“Quiet is damaged,” Lu Yun murmured when he opened his eyes. “I need its strength and it needs my cultivation level to make itself whole again.”
Di Ling didn’t understand and Lu Yun didn’t explain himself. With an easy backhand, he sliced the Meteorite King into two.
The king was promptly reborn in the black flames of the Hadal Hell. When the pillar of flame died down, the king fell on one knee in front of Lu Yun.
“This servant greets the master.” The air of intimidation had vanished from his eyes, replaced by a deep fear and veneration.
“That sword really can cut down ghosts!” goggled the little fox.
Since the Meteorite King was a ghost king, that made him a dead entity or a ghostly being. Lu Yun’s current grasp of reincarnation was insufficient to suppress ghost kings, and neither was his strength strong enough to pierce through even a sealed king’s defenses. Quiet, however, had neatly and effortlessly cut through the Meteorite King.
“It also depends on the type of ghost.” Lu Yun shrugged. “I can cut down ghosts that aren’t titled kings even without Quiet.”
“And if the Meteorite King hadn’t been sealed away, you wouldn’t have been able to touch him even with Quiet,” snorted the little fox.
Lu Yun shrugged again and didn’t have a response. As sharp as Quiet’s edge was, it was badly damaged and couldn’t break through a king’s forcefield in its current state.
After the Meteorite King became Lu Yun’s Infernum, the ghostly air around him intensified and his strength increased slightly. The Tome of Life and Death had supplemented the flaws that’d developed when he split himself into two.
“Put this on and get those two guys out there to leave.” Lu Yun tossed a black enforcer uniform to the Meteorite King.
“Understood!” The king hastily caught it and put on the uniform that’d belonged to Lu Yun, concealing his face and presence. No one would know that a terrifying ghost king could be found beneath the black enforcer robe.
……
Trepidation reigned in Starcloud City. Battle between the two half step kings continuously shook the city’s great formation, and Starcloud possessed no one strong enough to defend it once that defense shattered.
Miao Qimiao, Luo Shanshan, and the others were equally dejected. They’d been able to oppose the Meteorite King when in Meteorite Peak and stop an almost berserk Dusksnow Morningstar. But when they’d revealed themselves just now, a furious Netherdragon had slaughtered them before they had time to set up the formation. Though they grumbled at the outcome, Lu Yun had already forbidden them from trying again.
As Starcloud’s formation trembled from repeated collisions, ugly fractures began to snake over its surface. Tyrannical strength seeped into the city through the cracks, and the formation was in danger of breaking altogether.
Boom!
A pillar of black light descended from the sky at this critical moment and forced the two combatants apart from each other. An enormous “justice” character shimmered in the air as the Meteorite King, dressed in long black robes and holding Lu Yun’s Justice token, walked out of the air.
“The Justice token of the Enforcer Alliance!” Both Dusksnow Morningstar and Netherdragon regarded the newcomer with disbelief. They hadn’t thought that their fight would attract attention from the alliance!
“…Starcloud City is Zhuo Bufan’s territory,” Morningstar swiftly understood.
Rumors swirled lately that Zhuo Bufan had accomplished some great deed for the alliance and obtained a treasure that’d helped him break through to the superior realm. Added to that his father being the Scorch King, that meant the alliance would value him even more. They would naturally send someone if anyone caused trouble in his territory.
Little did they know that the true enforcer here on business was hiding in a corner of the sky, too afraid to come out.
“Piss off, or die.” Uncommonly high-handed, the “justice” character over the Meteorite King’s head gleamed with the color of blood.
Various expressions shifted through Morningstar and Netherdragon’s face before they set their jaws. Both of them took their leave.
Netherdragon didn’t want to continue entangling with the genius; Morningstar was stronger than him right now. Meanwhile, Morningstar hailed from Starspace City and its ruler, the Starspace King, was another heavyweight of the Enforcer Alliance. He also didn’t want to clash with a black robe from the alliance if he could help it.
When facing the Justice token, he would be dead without doubt unless he was a titled king.
……
Di Ling took the Gates of the Abyss back to hell.
Lu Yun was currently unable to travel between the world of immortals and Hongmeng. While he could take the gates back to the world of immortals, once he set foot in hell, he wouldn’t be able to return to the third realm.
He was rather stymied by this detail as well. He’d thought that once he assimilated into the Hongmeng, he’d be able to come and go as he would. Reality had proven otherwise.
“Should we go find Qing Yu now?” asked the little fox as she bounded in front of him. “With the Meteorite King as our escort, we can do whatever we want in the third realm!”
Lu Yun had given Quiet to the Meteorite King for the time being—he was the only one who could deploy it to its maximum. Lu Yun had formed a connection with the sword and the king was his Infernum, so he could naturally wield it as well.
“That’s right!” Great relief flooded into Lu Yun’s face. With the Meteorite King and how Lu Yun and the little fox were almost titled kings themselves through their supplemental daos, they could at the very least protect themselves in the Hongmeng.
“But where’s Hopeless Major?” He stared blankly at the little fox, who also looked lost.
“I… I don’t know. Its location isn’t recorded in the memories that Lu Qing gave me. How about… we ask around?” she asked cautiously.
“Let’s ask the Redbud King.” Lu Yun nodded. “Other people probably wouldn’t dare tell us even if they know. And, we need to be careful of Mangcang Mountain. Now that we’ve scared off Netherdragon, they’ll never let this rest.”
The mountain possessed three kings. If all three came at once, that would be too much for the Meteorite King to handle.
As they conversed, he stood off to the side and gleefully inspected Quiet. The Meteorite King was very poor and didn’t possess any other treasures apart from the ruined bone pennant. He hadn’t even personally glimpsed all of the king level treasures in the realm yet.
“Oh right, who’s your co-conspirator?” Lu Yun suddenly asked.
Netherdragon’s abrupt arrival was definitely at the behest of someone else. That person was very likely in cahoots with the Meteorite King and another ghost king.
“The Moon King!” he quickly responded. “She traveled to the Hongmeng when an ancient tomb fell from the sky. She protected me the second I arrived, watching over me until I became king.
“Master…” he said carefully while observing Lu Yun’s expression.
“The Moon King is second to only the Starspace King in this region. I can’t fight her yet.” After three years in Starcloud City, Lu Yun naturally knew who this king was.
The three strongest kings in Starspace Region were the Starspace, Moon, and Scorch Kings. The Scorch King’s title should’ve been the Scorching Sun King, but he was a little too weak to obtain that title. The Hongmeng Tower had had to compromise and bestow him with the “Scorch King” title instead.
Ever since he was made king, his ultimate goal was to obtain his full title. Both the Starspace and Moon Kings were stronger than him.
Oh, that’s fascinating….I bet you there’s some real crappy titles out there then, lol. Imagine being the “Ascended With Pills King” or “Never Thought He’d Be King”.
…oh I just can’t wait to be king~
