Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
The Dusk restriction against immortals had vanished—incorporated into the Central World and refined by Qing Yu. Constrained by the restriction all this time, the human demon regained his freedom and was in fact stronger than when the restriction was in place.
A full seven days passed after Qing Yu’s ascension to immortality. All was calm and tranquil in these seven days, as if everything in the world was as normal as before.
This took quite a few powerhouses of the world aback, since if it were up to them, they would’ve jumped right into establishing the sacred land of immortal dao so that all beings in the world could worship them. The current Lu Yun absolutely had the right to do so.
After all these battles, though Lu Yun himself didn’t possess great strength and often had to rely on others, what he could call upon had been validated by the world. If anyone—not just Lu Yun—wished to establish a sacred land, they needed to experience challenges from everyone in what was called a human tribulation.
He’d successfully endured the human tribulation and possessed the capital needed to truly establish a sacred land. Therefore, the world waited with bated breath for him to finally materialize his plans.
However, he and Qing Yu chose to depart Dusk Province hand in hand.
……
A glimmering white avenue shot into the skies and soared up into the highest reaches of the atmosphere. It was the main body of the Path of Ingress—Nephrite Major’s greatest treasure. Zhao Shenguang had gifted it to Lu Yun as it could be used to greater effect in his hands.
Naturally, Lu Yun didn’t accept this gift without offering anything in return. After all, the Path of Ingress was very important to the major, the basis on which its protection were based. His response was to send the Black Tortoise to Xiankan.
Nephrite Major possessed four great legions—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. They were the four greatest troops of the major and their battle formations were based off the four divine beasts.
At peerless immortal, Black Tortoise wasn’t all that strong, but it was a real divine beast formed from the divine energy of the north. If the Black Tortoise Legion of Nephrite Major meditated on its form, they would be able to summon a true Black Tortoise divine spirit when they assembled into battle formation and become even stronger.
In certain respects, possessing a living Black Tortoise was even more important to the major than the Path of ingress.
Of course, with Zhao Shenguang’s pestering and insatiable personality, he came calling for the other three divine beasts as well. Lu Yun kicked him out with one hefty punt.
……
The Path of Ingress traversed heaven and earth like a snow-white chain.
“We’re here.” Qing Yu mentioned softly with a raise of her eyebrows.
They were at the highest reaches of the world of immortals. If they looked down, they would overlook the nine majors, ten lands, four immortal seas, and four great oceans. Each of the facets were different sizes and in fact, shards of a world embedded in this local area of space.
In actuality, each of the facets had evolved their own forces and manifested personal mandates. As time went on, the relationship between each of them would continuously decline until they formed independent worlds. When that happened, the power of the four great oceans would no longer constrain the facets and the world of immortals would collapse, never to be whole again.
The boundless starry sky surrounded them, also known as the outer realm and where Lu Feng had battled Yin Jiuying. Sparkling, crystalline stars floated around Lu Yun and Qing Yu. They were starstones instead of real stars—the culmination of the energy of the stars. The real cosmos was to be found outside the reaches of the world of immortals. Here, they were still in its upper atmosphere.
“This is the place, but we can’t see it.” Qing Yu frowned. “Only by refining all of the mandates of the world and perceiving the heart of a celestial emperor will we be able to see the gates to the world of immortals.”
Dense information of death flooded into Lu Yun when he opened the Spectral Eye.
“This is the place alright… previous generations of celestial emperors and all sorts of divines died here…” he murmured. “The origins of that ancient great war are here too! But, apart from the denizens of the world of immortals, I don’t see any information about the enemy. …open!”
Black and white light suddenly flashed in front of them as the Formation Orb appeared over Lu Yun’s head. Its light swept the emptiness, projecting the truth of the place they stood in.
It was a dusky and crimson land—the red dirt underfoot plainly crushed bones drenched with blood. An enormous scarlet door rose at the end of this territory; bloody light danced upon it as boundless killing intent flooded this land.
Nine great figures sat crosslegged on the ground in a strange formation, constantly battling the malice from the other side of the door. Lu Yun glimpsed a massive origin divine on the ground, one who lay unmoving in the stillness of death.
“Damn, we’re a little bit too late. I could’ve saved him had we gotten here a day earlier.” Lu Yun sighed faintly as he studied the withered husk of the origin divine. “Junior Lu Yun greets the nine seniors.”
He waved a hand to retrieve the Formation Orb as he and Qing Yu had already entered the world formed by the gates.
“You came here so quickly!” Zhao Fengyang’s eyes shot wide open when he saw their visitor. He’d thought very highly of Lu Yun and wanted to personally raise him before the abdication overruled everything. That had been when the previous generation of celestial emperors had fallen, and they had no choice but to step down from their positions to fill in the hole.
“To think you’d achieve such accomplishments in less than six years!” sighed another celestial emperor. “It’s a shame that we haven’t made enough time for you. If you had another thousand years, I’m sure you would do your utmost to protect the world. Alas… we only have seventy years!”
“Can it be that after seventy years… seniors…” An unnatural expression hung on Qing Yu’s face.
“Isn’t it laughable? We nine have exceeded the dao immortal realm and set foot into the ingress realm, but we can only hold on for seventy years!” Zhao Fengyang laughed bleakly. “If no new celestial emperors arrive here after seventy years, that means the end of the world as well.”
It was a pity that the newest crop of celestial emperors had no idea what their position truly entailed. Most importantly, Witherdew Major was destroyed. No new ruler would be born there for a very long time.
“Seventy years is too short,” sighed the nine.
“What’s behind the doors? The people who destroyed the Primordial Era?” Lu Yun asked after a pause.
“No.” Zhao Fengyang shook his head. “Yin spirits, a never-ending tide of them! After life in the multiverse perished, they became yin spirits! In all of the worlds, ours is the only sanctuary that hasn’t been destroyed.
“The great war a hundred thousand years ago wasn’t just one confined to our world, but a great war against all life in the entire multiverse! We barely managed to hang on, but everywhere else outside the world of immortals has become ravaged ruins.”
