“Is this a city of the fourth realm?” A sudden thought struck him. The inhabitants of the fourth realm were ranked by body size. The bigger they were, the stronger they were—much the same as this city.
“No, as large as this city is, it can’t hold denizens of the fourth realm.” Lu Yun shook his head faintly. If entities of the fourth realm entered this city, it would be their strength and not body size that filled it beyond capacity.
The power of this city was still that of the Hongmeng, and he was finally able to identify the source of the strange feeling from earlier. Bizarre sounds were echoing from the center of the city and trickling into his ears.
Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock.
It was both a familiar and unfamiliar sound to Lu Yun. He didn’t know why it was here or why he was only able to hear it when his body was five million kilometers tall.
It was the sound of an… Earth clock.
Clocks denoted the degree of time and recorded its passage. However, since there was only the concept of time and not its actual existence in the Hongmeng, any clock from Earth would immediately stop when it entered the realm.
But Lu Yun could clearly hear the sound of a ticking minute and second hand reverberating around his surroundings.
“Time moves in this city?!” He started and instantly shrank back to his regular size. Calling upon the Spectral Eye, he looked at the dog’s skull. Information regarding its life and death filtered into his mind.
“As I thought… it died of old age!” Lu Yun confirmed with shock.
“What, what died of old age?” Hua Fengwen quickly asked.
“That dog was a fifth step arcane beast king, it died here of old age,” Lu Yun responded.
“There’s time in this city?!” Hua Fengwen gasped.
Hongmeng beings didn’t grow old or die because there was no time in the third realm. It was an incredible poison to them that could pierce through their immortality. But without time, the Hongmeng would never be a true realm. It was just an enormous cage confining its denizens, forever keeping them locked away from the light of day.
“Yes, there’s time here.” Lu Yun gently operated Spacetime Reincarnation and easily connected with the power of time on the premises. He could keenly sense that his life force was eroding through the decay of time and fading away. Time that belonged to him was fading away tick by tick.
“There’s no sense of time inherent to this ancient city. It comes from an ultimate treasure with that attribute.” Lu Yun looked toward the center of the city where the clock ticking had originated from. But with his regular size, he could no longer hear it.
“A clock? From Earth? Or… is it that clocks on Earth are fashioned after a particular treasure?” He wasn’t sure what to make of this new finding.
“Come on, let’s go take a look!” Hua Fengwen was gradually recovering his composure. Time was very important to the Hongmeng, but the way in which the realm could obtain time was through the immortal dao and not a time treasure!
Only the time of immortal dao could perfectly meld with the Hongmeng and not poison its denizens. In Hua Fengwen’s eyes, if there really was an ultimate treasure of time in the city, he would seek it out and destroy it at all costs!
……
“I think something’s following us.” The little fox sidled up to Lu Yun and grabbed his arm with a bit of trepidation.
“What is?” Hua Fengwen blinked and looked around him. There was nothing around them apart from the towering buildings. “I don’t sense anything.”
As a sixth step king, he would be the first to discover unwanted attention.
“There really is something following us!” The little fox frowned ferociously and she clung to Lu Yun’s arm. “I can feel a strange gaze staring at me.”
“Just ignore it. It won’t dare come close, not with Hua Fengwen here.” Lu Yun patted her shoulder and deployed Spacetime Reincarnation with a wave of his hand, enveloping the five of them. The flow of time here had noticeably sped up and they would age swiftly if they kept walking forward. Since there was no order of time to impose rules and restraints on time in the Hongmeng, it was just a vicious poison here.
“It’s here!” the little fox shrieked and darted for Lu Yun’s embrace.
“Piss off!” he roared and let loose with a burst of black flame.
Screeee!
A piercing shriek ripped through the air as the void trembled; something seemed to flee from the scene with due haste.
“What was that??” Hua Fengwen jumped with shock and swung his head back and forth, trying to see what was following them. The Skyfall and Meteorite Kings silently flanked Lu Yun and the little fox.
“Can you not see them?” Lu Yun frowned at Hua Fengwen, who shook his head blankly.
“Then there must be something else… Forget those yin spirits, let’s go.” Lu Yun created a formation without foundation, turning the Spacetime Reincarnation combat art into a formation around them. Thus reinforced, he set off to the source of the clock ticking.
“Did you say yin spirits??” Hua Fengwen jerked with dismay. “Stop, don’t go forward! I know what they are!”
“What are they?” Lu Yun looked at him.
“The ghosts of time!” He wore an exceedingly ominous expression. “Any Hongmeng being who dies to the poison of time becomes a ghost of it. Hongmeng denizens who have never lived under the order of time are unable to see these ghosts.”
He looked suspiciously at Lu Yun and the little fox, but quickly thought of something else. “My very life is yours, so why should I suspect you?”
“Did you say live under the order of time?” Something occurred to Lu Yun, something that seemed to be very important to him. “The order… of time?”
“Yes, the order of time.” Hua Fengwen nodded. “Time is a type of strength as well as an impartial rule. However, only when it is defined by order does it become the kind of time that life needs—which is what we mean by the order of time.
“Rules and laws abound in the Hongmeng. We can use them because of the existence of orders,” Hua Fengwen explained matter-of-factly.
“Then what about the six highest orders in the chaos?” asked Lu Yun.
“The six highest orders of the second realm are inception, ethos, burgeon, creation, opposition, and nirvana,” Hua Fengwen murmured. “These six orders define the sequence of birth to death, and there is nothing in the third or famed fourth realm that is beyond their jurisdiction.
“In the same vein, the order of time defines what it should be, so that it passes at a constant rate. The order of fire limits the existence of flame so that it doesn’t rampage out of control and consume the heavens.
“The various laws and rules of the world are all bounded by order so that they exist in a rational manner. It’s because of this that everything in the world is systematic and we live in a logical fashion,” Hua Fengwen sighed. “Order is the most wondrous existence in the world.”
“I get it, I get it!” Lu Yun grabbed his shoulders and roared with laughter. “Order, it’s order! The final one is order!”
Intelligence, mind, soul, blood, body, and the last critical factor determining life was order!
Order determined the rules, laws, and environment of life. Thus, the sixth hell was the one of order—the final resting place after life ended!
In this moment, Lu Yun finally found his own path.
“What’s going on with you?” Hua Fengwen stared blankly at his savior. He could sense some marvelous changes taking place in Lu Yun, but he didn’t understand why they were happening. Was it just because he’d told Lu Yun something that everyone in the Hongmeng knew about order?
What. a long. chapter.
