The wind was calm and still, and the mountain ranges were beautiful.

On one side of the waterfall in the canyon, Lin Xun was sitting in a meditative pose. He was bathed in a dreamy glow as qi roared around him.

Lin Xun himself would also agree that he had benefited hugely from the Dao Lantern Festival.

First, he mastered the supreme-grade dao art Combustion Star River, comprehending the dao of fire, and then he made a breakthrough in his cultivation in the Realms of Limits and obtained the Dao Immeasurable Bottle.

On the Sinking Sea, he broke through into the intermediate Cyclic Derivation Stage.

Then, at the test of the Spirit Lantern Illumination, he made a breakthrough with his spirit power and refined it to the level of Spirit Flower Convergence.

In the Stele Forest, he pried into the mystery of the Origin Aeth Artery and comprehended a rare grand dao called the Star Annihilation Heaven Devourer.

Before the dao altar, he listened to the scriptures of the great dao, verified the supreme paths one by one, and comprehended, organized and completed his own dao path. Finally, he gained insight into the essence of the three supreme paths...

When he stepped onto the dao altar and faced off against Yu Lingkong, he also learned a lot during the arduous and dangerous battle.

All those harvests and insights were undeniably incomparably rare fortunes. Even if he didn’t obtain the Dao Immeasurable Bell, he would have no other regrets in the end.

“When I completely own these insights and harvests, I can easily reach the perfect Cyclic Derivation Stage!” Lin Xun was filled with confidence.

When that time came, it signified that he had reached the pinnacle of the five great cultivation stages, which was also called the great perfection of the five stages!

Then, his next step would be to ascend to the King Stage!

He muttered to himself, “The mysterious woman in the Omega Secret Realm said that within three years, the great age will come, and if I want to forge an unprecedented absolute apex king path in the battle of the great age then I must refine my cultivation to the perfect stage…”

“If everything goes as planned then there should be enough time,” Lin Xun analyzed as he treated his injury.

……

Two hours later.

When he woke up from meditation, his injuries had been completely healed, and his cultivation had improved by leaps and bounds; his power had become as vast and mighty as an ocean.

Shua!

When he opened his dark eyes, there seemed to be cold light swirling within them, making them look unfathomable like a bottomless abyss. They were so threatening that even the surrounding space whimpered and wailed, seemingly unable to bear it.

Bai Lingxi had already woken up from her meditation and was washing her face in front of the waterfall and changing out of her blood-stained clothes.

When she noticed Lin Xun, she couldn’t help marveling in her heart. This guy has become even stronger than before. He must have had a good harvest.

At the same time, Lin Xun was also taken aback.

Bai Lingxi was dressed in clothes whiter than snow and untainted by a speck of dust, which accentuated her stunning face. Her previously pale face had also regained some color.

Her silky black hair was still a little damp from washing and slicked back, which added a refreshing charm to her.

As she stood there, her silhouette resembled a beautiful lotus flower. Her clothes fluttered elegantly, her eyebrows were perfectly shaped, and her face was fresh and graceful.

“What is it?” Bai Lingxi walked over.

“I didn’t realize that you’re so beautiful,” Lin Xun teased with a smile.

Bai Lingxi was struck dumb.

Her bright eyes gleamed and her red lips pursed together. “You can’t fall in love with me, otherwise the god-like girl will hate and target me.”

Lin Xun stared blankly at her before it struck him that she was talking about Xia Zhi. But he felt that she exaggerated what Xia Zhi was like.

The two headed into the distance while chatting.

Along the way, Lin Xun ran into a monster beast in the mountains and after some questioning, he found out they were situated in the Precious Pearl Mountain Range, which was southwest of the Great Qin Province that was hundreds of thousands of miles away from Cangwu Mountain.

“The Dao Lantern Festival should have ended now,” remarked Bai Lingxi.

Lin Xun nodded. He was certain about that, but he was still worried that the enemies would come looking for him when they noticed that he was gone.

It was incredibly easy for the people from the ancient sects and clans to find a person. They only needed to trace his aura.

Huh?

As Lin Xun thought of this, he sensed something unusual.

Through his spirit sense, he detected a group of figures speeding his way in the distance.

They were not exceptionally fast, but they seemed to be searching for something as they repeatedly patrolled and circulated the mountains.

“It’s them!”

Lin Xun narrowed his black eyes. After his spirit power had reached the level of Spirit Flower Convergence, it had become much more amazing than before, able to see into the far distance. Even though they were far away, he could clearly identify a few old acquaintances among the group of people.

Xie Yutang, Zhuo Kuanglan...and Qing Lian’er!

And following them were several influential figures, each one exuding frighteningly powerful auras including the Black Jade Dragon Elephant, Blue Luan and the White Jade Lightning Lion...

The sight of them was enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine!

“The old rogue was right.”

Without any hesitation, Lin Xun activated the Suanni Qi to conceal his body as well as Bai Lingxi, and they vanished in an instant.

……

“It’s there!”

Before long, a group of cultivators came speeding over. The murderous rage around them made even the creatures in the mountains tremble and cower on the ground.

Before the canyon waterfall, Xie Yutang cried out excitedly, “Finally found him. That guy’s aura is here!”

“That’s right, he has been here for a while, and according to the Divine Compass, he should have just left.” Zhuo Kuanglan was holding up an octagonal white tortoise shell in his hand. Golden threads twisted around the surface of the tortoiseshell, converging to form a mysterious pattern.

A mysterious black needle was suspended in the center of the pattern, humming and buzzing.

“Are you sure?” Qing Lian’er asked, her pretty face pale to the point of transparent. Her aura was extremely weak. Even if she seemed to be on her last breath, her expression was sinister and resentful.

When the Dao Lantern Festival ended and she heard that Lin Xun had already escaped, she almost crushed her teeth in anger, so she participated in the hunt to kill Lin Xun without any hesitation.

She wanted to see Lin Xun subdued and slaughtered with her own eyes!

Traveling with them were a dozen half-step kings, some of whom had come from the Blue Luan Clan, Feather Sword Sect, Jade Emptiness Temple, the Zhongli Clan and other ancient sects.

They all came to get revenge.

The rest of the half-step kings purely came to kill Lin Xun and seize his treasures. Many of them had complicated origins, with some being unofficial cultivators strong enough to rule an area and some were big shots from other powerful forces.

Therefore, Qing Lian’er was convinced that Lin Xun was doomed!

“The kid is pretty amazing to be able to escape from the Dao Lantern Festival in advance. This is something that has never happened before,” someone marveled.

“Hmph, no matter how strong he is, he has been seriously wounded. We only need to worry about the mysterious girl who is with him. If she wasn’t around, would we need to gather so many people?” said the Black Jade Elephant Dragon. People felt terrifying pressure bearing down on them as his huge mountain-like body hovered in the air.

“Don’t waste any more time. Let’s act quickly. After the Dao Lantern Festival is over, many people have their eyes on Demon God Lin. Besides us, there are also many other great figures launching operations to hunt that kid down. We must not let other people get ahead of us!” roared the White Jade Lightning Lion from the Jade Emptiness Temple impatiently.

Everyone shuddered apprehensively, realizing the serious situation. It might not be a problem to kill Lin Xun, but if they wanted to be the first to do so, they had to get ahead of other people.

“Let’s go!” Without further delay, they launched into action.

……

“Are you going to counterattack?” Bai Lingxi asked in surprise in front of a magnificent mist-shrouded mountain.

When they arrived here, Lin Xun stopped running and brought out many formation flags and became as busy as a bee, his figure flickering back and forth around the mountain.

He was setting up a formation.

“Didn’t you see that they won’t rest until they die? If I don’t scare or kill them, then similar situations will happen again in the future,” Lin Xun explained without turning his head around to look at Bai Lingxi.

He had a King-level forbidden array in his hand, which he snatched from Qing Lian’er. He hasn’t had the chance to use it, but now, he decided to go all out!

At the Dao Lantern Festival, he was targeted and suppressed by many of the so-called peerless geniuses. But before he went to settle accounts with them, they came to find him and mobilized so many people to help kill him. They had gone too far.

The magnificent mountain in front of him was rich in aeth essence veins, which made it the best place for him to set up a formation.

Most importantly, with the support of the aeth essence within the mountains, he didn’t need to consume any aeth essence to operate the King-level forbidden array!

“Are you sure about this?” Bai Lingxi asked with worry.

“Did you forget that I am a rune founder?” Lin Xun grinned. “If I can’t wipe them all out at once, then I have wasted my time mastering the art of runes.”

Bai Lingxi chuckled, remembering all the sensational achievements of Lin Xun in the Ziyao Empire. She felt much more at ease.

She even looked forward to the enemies appearing...

Buzz!

Before long, an obscure and mysterious wave of energy suddenly swept the entire mountain like the tide and beams of brilliant light flashed and pierced the clouds.

“Success!”

Lin Xun held the formation device in one hand and performed the hand seal with the other. With one thought, all the visions around the mountain silently vanished, restoring to their previous appearance. There was not a single trace of the forbidden array.

Bai Lingxi couldn’t help feeling impressed. His mastery in the art of runes is no doubt several times better than that of Qing Lian’er and the others. They didn’t produce such miraculous visions when they used this formation to deal with Lin Xun on the Ancient Dao Lantern Tree.

“Let’s go.”

Lin Xun wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead, breathed a sigh of relief, and headed into the depths of the mountain with Bai Lingxi.

To set up this array, he had to draw upon all his powers and expend his strength and energy.

However, he was satisfied with the result. All he had to do now was to wait for the enemies to walk right into the net.

“He’s here. He didn’t run away, but instead hid in this mountain. This is the perfect chance to kill him!”

Before long, Qing Lian’er, Zhuo Kuanglan, Xie Yutang and the group of half-step kings descended on this place like dark clouds blanketing the sky.