Chapter 24: Return (Part 1)

“So enthusiastic. You start off with a killing move the moment you see your brother?”

After that exchange of blows, both of them reined in their auras at the same time, and Ning Wu was the first to speak.

When he thought about it carefully, it actually made perfect sense for Xie Linshu to appear here. After all, a xuanhuan protagonist would never act according to common sense before a crisis arrived. That really matched his brainwave.

And through their brief exchange just now, Ning Wu had gained some understanding of Xie Linshu’s current strength.

Explosive growth was very common for protagonists. Xie Linshu, however, was the opposite.

He had gone into seclusion inside the sword tomb of the Heavenly Sword Sect to comprehend the sword inheritance of Daoist Master Qianji. After truly entering a state of sudden enlightenment, he had become completely unaware of changes in the outside world.

Within that state, Xie Linshu fused the Heavenly Sword Heart Method, Daoist Master Qianji’s sword arts, and the nameless sword technique he had obtained beneath the cliff in the Brightheart Mountain secret realm, ultimately forming his own sword Dao and sword intent.

After a single bout of sudden enlightenment, he woke up, left the sword tomb, and naturally broke through to Soul Transformation.

His master kept this news hidden. Xie Linshu could not even show his face inside the sect. After resting for a few days, he decisively requested permission from his master to leave the sect.

He had just found his own sword Dao. This was precisely the time when he needed tempering. If he were trapped inside the sect merely because of the current turbulent situation, then even if he possessed that opportunity to break through to Tribulation Transcendence, he would never reach that step.

When facing danger, a sword cultivator had only one choice: draw his sword and confront it.

Afterward, he was decisively allowed to leave, though he needed to conceal his true appearance. Xie Linshu had no objections to that.

After all, there was no telling how many Body Integration cultivators were watching him, openly and from the shadows.

Once everything was settled, the Heavenly Sword Sect Master still publicly announced that Xie Linshu was comprehending the sword Dao in seclusion within the sword tomb.

In the eyes of outsiders, that reason was far too normal. For an opportunity left by a Tribulation Transcendence great power, going into seclusion for ten or even a hundred years in order to gain something was perfectly possible.

After leaving the Heavenly Sword Sect, Xie Linshu spent his journey searching for challenges at his limits, and after half a year, he arrived at this dangerous land.

That was why, when he heard a completely unfamiliar cultivator call out his name, his first reaction was that he had been discovered.

That was what led to the killing move just now. Recognizing Ning Wu was definitely an unexpected delight.

So faced with his friend’s teasing, Xie Linshu hurriedly explained.

“No, I didn’t mean that. You suddenly appeared looking like this and even called out my name. It was an instinctive reaction.”

As Xie Linshu spoke, he walked over to Ning Wu. Recalling the other party’s blood-colored sword domain from just now, and sensing that he could not feel the true cultivation of the person before him, it was obvious that Ning Wu was still walking ahead of him.

He immediately felt relieved. After all, ever since he first met Ning Wu, he had been very clear on just how terrifying this person’s talent was. He had opportunities, so the other party naturally would not be lacking either.

“Didn’t you inherit the position of Blood Scion of the Blood Hall? Why did you run all the way here alone?”

After Xie Linshu left the Heavenly Sword Sect, he had heard that Ning Wu had become the Blood Scion of the Blood Hall, the future successor to the First Seat of the Blood Hall.

“Leaving a substitute over there solves the problem. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be staying inside the Heavenly Sword Sect in seclusion too?”

“Heh, you still understand me best.”

The two of them had already gone through training together before, so Xie Linshu naturally assumed that Ning Wu was the same as him: wanting to break through himself amid extreme danger and become stronger.

“Enough chatting for now. Let’s deal with the trouble in front of us first.”

Ning Wu received feedback from the divine sense he had released outward. The safe area that had just been cleared had once again been covered by demonic vines. This time, the one that emerged was even the main body—a Void Refining existence.

All the demonic vines within several thousand li were part of its body, and it also carried a vigorous restorative vitality.

What Ning Wu valued was the core of this ten-thousand-year demonic vine. Things like this were most useful to the Origin-Shattering Mirror.

“All right. Then let’s see who kills it first.”

Xie Linshu was full of fighting spirit. In his brief exchange with these demonic vines earlier, he had seen how difficult they were to deal with.

The ten-thousand-year demonic vine could not understand it either. A cultivator at early Soul Transformation and a cultivator at mid Soul Transformation saw it appear, yet not only did they not flee in panic, they instead became especially excited.

But at this moment, the fury of having its lair attacked left it unwilling to dwell on that. It only wanted to kill these two human cultivators and turn them into nourishment for its cultivation.

Demonic vines spanning several thousand li transformed into an endless green tide, surging in from every direction and sealing off all of their escape routes.

Because he had been hiding his identity, whenever other cultivators were present along the way, Ning Wu would not activate his blood seal. But now, he and Xie Linshu knew each other thoroughly, so there was no need for either side to hold back.

Moreover, the competition the other party had mentioned stirred up his desire to win.

Thirteen Plumes turned into blade after blade, cutting apart all the demonic vines that attacked from around him. The powerful defense attached to the exterior of the ten-thousand-year demonic vine did not have much effect.

The power of the blood seal linked them together. With Ning Wu as the center, the blood-colored sword domain appeared once more. This time, every strand of sword qi within the sword domain carried Wunian divine sense.

Like a flood pouring out, it charged toward the demonic vine’s main body, breaking through layer after layer of barriers blocking the way.

Xie Linshu’s offensive was just as fierce. Blue-white sword qi contained supreme sword intent and arrived directly beside the main body.

Bang, bang, bang!

Caught in a pincer attack from both sides, only now did the ten-thousand-year demonic vine see clearly that the two people before it had never thought about running. It endured the attacks it could not avoid head-on.

Although the demonic vine was confident in its own recovery ability, when it saw the wounds on its main body that refused to heal, its initial fury vanished completely, and it turned to search for a direction to escape.

These two human cultivators were far too terrifyingly strong. Its instincts told it that if it did not leave now, ten thousand years of cultivation would be wasted.

After sensing that the other party wanted to run, Ning Wu and Xie Linshu did not need to send voice transmissions. They cooperated naturally and trapped it.

No one would ever have imagined that two Soul Transformation cultivators could chase down a Void Refining enemy.

Unable to shake them off, and being constantly worn down at the same time, the ten-thousand-year demonic vine decided to blow itself up along with them.

Countless trunk-like vines rose from all around and gathered toward the main body, continuously tightening.

“Blood-Binding Curse.”

The blood seal power that had not been cleared from the wounds carved open by Thirteen Plumes spread across the demonic vine’s entire body under Ning Wu’s control.

Xie Linshu turned to face the dark-green “wall” that was constantly closing in. Sword intent took form and stood above him, sweeping across.

The demonic vine’s body was severed in its entirety. For the ten-thousand-year demonic vine, this blow was another injury added on top of its wounds.

The Blood-Binding Curse cast by Ning Wu firmly sealed the demonic vine’s core.

Ning Wu moved in close, wanting to extract the core. In the next second, he flashed aside to dodge Xie Linshu’s sword.

“This competition isn’t over yet.”

Thirteen Plumes turned and faced Xie Linshu.

“Over or not, you’ve already lost.”

Ning Wu, who had just been attacking Xie Linshu at close range, instantly transformed into a blood shadow and appeared at the demonic vine’s core, giving it a quick end.

He took the core that glowed with faint green light into his hand.

“I’ll count that as you being fast.”

Xie Linshu knew that Ning Wu cultivated a wide range of arts, and he could not stop the other party. That move just now should have gone straight for the demonic vine’s main body. A miscalculation, a miscalculation.

Without its cultivation core, the ten-thousand-year demonic vine’s main body rapidly shrank. In the end, only a section of root less than half a meter long remained.

After this one instance of cooperation, Ning Wu and Xie Linshu automatically formed a two-person team and continued exploring the various dangerous lands on their planned route.

For Ning Wu, Xie Linshu was not only a treasure-hunting tool, but also an extremely useful fighter. Ever since the two of them teamed up, the repair speed of the Origin-Shattering Mirror had increased greatly.

Correspondingly, their cultivation steadily rose after they made their way through one dangerous land after another.

Although Ning Wu did not mainly cultivate the sword, Xie Linshu could still learn a great deal from him.

For example, concepts of the sword Dao with different perspectives, such as all things being swords, or transforming the body into a sword.

Especially the line the other party emphasized: “With no women in your heart, your sword will naturally become divine.”

It expounded on the influence of love and romance when pursuing the path of the sword Dao. After hearing it, Xie Linshu nodded in agreement.

As for Ning Wu, the one who said this, he felt that he was giving the protagonist a precautionary warning. After all, during the rise of many xuanhuan male protagonists, there really were quite a few women who had emotional entanglements with them.

But all that was outdated now. What was popular these days was having no romantic plotline. Of course, he also could not bear to see a friend he knew become a scumbag who opened a harem in the future, so he snuffed it out at the source of his Dao heart.

Because their team efficiency was astonishing, the map of dangerous lands Ning Wu had initially prepared to explore was fully checked off in less than three years.

After that, they went to the dangerous lands map Xie Linshu had dug out from the archive pavilion of their Heavenly Sword Sect. There were two places on it that Ning Wu had not even found in his own investigations.

Their journey was filled with constant brushes with danger, yet they survived without disaster. Those days left the two of them feeling a little overconfident, so this trip to the nameless abyss taught them a vicious lesson.

The effect of the genius trait, Gets Stronger When Beaten, was pushed to the limit. He also had the Blood Scion robe’s enhancement on his body and had opened the Wunian Heavenly Eye, yet he was still beaten so badly he could not tell north from south.

It was purely because the gap in cultivation realm was too great. They were unlucky enough to run into an awakened demonic beast that was at least at mid Body Integration.

Of course, Xie Linshu’s situation was even worse than Ning Wu’s, but in the end, he survived at least.

The place they were in was temporarily safe enough and suitable for recovering from injuries.

They did not lack healing pills. What remained required time to recover.

Because he had touched the danger warning line, the passive effect of Ning Wu’s genius trait had never disappeared, so he was far better off than Xie Linshu, who was still heavily injured and unconscious.

“This is all I can help with. Pray that your protagonist halo kicks in soon.”

Ning Wu barely managed to set up a healing array for Xie Linshu. He had fed him all the pills he needed to feed him. The rest could only depend on Xie Linshu himself.

Afterward, Ning Wu’s mind returned to the Blood Seal Space to repair his injuries as quickly as possible.

Ning Wu was now at the eighth layer of Soul Transformation, while Xie Linshu was at the fourth layer of Soul Transformation. At present, the two of them could barely retreat in one piece from an enemy at early Body Integration when pushed to their limits.

Every minor realm in the Body Integration stage had an extremely exaggerated span. The middle stage and early stage were not on the same level at all.

This current situation was the result of them overturning the cart.

Ning Wu consciously kept track of time. After five days, once he had recovered a little, he began activating the third-volume heart method of the Blood Guidance Art, using the blood seal to create a self-healing cycle.

When he sensed movement from the healing array, he opened his eyes. Xie Linshu’s current condition was not as bad as he had expected. It should be the protagonist halo taking effect.

But after checking more carefully, Ning Wu frowned. According to the feedback from his Wunian divine sense, there seemed to be something off about Xie Linshu’s divine soul.

He had never had a chance to probe the other party’s divine soul before. Now, with serious injuries causing the divine soul to become unstable, that was very normal, but the problem with him did not lie in that area.

Wanting to investigate the answer, Ning Wu pushed his Wunian divine sense to its limit to trace the source.

“Ahem.”

His divine sense was bounced back by a force, and Ning Wu, who was already far from his peak state, endured the backlash.

“You don’t know what’s good for you. I shouldn’t have gone out of my way.”

Ning Wu leaned against the stone wall and swallowed a pill that treated divine sense, but he also confirmed that the mysterious force was the protagonist’s self-protection program.

The problem with Xie Linshu’s divine soul was most likely related to it as well. For the moment, he could not see anything.

“As expected, protagonists always have some inexplicable thing on them.”

After confirming that Xie Linshu was repairing himself, Ning Wu did not bother with him again after that.

It was roughly half a month before Xie Linshu finally woke up from his coma. Ning Wu had already recovered sixty percent.

“I’m not dead?”

Xie Linshu looked at Ning Wu. The image in his mind was still stuck on the final fight. He had never been so close to death before.

“Anyone could die and you still wouldn’t. How’s your recovery? If things are looking optimistic, we can wait a few more days and leave this place.”

Ning Wu could not see through Xie Linshu’s automatic repair process, so he asked directly.

“Huh?”

Xie Linshu propped himself up and checked his injuries. He discovered that basically only external injuries remained. Looking inward at the spiritual sea within his dantian, he saw streams of abundant sword qi still repairing him continuously.

This was the first time he had seen such a situation. After thinking it over, he could only attribute it to his sword Dao mutating during battle. In any case, his current situation was extremely optimistic.

No accidents happened during their final few days of recuperation. When they left, they did not alert the high-level demonic beasts inside at any point in the process.

The grade of the things inside this place was indeed high, but without the strength to force their way through, death would come just as quickly. If they really wanted to come again, the two of them would at least have to advance to Void Refining first.

After leaving, the two of them placed an important marker on this location.

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