Yuying swiftly arrived with the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals.
The little fox wanted to follow her, but the Yama King persuaded her to stay put. Once she understood the situation, Miao gave up coming in search of Lu Yun and gave the scroll to Yuying. After delivering her package, Yuying bowed to Lu Yun and returned to the Hongmeng through the Disordered Hell.
There’d once been many beings in residence in the scroll; they had long since vacated the premises. The Tiger Prince and Dragon Prince of the burial mound at Myriad Formation Summit had formed their own souls in the Hell Flowers and become true living beings due to Lu Yun’s help.
The black dragon guard who’d once stood by Aoxue’s side also left after it recovered from its injuries. Only the Azure Dragon King remained.
The turn of events took Chu Xingran completely by surprise. He’d never imagined that a sliver of the vaunted greatest genius of the dragons, Ao Qin, would enter the world of immortals after his death to become its Azure Dragon King. That he’d cower by Lu Yun’s side and await resurrection was also the last thing that he’d fathomed!
“Oi oi oi, stop playing dead. Time to come out and get some air.” Lu Yun knocked on the scroll.
It stayed completely still and quiet.
Su Xiaoxiao’s mirror showed that the corpse poison beings on the body had stopped their actions and disassembled into pure poison again.
“Take this with you and lead the way.” Lu Yun gave the scroll to Su Xiaoxiao. She nodded and walked in front, closely followed by Xingzi.
“You won’t be able to get any of the dragon race’s treasures if you revive Ao Qin,” Chu Xingran said quietly.
“Are dead treasures more important than a living person?” Lu Yun snorted. “Won’t the dragon race treat you as a god if you bring back a living Ao Qin? The dragons are miserly, without a doubt, but they’re also heavily biased toward their own.
“They’ll slice and dice you into pieces if you touch a single hair on their heads, but they’ll also fete you like a god if you save their greatest genius.
“That is, assuming Ao Qin isn’t unwanted by his race.”
Chu Xingran fell silent.
The group carefully approached the ponderous body, resulting in the flock of black birds appearing again. But for some reason, they retreated as swiftly as they came. The closer they drew, the more excited the two Yama Kings became.
“You’re called Ao Qin, right?” they mumbled to the Azure Dragon King in the scroll. “Don’t be in a hurry to live just yet. We see at least nine hundred million poisons on your body—those are all great treasures! They’ll disappear when the young master resurrects you.”
“Yup, so don’t be in a hurry to come back alive yet. Wait until we’ve collected enough poison first!”
Lu Yun could now clearly perceive a sense of resignation from the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals. The Azure Dragon King wasn’t playing dead; he could neither talk nor send out messages in his current condition. It was the equivalent of the Azure Dragon King dying to reform into Ao Qin’s core essence.
He’d chosen to return to his origins at this point in time because of the world of sequence. The world was about to mature, and although the dragons had their own world of sequence already, there was no such thing as too many worlds of sequence. Naturally, they had to cast their hat into the ring.
The Morans were also here, which was indicative of everything since Moran Dongning was the Time Guard for this Land of Reincarnation.
With the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals leading the way, the group finally set foot onto Ao Qin’s body. Although all of the life forms had reverted to colossal poison, the incomplete altar still towered on it. It was carved with a variety of eerie glyphs and there was even a transportation formation in the center.
“You put that formation down for me, didn’t you?” Lu Yun huffed at the scroll.
The scroll remained motionless.
“A word of advice… destroy the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals,” Chu Xingran suddenly said.
“Destroy it?” Lu Yun paused.
“It’s drawn with God’s core essence. He will not be able to return to his body as long as it exists. He will never return to peak condition—he’s a heavyweight in the outside world as well.”
“And who is Mo Yi?” Lu Yun transmitted in return. “I know that your ultimate goal isn’t the Hongmeng or the world of immortals, but Mo Yi. Who is she and why are you trying to kill her?”
“…would you believe me if I say that it’s entirely involuntary?” Chu Xingran sighed. “A mysterious will from the unknown is forcing me to be at odds with that mistress. I don’t know why.”
Lu Yun nodded. Mo Yi was also affected by some sort of compulsion to search out the Imperial Seal and die with the demonic fiend in it. He took a look at the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals in Su Xiaoxiao’s hands, not coming to a decision yet.
God plainly had his own plans in mind when drawing the scroll with his core essence. The name of “Shepherding Immortals” was also deeply meaningful.
“Someone else has been here already!” Busily collecting poison, Xingzi suddenly held up a crystalline skull. “The skull’s turned into crystal, which makes them an immense powerhouse!”
Lu Yun took a glance at it and turned to Haidong Lin. “It belongs to a shark spirit called Hai Qianqiu.”
Since Haidong Lin was also a shark spirit, they must be somehow related.
“Sea Lord Qianqiu… is also dead?” Haidong Lin jerked, then curled his lip.
“You don’t seem all that sad,” Lu Yun was surprised. Whether it was Sea Lord Mayfly before or Sea Lord Qianqiu now, Haidong Lin showed no signs of grief when their bodies were before him.
“What is there to be sad about?” Haidong Lin responded. “Us four sea lords each rule a part of the sea and swear fealty to the Sea Emperor. However, that doesn’t make us friends. In fact, it’d be more accurate to say that we’re enemies.
“There used to be eighteen sea lords under His Imperial Majesty’s banner. I personally killed three of them.”
Lu Yun asked no more. Su Xiaoxiao and Xingzi kept their eyes open as they collected the poison. Indeed, the poison beings didn’t reappear after the scroll arrived.
“Hmm?” Lu Yun opened his hand to reveal a black flower. It had six petals and seemed to be carved out of black crystal. It was the flower he’d taken when he obtained the world fragment in the land of darkness.
The flower had suddenly popped into his hand and drifted into the sky. It radiated black ripples, and Chu Xingran’s expression twisted when he saw it.
“What’s, what’s that doing here?!” He swiftly retreated, much to Lu Yun and Haidong Lin’s bafflement.
“I got it in the land of darkness.” Lu Yun walked up to take it back.
