Chapter 530: Convergence

Bang!

Boom!

Accompanied by a purple sky divine thunder bolt, the badly wounded Yan Buji finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Blood Man on the ground gradually turn to ash.

"What is this…?" Yan Buji gasped, clutching the stabbing wound in his abdomen, and picked up a small sigil from the ground.

In an instant, Yan Buji learned the origin of the sigil.

"Impure Blood Pool? A blood sigil that controls the Impure Blood Pool," Yan Buji said with a puzzled expression. This little gadget is a Fivefold Transformation Accumulation Device, more precisely the carrier of this Blood Pool, capable of letting the blood shadow draw upon the pool's power; no wonder that Blood Man was so hard to kill.

Yan Buji used the blood sigil to retract the Impure Blood Pool, and seeing the cloud stained red by blood, he found a way to uproot it completely.

"This should be usable to cultivate some rare Spiritual Material," Yan Buji said, grasping the blood cloud that felt like soil and stowing it away.

Swallowing the pill, Yan Buji healed his wounds on the spot.

In this battle, thanks to Yan Buji's Heavenly Fire and divine thunder, which deal massive damage to such filth, plus the enhancement of Earth Fiend Divine Ability and spells, he brutally ground the late‑stage Nascent Soul Blood Man to death; otherwise the outcome would have been uncertain.

However, for Yan Buji, the tougher the fight, the greater his gain; he fears not strong opponents but insufficient profit.

If he spent half a day fighting and got nothing, it would be just like his previous incursions into the Aberrant Zone, where he narrowly escaped death many times yet earned pitifully little.

It's simply not worth risking his life, so generally Yan Buji would choose to avoid it.

But facing this blood shadow made Yan Buji feel that his Martial Dao Dao Mark was showing signs of growth. Though now is not an ideal time for cultivation, as an experience it serves as a test of his strategies against those unbeatable foes.

Obviously, Yan Buji lacks tactics in this area, but this experience taught him that some foes are fine when left untouched, yet once engaged, one must be fully prepared.

"Undefeatable enemies are quite troublesome; these types aren't scared of ambushes, even losing most of their body is fine, and they may not even sustain a truly fatal wound…" Yan Buji sighed.

The only way to deal with such foes is to create an environment untouched by anyone, where their battle can continue indefinitely, testing whose endurance is superior!

Thinking of this, Yan Buji also considered that when later confronting Martial Cultivation like Da Mo Wuji, even if his path differs from theirs, he might not necessarily gain the upper hand.

The worst case is you punch me, I punch you; everyone just tests endurance, and no one can win with a single blow.

"Unless I quickly cultivate to the Spellpower Nascent Soul stage now, then further refine my Dao Mark, my foundation would be sufficient. It's merely a lack of divine abilities that holds me back."

Of course, Yan Buji feels that formations and seals also suit his style, but lacking a lineage and fumbling on his own wastes time, so he needs a way to gather them.

His combat style is to plan before acting, rarely charging recklessly. Thus, pre‑setting formations or seals can increase his chances of victory.

Nothing is absolute; Yan Buji is not the type to stick to a single path, naturally believing the more methods, the better.

Otherwise, how could he now defeat a filthy Blood Man with late‑stage Nascent Soul cultivation using only early‑stage Martial Immortal and early‑stage Golden Core levels?

A few days later.

After healing his wounds, Yan Buji continued onward, heading toward the location of the broken sword.

Months passed, and despite encountering numerous beast attacks along the way, Yan Buji arrived safely in front of the broken sword.

"Is this… a fortress?"

Yan Buji frowned; the broken sword before him was not a weapon at all, but a war fortress composed of countless Accumulation Devices. He had previously seen the winged people's war fortresses on an ancient battlefield where they fought the humans.

But this war fortress before him was likely no simple thing.

"A fortress, as a war weapon painstakingly forged by these great powers over hundreds or thousands of years, is only deployed in times of genocide. But is this war fortress of human or beast origin?"

Yan Buji felt puzzled; outwardly it seemed designed by humans. Yet the strong beast aura emanating from the fortress was undeniable—could someone have secretly designed it for the beasts before?

"It's odd; Yu Fei and his group wouldn't have entered early, right?"

Yan Buji approached and saw no entrance nearby.

He circled the broken sword fortress for two days but found no entrance, nor any seals.

"It seems its structure differs from the winged people's fortresses," Yan Buji scratched his head.

He didn't know much about war fortresses; theoretically, war fortresses and Accumulation Beast Armaments aren't vastly different, but activating such a massive fortress is a specialized discipline, even more complex than alchemy itself.

Yan Buji hasn't even finished designing Accumulation Beast Armaments, let alone researching war fortresses.

Given his current resources, even constructing a basic framework would be arduous.

Yan Buji thought carefully, and after returning to his original spot, looked up at the sky.

"Since we can't enter through the main gate, let's see if we can go in through a breach; the fortress's original form shouldn't be like this," Yan Buji said, soaring higher.

Inside the fortress.

Gu Yue and Yu Fei dodged traps all the way, and after exploring many rooms, their faces grew increasingly grim.

"Daoist Yu, where exactly is that core area you mentioned? My Gu Worm has already consumed a lot!" Gu Yue frowned.

Yu Fei scowled, "Do you want to know if we're just circling here? It's been almost half a year…"

"You admit we're just circling?"

Yu Fei: "......"

Gu Yue sighed, "I knew you were unreliable!"

With that, Gu Yue summoned her mana, and a dazzling multicolored butterfly burst from her brow, causing the entire corridor to tremble incessantly in an instant!

"What… is this? Fairy Gu, what are you doing?"

"Quiet!" Gu Yue, using the multicolored butterfly, seemed to be performing some Gu art. Yu Fei saw her close her eyes and concentrate, as waves of spiritual awareness spread outward like ripples.

What a powerful spiritual awareness!

Yu Fei's expression changed; the visible spiritual awareness ripples emanating from Gu Yue kept transmitting some information. Though Yu Fei couldn't grasp the key, the issue was how this person's spiritual awareness could be so strong.

"It's almost at the stage where spiritual awareness materializes; isn't that the Nascent Soul stage?!" Yu Fei was startled.

"Found it, over here!!" Gu Yue opened her eyes and rushed out.

Yu Fei hurriedly followed, and with Gu Yue's guidance, they seemed to be drawing ever closer to their destination.