Normally speaking, the Tiger Butcher King would have to expend a great deal of troops to conquer a city. Even he himself would suffer grave injuries, so although he possessed soaring ambitions, he’d never acted on them.
That had held true up until now.
The several hundred half step kings that he commanded were all puppets that Lu Yun had created with the Thousand Obliteration Formation of the Six Royals as the core. It didn’t matter if they died—with his spacetime combat art, refining more was a simple task.
And more importantly, anything his puppets killed, including kings, became his Infernum. Thus, the more Tiger Butcher waged war, the stronger his troops became.
Likewise, Tiger Butcher and Silver Leopard weren’t afraid of getting hurt. Not even death daunted them, since they’d revive from the Tome of Life and Death as long as Lu Yun existed. Far from being ordinary Infernum, they were second to only the Ten Yama Kings as their names were written into the book.
The more cities that Tiger Butcher and the others took down, the stronger Lu Yun’s forces became, and the faster the rate of conquest. If nothing out of the ordinary happened, he would own all one hundred and eight cities in the southern belt of the Multitude Region within a year.
……
Flames of war had engulfed the region’s peaceful southern belt, but since it was on the fringes of the territory, that didn’t matter much to the true powerhouses in the center of the Multitude Region. So what if some second and third step kings were squabbling with each other?
But when another piece of news broke in the region with the force of a thunderbolt, it sent everyone into an uproar. The tenth key to the Hongmeng Tower had appeared and had been claimed by the lord of the City of Immortals in the southern belt!
Fifth and sixth step kings flooded out of the Multitude heartland and made straight for the City of Immortals. Though they weren’t sure if the news was real, a key to the Hongmeng Tower was too important. A priceless treasure invaluable to sixth level kings, any mention or clues about one was worthy of personal attention and investigation.
Naturally, if the news turned out to be false, the idle sixth level kings wouldn’t mind taking a bit of time to ferret out the source of the lies and make them wish for death.
……
“Heh, you came quickly.” Lu Yun sat in a small pavilion at the foot of a mountain placed in the rear garden of the city lord residence. He was leisurely tasting some tea brewed from a Hongmeng spirit grass.
When he saw his first visitor, he made a welcoming gesture.
Jin Naluo stared blankly at Lu Yun. Never in a million years would he have thought that the little guy who’d run him ragged in a lower world would be strutting around like this. Just look at him! The little fellow was a city lord in the region now??
Jin Naluo began to doubt everything about himself. It’d been such a short period of time since they last saw each other!
“Why is it you?” he asked dumbly.
“Why isn’t it me?” Lu Yun chuckled. “Come, sit.”
“Do you really have the tenth key to the Hongmeng Tower?” Jin Naluo quickly asked when he sat down in front of Lu Yun. He was ignoring many things around him—including a mountain of purple crystal right beside them.
Lu Yun tossed him a key glittering with purple light.
“It really is a tower key!” Jin Naluo was an extremely ancient sixth level king. And yet, his heart clenched painfully when he looked at the key in his hand.
“It’s mine now!” His expression suddenly twisted and he looked at Lu Yun in savage challenge. It seemed very likely that he would decapitate Lu Yun on the spot if the human dared say no!
“We’re allies, so isn’t what’s mine yours?” Lu Yun chuckled and replied without a care in the world.
His response made Jin Naluo color with embarrassment.
“How about I give you something in compensation?” he coughed dryly.
A key to the Hongmeng Tower was so precious that not even seventh or eighth level kings might own one, to say nothing of a sixth level king like him. With ten out in the open and that blasted Purple King having claimed five of them, each one that remained was uncommonly precious.
“Do I look someone who needs wealth?” Lu Yun pointed at the mountain behind him, which finally drew his visitor’s eyes to the hazy purple landmass. Jin Naluo’s face twitched at the ludicrous sight.
“Don’t you try to ambush me with it, that thing can’t crush me!” At his level, he could naturally identify that this enormous mountain of purple crystal was also an uncommonly heavy treasure. It would be very useful in smashing people as ordinary kings wouldn’t be able to withstand a blow from it.
“Don’t worry, I’m not dumb enough to use my most precious treasure to ambush a sixth level king.” Lu Yun’s smile deepened.
“Your most precious treasure?” Jin Naluo snorted. “Do you think I’ve forgotten that you also have a terrifying bridge, and that the fragment of the Abyssal Hell is also on you?”
“That’s my ultimate trump card, I wouldn’t dare use it in the Hongmeng!” Lu Yun quickly sat upright and adopted a fearful tone.
Jin Naluo grabbed the cup of tea from Lu Yun’s hands and poured it into his mouth. If it wasn’t out of consideration for that bridge, his accustomed manner of interacting with someone like Lu Yun would be to slap him into dust the moment he saw the human. With Jin Naluo’s breadth of knowledge, he could easily tell that the Bridge of Forgetfulness possessed power from the fourth realm!
Additionally, given how the entire Multitude Region was frothing with activity, there was no way that this devious little fellow was just sitting here, defenseless, waiting for all of the kings to arrive.
“Humph,” Jin Naluo sniffed, but then thought of the key that he now owned. A smile floated onto his face again—perhaps it wasn’t so bad to have an ally like this?
“Very well then, expand your sphere of influence in the Multitude Region without any worries. No one will dare do anything to you, not with me backing you up,” he promised with gusto. “This purple crystal mountain is refined from premium crystal veins, isn’t it? Have you latched onto the Redbud King’s thigh as well?”
“Jin Naluo,” Lu Yun solemnly changed the subject instead of answering. “I know you have the ability to tame the Blood Sea…”
“Don’t mention that!” Jin Naluo jumped with shock and quickly released his forcefield around the city lord residence. “The Blood Sea is an absolute taboo topic in the Hongmeng. It’s buried eighteen ninth step kings!
“I can’t talk about it, you definitely can’t talk about it! We might be able to discuss it when you reach kinghood, but if you mention it now with your cultivation level, not even that bridge can save you if Hong learns that you know!”
Lu Yun shuddered despite himself when he heard the name “Hong” and he inclined his head, refraining from asking further.
Jin Naluo’s forcefield suddenly trembled and shattered into pieces. A tall and bulky man suddenly appeared in front of them.
“Hahaha, Jin Naluo! I wasn’t certain whether or not the key to the Hongmeng Tower was here, but when you suddenly released your forcefield, that confirmed things. It looks like the key is indeed with this city lord.” The man wore a proud smile and sized up Lu Yun.
Jin Naluo’s totally gonna become Lu Yun’s minion.
