With the newest addition of Merlin, An Lin now had two Return to Void Stage slaves.

He felt like he should use his blood to try and conquer an entire Return to Void Stage Blood Tribe army…

He could then use the power of his Blood Tribe army to quickly gather more golden Realm Essence Crystal. After all, his strength alone was limited, but the collective strength of the masses was limitless!

"Ahem… Little Mai, Do you know where the rest of your companions might be at?" An Lin asked.

Merlin's chest constricted upon hearing his new nickname. Little Mai? Why not rice instead?!

He shook his head. "I haven't met any other Blood Tribe cultivators during my time in the Void Star Section."

An Lin was a little disappointed upon hearing this. He had gathered from Cassidy's words that there were a total of four Return to Void Stage Blood Tribe cultivators that had entered the Void Star Section. This meant that as long as they hadn't fallen, he should be able to recruit two more into his army…

"Master, I helped you recruit Merlin… Isn't it time you…" Cassidy's eyes rippled like water as she spoke in a mellow voice.

An Lin suddenly remembered the reward system and immediately nodded. "I am a man of my word! Recruiting Merlin is the equivalent of killing a Return to Void Stage mighty figure, so I will reward you five milliliters of blood!"

Therefore, he slit open his finger, and a large drop of blood thus floated toward Cassidy.

Cassidy threw herself at the drop of blood with excitement glowing in her eyes before swallowing the entire drop in one gulp, upon which a light blush appeared on her face, and she closed her eyes with a blissful expression while digesting the blood.

Merlin's eyes were about to bulge out of his head as he swallowed incessantly at the sight of such a large drop of blood. "Master… I… I want it too!"

A light smile appeared on An Lin's face. "Give me your storage ring, and I can reward you with three milliliters of blood. Oh, you can keep the banner seeing as that appears to be your weapon."

A conflicted expression appeared on Merlin's face, but he finally made up his mind after taking a glance at Cassidy, who was literally trembling from bliss. "Alright, I'll do it!"

Thus, An Lin used another big drop of blood to exchange for another Blood Tribe storage ring.

He eagerly refined the storage ring before rummaging through its contents.

There were a hundred and twenty vital stones, thirteen spirit tools, over twenty spirit pills, around a dozen spirit fruits, two golden Realm Essence Crystals, one red Realm Essence Crystal, ten blue Realm Essence Crystals, and twenty white Realm Essence Crystals…

Hehe… what a massive haul for just three milliliters of blood!

After looking through the storage ring, An Lin cleared his throat before laying out the reward system for Merlin to hear. "Obtain one immortal tool and you'll be entitled to three milliliters of blood, obtain one million spirit stones and you'll be entitled to one milliliter of blood, obtain one golden Realm Essence Crystal and you'll be entitled to one milliliter of blood…"

Merlin's body swayed slightly upon hearing this.

What the f*ck!

If he had known about this from the start, he would've sold all the individual items within his storage ring for a much higher price!

He then came to a realization before turning an indignant gaze upon An Lin. This was clearly An Lin's plan all along…

Boom!

The Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth suddenly began to surge violently.

Dark clouds covered the starry night sky and bolts of golden lightning flashed through the clouds as a monstrous power began to converge overhead.

An Lin was given a huge fright as he looked around, thinking that a certain mighty figure was attacking them. However, he then turned to Cassidy to discover that she was meditating on the brick, and he drew a sharp intake of breath.

"Cassidy is about to make a breakthrough; we have to get away from here!" Merlin spoke as he pulled An Lin and Xue Zhantian away from Cassidy.

Vital energy swirled in a radius of over fifty kilometers, creating a gargantuan vortex of vital energy that converged into Cassidy's body.

Bolts of Golden Void Lightning then struck Cassidy's body.

Brilliant streaks of lightning burst forth, painting the entire heaven and earth golden with its dazzling light.

Only minor lightning tribulations occurred for progressions in small ranks in Return to Void Stage, so the dark clouds overhead soon disappeared.

Cassidy stood up and a boundless yet slightly ethereal aura burst forth from her body. A hint of gravity could be seen within her eyes as she looked out into the distance.

An astonished expression appeared on Merlin's face. "Impossible! Isn't she progressing from the initial stage to the intermediate stage? Why is there no blood demon tribulation?"

"Blood demon tribulation?" An Lin blinked in confusion.

"As Blood Tribe cultivators, we would often ingest the blood and essence of other living creatures, and this influences our Dao foundations. All the negative emotions contained within the blood we ingested would then manifest themselves into our personal blood demons.

"Hence, after breaking through to Return to Void Stage, each rank we progress will require us to transcend a blood demon tribulation…"

Merlin suddenly trailed off as he spoke before turning to An Lin and drawing a sharp intake of breath with a fervent light in his expression. "I understand now! It's all because of you, Master… your blood purified us…"

An Lin: "…"

Merlin was completely ecstatic. The blood demon tribulations unique to the Blood Tribe were much more dangerous than the lightning tribulations they had to transcend and many Blood Tribe mighty figures had fallen to their respective blood demon tribulations. However, his blood had been purified, thereby allowing him to bypass all his blood demon tribulations in the future!

Cassidy seemed to have also realized this, and she made her way toward An Lin before wrapping her well-proportioned arms around one of An Lin's arms. "Thank you, Master! It was all thanks to your blood that I was able to successfully break through my bottleneck to successfully progress!"

"If you really are thankful to me, then stop trying to seduce me!" An Lin snapped as he struggled free from Cassidy's arms.

"What a hard nut to crack…" Cassidy pouted seductively with a hint of displeasure on her face.

Any other man would've most likely completely fallen to Cassidy's seduction tactics to the extent that they would completely lose their minds.

An Lin took a deep breath and hugged Xue Zhantian tightly to his body.

Not only did she want his blood, but she was also trying to steal his V card as well!

This woman was far too dangerous…

However, with her progression to Return to Void Intermediate Stage, An Lin's army grew further in strength.

From that standpoint alone, he was quite pleased.

Not long after her breakthrough, a bright golden light began to emanate from the cylindrical mountain, and immediately after, the ground began to tremor and quake.

"It has finally begun. You should get a bit further away from this mountain, Master; I have a bad feeling about this." Cassidy's expression became extremely grave as her eyes settled on the five humanoid jade statues at the summit of the mountain.

An Lin began to retreat with Xue Zhantian as he too locked his eyes firmly on those five statues.

The approximate locations on the humanoid statues where the heart would be situated began to pulse with golden light, as if to emulate the beating of their hearts. An extremely fearsome aura then began to emanate from their hearts.

Fifty kilometers away, a Dragon Tribe warrior waved his white fan as he peered into the distance with narrowed eyes. "It has finally begun…"

In another direction, a shark monster holding a white bead had its eyes set on the same location with a ruthless smile on its face. "Did you really think I would leave just like that? I'll make you all pay!"Little Mai is a nickname for Merlin. Coincidentally, it also means wheat.