Reptil Warriors

After continuing to search through the ruins for another few days, Yaan realised that he had been quite lucky to discover the previous immortal corpse as quickly as he did. During his later search, he found no other immortal corpses. It was unknown whether this was because they were not present during the beast calamity, if they managed to escape, or perhaps their corpses were simply destroyed. After all, the immortal corpse that he found previously only managed to stay in one piece due to that person burning her cultivation away in the final moments of her life in order to survive for another few moments.

Eventually, Yaan stopped searching through the ruins. He found nothing of worth and the immortal corpses were nowhere to be seen, but even if he did find them, it was quite likely that their state would be as pitiful as the last. Every one of the treasures that he found scattered throughout the seven former immortal tribes were all severely damaged or completely broken, there was nothing of significant value to be found in this place.

In the end, after he noticed the reptil warriors starting to arrive in the ruins in large numbers, Yaan made his way towards the major scroll.

The major war flower scroll was attached to a large flagpole, which stretched up by a few tens of miles into the sky. This distance was not far for a cultivator at Yaan's level, however, due to the powerful gravity and Spiritual Pressure present at higher altitudes on the Blood Plane, it was impossible to fly directly up.

Yaan stood at the base of the flagpole and stared upwards. With his eyesight, he was able to see the scroll from here, though he couldn't make out the contents written on the scroll from this distance. He already knew the contents of the major scrolls at this point however, because the First Immortal King had shown him the Lunar Song Tribe's major scroll, to ensure that Yaan would be able to recognise the true major scroll and would not be deceived by any fakes.

After staring up for some time, Yaan turned away, facing the hundreds of reptil warriors who were warily surrounding him. He decided against taking the scroll for now, simply because there was no need to take it.

It was impossible to fly up and take the scroll, the only option was to climb the flagpole. However, Yaan quickly realised that even this was borderline impossible; not only was the height far too excessive, but he would also need to endure others attacking him and competing against him as he climbed. Even for Yaan, this was a tall order.

He wondered how exactly the War Flower Empire expected anyone to obtain the scroll. In fact, this challenge felt so ridiculous that he even began suspecting that this was the War Flower Empire's scheme to weaken the nine invading kingdoms! It was entirely possible that the plan had always been to allow the Kingdom of Reptil to retain their autonomy, and this flower war was just a farce to weaken the surrounding forces…

Regardless, Yaan didn't particularly care about any of this. If taking the scroll was easy, he would have taken it in order to attract the attention of the other warriors, but since it would be too difficult to take, there was no need to bother. Since it was unlikely that anyone would actually be able to take the scroll away, Yaan decided to wait around the flagpole, slaughtering all those who came near.

Of course, he would do his best to leave the warriors from the Kingdom of Lunar Song alone. He did not want to enrage the immortals in his own kingdom even further if he could avoid it.

He had been willing to go against the immortals when the benefit in doing so made it worth his while, but now, as a tribal exile, there was really no merit in continuing to aggrieve the Lunar Song Tribe's immortals.

"Outsider! Leave this place immediately, we will not give up our kingdom's scroll!"

For the last few minutes, Yaan had been surrounded by the Kingdom of Reptil's warriors. No warriors from the other kingdoms had arrived as of yet; it would take them some more time to travel the distance from their respective kingdoms.

The reptil warriors were originally a unified people, and under the threat of invasion from outsiders, this unity only grew stronger. They understood all too well that if another nation gained their war flower scroll, their ending would be that of destruction!

Those with the reptil bloodline were considered outsiders by other humans. To begin with, bloodline humans usually segregated themselves from ordinary humans and those with different bloodlines, but the reptils were simply too different, they were only considered human due to the cultivation world's definition of the word.

If another human kingdom gained their war flower scroll, the reptil people would be massacred and enslaved, it could very well spell the greatest disaster for their entire bloodline in the past hundred thousand years! As such, they had all agreed to put aside the differences and conflicts between their various tribes, in order to fight back against their common enemy! They absolutely could not allow their major scroll to fall into the hands of an outside kingdom!

They had all agreed on this, and yet, when that red-robed child suddenly appeared before the flag pole like a spectre, bypassing their entire encirclement without anyone realising it, they were unable to act.

Yaan did not restrain his aura. He openly released his slaughterous desire, filling the entire region in a blood-soaked killing intent.

These warriors did not recognise Yaan, but they could tell that he possessed tremendous strength, the likes of which they were unable to resist! Only 4-Star Realm and 5-Star Realm warriors dared to venture into this place, but even they felt completely helpless before Yaan's overbearing aura!

The reptil warriors lacked information compared to the warriors from the other nine kingdoms. Everyone was given three months to prepare for this competition, but the reptil people were forbidden from leaving their tribes until the three month period had passed by. Because of this, they were unable to gather information on the other nine kingdoms, unlike the warriors from the invading kingdoms, who had all been given a surplus of information by the immortals behind them.

If they knew of Yaan's reputation, perhaps they would not dare to confront him.

The person who stepped out released the aura of a Peak 5-Star Realm warrior. He was clearly the leader of this group, his strength was not insignificant.

His scales were red, which was unusual, since the reptils usually possessed green scales. His tail was also twice as long as the other reptil warriors, whilst various parts of his body were protected by sharp armoured bone splints. Out of everyone present, only this person stared at Yaan without fear. It seemed that he possessed something that he felt he could rely on…

Yaan activated Reveal Truth. Immediately, the red reptil shivered. His eyes widened and he stepped back with a shocked look flashing through his reptilian eyes. He felt as if this child was looking through him completely, as if he could see past his deepest secrets!

After Yaan's eyes returned to normal, a smile appeared on his face.

"So you're actually a 6-Star Realm warrior, but not only that, you also possess a strange power within your body."

The leader of the reptils felt like he had been struck by lightning, Yaan's words set off a tremendous wave within his heart. His expression became severe, and without hesitation, he charged forwards!

Yaan being able to see through his cultivation was too shocking to him, because he was using an immortal treasure to conceal his true aura! Even though he was unable to properly activate this treasure, it should still be impossible for a Foundation Step cultivator to see through!

Yaan wasn't surprised to find a Nirvana Realm cultivator amongst these reptils. The three year time period of the competition made it such that many people would enter the Nirvana Life Realm near to the beginning of the war. In fact, Yaan felt that it was quite likely that the three year time limit was decided upon exactly because of this. Whoever arranged for this crazy competition was clearly encouraging the participants to step into Nirvana! They would enter Nirvana, fight to obtain treasures during the war, then use those treasures to help them survive their Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity and Immortal Ascension Tribulation afterwards!

Yaan narrowed his eyes. The Life Essence contained within this person's body was immense. He could not see through the exact quantity of Life Essence that the reptil warrior possessed, but he had learned to use Reveal Truth to gain a rough estimation. He could tell that this person had at least 10,000 drops!

A person with this much Life Essence following their Nirvana Life Heavenly Blessing would have a much greater chance of surviving the Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity compared to others. More importantly, a person like this would release a tremendous amount of Slaughter Aura for Yaan to refine!

Even though this person was clearly powerful, Yaan was completely calm as he charged towards him without warning. Even when the reptil warrior used his strongest ability immediately and without hesitation, Yaan only raised an eyebrow in surprise, he did not panic.

"Ancestral Dragon, I beseech thee, lend me thine strength!" The reptil warrior roared out with a deafening voice.

Yaan's eyes once again shone with a light of indescribable colour. As he activated Reveal Truth, he saw the strange power within this warrior's body explode outwards, filling his entire blood stream with strength. In the next moment however, the warrior's neck tilted backwards, and he choked out an enormous mouthful of blood into the sky!

The blood erupted forth, carrying with it every last trace of the strange power within the reptil warrior's body that Yaan had noticed before. His eyes widened in surprise when he also saw the warrior's Life Essence immediately drop by around 10%!

As the power of his reptil bloodline burned brilliantly, Yaan stared up into the sky, watching as the blood expanded, seemingly encompassing the entire sky, and forming an enormous red dragon in the clouds above!

The dragon was so huge that it was difficult to see from end to end. Its body was probably thousands of miles long, whilst an overbearing pride and killing intent emanated from each and every one of its scales. Slowly, the dragon's body turned around, until it was finally facing everyone down below.

The red-scaled reptil warrior who summoned this monster had a reverent gleam in his eyes, whilst the others all looked shocked to the core.

Yaan only took a glance at the dragon, before returning his attention to the approaching warrior with a cold expression. From start to finish, the reptil warrior did not stop his charge towards Yaan.

Others might be shocked senseless by this dragon, but not Yaan. He had already discerned the truth behind his opponent's spell before the dragon manifested, and after it appeared, he immediately saw through the façade.

Its body was enormous and its majestic aura was beyond imposing, but it was basically just an illusion!

The Ancestral Dragon Spell was a bloodline spell belonging to the reptil bloodline, so naturally, Yaan had already learned about this technique before coming to the kingdom. He had witnessed multiple bloodline spells being cast throughout his life, but this was actually the first that he had seen on the Blood Plane, simply because it was extremely difficult for Foundation Step body temperers to actually learn and cast spells.

Even though Yaan had seen bloodline spells before now, his understanding of these unique techniques was originally very limited. Thanks to the First Immortal King however, Yaan recently came to learn the shocking secret behind bloodline spells!

Bloodline spells could only be created by the bloodline originator, the very first member of the bloodline. True bloodline originators were extremely rare, and those who were able to create a bloodline spell were even less common.

To create a bloodline spell, it was necessary to possess a trace of divinity! For a spell to be passed down through a bloodline indefinitely over countless generations, it was only possible for someone with a trace of divine strength!

That's not to say that every creator of a bloodline spell was at the Divine Step, in fact, the vast majority had not attained this height. In the case of the ancestral dragon and many other bloodline spell creators, they had only taken the first step towards divinity, they were unable to cross the boundary completely.

The dragon in the sky roared out loud as the reptil warrior arrived before Yaan. At the moment the warrior punched out, the dragon's roar vibrated through the world, sending dust flying into the sky, and nearly causing the other warriors to fall to the ground. The roar fused into the reptil warrior's punch, and at this instant, the punch was a single inch away from Yaan's face!

Yaan's expression remained calm and collected from start to finish.

The world appeared to slow down to a crawl. As Yaan lifted up the abyssal blood sword at a seemingly casual pace, the reptil warrior felt as if his body was completely stuck! He could see Yaan's movement, it looked slow and easy to evade, but it was actually so fast that he was completely unable to do anything about it!

Cling…

Yaan tapped the sword blade against the fist gently, instantly causing a tremendous shockwave to ripple outwards, slamming into the reptil warrior's body with the force of a collapsing mountain. Time seemed to return to normal and explosive sounds echoed out. The reptil warrior was thrown back by thousands of feet with so much force that he was completely unable to slow himself down.

BANG BANG BANG!

Shooting out like a cannonball, the 6-Star Realm reptil slammed into three of his allies, resulting in their bodies immediately exploding into a mist of blood. With each impact, the red reptil warrior sustained a terrible injury, and by the time he hit the ground, rolling pitifully through the dust and dirt, his body was covered in wounds and blood.

The image of the dragon in the sky gradually faded away. For a moment, Yaan looked up, and he couldn't help but smirk when he saw the anger contained in the dragon's red eyes.

"Merely a trace of will left behind by the ancestral dragon." Yaan commented plainly.

He couldn't help but recall the first time he had witnessed a bloodline spell. Back then, in the inheritance's 3rd Trial Realm, Aque Li used the Goddess of the Seas Spell with great difficulty. It was his first time successfully using the spell, and it had required him to sacrifice a valuable material just to cast the spell. At that time, Yaan and everyone else had been awestruck by the 'goddess' that appeared above them, but Yaan now understood that it was merely an illusion combined with the will of the spell's creator.

All bloodline spells contained the will of the creator, though the complete illusion of the originator would not be summoned every time the spell was used. In order to summon the true will of the creator, it was necessary to pay a price.

This time, the reptil warrior paid the price of one tenth of his own Life Essence in order to summon the true will of his bloodline's originator! However, this cost could be considered worth it, at least in a sense. Not only was he able to attack with an extreme level of power that would normally be impossible for him to display, but he would also gain many benefits going into the future. Each time the true will of the originator was summoned, the will would divulge some sort of benefit to its descendent; this was the way of bloodline spells.

'When Hukon Foo used his bloodline spell back in the Xuqi Sect competition, he only used its ordinary activation, he did not summon the originator's true will. Well, summoning the true will is extremely difficult, and it only becomes more arduous each consecutive time that it is attempted.'

Yaan actually had the luxury to think about this as he charged after the red reptil warrior.

Despite using his strongest ability and sacrificing one tenth of his Life Essence in order to summon his bloodline spell with his originator's true will, the reptil warrior was unable to injure Yaan in any significant way.

The attack caused Yaan's body to shake, his flesh was damaged, and his bones grated against his tendons. There was some bruising to his organs as the force of that roar was channelled into his body through the 6-Star Realm warrior's powerful punch, and for a moment, his flow of blood became unsteady…

But Yaan would recover from this damage within a few seconds. In return for these minor injuries, he used the 2nd stage of the Agile Illusion Art to reflect most of the power contained in that attack back at his opponent.

He was able to do this because he anticipated the attack in advance. After using Reveal Truth, he immediately saw through the reptil warrior's method, and as such, Yaan also prepared one of his own strongest methods right from the beginning.

Just as the reptil warrior began to stabilise his momentum, slowing himself down and regaining his footing, Yaan arrived before him. The reptil's eyes widened in shock. He was completely unable to react in time in front of Yaan's absurd speed!

Yaan moved in, keeping up with each of his opponent's movements as if he was his opponent's own shadow, before he finally struck out once again, using the Agile Illusion Art's 1st step to tear his enemy's body into two gruesome halves!

The reptil warrior's cold blood splashed across Yaan's face. Yaan did not bother avoiding this spray of blood, because he dove in to attack again. It might seem like overkill to abruptly turn back and to then crazily attack a person who had already been split in half, but in truth, this was far from being excessive. This was because after Yaan's previous attack, he instantly realised that he had failed to destroy the reptil's core!

The reptil warrior realised that he was unable to evade Yaan's Agile Illusion Art, so instead, he put all of his energy into shifting his Vital Core an inch to the left within his body! Because of this, Yaan only managed to scrape past the core, dealing far from enough damage to destroy it.

For a 6-Star Realm warrior, this was not a significant injury – it could easily be healed by expending some Life Essence!

A golden glow shone around the two halves of the reptil's body, and around the core within his mutilated flesh. As Yaan struck out with the abyssal blood sword, he found himself cutting through flesh whilst it was healing over, causing him to feel as if the sword was continuously getting stuck!

But the ferocious light in Yaan's eyes remained calm and composed. He continued exerting strength, using every ounce of power contained within his body to attack. He urged his Vital Qi to strengthen his body, whilst channelling Slaughter Force through the blade and into his opponent. As the reptil roared out loud in pain and unwillingness, his body continued to glow gold, refusing to grant Yaan this victory!

But eventually, the reptil's expression changed. The golden glow faded away from his body, and before he could even work out what had happened, Yaan's blade finally sliced right through him, piercing through his core, destroying both his body and Primal Soul in one messy strike.

Unknowingly, the reptil warrior ended up exhausting nearly all of his Life Essence whilst crazily resisting Yaan in those few moments. He had fought bravely and without restraint, and due to that, Yaan wore him down until he was able to easily take his life.

Yaan suddenly stopped as he felt a surge of Slaughter Aura pouring into him. The Slaughter Aura was converted by his dual-layered core, quickly becoming Slaughter Force. The Slaughter Force was absorbed into his Slaughter Soul, enhancing the strength of his soul up to a new level.

Yaan's eyes shone brightly. Despite being surrounded by hundreds of enemies, he shut his eyes, focussing on his soul.

He rapidly absorbed the Slaughter Aura, until eventually, his Noble Slaughter Soul reached a limit…

CRACK!

His soul released a sharp cracking sound. The dark grey soul soul looked as if it was covered in cracks, but these cracks only covered the surface layer. Within the span of a few seconds, the surface layer of his soul fell away, and these fragments were quickly devoured by the soul beneath.

The deep grey colour became brighter, shining with an ominous grey light.

Finally, after devouring the Slaughter Aura from a formidable 6-Star Realm warrior, Yaan had attained a Royal Slaughter Soul, equivalent to the Rank 4 Royal Spirit Realm in soul cultivation. Of course, Yaan followed the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, so his own cultivation level was far beyond this…

With this, his cultivation had reached the Late Vital Qi Spirit Realm!

Usually, Yaan would feel excited to have reached this height. He had been stuck at the mid stage for quite some time, and finally, he had ascended! Only…

Whoosh…

A wave of Slaughter Force spread out from Yaan's body. He had released a similar wave of slaughter once before, when he was surrounded by countless Aztecs in the Flaming Sun Province. Back then, he realised that releasing his Slaughter Force so openly was a bad idea. He couldn't control it, and it made him vulnerable to being completely taken over by his slaughterous desires!

But right now, Yaan did not care about that. He did not care as the slaughter swept outwards, taking the lives of tens, then hundreds of reptil warriors.

Those who had not retreated in time…were now all dead.

But Yaan didn't even notice this.

Rui quickly appeared from the stone ring. She didn't hesitate to use the Duality of Sanity Spell, hoping that this would bring Yaan back, retuning him to a lucid state.

"I see…he's already too far gone…" Rui muttered to herself. She stared at Yaan for a long time, before shaking her head with a sigh, then returning to the stone ring.

Rui's spell could not save him, nor could the pills supplied by the First Immortal King.

Rui continued to watch Yaan from within the ring, but she didn't even bother trying to bring him back. She knew that it was too late…

Honestly, she had already anticipated that this day might come, sooner or later, and it had finally happened.

Yaan had lost himself completely.