,” said Lin Yun.

The group of three continued to head towards the core region of this battlefield. Along the way, they encountered many empyrean’s corpses along with corpses of Empyrean Realm demonic beasts. But aside from those who didn’t want their lives anymore, no one dared to touch those corpses.

Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts as he had some doubts, but he didn’t share them with Guo Xu and Yang Fan. The empyrean’s corpses here gave him a feeling that they weren’t as strong as the ancient empyrean he met, but he didn’t know how to describe the gap between them.

For example, if Lin Yun reached the Yin-Yang stage and ran into an ordinary cultivator in the Yin-Yang stage, they could easily suppress ten enemies at once. They were even considered to be invincible among the same realm. But the gap between the ancient empyrean and the empyrean’s corpses here was a little too great.

For some reason, Lin Yun had a feeling that ancient empyreans, especially those from the golden era, could easily kill a hundred empyreans in this era with just a strand of their hair. If it was Lin Yun himself, he would never be able to accomplish easily slaying those in the same realm as him.

Lin Yun couldn’t comprehend the immense gap with his current scope. Even if he explained it to Guo Xu and Yang Fan, they probably couldn’t comprehend it as well as they had never seen an ancient empyrean themselves.

“We’re here.” Fifteen minutes later, the group of three arrived underneath the crimson sky. They raised their heads to examine the extremely bizarre crimson sky and they saw a mountain at the center of the crimson sky.

Wait! Lin Yun’s face changed as Guo Xu and Yang Fan also found something unusual about this place. It wasn’t a mountain, but a towering ancient tree rooted at the core of the battlefield. Looking from afar, it looked like a demon stretching his hand into the sky.

“Chen Ziyu and Chu Muyan are over there!” Someone quickly found the two geniuses who were soaring up the colossal tree. It didn’t take long for experts to start gathering from the surroundings. The ancient tree was emitting a terrifying demonic aura with its branches adorned with countless fruits.

“Holy shit, so many fruits!”

“There are too many of them and they’re at least a thousand years old!”

“Weird, why aren’t Chu Muyan and Chen Ziyu moving?” Someone couldn’t help sounding their doubt. Chu Muyan and Chen Ziyu had clearly arrived first, but they were just standing around. If they wanted, they could gather all the fruits before everyone else could come here.

But clearly, the two didn’t gather the fruits, which made everything weirder. But just when everyone was feeling doubtful, someone exclaimed, “The fruits are dropping!”

Countless fruits began to drop down from the towering tree like rain. Very quickly, the fruits dissolved into spiritual liquid on the ground, leaving countless people heartbroken. But shortly after, something even more bizarre occurred as the spiritual liquid from the dissolved fruits were absorbed by the earth.

As the process continued, they could hear something gulping which made their faces turn pale. It was as if there was a terrifying demonic beast underground feasting on the spiritual liquid greedily.

“Demonification Tree!” Someone said in a trembling voice.

“It’s really a Demonification Tree!” Qin Xu of the seven geniuses and the seniors of the Qin Clan had excitement written on their faces. No one had imagined that there would be a Demonification Tree in the secret realm. No wonder Chen Ziyu and Chu Muyan didn’t make a move and only stood there.

“Demonification Tree…” Yang Fan was dazed looking at the tree.

“You know the tree?” Lin Yun asked.

Yang Fan recovered from his shock and nodded his head, “I only read bits and pieces of it from the ancient records in my sect. In ancient times, sects would capture great demonic beasts and seal them with divine runes before planting a tree. Then, they would use the demonic beast’s bloodline and soul to nourish the tree to produce the heaven-defying Demonification Fruit.The great demonic beasts captured by them were at least in the Empyrean Realm and there were even rumors of dragons and phoenixes being suppressed to produce the Deimonification Fruit.”

Yang Fan’s body was trembling as he spoke. Clearly, he never expected that he would encounter one in the secret realm.

“The fruits aren’t the real Demonification Fruits, but ordinary fruits condensed with the demonic beast’s bloodline. They’re decent, but they can only be used as nourishment. After being devoured by the demonic beast underground, it is refined by divine runes with the demonic beast’s bloodline. This process will repeat nine times, and then the real Demonification Fruit will be born.”

“How many times is it now?”

“Judging from how red the sky is, it should be the ninth…”