I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

Ling Shuangyin snapped out of her daze and quickly clasped her hands in a salute.

"Thank you... thank you for saving my life, fellow Daoist. May I ask your honorable name? And my sister's..."

"Qin Yuan," Qin Yuan interrupted her, "Taoist disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sect. Your sister asked me to come to Nanzhou on a matter, and by the way—"

He paused.

"She asked me to look after you."

Ling Shuangyin was stunned.

My sister asked a man to take care of her?

Countless thoughts flashed through her mind, but her face remained expressionless.

"So it's Qin Daozi. I've long admired your name, Shuangyin."

Qin Yuan glanced at her.

This girl is more lively than her sister; at least she knows how to say polite things.

"What fragments were you referring to earlier?"

Ling Shuangyin hesitated for a moment, then took out a palm-sized, pitch-black fragment from her bosom.

Qin Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

Fragments of the War God's Decree.

The third one.

Seeing him staring at the fragments, Ling Shuangyin felt a sense of unease and instinctively took a step back.

"Qin Daozi, I discovered this in a ruin deep in the wilderness. It will be of great use to my Xuantian Sect, we cannot..."

"I know."

Qin Yuan withdrew his gaze.

"Keep it safe. Don't let anyone see it."

Ling Shuangyin was stunned.

She had assumed Qin Yuan would try to snatch it, given the power of that finger strike she had witnessed firsthand. If Qin Yuan truly intended to take it, she wouldn't be able to stop him.

But he didn't.

He simply told her to keep it safe.

A complex mix of emotions welled up in Ling Shuangyin's heart.

"Qin Daozi...you saved us, yet you don't want this fragment. What do you want? As long as Shuangyin can do it, I will do everything in my power to help."

Qin Yuan remained silent for a moment.

"Take me to that ruin."

Ling Shuangyin was taken aback.

"That ruin is very dangerous. My fellow disciples and I risked our lives to escape, and two of us even perished. Although Qin Daozi is powerful, he..."

"lead the way."

Qin Yuan's tone was calm, yet brooked no argument.

Ling Shuangyin looked at him and suddenly understood why her sister had asked this man to "take care" of her.

Because he doesn't need to take care of anyone at all.

He just needs others not to hold him back.

She took a deep breath and nodded.

"it is good."

Deep within the Bloodbone Wasteland, Qin Yuan stopped in front of a half-collapsed ancient palace.

The palace was in ruins, with only a colossal wall hundreds of feet high and a few rickety stone pillars remaining. The wall was covered with dense runes, most of which were now blurred, but some still faintly glowed.

Qin Yuan's gaze fell on that wall.

There was a dent on the wall, the shape and size of which perfectly matched the fragment in Ling Shuangyin's hand.

"The fragments were taken from there," Ling Shuangyin said in a low voice. "We triggered a restriction at the time, and two of our junior brothers died before we could escape. After the restriction was triggered, the runes on this wall lit up."

Qin Yuan approached the giant wall, extended his divine sense, and carefully sensed the runes.

The runes were extremely ancient, even older than those he had seen in the Temple of War. The power fluctuations they contained were also far more violent and dangerous than those in the Temple of War.

But faintly, he felt a familiar resonance.

He took out two fragments of the God of War Token from his pocket.

Both fragments glowed simultaneously, emitting a soft humming sound.

The runes on the wall sensed this fluctuation and shone even brighter.

Qin Yuan did not rush forward.

He stepped back a few paces and said to Ling Shuangyin, "You all need to step back a bit."

Ling Shuangyin hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and led her four junior brothers away from a distance of a hundred feet.

Qin Yuan took a deep breath, activated the two fragments of the War God Token, and slowly approached the giant wall.

hum-

As they drew closer, the resonance between the fragments and the runes grew stronger. The runes on the wall began to twist and recombine, eventually coalescing into a rotating portal of light at the center of the giant wall.

Beyond the portal, a hazy, gray space could be faintly seen.

Qin Yuan stepped in without hesitation.

The moment you step through the portal, the world spins.

When Qin Yuan regained his footing, he found himself in a completely different world.

The sky was a hazy gray, devoid of sun, moon, and stars. Beneath his feet lay an endless expanse of black earth, barren of vegetation, dotted only with scattered bones and broken weapons. In the distance, the outline of a massive mountain range was faintly visible, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that it was not a mountain—

It was a corpse.

A corpse of indescribable size lay sprawled across the land, stretching for miles. The body was half-rotted, revealing stark white bones, but a human form was still discernible.

That was the corpse of an ancient powerful being.

Qin Yuan was deeply shocked.

To leave behind such a massive corpse, this powerful individual was at least at the Mahayana stage in life, and perhaps even—

The period of tribulation.

He composed himself and walked toward the corpse.

The closer you get, the heavier the pressure becomes.

It was a sense of oppression from the depths of his soul, as if an invisible giant was looking down at him, scrutinizing whether he was qualified to step into this forbidden zone.

Qin Yuan gritted his teeth and persevered, moving forward step by step.

The "Undying Body of the Universe Stars" activated automatically, with pale silver starlight flowing across its skin, resisting the oppressive force. The Nine-Turn Nascent Soul sat firmly in its Purple Mansion, releasing boundless spiritual power to support its will.

Finally, he arrived at the feet of the corpse.

It was a giant foot capable of crushing mountains, and even after rotting for thousands of years, it still exuded a chilling aura.

Beside the giant foot, a sword was stuck.

The sword was broken and cracked, and a black token was embedded in the hilt.

Fragments of the War God's Decree.

The fourth one.

Qin Yuan did not step forward immediately.

He noticed that there were no bones within a hundred feet of the sword.

Those scattered bones in the distance seemed to have all tried to approach the sword in life, and then—

It was erased by some force.

Qin Yuan focused his mind and sensed it.

An invisible sword aura permeated the area around the sword. The aura was extremely faint, yet indescribably pure, containing the will to destroy everything.

Heavenly Punishment Sword Intent

Moreover, it was far more complete than the remnant of the intent he had obtained.

Qin Yuan took a deep breath and slowly walked forward.

The moment they stepped into the hundred-zhang range, sword energy suddenly surged forth!

The invisible sword intent surged in from all directions like a storm, tearing at his body and soul! Qin Yuan's protective aura shattered instantly, his clothes were cut with countless fine gashes, and fine beads of blood seeped from his skin!

But he did not back down.

He gritted his teeth and activated the "Undying Body of the Universe Stars," pushing his physical strength to its limit! At the same time, the remnant of the Heavenly Punishment Sword Intent he obtained from the Temple of War Gods resonated within his body, helping him to offset some of the sword energy!

step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

With each step he took, the sword energy grew stronger. By the time he reached fifty feet, Qin Yuan was covered in blood, and his bones creaked under the strain.

But he still didn't stop.

Forty feet.

Thirty zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Twenty zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Ten zhang (approximately 33 meters).

The sword energy was powerful enough to tear through the void! Qin Yuan's vision began to blur, his consciousness began to waver, leaving only one obsession—

Get that token.

Five zhang (approximately 10 meters).

Three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

One zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).

Qin Yuan reached out and grasped the sword hilt.

In an instant, countless images flooded my mind!

He saw an endless battlefield, where countless powerful warriors clashed, the heavens and earth collapsed, and stars fell. He saw a towering giant, wielding a giant sword, fighting alone against countless demonic beings. He saw the giant finally exhausted, torn apart by the demonic beings, and in his dying moments, he condensed his life's cultivation into tokens, which scattered in all directions.