Lu Yun fidgeted in mild discomfort. It was normal for any man to dream of a harem, but his heart was already completely filled up by one person. He couldn’t fit anyone else in there.
“Ahem!” he cleared his throat. “Well, you two should rest up before you go find Situ Zong.”
The leader of the Star Demon Sect expedition was once again Situ Zong.
He was a nine-fruit peak aether dao immortal, but he could hold his own against opponents an entire realm beyond. The Pelagic Realm of the connate Pelagic Orb had turned his constitution into a connate-grade one, and he was already able to wield its full potential.
A connate treasure would be a powerful guarantee for any top clan in the world. Situ Zong wouldn’t have been able to keep any other connate-grade treasure for himself—the Star Demon Sect’s senior council would’ve taken it away from him as soon as he returned to them. However, the Pelagic Orb was special: Lu Yun had given it to him personally.
The same Lu Yun that was now the head of the sect.
The senior council didn’t dare take the sect head’s gift to another. Indeed, the five demon sovereigns helped Situ Zong fully refine the Pelagic Orb for his own, fusing its energy into his body.
Though Situ Zong wasn’t yet an arcane dao immortal, he had no problem dueling any eight-fruit arcane dao immortal. That he was heading the expedition into the ghost realm was an acknowledgement of his current strength.
However, Lu Yun couldn’t establish communication with Situ Zong on his own. The little nun and Yu Hengluo would need to try their luck at the celestial master tomb.
The main reason he’d come here was to look for the Skyqilin and Skyturtle Orbs in order to fully resolve Qing Han’s underlying issues. He didn’t need extra baggage dragging him down.
After using a dozen healing talismans each on the two girls, Lu Yun finally managed to heal their wounds. He took them on his skiff and once again set course for the celestial master tomb.
There was quite a hubbub now before it; many experts surmised this was where the Path of Ingress had ultimately landed.
From the outside, the tomb was a mountain roughly fifty thousand meters high. It was impossible to see its peak with a casual glance. The sky-sundering mountain was entirely pitch black, made of a kind of stone not found anywhere else in the world. Upon the mountain, innumerable piles of bleached bone could be seen.
It seemed that millions and millions of living creatures had once died here, their carcasses piling up into this terrifyingly huge mountain. The celestial master tomb lay beneath the mountain of bone.
A gargantuan tombstone five hundred meters tall marked where it stood. Its surface was entirely flat and nondescript, free of any inscriptions or markings whatsoever—even those left behind by natural wear.
Those who drew near it could see their reflections surprisingly clearly.
Behind the gravestone was a giant door, ancient and etched full of primordial dao runes, and in front of all this was a large, open plain. Clearly, it hadn’t been like this for long. The plain was the obvious result left behind after a brawl between two enormous creatures.
The kui’s fur and scales were scattered everywhere upon the flatland. Scorch marks left behind by its unique thunder art abounded. There were round pockmarks in the ground, too, left behind by Scarlet Ape’s iron staff.
……
When Lu Yun arrived with the two girls in tow, numerous immortals were entering the tomb through the door of light.
“They’re going in through the front door?” He opened his eyes incredulously.
“What is it?” The little nun sat red-faced upon Lu Yun’s boat; she still hadn’t gotten over her embarrassment.
“The front door of a tomb is the exit left behind by the architect. When a tomb is completed, sealing the front door and setting down a tombstone is the last step. The front door is the boundary between life and death, and sealing it marks the eternal separation of the two.
“The dead aren’t allowed to walk out, and the living aren’t allowed to enter.” Lu Yun shook his head slowly. “A door as blatant as this shouldn’t exist at all. In theory, whoever built the tomb should’ve sealed it off. This ancient door was created because someone or something triggered a restriction of some sort.
“The immortals going in this way are pretty much committing suicide.”
“Huh?” The two girls were stunned by his remarkable claims and couldn’t understand half of what he was saying.
“The living invite disaster by entering a tomb through its front doors. They might meet with an inexplicable and mysterious end, or simply become some sort of undead creature.
“Avoiding the front door is standard practice for any tomb raider. One that’s strangely open like this only makes it worse. A thief’s tunnel is the best way to get in. Digging one is the same as sneaking in by avoiding the laws governing life and death,” Lu Yun murmured.
Although many ancient tombs had holes in the front that led directly to their depths, they were generally more loopholes and flaws than actual doors. The door in front of the celestial master tomb, on the other hand, was absolutely a proper door that had stood open before.
“Sect Head, Senior Situ and the others have probably gone in through there already…” Yu Hengluo didn’t entirely understand Lu Yun’s words, but she could grasp the general gist of his explanation.
“Don’t worry, I’m here.” Lu Yun summoned his feng shui compass with a wave of his hand.
After his work on the interment of heaven and earth and the bronze palace, he’d reached a new level of feng shui through melding with the grand layout over the world. Enhanced knowledge and usage of the luopan was part of that.
There were already dark-golden runes coiled upon the compass, and it still had three layers, signifying the principle that three begets all. However, the information the luopan showed was even more mysterious and enlightening than before.
Hum…
A radiant world appeared before his eyes.
“Hmm?” Lu Yun widened his eyes. Every feng shui layout and formation upon the mountain of bone was revealed to him, available for study and analysis at the lift of a finger.
Not only that, but the world revealed by the luopan included everything else in the mountain as well. Lu Yun could ascertain the details of pretty much everything he saw. For example, the compass showed that the center of the mountain was hollow. Human skins floated inside it, and he saw Situ Zong’s among them.
