Lu Yun saw everything clearly. The enormous shadow shrouding their region wasn’t a heavenly tribulation or any other kind of tribulation, but some sort of living entity. It was a life form so powerful that it boggled the mind.
It seemed to reside in another plane, but could also entangle with the Hongmeng great dao to create the misconception of a tribulation.
There was a legend in the third realm that ascending to titled kinghood as a ninth step king was forbidden. Anyone who violated that rule would die.
Qing Yu had run afoul of it when she became a titled king and had had to destroy one of her dao rules before the entity would depart. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun’s Pills of Creation and the Alchemist King’s divine Five Elements Qi Pills, she probably would’ve never returned to ninth step kinghood.
Having become one with Quiet, she raised a streak of snowy sword light and slashed at the thing in the air. In return, a pitch-black hand seemed to reach through space and swooped down on the little fox.
Qing Yu’s stroke passed right through the hand.
Miao looked on with gravity; she was unwilling to destroy one of her dao rules in this fashion. The Hongmeng Tower was still present over Hopeless Major and infusing her with indistinct rays of purple energy, but it didn’t seem to detect the enormous life form threatening the ascending king.
“Miao, break one of your dao rules!” Lu Yun shouted, releasing five hellfires and the Tome of Life and Death.
The flames dyed the air black. Since Lu Yun’s main fire was the pure black flame of the Hadal Hell, the other four also turned black when affected by Hadal hellfire. Bolstered by the Tome of Life and Death, the five hellfires managed to hold off the terrifying dark entity for a moment.
“No!” the little fox cried out stubbornly. “There’s got to be a way out of this that doesn’t involve destroying one of our dao rules! Lu Yun, you’ll be a ninth step king as well when you ascend. Little Yu was alone when she broke through and had no other choice available to her, but there’s three of us now. There has to be a way!
“And if I can’t figure it out, you can give it another try!
“Little Yu, come back! Let me!” Dreamlike radiance blossomed from Miao’s body, draping her with gentle illumination. “You and Lu Yun operate formula dao to see what the solution is. I have the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals buttressing my strength, it won’t be able to do anything to me for a while!”
Miao spoke at an increasing clip. “This is for Lu Yun!”
Qing Yu paused with indecision. “Then destroy one of your dao rules if you find yourself faltering. It’ll retreat after you do so.”
“Okay!” Miao nodded firmly.
Hummm.
Countless little foxes appeared in the air with endless dao rules, all of them ascending to kinghood at the same time!
The Hongmeng Tower seemed to sense the abnormality and abruptly worked in tandem with the little fox, creating thousands of copies of itself! This was too far-fetched for anyone to imagine—the Hongmeng Tower was helping a Hongmeng denizen withstand an enemy?!
Lu Yun gaped at the scene.
“We need to hurry and find the solution to resolving all of this. If she can’t hold on, all she has to do is destroy one of her dao rules!” Qing Yu quickly pulled her beloved back to the task at hand. She’d fought the black entity to the bitter end last time, destroying one of her dao rules only when she was about to die.
She’d battled alone then, lacking even treasures to help her. As marvelous as the command seal was, it was completely ineffective when it came to this kind of challenge. Thankfully, the little fox possessed the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals for protection and help from the Hongmeng Tower to deceive the entity.
Lu Yun snapped back to attention and quickly called upon formula dao, working with Qing Yu to determine the right answer to their conundrum.
Though the immortal dao wasn’t present in the Hongmeng, neither were Lu Yun and Qing Yu their former selves. Their cultivation had bounded ahead, qualitatively improving their formula dao as well.
In its current iteration, the formula dao could break away from the immortal dao and stand on its own. Two spots of light flashed in the void and came together, deducing everything about the scene in front of them.
……
“Why are you helping me? Why did you change my title when I said I wanted to change it?
“You seemed to have helped my soul force replica in the past too!” Miao’s countless illusory selves tilted their heads at the same time and looked up at the numerous towers.
She’d been a regular white fox of Qingqiu Mountain in the great wilderness until Hongjun enlightened her and gave her the creation seed. She’d then advanced step by step until she became the monster celestial master of the celestial court in the great wilderness.
She was the first monster spirit to reach the chaos realm and was regarded as the monster spirit ancestor.
However, the little fox had never discovered anything special about herself. Apart from the creation seed always hidden in her body, there really was nothing that set her apart from others. Even the passages she’d created that led to the past and future were from the creation seed. It wasn’t one of her talents.
Of the last point, Lu Yun had been mistaken in thinking there was more to the little fox than met the eye.
For the moment, Miao ignored the horrifying entity destroying her illusions and considered the tower in the air.
The Hongmeng Tower was an inconceivably supreme existence to all life in the third realm and represented all of its great daos. Yet, because of some indecipherable reason, it was here in its primary body to help her.
Someone at the little fox’s cultivation level saw things with a clear mind. She might understand the current situation if she was the reincarnation of a certain heavyweight, or if her soul force replica achieved incredible wonders in the distant future, or if she would shake the heavens and move worlds in her time. After all, she was stepping into ninth step kinghood as soon as she became a titled king!
But to the best of her knowledge and perception of her senses, she was still the same fox that she’d always been. She wasn’t the reincarnation of any legendary personage and her future self wouldn’t accomplish anything amazing. At least, it wouldn’t reach the fourth realm.
“The cause is in the present, but the effect is in the past.” A gentle will suddenly exuded from the tower and trickled into her mind.
Miao shrewdly sensed something… familiar about it.
Indeed, there was an unexplainable feeling of familiarity, like it was someone she was once very close to.
But who?
“Is it Lu Yun? No, this seems to be a woman. It’s not Little Yu, so who is it?” She shook her head gently, still remaining on high alert. She’d continued to create illusions all this time, ones that were no different from her primary body after the Hongmeng Tower enhanced them.
The black entity suddenly lost its patience and exploded with power, vaporizing all of her replicas with a burst of black ripples.
Only her primary body stood by itself under countless images of the tower.
