Yi Qing did not hold back his sword techniques. From the way he fought, one would think that his opponent was his nemesis and not his companion. He hit Lonemoon everywhere, yet Lonemoon did not seem to feel any pain. He did not try to defend himself and instead went all out to attack Yi Qing.

　　Lonemoon’s body was covered in wounds after a few moments and looked like it was in a critical state, yet his eyes still did not focus and his expression remained the same. Yi Qing suddenly summoned his sword intent and drew a familiar Great Golden Sword, thrusting it in Lonemoon’s direction.

　　The overwhelming sword intent caused the plants and trees around them to crack and fall to the ground. The Great Golden Sword continued to head straight for Lonemoon’s body.

　　Lonemoon’s eyes suddenly widened. The mist in his eyes cleared. Then, Lonemoon exclaimed, “Holy shit!”

　　Yi Qing twisted his hand and the sword intent deflected with a sharp noise, crashing into the mountain beside Lonemoon. The Great Golden Sword shaved off the top of the mountain and caused rocks to roll down.

　　Lonemoon felt drips of cold sweat drip down his body. Thank goodness I regained consciousness. This sword was clearly headed straight for my body. It would have gone right through me!

　　“Yi Qing! You… you’re f*cking ruthless!” You were clearly out to kill me with that move.

　　Yi Qing turned away, a look of pity flashing across his face. He walked toward Lonemoon slowly and said, “If I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have regained consciousness.”

　　“Who are you lying to!” Lonemoon furiously retorted. Don’t think I didn’t realise. The expression on your face was the expression Shen Ying, that cheat, usually has.“You were taking the chance to beat me up, weren’t you?”

　　“You’re thinking too much,” Yi Qing avoided eye contact with Lonemoon. He changed the topic swiftly, “You’re a sword cultivator yourself, why were you trapped with your mental demons for so long?” And manipulated without realising. If Lonemoon had been trapped for a second longer, he would never have made it out alive. “What did you see?”

　　Lonemoon hesitated. His expression changed and he cleared his throat, “Nothing. I just remembered something that happened a long time ago.” The scary thing about mental demons was that they made use of a person’s weaknesses. Once they had a hold on the person’s weakness, they would conjure up the perfect imaginary world to trap the person in. People who were trapped with their mental demons would not realise it even after they come face-to-face with their biggest weakness. Lonemoon had… gone back to modern times.

　　Yi Qing stopped pushing him further. He raised his head to look at the sky and said, “There, the flight of stairs again.”

　　Lonemoon followed his gaze and realised that the surroundings were changing. It looked as though everything was being taken apart and re-organized.. After a few seconds, a flight of stone steps appeared before the two people, leading straight into the sky.

　　The two of them glanced at each other, then flew up the stairs at the same time.

　　As they stepped up the last step, their surroundings changed once again. They were now in an extremely vast wasteland. Even with their Divine Perception, they couldn’t perceive the boundaries of this wasteland, as if they stepped out of another dimension.

　　They could not help but sigh in amazement at the Immortal Ascension Pagoda. No wonder the Yu Family said that whoever made it to the third level would be able to achieve Immortal Ascension. It was not easy at all to achieve Immortal Ascension. Each stage in this pagoda was extremely challenging. The moment they entered the pagoda, they had to defeat their mental demons. The first level already tested their Dao Heart. Things were bound to get more difficult from here.

　　From the looks of it, the pagoda was not going to be any easier than going through the Immortal Ascension Lightning Tribulation. Lonemoon and Yi Qing were probably only in the second level of the pagoda.

　　The bright light from before suddenly appeared again after a moment. Except, when Lonemoon appeared earlier there was only one flash of bright light. Now, there were ten. However, the voice that sounded out before did not say a word this time.

　　The light slowly faded and over ten figures appeared before them. When they recognised the three figures in the middle, the two of them exclaimed in shock.

　　“Family Master Yin, Family Muster Yi and Family Master Xuan Yuan!” Lonemoon scanned the other people and realised that they were all Traveling Immortals. “Aren’t… aren’t they the first people who entered the pagoda? Why are they…”

　　Have they lost their consciousness like he did before? Are they now being controlled? What exactly is this pagoda doing to people?

　　“I’ll take the left, you take the right!” Yi Qing shouted. He tightened his grip on the sword in his hands and charged forward. They had no choice but to fight now. Lonemoon followed suit and charged toward the group.

　　Sorcery filled the air in seconds. Yi Qing and Lonemoon were sword cultivators and could handle one or two Traveling Immortals, but there was simply too many of them. When the three masters of the aristocratic families entered the pagoda, they brought along all the Traveling Immortals from their families. Only the master of the Xuan Yuan Family did not do so due to the Traveling Immortals from his family all being seriously wounded.

　　Apart from the family masters, there were eight other Traveling Immortals. Lonemoon and Yi Qing each had to take on four of them – merely thinking about it tired him out. The fact that he sustained injuries in the previous level made matters worse. While not seriously injured, it did affect his performance.

　　They had no time to look for the exit. The only solution was to fight their hardest and wake these people up.

　　It did not take long for Lonemoon to realise that these people’s situations differed from his. Their blank looks revealed that they were not merely missing their consciousness – even their primordial spirits were…

　　Lonemoon’s eyes widened. He shouted at Yi Qing beside him, “Yi Qing, most of them are completely enchanted by their mental demons. We can’t wake them up!”

　　He gritted his teeth. Traveling Immortals were, by definition, cultivators who failed to achieve Immortal Ascension. Their mental demons were bound to be greater than most people. It would not be so easy for them to defeat their mental demons.

　　Yi Qing’s expression fell as he suddenly realised this as well. He scanned the group of manipulated bodies as he defended against their attacks. Then, he replied, “Focus! Wake the three family masters up first!”

　　Lonemoon nodded as he dodged the Traveling Immortal’s side attack. He turned around and focused his attention on Yin Feng.

　　This battle lasted over twenty hours. As Lonemoon’s spiritual power drained, he made a final effort to thrust his sword toward Yin Feng, generating an aggressive killing intent. Just before the sword cut through Yin Feng’s body, his distracted face regained some sort of focus. His eyes filled with horror as he suddenly registered the sword intent. He dodged but the sword still sliced his right arm. Blood began to flow out of the wound.

　　“This… this is…” Yin Feng still looked terrified, but the fear was now mixed with a tinge of confusion. “Supremacy Lonemoon?”

　　Lonemoon had no time to explain. Yi Qing was already helping the two other family masters – now conscious – fly over to meet them. Compared to Yin Feng, the two other family masters were far more seriously injured. Clearly, Yi Qing did not hold back.

　　Yi Qing turned around and thrust his sword toward the Traveling Immortals who were chasing him. The sky filled with Sword Qi. “They’re awake! Go!” Yi Qing instructed. Then, he changed directions and flew toward the horizon.

　　Lonemoon wasted no time. He helped the injured Yin Feng up and followed Yi Qing.

　　They needed time to rest.

　　——————

　　At this time, 50 kilometers away.

　　Shen Ying studied her strange surroundings and suddenly recalled an important question.

　　Where’s… Huayuan City?

　　If she had known she would get lost, she would have brought Radish out with her. She had already walked such a distance… Should I turn back?

　　Just when she decided to turn back, she paused.

　　Which direction is… home?

　　It’s so troublesome to leave the house.