Chapter 259: Chapter 259: Ancient Cultivator?

Ever since they met, Su Zhenhe had kept his right hand on his sword hilt beneath his robes for most of the time. Xu Yunfan had long since sensed the malice hidden deep within him.

’This sword...’

HUM!

A crisp sound, like a jade bead falling onto a plate, quietly emerged.

The moment the blade left its scabbard, a cold glint flashed like lightning, its pure light illuminating the surroundings and making them seem starkly empty.

The instant Xu Yunfan’s knuckles touched the hilt, he felt a sharp pain in his palm. This Three-foot Cyan Blade had yet to taste blood, but the sharp energy emanating from its edge was already enough to cut his skin.

As the spine of the sword fully cleared the python-skin sword scabbard, a dragon-like hum erupted from the bronze guard, causing the stone walls to reverberate with a ceaseless drone.

"What a fine sword!"

Even with Xu Yunfan’s current skill in weapon forging, he was still amazed.

The body of the sword seemed to be condensed from Ice Soul. Through its translucent surface, one could see dark silver Cloud Patterns flowing across the blade. As the longsword moved, the exquisitely crafted design made the Cloud Patterns on the blade seem to ripple like water.

Three inches from the sword’s edge, floating dust motes split silently in half, as if an invisible blade hung in the air before the physical one.

A Treasure Artifact!

If not for the fact that it lacked a self-generated spirituality, it could easily be called a Divine Weapon.

"What a pity..."

Xu Yunfan glanced at the bead of blood seeping from his fingertip. This sword was specialized, pursuing sharpness to the absolute extreme. Even his Horizontal Training Body couldn’t withstand it.

This also meant the longsword lacked hardness. A simple flick of a finger against its spine would shatter it like glass.

This sword was forged for a single, fatal strike.

After examining it for a long while, Xu Yunfan pulled the sword scabbard from Su Zhenhe’s body, tied it to his waist, and sheathed the sword.

’This sword might have an unexpected use. If Su Zhenhe had attacked earlier...’

Xu Yunfan looked down at the Dragon Scale Armor he wore. ’Without this armor, Su Zhenhe probably would have struck me down long ago.’

Suppressing his thoughts, Xu Yunfan turned back to look at the man atop the Blood Sacrificial Jade Platform.

He had already gauged the strength at which the Blood Sacrificial Jade absorbed Blood Qi from the earlier test.

’It can only handle up to the Flesh Refining Realm at most; anything beyond that is unsustainable. The fact that this world only allows Martial Artists of the Outer Three Harmonies to enter must be related to this.’

He pressed his knuckles against a raised, dragon-like pattern on his Dragon Scale Armor, the chilling sensation suppressing his turbulent thoughts.

As he turned, the scarlet mist rising from the Blood Sacrificial Jade Platform had just passed the third Coiling Dragon Pillar. The figure in the green robes now hung suspended in the center of the mist, the pure light flowing from his sleeves mingling with the bloody glow to create an eerie crimson-purple color.

Below the nine-tiered jade steps, Zhou Tianyan’s once-wide throat had shrunk into an opening like a dried-up well.

The Profound Turtle Armor he had been so proud of in life was now squirming as if alive. Its golden-threaded armor leaves were embedded deep in his ashen flesh, and the bloody light coursing through his meridians flowed along the patterns of the steps, converging on the high platform.

Seven disciples of the Jiuyao Sect were frozen in struggling poses. Crystalline blood-sand had congealed in the folds of their skin, which clung tightly to their bones. A ghostly blue phosphorescence floated in their sunken eye sockets, as if their Divine Souls had been forcibly ripped out by some ancient Curse Technique.

After a long silence, Xu Yunfan pulled out the Ginseng Child and took a deep breath of its Qi of Ginseng. The Qi, which had once felt scorching, now flowed through his limbs and bones like gentle streams of warmth in his current Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He raised his hand and lightly touched the platform. A suction force suddenly rose from the Blood Sacrificial Jade, causing his body to tense slightly. After a moment, the look in his eyes relaxed.

’Good, it’s about what I expected. My Strength has now transformed my blood and entered my marrow, and my Blood Qi is as solid as a fortress. The Blood Sacrificial Jade has no way of drawing it out.’

He looked up at the youth seated on the high platform. As he hesitated for a moment, the Extreme Dao Relic Shell suddenly squirmed. He could now sense it conveying a sense of urgency.

’This is...’

After a long silence, Xu Yunfan lowered his gaze to where his fingertip touched the Blood Sacrificial Jade. Dark red patterns slithered along his nail like living snakes.

The suction force was clearly gnawing at the seams of his bones, but it was shattered by the roaring tide of marrow within him. The Golden Marrow Power, unique to the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, circulated throughout his body. Every drop of his Essence Blood was like molten lava wrapped around a star. The greedy sucking sounds from the Blood Sacrificial Jade finally turned into unwilling whimpers.

The nine tiers of steps coiled beneath his feet like a dragon’s spine, each one built and forged from Blood Sacrificial Jade.

He gripped his Thunderfire Qilin Hammer, intending to hurl it with the force of falling thunder and fire, when the clear voice of the woman in white suddenly appeared in his mind.

"Walk up. If he is awakened, this opportunity will pass. This world is a cage. If you don’t use this chance to break free, your path to the Immortal Dao will be severed, and Longevity will be impossible. I can protect you. I swear on my Divine Soul."

Hearing the woman’s voice emerge in the real world for the first time, Xu Yunfan’s expression froze in a slight daze.

After stopping to think for a long while, Xu Yunfan made up his mind. As he stepped onto the first stair, the soles of his boots striking the jade produced a metallic clang. The previously calm Blood Sacrificial Jade suddenly erupted with a bloody light, and the suction force instantly doubled.

His expression didn’t change. A crimson glow burst from the raised, dragon-like pattern on his Dragon Scale Armor, forcibly cutting off the suction.

Xu Yunfan ascended one step at a time, his footing firm and steady.

The final step shimmered with a glassy luster. The moment Xu Yunfan lifted his foot, the floor tiles of the entire White Jade Palace simultaneously lit up with constellations.

The dragon scales on the back of his neck suddenly bristled. The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace leaped into his palm of its own accord, its body vibrating as it let out a deafening roar.

When the sole of his boot finally touched the edge of the high platform, a crisp sound like shattering porcelain came from deep within the Blood Sacrificial Jade, as if some thousand-year-old restriction had been broken.

The face of the seated youth finally became clearly visible.

Xu Yunfan’s pupils trembled slightly. The man’s features were too perfect to be that of a Mortal Body.

As he moved closer to look, he discovered the man’s face was completely poreless. The texture of his skin was like the finest white jade, polished repeatedly by a master artisan for a thousand years. Not even the finest hair existed on it.

The youth’s fingers, resting on his knees, suddenly twitched. What flowed beneath his fingernails was liquid starlight.

Just as he was examining him closely, Xu Yunfan suddenly heard a nonchalant voice.

"Have you figured it out?"

The cold voice, like metal striking stone, exploded abruptly, startling Xu Yunfan so much that the Dragon Scale Armor Leaves on the back of his neck stood on end.

He snapped his eyes up and met two deep, turquoise pools. The youth seated on the Blood Sacrificial Jade Platform had opened his eyes at some unknown moment. The clear light within them was like moonlight falling into a Cold Pool, each ripple carrying strange trails of light.

HUM!

The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace let out an unprecedentedly sharp shriek. A Divine Weapon has spirituality, and Xu Yunfan could clearly feel what its spiritual nature was conveying through the hilt...

Fear. Trembling!

Xu Yunfan retreated seven steps in a row. His Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body scraped against the ground, sending out gilded sparks, a testament to the terrifying pressure contained within that single glance.

The clear light around the youth now seemed to turn into a liquid cloud, meandering down along the infant-like palm seals that roamed the surface of the Blood Sacrificial Jade. Three hundred and sixty stellar phantoms emerged from the void.

CRACK!

The youth’s jade-like fingertip trembled slightly. Xu Yunfan was shocked to find the Strength in his body surging uncontrollably toward the "Primordial" token at his waist, the one he had taken from the skeleton in the Profound Daoist Sect.

"This is my token. How convenient that you delivered it to me."

Surveying the armor on Xu Yunfan, a trace of surprise appeared on his face.

"I didn’t expect such changes in this place. Two thousand years of nourishment from Blood Food has finally produced something interesting. If I had given you all a little more time, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be qualified to come here."

A smile like cracks in ice spread across the youth’s lips, but his voice was like the overlapping wails of ten thousand vengeful souls in a Bronze Cauldron.

"Young friend, the fortune of your Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm is far more to my taste than the Innate Primordial Qi of those nine fools."

As he spoke, the youth’s fingers gently formed a Seal Technique.

The moment the youth formed the seal, the three hundred and sixty strange patterns on the surface of the Blood Sacrificial Jade Platform erupted with a cyan light.

Xu Yunfan felt a crisp sound, like gold striking jade, erupt from all the bones and sinews in his body.

The formidable physique he had gained from the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm was frozen solid by the youth’s single Seal Technique.