Chapter 213

Mist Continent.

Lu Xun came here again.

Last time he came, he stayed here for five days, but the harvest wasn't particularly great.

Mainly because the Six-Star Spirit Realm is extremely dangerous; Six Realm alien species are everywhere here, and there are even a few Seven Realm alien species. Moving about here can be described as difficult every step of the way—even Lu Xun has to be extremely careful.

Even finding some heavenly-earthly spiritual treasures often makes them hard to obtain.

Now then,

Lu Xun now has an assistant.

"Teacher, above—it's very fast."

After Lu Xun used the Heavenly Dao Eye, he released the golden toad and jumped onto it.

The golden toad's speed is indeed fast, not inferior to the Six Realms.

Seeing this, Fu Xue landed beside Lu Xun.

"Ribbit."

The golden toad leapt forward in the direction Lu Xun indicated.

"Your spirit is injured?"

Fu Xue obviously saw the wound on the golden toad's abdomen.

"Yes, Teacher, I'm thinking of how to repair it. Do you know any skilled puppet masters? Could you recommend one?"

Lu Xun and Fu Xue began to inquire.

"Lan Xing doesn't have many powerful puppet masters; we're relatively behind in the art of puppetry. Currently the foremost is Master Danyang of Jade Mechanism City, who can create Seven Realm puppets."

Fu Xue said lightly.

Master Danyang, Seven Realm puppet!

Being able to craft Seven Realm puppets, I don't know if it can repair the golden toad.

"Teacher, do you know Master Danyang?"

Lu Xun wanted Fu Xue to give him a recommendation.

Masters in these various fields hold high status; ordinary cultivators who go to see them can't even hope to meet them in person.

"I don't know him."

Fu Xue said.

Alright.

"However, my older sister knows him; when I go back, I'll tell her and have her recommend you."

Just then, Fu Xue revealed a piece of good news.

She doesn't know him, but her older sister Fu Yue does.

That's great.

With a referral, it would be much easier.

The precondition is that Lu Xun must prepare enough Dark Energy.

A seventh-rank puppet master's fee for taking action is not low, let alone the considerable cost needed to repair the golden toad itself.

Just the materials are extremely hard to find.

This kind of repair isn't just a matter of patching up that wound in its abdomen.

Just patching it up would indeed leave no defensive loopholes.

The problem is that the golden toad's combat power cannot be restored.

The golden toad's current combat power isn't low, but for Lu Xun at this stage it's already insufficient.

People are constantly growing.

In the past, when Lu Xun's strength was relatively weak, many matters had nothing to do with him, and many enemies he wouldn't even encounter.

For example, when he was at the Second Realm, many Fifth and Sixth Realm beings wouldn't even glance at him, and Lu Xun wouldn't go out of his way to provoke them.

Now it's different; unless Lu Xun gives up the various opportunities in the Ancient Road Nexus, he must compete.

That naturally requires greater strength.

"Be careful."

Star-space alien species are attacking.

They come in a large group.

The alien species in the Mist Continent belong to the mist beast type.

They have long adapted to the mist; in the mist they are like fish in water, extremely hard to deal with.

"Teacher, I'll handle the weak ones."

Lu Xun volunteered, continually striking and killing the weaker alien species.

At this moment, several Fifth Realm alien species simultaneously lunged at Lu Xun.

"Swish swish swish~"

Lu Xun's flying swords moved in unison; one Fifth Realm alien tried to dodge but couldn't, and was sliced to death by the swords.

The other two had already arrived; one launched an attack from afar.

With a thought, Lu Xun raised the Crimson Armor Shield in front, blocking the attack while his holy weapon in hand slashed out repeatedly.

Sharp sword qi slashed through space.

"Sword intent? Did he break through to the Fourth Realm??"

Lu Xun's sword qi caused Fu Xue's gaze to tighten.

Because she sensed sword intent within the sword qi.

True Intent.

This is standard equipment for a Four Realms Grandmaster.

The reason Four Realms Grandmasters are so powerful is related to their overbearing, unmatched True Intent.

Now, Lu Xun actually has True Intent!

Isn't this a breakthrough into the Four Realms?

"Not right."

Fu Xue faintly felt something was off.

Although Lu Xun's sword qi was extremely sharp, to her it still felt like a genuine Four Realms level.

Upon reaching the Four Realms, the true qi in the qi sea is still called true qi, but in reality, true qi has begun to transform into gang qi.

Even if Lu Xun's true qi, in terms of energy level, is already not inferior to that of a Five Realms Grandmaster, his true qi contains no gang qi.

Not even a trace.

This is the difference between martial cultivators and demons.

The demon Five Realms previously slain by Lu Xun with a single strike of his peak Transformation-level sword intent merely sensed that Lu Xun's sword qi belonged to the Five Realms level, but could not discern the distinction within.

Thus they failed to see that Lu Xun was not actually a Five Realms cultivator.

As a Six Realms martial cultivator, Fu Xue could naturally see that.

Therefore, Fu Xue felt that Lu Xun should not yet have broken through to the Four Realms.

Without breaking through the Four Realms, he possesses sword qi comparable to that of a Five Realms cultivator and has even cultivated sword intent.

Such a Lu Xun has made even the usually composed Fu Xue feel unsettled.

The sword qi emitted by Lu Xun, with such high energy level, is already enough,

At the Three Realms, he has cultivated a sword intent that only Four Realms cultivators possess; Lu Xun is no ordinary martial arts prodigy.

Even Fu Xue, despite arduous training of martial techniques at the Three Realms, could not cultivate sword intent.

While Fu Xue was startled,

an aberrant had already approached Lu Xun.

Layers of mist armor appeared on its body, attempting to withstand Lu Xun's sword qi head-on.

The sword qi descended silently.

Then they saw that the mist armor on that aberrant's body, facing Lu Xun's sword qi, had no effect whatsoever, like a knife cutting tofu, and was directly sliced apart.

"Huh? Transformation-level Sword Intent!!!"

Above the Golden Toad's head, Fu Xue's eyes, as clear and cold as a cold pond reflecting the moon, suddenly contracted, a flicker of startled ripples flashing in their depths.

She had not directly faced Lu Xun's sword qi, so she had not just noticed the level of the sword intent within.

But after the sword qi struck the aberrant, Fu Xue sensed the anomaly.

Lu Xun's sword intent has at least reached the Transformation level.

It is not an ordinary Transformation level.

Thus he could cleave that early-stage Five Realms aberrant with a single strike.

At this moment,

Fu Xue couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Three Realms.

A mere Three Realms martial cultivator.

Having True Intent is already enough,

and his True Intent has even reached the Transformation level.

How terrifying!

Putting it plainly, is this still a person?

Even though Fu Xue has seen countless geniuses of various races and fought countless experts, at this moment she was also scared stiff.

"Heh."

That long-range aberrant, after being forced close by Lu Xun, was slain by his single sword strike.

Thus, three Five Realms aberrants were killed by Lu Xun in a short span of time.

Lu Xun's displayed formidable combat power left Fu Xue silently astonished.

Previously, while Lu Xun was supporting various cities, he had already slain aberrant humans of the Five Realms.

Fu Xue knew of this.

However, Lu Xun possesses many methods and trump cards; killing a Five Realms opponent across realms, though impressive, was not enough to move Fu Xue.

Even when Lu Xun previously cooperated with her to slay a Six Realms blood demon, Fu Xue was not particularly surprised.

After all, Lu Xun had relied more on external forces.

For example, the Sword Heart Stone, the Holy Weapon, and the flying sword mixed with divine bone ash.

Fu Xue knew that Lu Xun possessed divine bone ash.

Now things are different,

Lu Xun relied entirely on himself and killed three Five Realms aberrants in a short time.

The value of this is vastly different.

"Teacher, there's a Six Realms!"

Lu Xun's voice startled Fu Xue awake.

Perhaps just now she was too shocked, and Fu Xue zoned out.

A Six Realms cultivator zoning out is quite rare.

Especially for martial cultivators.

Martial cultivators value willpower; on the battlefield they are keenly aware of every stir around them, basically never zoning out.

There indeed are Six Realms alien species.

It was blocked by the tongue spat out by the golden toad, while Lu Xun tried to attack it.

But once the alien species reaches the Six Realms, all its indicators greatly increase; even if Lu Xun could wound it, killing it is not easy.

Fu Xue made a move, slaying the Six Realms alien species.

The alien species here are somewhat easier to deal with than cultivators or other races of the same realm.

The terrifying thing about alien species is that, with sufficient energy, they can easily grow stronger.

At the same realm, unless the alien species possesses an extremely rare ability, it is rare for an alien species to defeat a cultivator of that realm.

After dealing with these alien species, the golden toad led the two onward.

Along the way, alien species would occasionally block the path.

Lu Xun and Fu Xue cooperated, one handling the weak, the other the strong, all the way slaughtering toward the depths of the mist.

"Teacher, how about it, I didn't lie to you, did I?"

A few hours later, in a mountain range shrouded in mist, the battle ended.

Here there is a glowing tree; its fruit is greatly useful for martial cultivators tempering their will or immortal cultivators enhancing their primordial spirit.

This is a spirit object of the soul type.

Seeing the harvest come so quickly, Fu Xue now knew Lu Xun wasn't bragging.

Lu Xun really does have a particularly awesome ocular ability.

Otherwise, in a place like the Mist Continent, how could one so easily find heavenly-earthly spirit objects?

"A pity, it's not yet mature."

Immediately, Fu Xue felt it a pity.

The fruit borne on the tree is not yet mature.

"It's fine, teacher, I'll transplant the whole thing."

This tree is not big; Lu Xun chose to uproot the entire plant.

After taking care of it, the two continued on their way.

"So many alien species... teacher, you handle the Six Realms alien species, I'll take care of the rest."

After another few hours, at a new location, the battle began.

The number of alien species here is exceptionally large.

There are two of the Six Realms ones.

Fu Xue faced two alone and slew both Six Realms alien species.

When she had finished and was about to help Lu Xun, she discovered Lu Xun had already settled the battle.

"Teacher, let's rest a bit before we go on."

"Hmm."

After finding another place, Lu Xun decided to balance work and rest, meanwhile waiting for the cooldown of the Heavenly Dao's Eye to pass.

During the rest, Fu Xue was cultivating, or rather recovering.

Really diligent.

Lu Xun felt embarrassed to slack off, so he merely pretended to cultivate.

After this day, the harvest was still not bad; they obtained several kinds of heaven-earth spirit objects.

"Why did it drop again?"

Lu Xun specifically checked the favorability.

Upon seeing this, Lu Xun was somewhat surprised.

Fu Xue's favorability toward her did not rise but fell.

Before, it had reached 45%.

When Fu Xue went to the Storm Realm to save him that time, it increased by 3 points, reaching 48%.

Before entering, everything was still fine.

Now it suddenly dropped, and it dropped by more than half—specifically 28 points—leaving only 20%.

"How could it drop so drastically!"

This drop is too drastic.

"Something's not right!"

Lu Xun felt something was not right.

Extremely not right.

He glanced at Fu Xue and saw her expression had not changed at all.

It also didn't look like she disliked Lu Xun.

How could it suddenly drop?

"Could it be that my showing off how awesome I am today backfired?"

Lu Xun began to ponder.

After the Rainbow Bridge opened, Lu Xun prepared to gradually reveal his strength.

This way others would think Lu Xun had some fortuitous encounter at the ancient road node, making everything seem natural.

Today Lu Xun did not hide his sword qi, deliberately unleashing it so Fu Xue could see.

Fu Xue was obviously surprised.

It's surprising, how could her favorability drop?

Lu Xun thought hard but still couldn't figure it out.

"What's the reason?"

He thought back and forth there, spending several hours, but still had no clue.

【Ran Bing's formation mastery has broken through, you gain 50 times Ran Bing's harvest.】

After another over two hours, Ran Bing suddenly had another return.

Her formation mastery broke through again, not from fourth rank to fifth rank, but from lower fourth rank to middle fourth rank.

That is, from early fourth rank to mid fourth rank.

This breakthrough wasn't as big as before, but the 50x return still let Lu Xun's formation mastery break through to sixth rank in one go.

Now Lu Xun can set up sixth-rank formations.

Sixth-rank formations can already threaten the Six Realms to some extent.

It depends on what kind of formation.

There are many types of formations: trap formations, killing formations, illusion formations, concealment formations, control formations, battle formations, joint formations, transmission formations, and so on.

Too many types.

Within each type of formation, there are many subcategories.

Of course, just having formation mastery isn't enough.

To set up a specific formation, one also needs to refine formation tools.

Formations and tools are inherently inseparable.

Without formation tools, using mountains and rivers as a formation works too, but one needs to find suitable terrain.

No matter what, Lu Xun has become stronger again.

Compared to the breakthrough in formation mastery, Lu Xun is now more concerned about why Fu Xue's favorability toward him has dropped.

"Could it be... that she thinks I'm a reincarnator?"

Lu Xun's mind flashed, and he suddenly thought of a possibility.

Reincarnator!

This came to mind after seeing Ran Bing's return.

Lu Xun performed so amazingly today, it seems a bit over the top.

Even among the amazing, it's extremely explosive.

Even with a fortuitous encounter, it's still too fast.

Especially something like true intent.

This can't be faked; it requires gradual practice and personal comprehension.

Lu Xun naturally took a shortcut, but he can't tell anyone.

This likely leads Fu Xue to think that Lu Xun is a reincarnator.

Reincarnators are incredibly strong; take Ran Bing, for example—although her human cultivation is mid-fourth realm, on the monster side she's already a monster king.

So Fu Xue has this speculation.

And Fu Xue likely has little favorability toward reincarnators.

So even though her favorability toward Lu Xun was nearly 50% before, once she thought he was a reincarnator, it dropped by half.

"If I had known, I would have hidden it first... I need to find a way to clear this up."

Lu Xun couldn't help but feel some regret.

If I had known, why bother showing off? As it turns out, I just stepped on Fu Xue's sore spot.