Even the Lunar Palace’s Palace Master did not think much of Xiao Chen’s chances. At this moment, for the sake of avoiding becoming a meteor, he ran around Black Water Island crazily with Yue Bingyun.

The mob of quasi-Emperors chasing after the two did not pause for even a moment. The two used everything they had and all sorts of tricks. Despite that, they could not shake off the quasi-Emperors on their tail.

Being able to condense the Heart of an Emperor was a great temptation to quasi-Emperors. No matter what, they would not give up on it.

Xiao Chen fled miserably, accumulating many wounds on his body. If there were only about ten people, he could deal with them himself. However, there were hundreds of quasi-Emperors, and some were even Consummation quasi-Emperors. He simply had no way to handle them.

“Never mind, I give up.”

Xiao Chen, who was flying quickly, suddenly stopped.

Yue Bingyun found his decision strange and asked, “Are you sure? If you hang on, I have a trump card that can help us shake off this group of troublesome people.”

Xiao Chen smiled and said, “Thank you for your kind intentions. I have my trump cards too. However, this thing cannot be monopolized. Otherwise, we would fall into Fei Lengyi’s trap.”

He grabbed the mysterious blood cocoon from Yue Bingyun’s hands, then turned around and raised it high. “If anyone attacks, I will directly destroy it!”

The moment Xiao Chen said that, the mob of quasi-Emperors frantically pursuing them with surging auras immediately and anxiously stopped.

The several hundred quasi-Emperors eyed Xiao Chen ferociously, stirring up winds and clouds endlessly. The pressure was suffocatingly heavy.

“Little Friend, there is no need to be so anxious. If you hand over the blood cocoon formed by the splinters of the Heavenly Cloud Jadeite Sword, we will naturally not make things difficult for you.”

The one that spoke was a Consummation quasi-Emperor. Xiao Chen had some impression of him. This person was called Jin Liangqi. He had seen Jin Liangqi make his move at the testing stele, lighting up nine of the ten purple gems on the sixth row. Among Consummation quasi-Emperors, this person’s strength stood near the peak.

Xiao Chen admitted that he was not as strong as Jin Liangqi, but he did not show any fear at all. His lips curled up in a smile as he asked, “Hand it over? To you? So you can take it away?”

That would be for the best, Jin Liangqi thought to himself. He was just about to say yes, but he suddenly discovered several hostile gazes directed at him.

He cursed in his heart and smiled awkwardly. “Naturally not. It would only be fair to split it with everyone. Otherwise, no matter who obtained it, there would be a fierce battle among us, and we might end up letting someone else benefit.”

Xiao Chen looked at the mysterious blood cocoon and then at the faces of all the quasi-Emperors present. Even though he faced so many quasi-Emperors, he did not cower.

“Very good. Senior Jin said exactly what I wanted to say. No one can monopolize the secret of the Life and Death Art. If no one has a problem with it, I can choose to open this blood cocoon now and see if the Life and Death Art is inside.”

The entire place fell silent. Clearly, some still had misgivings. After all, the blood cocoon was in Xiao Chen’s hands. Even if the Life and Death Art was in it, he would have the final say on whether to share it or not.

Xiao Chen smiled faintly and asked, “What’s wrong? Afraid that I will continue to run after obtaining the Life and Death Art? If I really wanted to monopolize it, I would not have stopped. That is all I have to say. Whether you are willing or not, I will cut it open now.”

He could not be bothered with all these suspicious old men who were thinking all sorts of nonsense.

Using his palm as a saber, he directly hacked down without giving these people a chance to object. The saber soul in his sea of consciousness spread throughout his body and leaked out a horrifying saber intent.

His hair and clothes fluttered in the absence of any wind, producing a melodious tinkling. The boundless saber intent sounded like a zither as it extended in all directions.

With the display of this slight skill, Xiao Chen instantly stunned a lot of quasi-Emperors. A strange light flashed in everyone’s eyes. This white-robed bladesman truly possessed extraordinary abilities to be able to persist for so long when chased by so many quasi-Emperors.

“Pu ci!”

A saber light flashed. Xiao Chen’s hand saber neatly sliced open the mysterious blood cocoon. A scarlet light burst out immediately, looking like blood spilling out into the air. The blood cocoon slowly melted, thickening this scarlet light and turning it into a blood mist.

A floating piece of paper appeared on Xiao Chen’s palm. Surprisingly, the blood cocoon was not empty, but neither did it contain the Life and Death Art—just an old piece of paper that looked like a map.

“Brat! Hand over the map!”

“Quickly, or you can forget about leaving here alive.”

The surrounding quasi-Emperors did not care whether this piece of paper had anything to do with the Life and Death Art. The moment it appeared, they immediately shouted demands.

Ignoring them, Xiao Chen opened the map and glanced at it. After memorizing it, he promptly tossed it away.

“Let’s go!”

Not caring about this mob of quasi-Emperors, Xiao Chen called out to Yue Bingyun and left with her right away.

Seeing the piece of paper drift towards them, the excited quasi-Emperors calmed down and became more restrained, instead. If anyone dared to attack, the sheet might end up destroyed immediately in the chaos.

Jin Liangqi took a quick look. He did not make a move; like Xiao Chen, he only glanced at it to commit the contents to memory before leaving quietly.

At the level of quasi-Emperors, almost everyone possessed the ability to remember things perfectly after just one glance.

As the many quasi-Emperors memorized the contents of the map, the place emptied. Eventually, not a single person remained, leaving only the solitary map drifting to the ground.

This matter was truly laughable. Earlier, everyone crazily chased after this. After discovering it to be a map, not a single person bothered to collect it, letting it blow away.

------

In a large courtyard within Black Water City, Xiao Chen took out brush and paper to make a copy of what he remembered, without any changes to it.

Xiao Chen blew at the lines gently to dry the ink. Then, he and Yue Bingyun studied the drawing.

“This is a map. The red mark on it should be a cave. Given the Blood Sword Sovereign’s identity, the answer to what it is should be clear. This map should depict the location of the cave where the Blood Sword Sovereign once cultivated.”

After some observation, Yue Bingyun quickly came to a conclusion.

Xiao Chen did not express any opinions on this. This was the most superficial level of information. Everyone who obtained a copy of this map would be able to figure that out.

That was not the difficult part. The difficult part lay in the fact that tens of thousands of years had passed. Over that long period of time, the geography had changed vastly. The roads and other markers on the map were all already long gone.

If one wanted to rely on this map to find the cave where the Blood Sword Sovereign had cultivated, it would be as impossible as an Arabian Nights fantasy story.

Clearly, Yue Bingyun was aware of this point. After thinking for a while, she said, “We have to find a senior who is familiar with the Black Sea and have them narrow down the general location of the cave. After that, we will need to find a Geomaster to observe the landscape and figure out the cave’s exact location.

Xiao Chen nodded. This was probably the only method. He said, “You handle the first part. As for the Geomaster for the second part, there is no need to look for one.”

“What do you mean?”

Smiling, Xiao Chen replied, “Although I’m a half-baked Geomaster, I believe my standards far surpass the average.”

Yue Bingyun’s eyes lit up. Finding the revelation strange, she said, “I could not tell. I really did not know that. What do you not know?”

“There are many things that I do not know. For example, I do not have the boldness to waste a Heptagold Origin to explode a Divine Weapon.”

This retort stifled Yue Bingyun. Unexpectedly, Xiao Chen was still upset with her for not informing him in advance. She put away the map and rolled her eyes at him. Then, she said, “I can’t be bothered with you. After I figure out the general location, I will come and look for the great Geomaster that is you.”

After Yue Bingyun left, Xiao Chen took out the hundred Superior Grade Demon Fiend Rocks from his Universe Ring. Since it was rare for him to find free time like this, he muttered, “One hundred Superior Grade Demon Fiend Rocks, these should be sufficient to improve my saber soul. It is truly difficult to advance this saber soul.”

As Xiao Chen and Yue Bingyun made their preparations, the entire Black Water City turned chaotic. News of the map spread everywhere, startling nearly every quasi-Emperor in the city.

All these quasi-Emperors were very smart and shortly came to the same conclusion as Yue Bingyun. Hence, they started to search for skilled Geomasters, trying to be the first to enter the cave.

It did not matter whether the cave contained news of the Life and Death Art or not; everyone knew that the cave that the Blood Sword Sovereign once cultivated in would not be empty.

---

Inside the Xia Clan’s courtyard, Xia Luo and Wang Zhen carefully examined a map. Joy filled their faces.

Xia Luo smiled and said, “As long as I obtain the Life and Death Art to condense the Heart of an Emperor in advance, I am confident of advancing to Martial Emperor within ten years.”

Likewise, Wang Zhen could not hide the joy he felt. He said, “If I undergo my Great Tribulation of wind and fire after condensing a Heart of an Emperor, I would be ninety-nine percent confident of success. Oh, by the way, Second Young Master, should we inform the clan and First Young Master of this news?”

After thinking for a while, Xia Luo shook his head and replied, “We can’t. The Dark Sea is too far away. By the time the clan’s people rush over, they would be too late. Our strength should be sufficient.”

---

As the same time, Jiang Feng held a similar map, his face suffused with joy as well. “Originally, I just went to the auction to participate in the liveliness. Unexpectedly, there are such gains. If I can condense the Heart of an Emperor in advance, it would be sufficient for me to sweep through all the outstanding talents in the younger generation when I return to Dark City!”

---

Everyone rushed about, fearing that they would be behind. The possible locations of the cave shrank until they were narrowed down to the western part of Black Water Island.

However, Black Water Island was the size of a small continent. So the coverage was still quite vast. As for the latter part, one could only rely on a Geomaster to use geomancy to examine the land.

Four days passed, and Xiao Chen managed to use the one hundred Superior Grade Demon Fiend Rocks to improve the quality of his saber soul.

With this improvement, the might of his saber soul strengthened remarkably. His gaze became more piercing, his aura sharper. Just one glare could make one tremble in fear.

However, the more one improved the saber soul, more difficult further improvements would become. Xiao Chen had never used Demon Fiend Rocks before, so they were very effective this time. If he used them a second time, he would not enjoy such obvious improvements.

Of course, the exception would be if he used Peak Grade Demon Fiend Rock that tempted even Martial Emperors. Even so, his current saber soul combined with his quasi-Emperor cultivation was already sufficient for him to look down on his peers.

If the different states or wills that Xiao Chen wielded were included—thunder, death, massacre, despair, grief, and many others—his moves would become even more unpredictable, even harder for others to figure out. In combat, his wills and states would produce many different mysterious phenomena to wondrous effect.

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