Whoosh!
Scarlet flames blazed and began to disengage from the oil lamp, slowly forming a humanoid form shaped like Lu Yun. He hadn’t directed this motion, it was something that the Sanguine Flame did of its own accord.
From this, Lu Yun knew that the flame was no longer what it was before. It’d previously been the same as his own hellfire—just an impartial, objectively existing flame. But now, it’d been influenced by the corpse oil within the lamp and gradually formed an intangible wisp of consciousness.
Lu Yun didn’t plan on erasing this consciousness. If allowed to grow, it would become a true spirit sooner or later and form a soul, evolving into a true life form.
The ripples of thought from the flame felt very dependent on Lu Yun. Once they grew up into a real living being, it would be another strong helper by Lu Yun’s side. It would undoubtedly be a king of the fourth realm.
……
Boom!
The tomb of the living beneath the abyss entirely collapsed when the zombie king died. A pillar of black light rose from the bottom and pierced through the abyss, obliterating the white monkeys that covered the ground.
When the lizard-dragon saw the light, it blinked, then quickly opened its mouth and swallowed the pillar.
Rumble.
Thunder roared from the lizard-dragon’s body and all of its scales stood on end, each of them encircled by a thin layer of lightning. Its aura also instantly ballooned to a new peak.
“Little thing!” The lizard-dragon crawled down and leered down at Lu Yun in the depths. “Thanks for getting rid of that poisonous rot at the bottom! To express my gratitude, I’m going to skin you alive and strip you of your meridians to turn you into dried human! I’ll be sure to visit your grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles after that!”
All of the strength from the abyss was streaming into it. Though the nature of the abyss was just a tiny world, it was also a great treasure of the third realm. It could absolutely contend with a king of the third realm!
Dragonhollow Mountain had invested a great deal to claim the world of immortals; the abyss had been an untold toll on their resources. Though the lizard-dragon lived in the abyss, it didn’t truly control it. Due to the landmark’s manner of creation, the zombie king had been the other ruler of the depths.
With his demise, all of the strength flowed into the lizard-dragon, and the true power of the Abyss of Divine Burial showed itself.
The lizard-dragon shrank unto itself and became a meter long, changing into a half human and half lizard form.
“Little thing, let’s see you strut around now! Come on, try hitting me!” The lizard-dragon mimicked how Lu Yun had stalked toward the zombie king and approached the human with a teasing smile.
Bam!
The lizard-dragon flew backward and imprinted on the walls of the bottom of the abyss. Its left cheek was greatly swollen like a huge bun.
“What a strange request, so you have masochistic tendencies?” Lu Yun shook off his right hand and looked wordlessly at the lizard-dragon.
The newly flattened lizard-dragon stared dumbly at the human, at a loss for words or how to react. After being bolstered by the abyss’ power, it’d reached the level of a king of the Hongmeng! Why could such a puny life form still send it flying with one punch?
“Since you like being hit so much, I’ll grant your wish.” Lu Yun walked up to the lizard-dragon and dragged it off the wall by the ankle, then hammered it furiously against the ground.
Though the strength of the abyss was flowing into the lizard-dragon, its own strength was still constrained by the Bridge of Forgetfulness. Its new feeling of invincibility was a complete lie as in reality, it was incredibly weak in its current state.
Lu Yun laid into the lizard-dragon for a full hour, rendering it so swollen that it looked like a black balloon.
It didn’t even have the strength to cry.
“Lookie here, I recorded some more video. How about I put it up for auction in the Hongmeng?” Lu Yun waved around a jade talisman in his hand.
The lizard-dragon could already see how it and its family would be sliced and diced for lizard stew.
“That was your greatest ace, wasn’t it?” Lu Yun lifted his head and looked around the abyss.
Black radiance suffused the surroundings as the abyss began to transform into a light-based structure. Plainly, the terrain was absorbing some sort of power to morph into a terrifying treasure.
When it was complete, whoever controlled the abyss would be a king of the third realm.
The “king” cultivation realm wasn’t the version that existed in the world of immortals, one in which immortals joyously called each other Your Majesty. In the third realm, a king ruled over a domain and exerted authority over the rules and order of a certain direction.
It was a cultivation realm that not even Lu Yun’s past self had reached. His past self had been much stronger than the lizard-dragon, but he’d been far from being a king.
“It’s trying to absorb the core essence of the world of immortals to perfect itself!” Lu Yun suddenly realized what the treasure was doing. All of the Hongmeng heavyweights were scheming to obtain the world of immortals and to make it their own, but Dragonhollow Mountain’s goal was to refine the world into a treasure and use it as a replacement.
“A treasure of the third realm wants to refine the world of immortals?” Lu Yun snorted.
The world’s core essence now was the Hadal Hell—a hell formed by nine worlds that’d completely developed and reached the fourth realm. Combined into the Hadal Hell, they were far more frightening than they’d been as solitary worlds before.
“The core essence of the abyss comes from the fourth realm!” the lizard-dragon protested in a muffled voice. “A legendary hell in the fourth realm!”
“Oh?” Lu Yun raised a brow and closed his eyes to calculate this new knowledge.
Plainly, the core essence of the abyss didn’t come from the third realm. It was a more magnificent power that was on par with the Hadal, Sanguine, and Nihil Hells. But it also seemed many, many times smaller, like it’d been formed out of a fragment of hell.
“The Abyssal Hell?” Lu Yun muttered with a frown.
Hummm.
A small echo reverberated around the void after his words, as if it was agreeing with him.
“So there really is an Abyssal Hell? The fourth hell of the five is the Abyssal Hell?” Lu Yun sucked in a sharp breath. “The zombie king was born from the Abyssal Hell. No wonder the Sanguine Flame grew after swallowing him—the two are from the same source.”
That the Sanguine Flame could strengthen itself by devouring something born out of the Abyssal Hell was because that hell had been shattered into pieces. The five hells shared the same origin, so the Sanguine Flame could swallow the core essence of the others to repair itself.
This was also why it grew stronger after taking in Lu Yun’s immortal force. Though the Hadal Hell was one with the world of immortals, its hellfire had been refined by Lu Yun. His immortal force naturally carried the core essence of the Hadal Hell.
