Although Xiangliu Ting was here to meet him, the monster court wasn’t brave enough to invite Lu Yun into their midst.
The East Sea and Dusk Province were allies, but the former would lose any possibility of peace if Lu Yun were to step foot into their court. The fallen Path of Ingress at the end of the East Sea was attractive in and of itself; if Lu Yun were to speak with the court privately, they would definitely be turned upside down.
Xiangliu Ting and Lu Yun spoke under the watchful eyes of the public.
Lu Yun mentioned his willingness to draw formations of heaven and earth for the East Sea’s immortals, but Xiangliu Ting refused. Instead, the general had a different request: he wanted the young man to head to the end of the East Sea to save Xiangliu Hongzhen.
The Deaf Prince had been lost for a very long time with no news at all. According to the East Sea emperor’s speculations, he and the other five profligates had gone into the celestial master tomb at the end of the East Sea.
……
“Celestial master tomb?” Lu Yun blinked. Back in the North Sea, the Deaf Prince and his five buddies had left in quite a hurry. After that, they were nowhere to be found.
“Yes, the celestial master tomb.” Xiangliu Ting chuckled drily. “Several years ago, they adventured into the tomb and returned with mountains of immortal crystals. The very same ones you’re familiar with, I’m sure. When they came back from the North Sea… they went in there a second time.”
The celestial master tomb was the foundation of the xiangliu bloodline. Every heritage of the East Sea court came from there—from the Monster Celestial Master.
“The crystal mountains came from the celestial master tomb… I understand!” That revelation warmed the cockles of Lu Yun’s heart.
In the North Sea, he’d shown a great need for immortal crystals. That was why he’d taken all of them from the North Sea monster palace. The Deaf Prince and his friends had seen and remembered it, hence their hasty return and entry into the celestial master tomb. They’d gone in to look for crystal mountains for him!
Some accident must have happened in the interim, though. Even today, the prince and the others were stuck in there still.
The celestial master tomb was a complicated place that even the current East Sea emperor could lose himself in. More than a dozen dao immortals had already been lost to it, and the emperor’s own attempt had ended in severe injury.
When Xiangliu Ting had gone to Dusk Province to reinforce it, he’d wanted to ask Lu Yun for this favor. However, Lu Yun had been too occupied by the province’s affairs, not to mention being ostracized by the rest of the world, for him to be able to mention it.
The young man’s appearance in the East Sea was the perfect opportunity, and Xiangliu Ting was the ideal ambassador for voicing their urgent appeal.
“Don’t worry, senior. They went in there because of me. I’ll see them safely out.” Lu Yun sounded rather more serious than usual.
“This is the map for the ghost realm at the end of the East Sea.” Taking out a jade slip, Xiangliu Ting handed it gravely to the human youth.
The desolation at the end of the East Sea was a zone of death and a ghost realm. It was positively huge in size—bigger than nearly the entirety of the sea. The East Sea monster court hadn’t seen its other side in eighty thousand years of exploration.
What they had seen, however, was a detailed topography of the place. Xiangliu Ting knew that Lu Yun had come for the Path of Ingress; that was why he’d given the map to the human youth in the first place.
“Is the kunpeng nest also here in the East Sea?” Lu Yun asked suddenly.
“Yes!” Xiangliu Ting blinked and nodded. “The celestial master tomb swallowed up both the kunpeng nest and the spirit turtle nest—qilin tomb combination.”
“Hmm?” Lu Yun widened his eyes. “The celestial master tomb swallowed them up, you say?”
“Yes!” Xiangliu Ting nodded. “The turtle nest and qilin tomb don’t belong to the ghost realm at the end of the East Sea. Just like the kunpeng nest, they were drawn there by whatever lies within.
“When the kunpeng nest, turtle nest, and qilin tomb fused into one, the nearby celestial master tomb consumed them as well.
“Heaven and earth shook that day throughout the East Sea… but the Sovereign Battles were progressing to their most heated moments then, so no one paid it much attention,” explained the general.
Lu Yun nodded imperceptibly to himself. He’d noticed two key points in Xiangliu Ting’s words: turtle nest and qilin tomb!
The dragon and phoenix nests had fused into a seal that cursed both races and locked the Scarlet Ape within. Since that was the case, the turtle nest and qilin tomb definitely corresponded to another curse and seal. Spirit turtles and qilins were likely cursed to keep another Scarlet Ape bound.
Lu Yun had always wondered why the desolate waters at the end of the East Sea was called a ‘ghost realm’. What kind of place was it?
When the Path of Ingress had taken Kui and Scarlet Ape into the ghost realm, his consciousness had been fused into the grand influence over the world. He hadn’t had the freedom to leave that state, but nothing in his surroundings had escaped his senses.
Zhao Changkong’s idea had been to use the Path of Ingress to slam Kui and Scarlet Ape into the East Sea, then bring it back to Nephrite using the last dregs of his will.
However, a strange power had come out of the treasure to dispel the will he’d left to do so. The then-masterless path had plunged into the ghost realm seemingly on its own initiative.
……
The immortals tailing Lu Yun were glad to see him departing after speaking very briefly with Xiangliu Ting. They really wouldn’t have known what to do if he’d followed them to the monster spirit court.
They tolerated the Panorama Pavilion’s formations of heaven and earth, but the East Sea monsters could not be allowed to have the same.
The East Sea possessed the primordial Monster Celestial Master’s heritage and believed themselves the true heirs of the world because of it. They’d never given up on their ambition of conquering the entire world.
If they were allowed to have formations of heaven and earth ahead of everyone else, they’d be the first to start a war in the nine majors and ten lands.
……
“How are they going so fast?!” Suddenly, the origin dao immortals colored in worry. In the blink of an eye, Lu Yun had completely disappeared from their collective consciousness.
“After him!” A crippled origin dao traversed five million kilometers in the blink of an eye. Nevertheless, it still took him several movements to find a trace of where Lu Yun had gone.
Upon the small skiff, the young man was enveloped in a shimmering black light. In his eyes, the concept of space was no longer important.
In a single instant, Lu Yun, Qing Han, and the boat beneath them traveled five hundred thousand kilometers. They really weren’t much slower than the origin dao immortals at all.
He was able to accomplish this with a new death art he’d learned after reaching returned void: Boundless Step.
With it, he was no longer fettered by any concept of distance. All locales were only a few steps away to him, and a single step could cross five hundred thousand kilometers. This was an excellent ability for both escape and travel.
As for whether it could break through formations and traverse layouts… that remained to be seen.
