Chapter 2184.1: Bloodline of Dragons

The battle formations of this world were not the formations of cultivators. They were the coordination of military formations and concerted movement of all parties reaching certain proficiency.

These kinds of battle formations were typically practiced by the army. The battle formations of mid and lower rank cultivation empires were lower rank battle formations. Their enhancement of battle strength was limited to less than fifty percent.

Lu Tianling’s army had been able to sweep all third rank empires and place Darklake as their head primarily because his battle formation was a mid rank formation that doubled battle strength.

The battle formation that the Black Tortoise disciples assembled was just the outline of one, but it already doubled their strength! This was definitely not something from a fourth rank empire!

Lu Yun also seemed to know some other battle formations that fell under immortal dao civilization. He just couldn’t recall them at the moment. Eyes narrowing, he watched as sixty treasures hurtled toward him in a nearly complete formation.

“Break!” he shouted, connate yang metal energy sparkling around his fingers. He pointed at a random wood attribute treasure.

Crack!

The wood attribute treasure was a mid rank item shaped as a gourd. It was the personal treasure of an initial nascent soul cultivator and was instantly pierced through by the white yang metal.

Rumble!

The battle formation sputtered as the gourd-shaped treasure was destroyed. Three fire attribute treasures immediately weakened and nearby water attribute treasures blossomed with strength. The flow of the five elements in the formation was completely knocked askew. It was out of control before it reached Lu Yun and fell to attacking itself.

Cultivators mostly depended on the five elements for strength. This relationship of complementing and countering each other was the most effective and direct way of enhancing strength. Thus, all formations or battle formations in the worlds of cultivation followed this logic.

With his Eye of Nullification, Lu Yun easily identified the gourd as the eye of the formation. Destroying it meant that the entire formation was negated.

The gourd needed to be destroyed first. If any other treasure was the priority and then the gourd, the method of attack would prove ineffective. The battle formation was constantly changing, as was its eye.

Lu Yun was able to find success due to his Eye of Nullification and command over the connate elements. Otherwise, even a formation grandmaster would find it difficult to easily dismantle the battle formation.

His destruction of the eye caused a subsequent collapse of the battle formation. He then punched a mallet-shaped treasure with his full strength, reducing it to shards. The fragments accurately connected with the other treasures and disabled them as well.

It took only less than one hundredth of an eye blink to defuse the treasure formation bearing down on him. Sixty treasures were sent flying every which way.

The cultivators observing from the shadows gaped. They didn’t even have time to understand what was going on before the sixty Black Tortoise disciples uniformly spat out blood. More than just coordinating the treasures, they were nearly one to direct the battle formation.

The formation was destroyed and the cultivators deeply injured from the backlash. Lu Yun took a step forward and punched the dantian of a mid nascent soul cultivator, obliterating it. He swiftly moved through them, reaping lives wherever he went.

Lu Yun was far from a benevolent soul. After three thousand lifetimes, he knew full well that whether it was the worlds of immortals or cultivators, these were brutal and ruthless places. Showing mercy to the enemy was being cruel to oneself.

There was no right or wrong in a place like this.

All of the ferocious disciples were dead after a few breaths. Lu Yun picked up storage rings from the ground and turned to Ying Yinshui with an eerie grin.

Her face was devoid of color—previously out of reaction to the death of her brothers, now from deep fear. This harmless young man of seventeen years had casually killed sixty of her men, the weakest of which was golden core. Was this the capabilities of a golden core cultivator?

“Ying Xuanshui’s younger sister and the dao partner of the Black Tortoise leader… Ying Yinshui?” Lu Yun smirked. “That’s a nice name, but why isn’t your surname Liu?”

“Liu? Why should my surname be Liu?” Ying Yinshui asked reflexively as her thoughts were a muddled mess.

Lu Yun shook his head at the woman’s expression and punched forward, sending her lifeless body floating backward like a drifting willow leaf. He grabbed the dumbfounded Long Aotian and left the city in a blaze of sword light.

……

A man approximately thirty years old in long black robes arrived on the scene after three dozen breaths. He looked expressionlessly at the body on the ground, not even a frown creasing his forehead.

“What is it, Wuheng? Heartbroken that someone’s destroyed your cauldron?” A man in a long purple shirt grinned merrily.

Wuheng shrugged wordlessly.

“It’s good that that woman is dead. The three girls are coming in a few days and you’d be in for some trouble if they saw her,” cackled the purple clad Zi Zhen.

“They’re going to be here soon, so where’s Huiying?” Wuheng looked around with confusion.

No one noticed them as they conversed. Black Tortoise members rushed to the scene and frantically dealt with the corpses, but ignored the two.

“The old guy in the mountain is acting up again, so Huiying’s gone to teach it a lesson.” Zi Zhen shrugged and changed the subject. “Shouldn’t you react with something when your ‘dao partner’ has been killed?”

“That young man was something.” Wuheng looked in the direction that Lu Yun left in. “He’ll rival the Human Emperor of Great Xia when he grows into his strength. It’ll be good to give him some more tempering.”

“Look at you being such a fan of talent!” Zi Zhen roared with laughter.

“Forget that.” A warm smile crept over Wuheng’s lips. “Let’s build a Red Vermilions sect for the girls when they come.”

……

Lu Yun rushed into Fallen Leaf Mountain with Long Aotian. The latter was deeply injured and kept coughing up blood. Plainly, his core essence had been damaged.

The Lu young master put him on the ground when they reached a clearing and scanned his injuries with the Eye of Nullification.

“Oh?” Lu Yun paused. There was more to Long Aotian than met the eye! “Well well well, you do live up to your name.” He smiled after seeing the truth behind the man.

“Sir?” Long Aotian trembled when he saw the look in Lu Yun’s eyes.

“You carry draconic bloodline!” Lu Yun stared at him like he’d found a precious treasure. “If you’d like, I can fully activate your bloodline so you can transform into a dragon!”

Long Aotian stared blankly at the young man, not knowing what to say. Draconic bloodline? Dragons were mythical beasts in all of Jade Ruins Realm and Great Xia! They were mysterious, powerful, and the epitome of strength. Even immortals would worship them if they encountered one.

Perhaps dragons did exist in the world, but few were those who’d met one. It was possible that only the Human Emperor of Great Xia had ever seen one, yet this young man said he possessed the bloodline of the dragons? What a preposterous notion!

Although Lu Yun was so strong that he could quickly defeat the nascent soul powerhouses of the Black Tortoises, Long Aotian wasn’t willing to believe that he had a draconic bloodline.

“Forget it if you don’t want to. I can simply heal your injuries so you can continue your mediocre life. But if you want, I can awaken your bloodline so you can become a true dragon. Although, I’m lacking a few things now so I need to gather them if I’m to activate your bloodline.” A jade-green pill appeared in Lu Yun’s hand as he spoke—the pill that’d saved Wang Bu’er.

He sighed when he thought of the man. Wang Bu’er hadn’t been the smartest, but he’d been honest and a good man. He would’ve been a good follower, but Ying Yinshui had killed him.

“You saved my life, sir, so no matter what you want me to do, I will do it without question!” Long Aotian didn’t hesitate as Lu Yun was incredibly strong. He was plainly an important elite of a great faction. Long Aotian was no fool.

“Take this pill and focus on your injuries first.” Lu Yun tossed the pill to Long Aotian. The man quickly swallowed it and sat down cross-legged to digest its effects.

They were forty kilometers away from Fallen Leaf City. Lu Yun looked back in its direction with the Eye of Nullification and, as expected, saw vast numbers of Black Tortoise disciples rush out in their direction.