52: Chapter 52: Can tokens be synthesized?

Suddenly.

A calm voice came from the shadows of the ruins.

Xiao Ran stepped out slowly, black demonic light swirling around him, his aura of the last stage of Golden Core completely unmasked.

The expressions of the one-eyed burly man and his three companions changed.

The last stage of Golden Core, and his aura was solid and pure; he was definitely no ordinary Loose Cultivator!

"Who are you, Fellow Daoist? This matter has nothing to do with you, so don't meddle in things that don't concern you!"

The one-eyed burly man said warily.

"It concerns me now."

"Give me the token, and I'll ensure your safe departure."

Xiao Ran looked toward the Qingyun Sect Disciples.

The Qingyun Sect Disciples were stunned, then gritted their teeth. "If you can save our lives, Fellow Daoist, we are willing to offer the token with both hands!"

"Good."

Xiao Ran nodded and turned his gaze toward the one-eyed man's group.

"Scram, or die."

The one-eyed man's face turned ashen. He had four people at the Early and Middle Stages of Golden Core, while the opponent was at the last stage of Golden Core.

Under normal circumstances, the four of them working together might have stood a chance.

But this man's aura was eerie, and that black demonic light made him instinctively feel danger.

"Does Fellow Daoist truly wish to make enemies of the Black煞 Four Calamities for the sake of this token?"

"Our brothers are well-known among the Loose Cultivators of the Northern Realm!"

The one-eyed man gritted his teeth, hoping to use their reputation to intimidate the man before him.

"The Black煞 Four Calamities?"

"Never heard of them."

To his surprise, Xiao Ran spoke without even thinking.

"You!"

"Courting death! Form the array!"

The one-eyed man roared in fury.

The four of them instantly scattered, each taking a position.

Four Evil Path Magical Artifacts—the Ghost-Head Blade, the Soul-Losing Staff, the Soul-Locking Chain, and the Heart-Shattering Hammer—were sacrificed simultaneously, forming a black evil array.

In an instant, the Evil Qi surged, transforming into four phantom images of malevolent ghosts that lunged at Xiao Ran!

"Mere parlor tricks."

Xiao Ran raised his right hand, his fingers curling slightly.

"Absorb."

No sooner had the words left his mouth.

A greyish-black vortex three zhang in diameter formed in his palm, expanding rapidly to a ten-zhang black hole that stood before him!

The four ghost phantoms lunged into the black hole and were completely swallowed without even causing a ripple!

"What?"

The one-eyed man was horrified.

His Four Fiends Evil Array had once trapped and killed a Cultivator at the last stage of Golden Core; how could it be broken so easily by this man?

"Flee!"

The one-eyed man made a split-second decision and turned to escape.

But how could Xiao Ran let them leave?

Though they were pitifully weak, Xiao Ran's style was either not to kill at all, or to pull up the roots completely if he did.

"Soul Suppressing Tower: Quake!"

An illusory black tower flew out from between his brows, pressing down from the sky!

The Divine Souls of the four men shuddered violently, and their movements stiffened simultaneously.

In the next instant, Xiao Ran's figure swept past like a ghost.

"Three-Part Return to Origin Finger."

Four streaks of greyish-black finger force pierced the air, accurately striking the centers of their brows.

"Puff, puff, puff, puff!"

Four corpses slumped to the ground, their eyes filled with shock and resentment.

Xiao Ran waved his hand to collect their Storage Pouches and Magical Artifacts before turning to look at the three Qingyun Sect members.

The three had long been dazed with fear; seeing Xiao Ran's gaze sweep over, they hurriedly offered the token in their arms.

"T-thank you for saving our lives, Senior!"

Xiao Ran took the token and swept it with his Divine Sense.

Sure enough, it was almost identical to the previous one.

"How did you obtain this token?"

Xiao Ran asked.

The leading Qingyun Sect Disciple hurriedly replied.

"Reporting to Great Expert, we found this token next to the remains of an ancient Cultivator. At the time, the remains had already weathered away, leaving only bones and this token."

"We hadn't had it for long before we were targeted by the Black煞 Four Calamities..."

"Do you know what use this token has?"

Xiao Ran asked casually.

"W-we don't know... we just felt it could trigger spatial fluctuations and thought it must be a treasure, so we wanted to take it back to study."

Xiao Ran nodded and spoke no more nonsense.

"Leave this place quickly."

"Thank you, Great Expert!"

The three didn't say another word and hurriedly departed.

Xiao Ran vanished back into the ruins and took out the two tokens for comparison.

The patterns of the 'Fallen' character on both tokens were similar, but upon closer inspection, the stroke directions had subtle differences.

As if... they were different parts of the same character?

And the cloud patterns on the back were clearly able to be pieced together.

If the two tokens were placed side-by-side, the breaks in the cloud patterns fit together perfectly!

"Fragments... They really are fragments!"

A sharp light flashed in Xiao Ran's eyes.

He tried to press the two tokens together.

At the moment of contact, both tokens glowed with a dark red light, and the cloud patterns on the back moved like living things, actually beginning to merge!

In just three breaths, the two tokens became one.

The size hadn't changed, but the thickness increased; the 'Fallen' character on the front became a bit clearer, and the cloud patterns on the back were much more complete.

Most obvious was the intensity of the spatial fluctuations, which had nearly doubled!

And the direction it pointed toward began to stabilize, vaguely pointing southeast.

But even so, the spatial fluctuations of this synthesized token were still nowhere near as intense as the White Bone Scholar had described.

"Could it be... that a complete fallen immortal token requires even more of these synthesized tokens to be merged again?"

Xiao Ran thought of the nine fallen immortal tokens mentioned by the White Bone Scholar.

If every fallen immortal token needed to be synthesized from a large number of fragments, then the number of fragments circulating in this Ancient Battlefield might be far beyond imagination.

And those holding fragments would inevitably become targets for everyone.

"Interesting..."

Xiao Ran put away the synthesized token, a look of contemplation in his eyes.

If his guess was correct, there were likely already a large number of fragments scattered throughout this Ancient Battlefield, with various factions searching for them.

And in the end, only nine people or nine factions would be able to synthesize a complete fallen immortal token.

When that time came, the struggle for these nine tokens would be tragic to the extreme.

"Collect fragments first and wait to see how things develop."

Xiao Ran made his decision.

He moved again, sweeping toward the southeast direction indicated by the token.

Since there was a faint resonance between the fragments, those holding fragments might also be able to sense each other when they came within a certain range.

This was both an opportunity and a danger.

...

Two hours later.

Xiao Ran encountered a third group of people fighting over fragments at the edge of a dried-up riverbed.

This time, it was five female Cultivators from the Xuan Yin Cult besieging three Disciples of the Hundred Beasts Villa.

All five from the Xuan Yin Cult were at the last stage of Golden Core, showing seamless cooperation.

Xuan Yin Cold Qi froze the Void Realm, forcing the three from the Hundred Beasts Villa into a steady retreat.

The three from the Hundred Beasts Villa were controlling three Yao Beasts at the last stage of Golden Core—an Iron-Backed Grey Wolf, a Red Flame Tiger, and a Green-Scaled Python.

But the Yao Beasts were slow under the Xuan Yin Cold Qi and had already suffered multiple frostbites.

In the center of the battlefield, a dark red token lay quietly on the ground.

It was indeed a fallen immortal token fragment.