The Prodigies War

After receiving the answer he wanted, Lin Xun’s Green Wood Dao Body suppressed the Old Bronze Tree into the Dao Endless Pagoda once again.

The Old Bronze Tree might come in use when they searched for the origin root spirits of the Sacred Kunwu Tree, so it was not quite the time to kill it yet.

Not far away, Lin Xun was meditating quietly.

The previous intense battle and slaughter had honed his cultivation to a rare level, while his control over dao laws had become more refined and skillful.

He had a feeling that if he could fight his way to the ninth level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory, his martial arts, cultivation, and great dao power would reach a state of perfection!

At that time, he might need to prepare for his breakthrough into the Emperor Stage...

A day later.

Lin Xun woke up from his meditative state and left the underground cavern.

The blood-red world remained as dark and oppressive as ever, with a biting cold wind howling relentlessly.

Lin Xun wandered through the world alone and soon encountered an ‘opponent.’

A thin old man draped in a blood-stained robe was hiding beneath a mountain peak, his body broken and battered, devouring and absorbing the power of a group of fiend spirits.

Boom!

Lin Xun leaped into the air and with a light step forward, the mountain peak crumbled with a loud explosion. A ferocious and violent light flickered in the thin old man’s eyes.

“Who did that?”

The thin old man stormed out, his face livid with rage, but the sight of Lin Xun left him momentarily dumbstruck, feeling as if his soul had left his body.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he frantically fled for his life.

Lin Xun stared blankly at him. When did a fiend spirit with strength of the Emperor Stage become so cowardly?

With that thought, he chased after his target.

“Little bastard, with your strength, you can roam the seventh level, why are you still on the sixth level?” Seeing Lin Xun closing in, the thin old man let out a panicked roar.

This surprised Lin Xun even more. When did fiend spirits become so kind? They even remind me that it's time to leave...

Just when Lin Xun was about to respond, he saw the thin old man seem to be running for dear life, vanishing from view in an instant.

Lin Xun contemplated and in the end gave up on ​​continuing the pursuit.

The old man was clearly frightened to death, and even if Lin Xun caught up to him, he was unlikely to offer any ‘surprises’ in battle.

Next, Lin Xun proceeded on his journey to hunt for opponents.

To his bewilderment, whenever he located a target, they would flee in panic like frightened rabbits, giving him no opportunity to strike.

This happened more than once. Regardless of how fierce his opponents were, they all fled for their lives once they saw him.

“Run, that maniac is on the loose again!”

“Argh! Does he want to get rid of us all?”

“Ahh, I finally managed to gain spiritual intelligence, only to run into a ruthless monster. How unfair is the heavens…”

“The reputation of us fiend spirits has been utterly ruined!”

“Quickly run! Quickly run!”

Similar panicked roars and cries echoed continuously throughout the sixth level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory. Wherever Lin Xun passed, he was like a bringer of disaster, scaring the fiend spirits into a frantic retreat.

Finally, Lin Xun captured an Emperor-level fiend spirit that failed to escape in time.

However, before a smile formed on his face, the fiend spirit that resembled a lion collapsed to his knees and begged for mercy.

Lin Xun’s burning fighting spirit was instantly extinguished.

He had come to the Dark Hidden Purgatory for training, yet all the fiend spirits in the sixth level knelt down upon seeing him. How was he supposed to train like this?

“It looks like I really should leave…” he let out a long sigh.

He had more or less figured out that after the bloody battle yesterday, the fiend spirits in the sixth level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory were all utterly terrified and dared not face him head-on.

“Get up.” Lin Xun turned around and left.

The fiend spirit kneeling on the ground went blank for a moment, and then burst into tears of joy. “That fierce guy actually spared me… He actually spared me...”

On this day, Lin Xun left the sixth level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory and headed for the seventh.

It was also on this day that all the Emperor-level fiend spirits in the sixth level felt a huge weight lifting off them and rejoiced in celebration. To them, it was as if they had rid themselves of the bringer of disaster.

If other cultivators witnessed this scene, they would undoubtedly be dumbfounded. After all, fiend spirits were among the most vicious creatures in existence, and Emperor-level fiend spirits were nothing short of terrifying.

But now, all Emperor-level fiend spirits in the sixth level were frightened of Lin Xun…

Even in the countless years that followed, the Emperor-level fiend spirits could not erase the memory of the young man who had filled them with endless fear and terror.

……

The seventh level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory.

The world was shrouded in darkness and the terrifying pressure in the air was enough to crush anyone below the Emperor Stage.

However, Lin Xun was an exception.

From the moment he stepped into this place, every step demanded him to fully mobilize his cultivation, and if he wished to advance faster, he had to forcibly blast away the oppressive energy that was in every corner.

Lin Xun was not surprised but instead happy about this. To him, such a place would bring immeasurable benefits to his cultivation.

“I wonder where Silver Bat Ghost Emperor is...”

He mused as he moved forward. Back when he was in the fourth level of the Dark Hidden Purgatory, the man in green had told him that the other half of the Dao Skyless Spear was in the hands of a fiend spirit called Silver Bat Ghost Emperor on the seventh level.

Of course Lin Xun would not miss out on the opportunity.

Time flew by, and before he knew it, two hours had passed.

To his surprise, despite slowing his pace and traveling nearly ten thousand miles, he had yet to encounter a single fiend spirit, let alone Emperor-level fiend spirits.

It seemed as if he was the only one left in this vast world—silent and desolate, oppressive and stifling.

He did not give up and continued forward.

Half a day later, he had consumed nearly a third of his physical strength just from resisting the oppressive force between heaven and earth.

Despite that, he still saw no trace of a single fiend spirit!

What was going on?

While he was filled with puzzlement, he suddenly felt the Dao Skyless Spear buzz in his hand, as if it was being drawn toward something in a faraway place

Lin Xun’s eyes lit up, and he took out the Dao Skyless Spear without hesitation, and began to observe quietly.

After a moment, he suddenly turned around and looked into the distance. Is the other half of the Dao Skyless Spear there?

Taking a deep breath, he quelled the urge within him and chose not to act immediately.

He stood still for a moment, glancing around, and then launched into action.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The five great dao bodies appeared at the same time, each taking out some divine materials, and working together to craft array flags. Some focused on refining the materials, while others inscribed dao rune patterns. Everything was carried out in an orderly manner and with remarkable speed.

Soon, array flags were completed one after another and were personally placed in different locations by Lin Xun himself.

Few moments later.

Ninety-nine array flags were now scattered throughout the surrounding area, swaying in the wind as the detailed dao rune patterns on them glimmered with a strange and unfathomable light.

Then, Lin Xun took out hundreds of millions of dao crystals, stacking them into a hill and placing them at the core of the array.

Those dao crystals would act as the source of the array!

After finishing all of this, Lin Xun had exhausted more than half of his strength, and sweat beaded on his forehead. The key point was that the crafting of those array flags had consumed an immense amount of energy.

Without wasting any time, he immediately sat down cross-legged on the ground, took out two high-grade Dao Essence Crystals and began to replenish his strength.

When his strength recovered to eighty percent, a sound wave echoed through the air, resembling a divine chant, a heavenly melody, or perhaps the resounding sound of the great dao.

The entire world seemed to become holy, with faint visions of celestial flowers cascading from the sky, golden lotuses springing from the earth, mighty dragons soaring, and golden phoenixes singing melodiously.

There were also sages reciting scriptures, deities smiling as they discussed the mysteries of the Dao, azure deer strolling gracefully, and spiritual monkeys joyfully leaping with peaches in their hands…

There were also towering ancient trees, verdant bamboo forests, babbling streams and swirling auspicious light in the air, creating a scene straight out of a dream.

Suddenly, it seemed that this place was no longer the dark, oppressive blood-stained purgatory, but a blissful land, like the abode of the gods.

Lin Xun opened his eyes from meditation, only to be astonished by the scene before him.

This is—?

As soon as a thought came into his mind, a kind voice that shook his mind echoed through the holy world.

“Little friend, this is where you will attain the dao and become an Emperor.”

“Attain the dao and become an Emperor?” Lin Xun mumbled, looking around. It felt as though he had entered a paradise, a world filled with peace and tranquility.

“Yes, what you see before you is the sign that the opportunity to attain the dao has arrived. It may seem like an illusion, but it is in fact, an auspicious omen of attaining the dao.” That voice rang again.

“Who are you?” Lin Xun asked.

“I am the voice of your heart.” The faint, ethereal voice sounded, “The voice of your heart can’t be seen and it can only be heard by you, echoing the strongest desires within your heart.

“Act quickly. If you let this opportunity slip by, you won’t know how long you’ll have to wait—perhaps thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, or even...you may never encounter it again in your lifetime...”

Lin Xun couldn’t help but chuckle out loud, his dark eyes glimmering with a mysterious and unfathomable light.

With the power of All-Seeing Eyes, he could tell that everything before him was merely an illusion, like the reflection of the moon in water. The world around him remained the same dark, blood-soaked world.

It was that voice that gave rise to the illusion that directly reflected his state of mind and spirit!

This was what surprised Lin Xun the most. Without the All-Seeing Eye, he would have failed to realize that his state of mind and spirit had already been affected by that voice.

Undoubtedly, the owner of that voice was no ordinary character!

“The voice of my heart...or should I call you Silver Bat Ghost Emperor instead?”

As Lin Xun spoke aloud, he got up from the ground.

His dark eyes, as sharp as lightning, pierced through all illusions and fixed on a spot far away beneath the blood-red sky.

There, an unassuming silver bat stood!