The Wild Lands

Ga Shu had found the underground immortal market in the Five Seas Kingdom, a market where he was able to procure Rank 6 living beings!

Nirvana realm warriors!

Rank 6 beasts!

6-Star astral spirits!

Rank 6 slaves fetched a much higher price compared to Rank 5 slaves, but they were still only 'potential' immortals in the end. And, realistically speaking, they were beings with an expiry date of three years at most.

Buying a Rank 6 slave was like buying a lottery ticket. You were unlikely to win, but if you did win, you would strike it big time!

Yaan stared at the nine individuals before him.

Three human 6-Star warriors. Three 6-Star astral spirits. Three Rank 6 demonic beasts.

Rank 6 spirit beasts were also available, but the price was way higher on account of spirit beasts being more easily tamed compared to demonic beasts.

As for 6-Star astral spirits, these were the cheapest of the lot. 6-Star astral spirits could be produced by powerful astral power cultivators. If a person bound 100 5-Star astral spirits, they would form 100 5-Star astral tattoos. Those hundred tattoos would then fuse together, forming a single 6-Star astral tattoo!

At this point, the 6-Star cultivator would experience the Nirvana Life heavenly blessing, though the entirety of the blessing would be directed into that single 6-Star tattoo.

From there, the astral spirit could be released from its tattoo binding. This would result in the birth of a true 6-Star astral spirit, an astral spirit which had undergone the heavenly blessing! Of course, imprisoning these 6-Star astral spirits in an equivalent 6-Star astral crystal also factored into the cost, but astral spirits still worked out much cheaper compared to beasts and human warriors.

Human warriors were the most expensive, as the slave trade was a bit of an underhanded business, which was accompanied by additional suspicions and risks.

Even so, Ga Shu bought Yaan three of each to sample. Like this, Yaan could kill them one by one, assessing the improvement they granted his slaughter soul with each killing.

Unfortunately, at this point, Ga Shu had very little money remaining. Things cost money, and money could only be earned or stolen!

Anyway, right now, Yaan was focussed on the nine targets before him.

He started with the first of the 6-Star astral spirits.

CHI!

It no longer mattered how he killed the opponent, but the abyssal blood sword would absorb a small amount of the released slaughter aura, so it was more efficient to use other means, since Yaan wanted to harvest as much of this slaughter aura for himself as possible right now.

Yaan killed the astral spirit with an illusory sword, one coated in Vital Qi on the outside, and hidden with slaughter force on the inside.

Yaan shut his eyes and focussed on absorbing the slaughter aura. His arch spirit soul was originally at around 26% progression. It has steadily grown to this point over the past few months, after he killed hundreds of daily sacrifices.

Killing a single 6-Star astral spirit raised this by a further 5%.

Next, Yaan killed a demonic beast, an ape with blood-red eyes that shone with killing intent. His illusory blade pierced between its eyes, ending its life as the slaughter force seeped into the ape's own soul.

He gained a further 12% progression.

Finally, Yaan killed the first of the humans. He chose the weakest looking person to begin with, slitting their throat before they could even question his intentions.

After closing his eyes for some time, Yaan exhaled heavily as he reopened them.

"17%…"

He then killed the final six captives. Each astral spirit provided a 5% boost. The two demonic beasts improved his slaughter force by 10% and 9%.

That final 9% was probably suppressed, because his progression had now reached 99%!

The final two humans netted him a 16% and 19% improvement to his soul force.

16% and 19%…and that was after he had ascended his spirit soul into a Noble Spirit!

Yaan did not encounter any serious bottlenecks when improving the realm of his soul. He was a Rank 5 cultivator, but his soul was currently equivalent to Rank 3 on the soul cultivation path. Since he was also using the refined slaughter aura to break through with brute force each time, his terrible talent did not limit his progress substantially, not yet at least.

He progress was not badly hindered…but there were other issues that Yaan encountered as he progressed along this path of slaughter.

The killing intent that Yaan had somewhat regained control over in recent days, finally exploded outwards like a torrent, a broken dam that could no longer be repaired. He slowly turned towards Ga Shu, and with an icy cold expression, he said:

"Ga Shu…let's go kill."

Ga Shu paused briefly. He looked at Yaan and saw the ceaseless killing intent in his gaze. He had come to understand by now that his lord's cultivation method required slaughter. He also knew that the more he slaughtered, the more it affected his heart and mind.

In the end, Ga Shu nodded.

"Yes, my lord. I know just the place."

***********

"His mind will fall into complete madness by the time his soul becomes a Royal Spirit." The Primordial Sage spoke, informing the red-haired man of Yaan's current condition.

The man snorted, then laughed disdainfully and shook his head.

"What are you talking about, sage? That thing never had something like sanity to begin with. Losing his sense of rationality is not surprising in the least."

"Without a sound mind, his sea of consciousness will never attain the Myriad Sage Grade." She reminded him.

The red-haired man paused for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

"This is true…then I suppose, we must intervene…"

"Mm. The solution is simple; the Fragment of Mind." The sage spoke expressionlessly as she revealed her plan.

The red-haired man's eyes lit up, he grinned broadly and laughed as he nodded repeatedly.

"Good, good! Sage, I bet you planned this all along, didn't you? To feed him the Fragment of Mind in order to help him achieve the Myriad Sage Grade sea?"

"It aligns with my divination." She replied simply. "I will act soon after his mind falls into total madness."

**********

In the War Flower Empire, there were 5,000 kingdoms. There could only ever be 5,000 kingdoms, because there were only 5,000 major war flower scrolls, and a kingdom-ruling tribe needed to possess one of these major scrolls in order to cement the legitimacy of their kingdom.

However, that's not to say that every spec of land throughout the empire was owned and watched over by a kingdom.

Certain territories sprouted between multiple kingdoms when the surrounding kingdoms failed to decide on who the land should belong to. In these situations, the un-claimed territories were referred to as 'wild lands'.

The war flower law did not have much influence in these wild lands. After all, anyone who decided to migrate into a wild land was either a criminal, a demonic scoundrel, an exile of all tribes, or something of the sort. They were the people that did not fit into the system, so naturally, they did not respect the war flower law here.

However, they also feared the war flower law, leading to a rather unique culture, one that basically avoided the formation of any large scale societies.

The war flower law didn't care about criminals and exiles attacking other criminals and exiles. So long as they didn't attempt to copy the true war flower society by forming tribes and kingdoms within the wild lands, they could do as they wished, without fear of the consequences.

Well, there wasn't truly such a place without consequences in this world. If you provoked someone you shouldn't have, then you could find yourself scooped up into the jaws of calamity.

Ga Shu brought Yaan to a place situated between four kingdoms, two of those being the Kingdom of Lunar Song, and the Five Seas Kingdom.

This place was called the Infernal Wilderland. It was a fairly sizeable chunk of land, around one tenth the size of the Kingdom of Lunar Song!

It remained unclaimed for two reasons. Firstly, as with all wild lands, the four bordering kingdoms were unable to agree on an owner.

But in the case off the Infernal Wilderland, there was perhaps a more important reason that it remained unclaimed…

The entire place, all 250 thousand miles from end to end, was covered in volcanoes, magma streams, randomly erupting geysers of lava, black ash that rained from the sky and pervaded the air, thick smoke that made it difficult to breath, and most importantly, endless swarms of demonic beasts which were all perfectly adapted to this harsh environment.

Any valuable resources could only be found by diving down into the volcanoes or streams of magma. The beasts were vicious and endless, they were both pests and genuine threats. Overall, it was not a good place to live for an ordinary person.

For high level cultivators, this environment was nothing much.

Yaan's gaze scoured the ground, unable to hide his anticipation as he he searched out his first prey in this new land.

Seeing this, Ga Shu sighed. He knew that his lord's mind was being corroded by the slaughter, but he didn't know what to do.

Should he restrain his benefactor, preventing him from cultivating in this way?

He was reluctant to do so. Yaan had clearly chosen this path long ago. Back then, he seemed well aware of what lay in store for him…

Perhaps, if he could cultivate to a certain point, his sound mind would return?

It was wishful thinking, but this was Ga Shu's hope.

"There!" Yaan exclaimed, shooting down before Ga Shu could react. He wasn't too worried, since very few things in this place would be able to endanger his lord's safety, but when he glanced down at Yaan's chosen target, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"He's diving straight into a nest of volcanic pythons!" Ga Shu turned pale, quickly hurrying after him.

The volcano had looked ordinary to him until he investigated it properly. When he saw that it was a volcanic python nest, he quickly hurried after Yaan.

Volcanic pythons lived in large volcanoes. These demonic beasts ranged from Rank 1, all the way up to Rank 7. Whilst Ga Shu couldn't sense an immortal beast down there, they tended to lay so dormant that they were impossible to detect until the moment they struck!

As such, although encountering an immortal volcanic python was highly unlikely, it was best to avoid their nests, just in case.

Not to mention the fact that even average volcanic python nests would often hold 20-30 Rank 5 beasts, all of which dwelled in a heat so extreme that 5-Star warriors would melt within seconds!

Splash!

Yaan dove straight in, then a moment later Ga Shu caught up to him. Ga Shu reached out and grabbed Yaan's leg, causing Yaan to crazily turn back and lash out at him with a killing blow!

Ga Shu was shocked, but he was an immortal, he easily deflected the blow.

The impact caused Yaan's mind to clear up, he immediately stopped what he was doing.

For a moment, the two stared at one another through the lava, both with wide eyes. For a moment, the slaughter was subdued from Yaan's gaze as he realised just how far his mind had fallen at this point.

The two flew back out from the volcano, flying into the ash-black air.

For some time, there was silence, but when Yaan finally spoke, his voice sounded hoarse.

"Ga Shu…I apologise. You have only ever been good to me, even in my current state…"

"Say no more, my lord. I will protect you and prevent you from doing reckless things in future. Even if you try to kill me, I will honestly not take it to heart."

"Thank you, Ga Shu." Yaan looked up at the towering Aztec immortal and showed a rare smile.

"But please try to refrain from diving into volcanoes, magma rivers, underground lava streams, and other such things in the future. Immortal beasts have a preference for sleeping in these places." Ga Shu reminded him.

"Ah…right."

The two moved on silently, and it wasn't long before they encountered something.

"People?" Yaan narrowed his eyes, the slaughterous desires already returning to him in full force.

"Mm." Ga Shu nodded. "78 people in total. It seems that two sides are fighting over something."

"I'm going to kill them." Yaan informed him. Ga Shu nodded and trailed behind him, seeing no suspense in the coming fight.

And indeed, Yaan arrived so fast that he was barely even noticed. He slashed out tens of times in rapid succession, cutting apart and slaughtering every living person on this small battlefield.

No matter what methods they used, it was no use against Yaan. Their trump cards, their hidden techniques and treasures, all meant nothing in the face of Yaan's overwhelming might.

After looking through their belongings, the two understood that these two groups belonged to two opposing factions.

"How large can a group become until it's considered a tribe…?" Yaan wondered aloud.

"I don't know this myself." Ga Shu shook his head. "But at least we now have leads towards two groups of people."

Yaan nodded, then they immediately set off in a certain direction.

The group he cut down just now was too weak, the leaders of each side were 4-Star warriors. However, the factions behind them sounded much more promising.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at a secluded entrance. It was nondescript and well hidden, it would be easily overlooked if you did not know its exact coordinates.

The entrance was built into the side of a volcano. Yaan walked in first, with Ga Shu following a few feet behind him.

"Ah!" Someone was startled to see outsiders in the volcanic hallway, crying out loud in their shock.

Chi!

Yaan killed the female warrior without stopping, continuing along this hot stone path.

The stone volcanic corridor was filled with twists and turns, but gradually, it led them underground. They encountered a few more individuals along the way. All were dispatched swiftly, there was no tension in any of these battles.

Finally, they entered an underground open cavern.

The moment Yaan and Ga Shu walked in, at least 2,000 faces turned back sharply to face them. Every one of these people wore a strange fiery mask and a black robe, but they all had different badges, probably denoting their rank within this hidden organisation.

Ga Shu sat back and watched as Yaan entered like a spectre, harvesting the lives of everyone around him, as if he was merely cutting grass. His dance of slaughter was almost beautiful, but the bloody brutality detracted from any potential beauty of the situation.

The 3-Star and 4-Star warriors were killed within moments.

Yaan quickly moved on to the dozen 5-Star leaders here, but they could not put up any more resistance than their subordinates.

Just as there were three despairing 5-Star warriors remaining, cowering back in fear as they begged for mercy, Yaan stopped.

"You all are Peak 5-Star warriors, correct?" He suddenly asked.

They were confused by this question, but all three nodded.

"Then I will give you a chance…break through to Nirvana, here and now. Maybe then you will be able to defeat me."

The three couldn't believe what they were hearing, it simply made no sense to them. Why would he give them the opportunity to become stronger?

Wait, perhaps he was one of those battle freaks that searched the wild lands for powerful opponents?

"I-I can't!" One man blurted out. "I-"

CHI!

Yaan killed him before he could finish explaining that he was yet to perceive the 6-Star realm boundary. Anyway, there was nothing else that a person would feel the need to say in this dangerous situation.

The final two trembled.

"D-don't hurt me, please, I can, I can-"

CHI!

Yaan killed the snivelling woman before she could go on. Finally, he stared at the remaining man.

The man pulled off his mask, revealing a disfigured face which had clearly been damaged by years of abuse in the flames and magma. He slowly removed his cloak, revealing his muscular and well-toned body. All of the scars that he had accumulated over the years were on display…he left them there as a reminder to himself of the dangers in this world.

Yaan smiled a murderous smile. He watched as the man silently stepped past the boundary, entering Nirvana Life and drawing in the heavenly blessing!

A giant golden cloud illuminated this dark, hot cavern. The cloud covered not only the cavern, but also the entire volcano in the outside world! For the first time in many centuries, this region became shrouded in true light!

The gold light healed over the man's wounds, it revitalised him with a sort of energy that he had never felt before in his life!

After the heavenly blessing concluded, he turned to face Yaan, ready for the battle of his life!

But he quickly realised that the red-robed child was no longer there.

Yaan's mind may have been failing him, but his dao comprehension was not lost. He could still use the dao of illusions to conceal himself from his opponents when he chose to do so!

At this point, fighting with illusions was an instinct for Yaan, it did not even require him to think.

Swoosh!

The man hastily dodged as Yaan pierced a blade towards his chest. However, he didn't dodge by quite enough, he was nicked by the tip of the illusory blade.

The Vital Qi cut open a wound, and the slaughter force stabbed into his primal soul, sending the despairing man's soul from a state of life, to death.