“Did you think I was dead?” the Art Saint said merrily to Lu Yun. “How is Yuying?”
“She’s fine, she’s great, she just complains everyday that she wants to be my woman,” Lu Yun responded curtly.
The Art Saint’s eyes immediately turned red and he glared viciously at Lu Yun, not saying a word. He and Yuying had almost become dao partners in their time; though everything had dissipated upon the wind when Yuying became Lu Yun’s Yama King, the Art Saint had never quite been able to put his feelings aside. He even fantasized of a day in which he could take Yuying back from Lu Yun.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough bullshit. What are you doing here?” Lu Yun frowned. The five senses had indeed entered the sea of Hell Flowers when they passed, but they’d melted into the air instead of re-coalescing their true spirits and souls.
“That old guy Fuxi is a man of his word and resurrected us, but we wanted to leave this land instead of continuing to run madly around with him,” the Art Saint ground his teeth. “That old guy imposed one final condition on us—no one was allowed to take this world of sequence apart from you. Hence, the five of us kept watch in the tomb after our rebirth until you claimed the core essence.”
The five senses—now their own persons—had resurrected with power that Lu Yun couldn’t imagine at that time. They left soundlessly, without alerting anyone.
Lu Yun trembled. He hadn’t thought that Fuxi would keep an eye on him all this time. So Fuxi was the reason why he’d obtained the world of sequence!
“The other four have already left for the outside realm, but I stayed because I can’t leave Yuying behind.” The Art Saint ground his teeth again with annoyance. “You need to leave right now. If you visit the other hells upon departing the future tomb, your future will be entangled with this tomb and you’ll be buried here sooner or later!”
Lu Yun jumped with shock. “Me, again?”
“It’s not aimed at you, but at whoever takes the world of sequence!” sighed the Art Saint. “Fuxi entered the tomb after you took the core essence, wanting to resolve the karmic repercussions of this future tomb. Sadly, he was only partially successful. You can avoid karmic ties with this tomb if you don’t travel to the outside realm through it. It will self-destruct before long if you refrain from passing through this way.
“But if you do visit the other three hells or the outside realm through this one, you’ll be completely tied to everything here and the old guy’s efforts will be irrevocably wasted.” Two beams of light exuded from the Art Saint’s eyes, projecting Fuxi’s arrival two thousand years ago after Lu Yun left with the core essence and how he reorganized the layout here.
Lu Yun frowned deeply when he looked at Chu Xingran. The latter was busily chewing his lip.
“Who is Fuxi? I have never heard of him in the outside realm and I have no idea who built this future tomb.”
“An ant cannot see the existence of a dragon because the dragon is too big. A speck of dust from the dragon is a world to the ant, and a drop of sweat the boundless ocean.” The Art Saint looked at Chu Xingran and answered his question. “This tomb once buried the four tomb owners. They harbored many unfulfilled desires in their heart and pent up grievances. Their rancor turned them into yin ghosts, giving them the ability to personally set up this future tomb fraught with karmic repercussions.
“They didn’t know who would claim the world of sequence, but whoever did would find this tomb become theirs in the future.
“Haven’t you been unable to determine why there are ghosts and yin spirits mixed in with the creatures of darkness? They’re dead things in the outside realm, but living things in the land of darkness.”
Lu Yun looked blankly at the Art Saint.
“That’s because the ghost race and yin spirits come from the four yin ghosts,” the Art Saint continued before the young man had the chance to raise a question. “Four others came here later on to slay the four yin ghosts. Although they died, their souls did not dissipate and they split into thousands and thousands of fragments, becoming the ghosts and yin spirits of the darkness.
“Most of the disasters striking the world of immortals and Hongmeng come from them. While the creatures of darkness hate light, they don’t actively seek out light to destroy it when they don’t see it.”
“I see,” Lu Yun nodded. “But those four ghosts didn’t fully turn into the ghost race and yin spirits either, they kept a part of their soul to be the overseers of darkness! We met one earlier!”
“The soul ghost!” Chu Xingran realized. “Out of the four buried here, one of them was a heavyweight from the Hun Clan!
“No wonder I found it so strange that the tomb owner has such a good temper. He didn’t care that he was buried in a burial mound or a random pile of dirt because he’s not the original tomb owner to begin with!”
Lu Yun’s consciousness entered the Tome of Life and Death to carefully observe the coffin he’d taken. He found nothing out of the ordinary. The demon of immortal dao was a middle-aged man again and crouched on the ground, playing with dirt. The coffin was quiet and still, seemingly inert.
The Art Saint nodded. “Go on back. As bad as the old guy was to us, he’s really a good guy. Don’t let his good intentions go to waste.”
“Is there no way to destroy this future tomb?” Lu Yun frowned.
“You learned your craft from him and he learned your formula dao too. Although you’ve got two little fellows in your Disordered Hell, they’re much too inexperienced compared to Fuxi.” The Art Saint shook his head. “What Fuxi cannot resolve with his full strength will prove equally perplexing to you. Your best option right now is to leave without looking back so you can grow stronger.”
Fuxi personally taking action meant that Lu Yun couldn’t resolve the problem in his current state. Perhaps Lu Yun had done many things that Fuxi hadn’t expected and completed many feats that eluded the man, but when the matter had to do with Lu Yun’s survival, he wouldn’t let the young man go to his death.
“Alright,” Lu Yun nodded. “Since Holy Emperor Fuxi has been by, that means the problem of the other three tombs of hell has been taken care of. I won’t force my way in then.”
He turned on his heel and left.
The Art Saint nodded. “Then I shall leave as well.” His body faded away, as if he’d never been present.
A powerful gust of resentment exploded when all of them left the world of sequence, as if it was extremely dissatisfied with this ending.
“If we cannot bury the one who claimed the core essence of sequence, then let’s bury the one who refined it.” Princess Mu’s body slowly materialized and plodded toward the primary worlds.
