A Sword That Creates Storms
Deep in the black gorge, that sword emitted a faint, ghostly glow.
And it wasn't just sitting there—
its low humming was the very thing generating the Qi Storm.
A single sword.
Creating a storm powerful enough to shred Sixth-rank beasts.
Lin Ye's curiosity surged instantly.
Around the sword, there was no other energy source.
It had been here for a long, long time.
Nearby lay piles of white bones.
Lin Ye barely needed to think.
These were people who came to seize the sword…
and were devoured by it instead.
"This sword…"
"It lures people to take it… then eats them."
Lin Ye picked up a storage ring.
It was dead—completely nonfunctional.
Likely bound to the owner's soul. Once the owner died, the ring shattered too.
Others were simply ruined by time.
This sword had existed for who knew how long.
The Sword Tries to Devour Him
The Nine Nether Blood Sea radiated intense desire.
Lin Ye didn't take chances.
He released a strand of qi from afar, trying to pull the sword free using qi alone.
But the moment his qi touched it—
A terrifying suction force erupted.
Like a man dying of thirst falling into a river—
it drank with madness.
"Not good."
The sword's sinister power surged into Lin Ye's body.
He couldn't even sever it in time.
That power rammed into him, violently stripping his sea of qi.
"Nine-Turn Asura Art!"
Lin Ye remained calm.
He'd lived through too much to panic now.
Only calm solved problems.
The Nine-Turn Asura Art roared, slowing the theft.
Still—
his qi was being devoured.
But Lin Ye's eyes turned cold.
"So you want to swallow?"
"Fine."
"I have a place where you can swallow until you burst."
Dragged Into the Blood Sea
His spiritual sense slammed down like an iron net, engulfing the sword.
The sword trembled, trying to resist.
A pulse of power surged outward to push Lin Ye back.
But the next second—
the Nine Nether Blood Sea's boundless power wrapped the sword like a crimson tide.
WHOOSH!
Lin Ye's body jolted.
His mind went briefly dizzy, drowning in chaos—
then stabilized.
He knew immediately:
The Blood Sea had taken the sword.
From here on, it wasn't his problem.
Inside the Blood Sea—
the sword hung in midair.
A massive blood-red hand rose from the sea, coiling around it, dragging downward.
The sword resisted.
A brief struggle.
Then—
A blood wave slammed over it.
BOOM!
The sword was forced into the Blood Sea.
The sea erupted.
Waves raged violently, like the sword was being refined inside it.
Lin Ye's consciousness stood on Blood Peak and watched.
He couldn't help but sigh.
"One thing… suppresses another."
The sword didn't sink too deep.
It landed just beneath Blood Peak.
Lin Ye's eyes narrowed.
"When my Nine-Turn Asura Art reaches the Fourth Layer…"
"I should be able to pull that sword out."
No doubt about the sword's power.
Even the Blood Sea had needed effort to subdue it.
And the Blood Sea had set a clear "standard":
Fourth Layer.
A New Standard
Lin Ye calculated quickly.
"I'm at best mid Third Layer now."
"When I reach Fourth Layer…"
"I'll probably be around Moonwheel Sixth Realm."
He stored that fact away.
Then—
as the sword was swallowed, the Blood Sea began returning massive power.
Lin Ye's eyes flashed.
"Perfect."
"I'll use this to drag down the star."
Dragging Down the Blood Star
Lin Ye didn't convert the Blood Sea power into his own qi.
Instead, he summoned the Star-Draw Bridge.
It surged upward toward the massive Blood Star.
Within the Blood Sea, a portion of power belonged to Lin Ye—he could command it directly.
BOOM!
Blood Sea power surged backward up the Star-Draw Bridge like a reverse river.
It slammed into the Blood Star.
Lin Ye's consciousness sat atop Blood Peak, Nine-Turn Asura Art spinning at high speed.
The Star-Draw Bridge became a gigantic hand.
BOOM!
A blood palm struck the star.
A violent backlash hit him—
star force resisting reversal.
Lin Ye's eyes were fearless.
This was insane.
But Lin Ye was already someone who defied heaven.
This kind of act?
Made sense.
"Come down."
Blood power wrapped around the star.
HUM!
The massive star trembled, shifting off its orbit…
slowly being dragged toward the Blood Sea.
His power burned rapidly.
Without the Blood Sea energy gained from swallowing the sinister sword, he couldn't have done this.
The star resisted.
"It's not enough."
Lin Ye's gaze sharpened.
"Netherline Vein!"
Instantly, the Nine Nether King Tiger's power surged into him.
His strength exploded severalfold—
and he yanked.
BOOOOM!
The Blood Star plunged into the Blood Sea.
A tsunami of blood erupted.
Lin Ye's heart surged with joy.
"It worked!"
Now all he had to do was refine it.
A Terrifying Thought
But as the star floated on the Blood Sea—
Lin Ye felt its enormity.
"That star…"
"It's at least ten thousand zhang."
His expression shifted slightly.
"What if I get stuck at Moonwheel?"
If he couldn't refine it—
he might remain unable to truly step into Moonwheel realm.
But there was no retreat now.
Only refining.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
His controllable portion of Blood Sea power—
which should've been used to strengthen Nine-Turn Asura Art and his own qi—
was now redirected entirely into refining the star.
The moment the star was fully refined—
he would officially enter Moonwheel Realm.
Lin Ye gave a dry laugh.
"I dug myself a pit."
Still—
even if he was temporarily "not Moonwheel,"
he was already far stronger than a Star River peak cultivator.
Because when he used Star-Draw Bridge—
he could instantly call star power.
Even his bursts could outpace Moonwheel experts.
"If I stockpile more Thousand Luo Bloodstones…"
"I can speed up refinement."
Luckily, the Blood Sea was helping.
Otherwise, refining a ten-thousand-zhang star would take centuries.
A Treasure Ring Among Bones
Lin Ye returned to his body and opened his eyes.
He searched through the pile of bones again.
Over a hundred people had died here.
That meant over a hundred rings.
Surely at least one would still work.
Finally—
he found one.
Relatively intact.
Even so, by craftsmanship alone, it was at least ten thousand years old.
The material was excellent.
The ring was named:
Cangyun Ring.
Three characters were engraved on it.
Lin Ye's spiritual sense swept in—
and his expression changed instantly.
Inside… were massive amounts of Thousand Luo Bloodstones.
"This… this guy…"
"He collected this many?!"
Lin Ye's shock turned into wild joy.
Six hundred Bloodstones!
And beyond that—
top-grade herbs, pill formulas, rare ores…
Not to mention:
over ten million spirit crystals.
And several hundred Black Spirit Crystals.
Black Spirit Crystals were worth far more than normal spirit crystals.
One Black Spirit Crystal = ten thousand normal ones.
For cultivation, they were comparable to Fifth-grade pills.
But Lin Ye didn't even care about those.
He only cared about one thing:
Bloodstones.
He threw every last one into the Blood Sea.
The Blood Sea roared.
Wave after wave slammed into the Blood Star.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Refining speed exploded—accelerating hundreds of times.
The star was being eaten away visibly, inch by inch.
Lin Ye's eyes lit up.
"One-third already!"
This single haul alone had saved him decades.