Joe Di now has a clear goal. No one, not even Saint Henry Yi, knows just how vast this realm truly is. At least, from the notes he acquired from Saint Henry Yi, it is clearly recorded that the only known places are the Ten Realms.
Saint Henry Yi does not know, which shows that this realm is truly boundless. To this day, no one has been able to find its edge. Otherwise, everyone would know.
Joe Di decided to go to Gladehaven, the top-ranked realm among the Ten Realms. It wasn't because this realm shares a character with his name, nor because it is the largest. Rather, it is because this realm has the most human cultivators, and the Grand Conclave of All Races is held here.
Joe Di took out his communication pearl from his ring, intending to send a message to Saint Henry Yi. He was currently at the peak of the Third Step, still a bit short of the Fourth Step. But Saint Henry Yi was different—he had already entered the Fourth Step. If he could learn the secret of the Fifth Step, it would benefit Saint Henry Yi even more than himself.
"Brother Di, help me..." Joe Di had just taken out Saint Henry Yi's communication pearl and had not yet sent a message when he heard Saint Henry Yi's urgent cry for help. The communication pearl immediately displayed Saint Henry Yi's location.
Saint Henry Yi is calling for help?
Joe Di was slightly startled, but immediately dashed over using his rule-evading escape technique without hesitation.
He had no real friends in this place. If there was anyone he could talk to, it was certainly Saint Henry Yi. Now that Saint Henry Yi was asking for help, he would naturally not hesitate to lend a hand.
......
Saint Henry Yi's hair was disheveled, and the armor on his upper body was already shattered. A red arrow had pierced through his back and out his chest. Grey deathly energy swirled around the red arrow, constantly corroding Saint Henry Yi's vitality and flesh.
Saint Henry Yi's face grew increasingly pale. If not for his mastery of a top-tier escape technique, he would have perished long ago.
Yet now, he had no idea where to flee. He couldn't stop, either. After all these years of sainthood and enduring countless days and nights in the Saint Seat Plaza, how could he resign himself to being captured alive and refined? Moreover, he knew that given a little more time, he would become much stronger than the Edict Saint here.
Saint Henry Yi was well aware: if his pursuers wanted him dead, they would have already killed him. Their goal was to capture him alive. Unfortunately, though he understood this, he simply could not escape. As his injuries worsened, his escape speed slowed. It was only a matter of time before he was caught.
Should he self-destruct? He was truly unwilling.
Sure enough, as Saint Henry Yi fled frantically, a calm voice sounded from behind, "Fellow Daoist, you can't escape no matter how you run. Come back with me. While I can't promise you won't die, I assure you I won't torture you. I just want to ask you a few questions..."
It was as if Saint Henry Yi hadn't heard. He kept fleeing desperately, even preparing to self-destruct.
Suddenly, a faint light appeared from the communication pearl on his wrist. Saint Henry Yi was overwhelmed with joy. Without hesitation, he changed direction, speeding up even more.
Joe Di had arrived. He knew clearly that in this place, only Joe Di could and would save him. His greatest worry was that Joe Di had left the communication pearl in his ring or world, missing his message. But now Joe Di had received it, and was coming.
...The cultivator chasing Saint Henry Yi was slightly stunned to see him suddenly change direction and speed up. What did this mean? Didn't he know that changing direction actually shortened the distance between them? And speeding up now—was he planning to self-destruct?
Realizing Saint Henry Yi might self-destruct, the pursuer no longer hesitated and also sped up, even burning some of his own essence blood.
Saint Henry Yi represented the Fifth Step. After finally catching one, how could the pursuer simply give up?
But just as he sped up, he suddenly stopped, because he saw Saint Henry Yi had also stopped—and standing beside him was a young man in plain clothes.
Joe Di saw Saint Henry Yi escaping toward him and breathed a sigh of relief. He had arrived just in time—Saint Henry Yi hadn't died. Joe Di's gaze fell on the pursuer: a man of average build, fierce eyebrows, dressed in a red robe, holding a red longbow. Judging by the red feathered arrow in Saint Henry Yi's body, this man clearly had a fondness for red.
In terms of cultivation, this was clearly a Fourth Step Edict Saint. From the Dao aura surrounding him, Joe Di could tell he was weaker than Ruben Redlin.
"Friend, I encountered this outsider first..." The red-robed cultivator also stopped, his tone calm, but his aura surged as he spoke.
But he stopped halfway through his words, realizing he'd misjudged. The man he'd been chasing clearly knew the plain-clothed youth blocking his path, because the youth immediately produced a Dao Pill for Saint Henry Yi, who swallowed it without hesitation.
"You were chasing my friend?" Joe Di stretched out his hand, and the Azure Veil Blade erupted with boundless killing intent as it landed in his grasp. The blade hadn't killed Ruben Redlin before, which had left it unsatisfied. Now, with another target, its innate killing intent and blade will could no longer be suppressed.
Friend? The red-robed cultivator froze for a moment at the word, then grew even more ecstatic. He knew how valuable a friend of Saint Henry Yi was.
After the secret of the Fifth Step was revealed, everyone learned that a group of people had arrived in this realm—people with an incredibly precise grasp over the evolution of all things in the vast universe, and an unparalleled understanding of the cosmic world. Any Fourth Step Edict Saint who could find one of these people could use their knowledge of the universe and all things to break through to the Fifth Step.
He hadn't expected to meet two at once—one for himself, and one to auction off. Why would he ever lack resources after becoming a Saint?
"Brother Di, kill him quickly. Let's go..." Saint Henry Yi said, then began frantically healing himself again, knowing just how dire the situation was.
As for whether Joe Di could kill the opponent, Saint Henry Yi wasn't worried at all. Joe Di had slain Saint Byron with a single blade, and having fought this red-robed man before, Saint Henry Yi was sure that while he was a bit stronger than Byron, the difference wasn't great.
Before Joe Di could act, the red-robed cultivator pulled out a paperless umbrella. As he summoned it, his longbow transformed into a ring of red shadows, locking down Joe Di's space.
The red umbrella didn't attack, but instead enveloped the entire space, preventing Joe Di and Saint Henry Yi from escaping. The ring of red shadows from the longbow was also partly to prevent Joe Di's escape—he clearly didn't want to lose these two unexpected prizes.
Joe Di paid no mind. The Azure Veil Blade unleashed wave after wave of temporal blade laws. As the blade laws exploded, time itself seemed to freeze.
At that moment, whether it was the red-robed cultivator's red longbow or the paperless umbrella, both slowed as if they were gravely ill old men. All their techniques, Dao laws, and spatial trajectories grew sluggish. Even the red-robed man himself felt the space around him solidify, unable to activate his own Dao laws or step out of the frozen space.
In that instant, the red-robed cultivator could even see his own future with perfect clarity—a future with no future at all...
A loom, weaving the years away in a flash. Life is but a fleeting guest, never to see dusk...
His life had reached its end. He no longer even possessed twilight—how lonely it was. A faint, cool breeze swept by. What a chilly autumn. Perhaps, it was time for him to go.
The red-robed man slowly raised his head. When he saw the fierce Azure Veil Blade Curtain descending, his whole body trembled, instantly snapping out of Joe Di's loom technique. "Fifth Step Saint..."
It was not a cool breeze, nor a pleasant autumn, but the Azure Veil Blade Curtain of Death. Such terrifying temporal technique crushed his state of mind—if this wasn't a Fifth Step Saint, what was it?
"Pfft!" The blade curtain exploded, and amidst the red, Joe Di's countless hand seals tore open the opponent's cosmic world.
"Brother Di, I finally understand. We are stronger than any Edict Saint here, but we were just missing a little something—and that something is right here. Let's leave quickly, I'll explain everything. More powerful cultivators will surely arrive soon..." Saint Henry Yi had already pulled out the feathered arrow from his body, speaking excitedly.
He wasn't surprised that Joe Di killed the red-robed cultivator with a single strike. In his eyes, Joe Di was someone who had already perfected that final piece of the Fourth Step. Only after learning the secret to advancing to the Fifth Step here did he suddenly realize that what they lacked could be found in this place.
(That's all for today's update. Good night, friends!)