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

Chi Yue was punished with solitary confinement for indefinite periods. At the same time, the sect leader dispatched Elder Xue Tu Zi, a second-level Origin Emperor—this man cultivated the Blood Fiend Technique, his power increasing with each death. His belt bore ninety-nine human skulls; for each kill, he would pierce a bone bead. When Xue Tu Zi received the order, he was sitting in his cave, holding the hundredth bone bead in his hand, unpierced. He put the bead down, stood up, and walked out of his cave. The wind was strong, billowing his blood-red robes.

Qin Yuan sensed danger deep within the mine. It wasn't that he heard anything, but rather that the bone blade on his left arm was trembling. Having devoured the Origin Emperor's core, the bone blade had acquired sentience and could sense killing intent of equal strength. Qin Yuan retrieved the Origin Crystal, leaped out of the mine, and ran towards the depths of the wilderness. He ran very fast, the bone blade on his left arm whistling sharply in the wind.

Blood Butcher arrived even faster. He landed ten miles ahead of Qin Yuan, blasting a crater in the ground. Qin Yuan stopped, and the two faced off in the wilderness. Blood Butcher's face was deathly pale, devoid of color, and his lips were black. His eyes were red, like two drops of blood.

"You're Bone Blade Qin Yuan?"

Qin Yuan remained silent.

Blood Butcher raised his hand and slammed down. His source energy condensed into a gigantic, blood-red palm, five zhang wide, obscuring the sun. Qin Yuan's bone blade met the attack head-on; the giant palm collided with the bone blade, unleashing a piercing metallic sound. Qin Yuan was blasted a hundred zhang away, leaving a deep trench in the ground, coughing up blood. Cracks appeared on the bone blade, extending from the tip to the base.

Blood Butcher sneered. "An ant dares to contend with the Source Emperor?"

Qin Yuan turned and ran. He wasn't stupid; if he couldn't win, he ran. He ran into the mountains, weaving between peaks. Blood Butcher pursued relentlessly, faster than him, but Qin Yuan specifically sought out narrow crevices. The mountain crevices were only wide enough for one person, and Blood Butcher, being tall, got stuck twice. The first time, he got stuck around the waist; he smashed the rocks on either side with his palms, sending debris flying. The second time, he got stuck around the shoulder; he forced his way through, the rock scraping away a layer of flesh from his shoulder, revealing the bone.

Qin Yuan seized the opportunity, leaping out of the crack and thrusting the bone blade towards Xue Tuzi's back. Xue Tuzi didn't turn around; instead, he struck back with a palm, the bone blade piercing through Qin Yuan's palm and protruding from the back of his hand. However, the force of Xue Tuzi's palm strike also hit Qin Yuan's left arm, causing numerous cracks and dislocations in the bones from his shoulder to his elbow. Qin Yuan almost lost his grip on the bone blade.

Blood Butcher was enraged, drawing his bone blade, blood gushing from the wound on his palm. He pursued even more relentlessly, each strike carrying murderous intent. Qin Yuan fought and fled, without sleep or rest for three days and three nights. He sustained over a dozen wounds: three ribs were broken from a palm strike to his left ribs; his right leg was fractured from a falling rock; and his back was grazed by palm prints, the flesh torn and ripped. He bandaged his wounds with bandages torn from corpses, some still stained with other people's blood.

On the fourth day, Qin Yuan fled to the edge of the Chaos Origin Realm. Ahead lay a bottomless abyss, shrouded in darkness, from which the faint roars of strange beasts echoed. At the edge of the abyss stood a stone tablet, inscribed with four large characters—"Abyss of No Return." Blood Butcher caught up, standing on the cliff edge, and sneered: "Abyss of No Return? Going in means death. You choose—die by my hand, or be torn to pieces by the strange beasts?"

Without hesitation, Qin Yuan leaped. The wind whistled past his ears, and his descent accelerated. He plunged his bone blade into the cliff face, the blade sparking as it scraped against the rock, slowing his fall, but the impact was too great. The blade slipped from the rock, and he plummeted further. He plunged again, slipped again. Five times in a row, until he landed with both legs broken, white, bloody bones protruding from his flesh. He used the bone blade to prop himself up, but his left leg snapped with a crack. He stood on one leg, the bone blade supporting him on the ground.

The bottom of the abyss was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The stench of blood and decay in the air was overwhelming. In the distance, green lights flickered—the eyes of strange beasts. A shadow leopard pounced from the darkness, moving so fast it was just a blur. Qin Yuan dodged, his bone blade slicing open the leopard's belly; its entrails spilled out, warm and steaming, falling to the ground. The leopard collapsed, twitching a few times, then lay still. More green lights appeared, and a dozen shadow leopards surrounded it, their footsteps light, making no sound on the gravel.

Qin Yuan didn't retreat. His bone blade swept across, and the head of a leopard flew off. Another sweep, and the waists of two more leopards were severed. With a series of bone blade strikes, the corpses of eight shadow leopards piled around him, blood soaking the ground. The remaining four shadow leopards turned and fled, disappearing into the darkness. Qin Yuan dissected the leopard carcasses, took out their inner cores, and swallowed them raw. The inner cores were cold; they slid down his throat and into his stomach, where spiritual energy surged, burning like flames. The fractures in his legs began to heal under the nourishment of the spiritual energy, the bones cracking and slowly setting. He leaned against the rock wall, panting, his chest heaving.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the depths of the abyss. It wasn't just one beast, but a very large one. With each step, pebbles on the ground sprang up. Qin Yuan gripped the bone blade tightly; the cracks on it had healed, black lines spreading from his arm to the blade, filling the fissures. The bone blade had become even darker and shinier.

A colossal black beast, three zhang tall, emerged from the darkness. Resembling a giant ape, its body was covered in black scales that gleamed coldly in the green light. Its eyes were blood-red, like two burning embers. A scaled giant ape. Seeing the leopard carcass on the ground, it roared, the sound waves causing rubble to fall from the stone walls.

Qin Yuan didn't wait; he charged forward. The scaly giant ape slammed down with a fist larger than Qin Yuan's body. A large crater exploded in the ground, sending debris flying. Qin Yuan dodged, his bone blade aimed at the giant ape's knee. The blade pierced the scales, penetrating only an inch before getting stuck. The giant ape's scales were harder than iron, and the bone blade couldn't be pulled out. The giant ape grabbed Qin Yuan, gripping his waist, and slammed him against a stone wall. Qin Yuan's back struck the wall, causing half of it to collapse, and breaking several more of his ribs. The giant ape opened its massive jaws, snapping at Qin Yuan's head. Its jaws contained three rows of teeth, each as long as a finger, and saliva dripped down, landing on Qin Yuan's face.

Qin Yuan used his bone blade to brace against the giant ape's upper and lower jaws. The bone blade was positioned horizontally in its massive mouth; the upper jaw pressed down, while the lower jaw pushed up. The bone blade bent under the pressure, making a crunching sound, as if it were about to break. A bone fragment from Qin Yuan's severed right shoulder pierced the giant ape's upper jaw. The fragment penetrated the soft flesh of the jaw and embedded itself in the bone. The giant ape cried out in pain, loosened its grip, and shook its head, throwing Qin Yuan away. He crashed to the ground and rolled several times.

The giant ape clutched its eyes and screamed in agony. Qin Yuan landed and instead of retreating, advanced, his bone blade extending and piercing the giant ape's left eye. The bone blade went through the eye socket, piercing the eyeball and into the brain. The giant ape's body stiffened; its hands were still covering its eyes, but it remained motionless. It crashed to the ground with a thud, creating a large crater, and the ground trembled.

Qin Yuan dissected the giant ape and extracted its source core. The source core was the size of a fist, entirely black with blood-red patterns on its surface. He sat cross-legged and began refining the source core. The power of the source core surged into his meridians, his spiritual energy boiled, and the bone blade on his left arm evolved once more—changing from black to black-gold, with golden runes appearing on its surface. He stood up, swung the bone blade, and cleaved a trench more than ten feet deep into the abyss's stone wall.