Chapter 673: Bottleneck

The moment Lin Yun left the plaza, he could sense a few gazes following him. Experts had a keen sense, so they could sense killing intent from others. The senses of those who grasped sword intent had an even more keen sense.

It looks like he wouldn’t be able to get off so easily. In addition to that, there was still a bizarre glance that attracted Lin Yun’s attention. When Lin Yun directed his gaze over, he could see a shadow standing on top of a roof.

Lin Yun fell into deep thought, but he soon gave up thinking about it. It looks like Skymound City was filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons. It was only natural that the experts would pay attention to him. He couldn’t see who that figure was, so he could only comfort himself in this manner.

Walking through the path in the city, Lin Yun summoned Lil’ Red and headed back to his residence. Even among the crowd, Lil’ Red displayed shocking agility and threw off those who were tailing Lin Yun.

Then again, it was just a matter of time before the various forces discovered his residence. But Lin Yun didn’t think too much about it. He could only face whatever that came his way. With the Indigoflame Thunderwhip and Lil’ Red, he could leave anytime he wanted. At most, it would just be a little troublesome.

After returning to his residence, Lin Yun drank a mouthful of tea before he started to cultivate next to the spiritual lake. He had always been this way in that he would rarely waste his time.

Gently patting his interspatial pouch, he retrieved a heavy box. When he opened it, there were ten bright flickers of lightning. Under this radiance, the lake lit up with bright colours.

Looking at the Five Acute Lightning Crystals, Lin Yun’s eyes flashed with excitement. The price of these Five Acute Lightning Crystals wasn’t inferior to the Silverthunder Demonhawk’s beast cores, but they were even better in quality. Furthermore, there were ten of them.

At the very least, he would have to worry about having no resources to cultivate the Azure Dragon Enneaform within a period of time. Speaking of which, the number of resources needed for the Azure Dragon Enneaform was really terrifying. To reach the third stage, he had refined a droplet of azure dragon’s blood, an overlord demonic beast’s beast core, and a Profound Lightning Bead.

But fortunately, this technique brought a thorough transformation to his physical body. The path of a swordsman was a path of no return, like how a sword would rather break than bow.

Without a powerful physique, it wouldn’t be possible to unleash such a terrifying sword technique. For example, he could unleash eighteen Thunderbolt Slash with a single thought now, which was unimaginable in the past.

“Let’s see if I can reach the fourth stage.” Retrieving a Five Acute Lightning Crystal, Lin Yun sat on the ground and started to refine it.

The auction ended quickly and all the geniuses who attended the auction were present in Xiang Tianhe’s residence.

“Have you guys finished investigating?” Chen Xiong asked his servant the question with a grim expression.

His servant cupped his hands together, “That brat has a Dragon Blooded Horse that shook us off. We had to spend a great deal of effort to find out his location.”

“He’s still in the city?” The eyes of Chen Xiong along with the other geniuses from the various forces lit up. Skymound City was their territory, so Lin Yun was simply courting death to stay in the city after the auction.

“Yeah. He’s in the Falling Aquatic Residence,” answered Chen Xiong’s servant. The moment he said that, the faces of Chen Xiong and the other geniuses changed. Even Xiang Tianhe had frowned when he heard it.

The Falling Aquatic Residence wasn’t simply an individual courtyard. Each courtyard had a high grade spiritual lake along with a spiritual array. So anyone who tried to intrude would simply end up dying. But even without the many restrictions, no one dared to enter as the owner of the Falling Aquatic Residence wasn’t someone they could afford to offend.

“That brat is really rich,” said Qin Ziluo. He took six Thunderbolt Slashes and he was only alive because he had a powerful inner armour that protected him. However, Qin Ziluo was still heavily injured and his face was pale even after he had taken a pellet to deal with his injuries.

Chen Xiong’s eyes flashed coldly for a moment before he said, “Let’s send someone to stand guard for now and prepare secret artifacts to trap him the moment he shows up. As long as we don’t kill him directly outside the residence, the owner of the Falling Aquatic Residence won’t care.”

Thinking about the owner of the Falling Aquatic Residence, even Chen Xiong couldn’t help feeling fearful. There were rumours that the owner was a terrifying figure that even the Indigomoon Elysium was fearful of. This was why no one dared to kill one of his guests within the territory of the Falling Aquatic Residence.

“Do we have to inform the elders of our clans?” asked Qin Ziluo. If it was earlier today, he would definitely not say something like that. But the strength Lin Yun had displayed in the auction was too shocking, so he had no choice but to be cautious.

When he said that, the other geniuses felt sorrow.

“Not for the time being. Since we’re the ones who caused this trouble, it’s best for us not to interrupt our elders. Furthermore, don’t we have Brother Xiang here?” said Chen Xiong.

Not only did they embarrass themselves, but the colossal amount of spiritual jades would make them unable to raise their heads in their clans. So if they alarmed their elders, it would only make them seem useless. This was why they didn’t want to take that step unless absolutely necessary.

Staring back at them, Xiang Tianhe said, “Based on my exchange with him, he must have other trump cards. I’m confident I can defeat him, but I’m not confident that I can prevent him from leaving. However, if you guys are willing to use secret artifacts, I’ll have more confidence about this.”

Secret artifacts were unlike cosmic artifacts. Secret artifacts generally had a usage limit and each use would further damage it. This was why they were called secret artifacts.

Gnashing his teeth, Chen Xiong said, “Then it’s a promise. I don’t believe that he can hole up in the Fallen Aquatic Residence for the rest of his life!”

Seven days later, in Lin Yun’s Fallen Aquatic Residence, he was sitting next to the spiritual lake as he was basked in lightning. Behind him was a boundless sphere of lightning and heavy breathing could be vaguely heard. It sounded as though there was a sleeping ancient dragon being awakened.

As Lin Yun breathed, an ancient aura and lightning would rumble at the same time. The lake had also been dyed in purple by the lightning, which created a spectacular scene.

When looking carefully, the lightning runes on Lin Yun’s body had grown to forty-five. As the lightning runes squirmed, Lin Yun began to emit a terrifying aura like a ferocious beast with a powerful vitality that caused the ground to tremble lightly.

Suddenly, Lin Yun opened his eyes and the surrounding phenomenon disappeared before condensing into a water geyser at the center of the lake that soared into the sky.

The water geyser had soared into the sky like a lightning sword that pierced through the thunderclouds. When the thunderclouds cleared up, sunlight fell onto Lin Yun’s half-naked body that outlined his figure perfectly.

“Forty-five lightning runes in two days. There still isn’t any improvement even after refining three Five Acute Lightning Crystals. It looks like this isn’t the problem…” Lin Yun slowly got up as he could sense the azure dragon energy coursing through his body.

Forty-five lightning runes were equivalent to forty-five cauldrons’ worth of strength. With a punch, he could create forty-five lightning rumbles. With just the rumble itself, he could kill many people.

But Lin Yun had locked his brows together because he wasn’t too happy. The Azure Dragon Enneaform was stuck at the pinnacle third stage and there hadn’t been any improvements even after he refined three Five Acute Lightning Crystals.

“I need to take a look again,” said Lin Yun as he placed an ancient strip on his forehead to re-examine the body-refining technique.

As the boundless information flowed into his mind, Lin Yun opened his eyes a long time later as his eyes flashed.

“Dragon blood!” Lin Yun spat out two words and finally realised what was wrong with the Azure Dragon Enneaform. So it turns out that there were three tribulations that he had to go through with the Azure Dragon Enneaform and he had to refine dragon blood for each tribulation.

The tribulations were dangerous, but he would undergo a huge transformation if he was successful. The results would be similar to when he refined the Azure Dragon’s blood. Although it was dangerous, it had also brought a huge transformation to him when successful and it greatly strengthened his physique.

But it was unrealistic for him to search for dragon blood in the current era. Then again, it was also mentioned in the jade slip that he could replace dragon blood with the blood of demonic beasts that possessed the dragon bloodline.

If that was the case, the Dragon Blooded Horse should be considered one. Lil’ Red’s bloodline had started to awaken and was reaching a terrifying level.

Holding his chin, Lin Yun pondered briefly before he called out, “Lil’ Red!”

It didn’t take long for Lil’ Red to come running upon hearing Lin Yun’s call. It knew that Lin Yun had tons of treasures and it would benefit greatly every time Lin Yun called for it. So it came running while grinning and revealing its bucktooth.

“Come,” said Lin Yun with an amicable smile.

When Lil’ Red got close, Lin Yun took out the short sword, Frost Moon, from his interspatial pouch, “Don’t move. I need some of your blood.”

When Lil’ Red heard that, it dropped onto the ground and started to roll.

Looking at Lil’ Red rolling on the ground whining, Lin Yun’s lips began to twitch.