He was the head of the top seven blade artists, the White Robe Blade Artist!
"It is him! I heard that his blade intent has already reached completion. His specialty is the wind mentality. With only one blade attack, his blade qi would be unstoppable."
"Both sword artists and blade artists are the most likely to become Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors. Amongst the known Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors, three of them are sword artists or blade artists. However, the most powerful Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior would be the head of the top ten sword artists, the head core master of the Heartless Martial School, Fei Youdao."
"I think it is a bit hard to say. The White Robe Blade Artist still holds the record of killing seven Late Astral Reaching Realm warriors with one blade attack. That record has not been broken till this day."
Everyone on the islands was quite shocked at the appearance of the White Robe Blade Artist. As long as they had still not reached the Sea of Souls Realm, no one would be able to compete with him. His power could compare to a whole rank 7 martial school. Every martial institution would be proud if they could train one warrior like him, since Sea of Souls Realm was not something to be achieved easily; it would require a lot of opportunity and talent.
"It would be hard to spot a Blood Evil Beast even in ten years of time. They contain the Blood Evil Stone, which would be great to train one's mind. The stronger the mind, the more likely it would be for one to reach the Sea of Souls Realm. What a great opportunity for me!" The White Robe Blade Artist lived quite far away from the islands. He was only trying to look for some spirit plants when he came to the Star Regional Lake. He did not expect to hear the news about the Blood Evil Beasts appearing in the Blood Demon Battlefield, so he rushed here with the fastest speed possible. The Blood Evil Stone inside the beasts' bodies would be a key to reaching the Sea of Souls Realm. Warriors with great talent would become a Sea of Souls Realm warrior even faster. For warriors who were stuck in the peak level Late Astral Reaching Realm, even they would have a tiny bit of opportunity to make a breakthrough. Therefore, it was something everyone under the Sea of Souls Realm wanted.
"The second floor of the Blood Demon Battlefield is not open for Sea of Souls Realm warriors. Therefore, the Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors are the kings of this level. Even with the worst luck, I should be able to get one or two Blood Evil Stones." White Robe Blade Artist could not control his excited expression anymore as he took a step forward, flying into that bloody red whirlpool.
…
On the second floor of the Blood Demon Battlefield...
Blood Sword and the Blood Demon had not left the place yet. They had been inside the fortress this whole time.
"The Blood Evil Stone would be able to purify the mind of a warrior. There was one appearing in the Black Dragon Emperor Auction five years ago, and was sold for about four hundred thousand mid-rank soul stones, even though it was not even a big one. But, it was still able to help the core master of the Floating Mountain School become an Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior. Now, he has the hope to reach the Sea of Souls Realm. If you and I are able to get one of those, then it would not be hard for us to become one too." He would be lying if the Blood Demon showed no interest in that. Otherwise, he would not have stayed in the fortress this whole time.
Blood Sword said, "Do you think we have the power to get a Blood Evil Stone?"
"It would be impossible to fight for one, but a half-formed one would not be hopeless for us. Wait until all of those Blood Evil Beasts come out of the mass graves, then it will be our chance." The effect of a half-formed stone would not be as powerful as a fully-formed one, but as long as they had enough of them, it would still be really helpful.
"Half-formed Blood Evil Stone?"
Blood Sword was a bit intrigued. Having reached his level, it seemed to be getting harder and harder to make any progress. But, if his mind were purer, then it would definitely be easier to learn the martial art mentalities. It might even help him with his sword intent. What was more important was that the mind would be the key to reaching the Sea of Souls Realm, and no one would not want to make that advancement, because then he or she would be able to be treated equal to the leader of a rank 6 martial school. By then, the whole South Rudra Region would be like the warrior's backyard.
However, Blood Demon was not being nice and willing to share with him when he invited Blood Sword. He was being cautious, thinking that there might be more Blood Evil Beasts in the deep end of the mass graves. It would be more likely for them to escape when acting together than individually.
"Alright, then it is settled. Don't try to trick me." Blood Sword could still not trust the Blood Demon.
The latter laughed as he said, "Don't worry! If it works, then it will benefit the both of us; if not, then both of us will not have a good time. I think we both know that."
"Huh! Once this is over, I will make that brat pay."
The Blood Sword Artist looked extremely cold.
Hearing him, the Blood Demon was secretly really happy about it, because his status right now was quite special. He could not yet reveal himself to the public yet, so he could only try to hunt Ye Chen down instead of going straight to the Sky Cloud Martial School. If he did that, then he might be ambushed by even more powerful warriors, even attracting Sea of Souls Realm warriors to hunt him down. However, it was different for Blood Sword, for whom it was not the first time destroying a whole martial school. Those Sea of Souls Realm warriors didn't even care about it anymore, since there were so many martial institutions in the whole South Rudra Region, it would not make much of a difference.
…
The Three Realms…The first realm, Surprising Sky…
'Pure wood yuan qi was indeed the best thing to reach the wood mentality. It was not wrong at all coming here. Besides the Surprising Sky, it would be extremely difficult trying to learn the wood mentality from plants. However, it would be really easy to do so here, since all the answers were available here. All I needed to do was to face it.'
In only a few days, Ye Chen had already made huge progress on his wood mentality. He had also been able to revisit some of the knowledge he already knew.
"Green Lotus Blossom!"
As he opened his eyes, a light blue hue appeared in them. Taking out his blueish longsword, a light blue sword light poured into that endless wood yuan qi.
At this moment, something surprising happened.
Amidst the blue river-like wood yuan qi, a green lotus slowly grew up. That quasi-real process would give people the surreal feeling of witnessing a green lotus' life. Soon, a lotus flower blossomed in the middle of the green lotus, light purple in color.
"Green Lotus Sky!"
After throwing out a sword attack, Ye Chen's second attack followed right behind it.
The Green Lotus looked like it had been infused with great amount of power – it suddenly grew about thirty meters taller. The green lotus almost touched the sky, its root plugged all the way into the wood yuan qi.
Whoooo!
Slowly letting out a deep breath, a smile appeared on Ye Chen's face. With the Green Lotus Sword Art as a template, it was indeed easier than creating his own sword arts and mentality. Within only a few days, his wood mentality had already made such a huge progress that it was almost as powerful as his thunder mentality. They were both at their extreme level. Because of that, his eighth movement of the Green Lotus Great Art, the Green Lotus Blossom, had also become more powerful. Its attacking power was even stronger than the Sky Shattering Cloud, even reaching beyond his One Heart Kill.
"There seems to be some kind of a problem. Once the thunder mentality reached its extreme level, it seemed not to work with the cloud mentality so well as it did, and so is the case for the wood mentality. They seem to be working against each other. It looks like once I reach beyond the limit of the mentality, all of the things would open themselves. Once I am ready to reach the next realm, they will start to work together."
Ever since the thunder mentality had reached the extreme, Ye Chen's self-invented sword art like the Sky Shattering Cloud had stopped using the cloud mentality as its lead. Instead, it started to use the thunder mentality more. Sometimes, it even started to push against the cloud mentality, regarding the latter as a flaw.
"I think I will call you the Blue Wood Sword!"
Among the three different swords, only the Damage Sword had gotten a name. So, Ye Chen gave in some thoughts and gave the blue colored sword a simple name.
"Making a breakthrough would not be that easy. I should start learning the water mentality!"
Inside the Surprising Sky, there was only common yuan qi such as the gold yuan qi, the water yuan qi, the wood yuan qi, fire, mud, thunder, wind yuan qi… Those abstract yuan qi would not be spotted here. And, Cloud yuan qi would be one of the latter types.
Among all of the yuan, the water yuan was like a river at some places, while still and calm at others. There were ones that were like oceans, raising waves after waves. All of the water-related scenery that was outside the Surprising Sky would be seen inside the water yuan qi, including some of the invisible ones as well.
"For Astral Reaching Realm warriors, the mentalities of their martial arts would be the most important thing. Once my water mentality reaches its limit, it would be combined with the wood mentality. By then, even the Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors would not be able to compete with me."
Among the top three conditions to become an Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior, Ye Chen had already achieved two, one being the possession of a mid-rank defensive gear and attacking weapon, and the second being reaching the highest possible level of his martial mentality. If it were not because his cultivation was still too low, he would be already an Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior.
…
Soon, another five days had passed.
A lot of Astral Reaching Realm warriors gathered on the islands, having heard the news. None of them wanted to leave the place, but none of them was brave enough to be the first one to enter.
"The core master of the Heartless Martial School is here!" Someone from the crowd yelled, and the rest of them followed the sound to find the guy he was referring to.
On top of the Star Regional Lake, a human shadow flew at an extreme speed.
Shoo!
The human figure landed on the closest island, wearing blue robes and having two swords on his back. His hair were long and flowy, and he looked like he was only in his early thirties.
Fei Youdao was very low key. He did not even glance at the crowd before entering the bloody red whirlpool.
Soon, two other people arrived at the same time.
The one from the north wore bright red robes and had a huge body. Between each move of his, that powerful blade aura kept pouring out, cutting and leaving marks on the surface of the lake.
The one from the south was even more powerful. On his path, that powerful qi flow which was let out purposely had blown away a lot of the fellow Astral Reaching Realm warriors on the way. However, no one dared to say anything about it.
"The core master of the Fire Spirit Martial School, Chi Jinyan!"
"Core master of the Floating Mountain Martial School, Shen Tujue!"
"They all said that Chi Jinyan is extremely brutal, but I think Shen Tujue is even worse than him. Then again, I think it makes sense, since the Floating Mountain School is the top of the top six rank 6 martial school, and Shen Tujue himself is also Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior. No wonder he would not care about anything."
The crow stood all the way in the distance as they talked in whisper.
"Shen Tujue, I heard that your core master Jin Huang had been tricked by a little brat. I wonder if it was real or…?" As a core master of a rank 6 martial school, Chi Jinyan was quite informed. After all, Ye Chen was not some no-named weak man; he was the winner of the Hidden Dragon Rank, so it would be impossible to not notice him.
Shen Tujue sneered, "Only a little brat. This time, I came to get the Blood Evil Stone, and I will kill him too as I am here. I, Shen Tujue, will show him the way we do things."
"Hehe, be careful in what you are doing. Don't get yourself killed instead." Chi Jinyan joked.
"Huh! These kinds of small characters, I don't need to worry about them at all. For me to be killed by him would never happen. Once I kill him, I will go clear out the Sky Cloud Martial School as well. I believe there was someone really powerful behind him supporting him, but I don't think he or she would dare to openly challenge the Floating Mountain School."
He did not care about Ye Chen at all. While heading to the Blood Demon Battlefield, he had volunteered to kill Ye Chen since these two things were the simplest things ever for him. He would be able to do both with a single wave of his hands. So why not?
After the two arrived and entered the Blood Demon Battlefield, the Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors inside the battlefield now numbered four.
"Someone else is coming! I don't think I have ever heard of this guy. It looks like there are more Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors out in the South Rudra Region than it seems."
The fifth Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior had arrived!