As the titanic millstone churned toward Lu Yun and the little fox, the Alchemist King also released three thousand pills. They assembled within the millstone and took on humanoid form.
It possessed four limbs and a head, but there were no features on the head. It lacked openings and pores as well—it was just an entity extremely close to being alive.
This was a technique infinitely close to creation.
There was the creator realm in the chaos, one in which cultivators could create matter out of thin air. However, creating life was not possible.
God could create life not because he was a creator, but because he possessed the ability of creation.
Lu Yun’s eighteen Pills of Creation had reached that level. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve instantly turned them into real life forms.
The humanoid figure based off of the Alchemist King’s three thousand pills exceeded the dao of puppetry and was very close to the level of creation. However, while the realm was a short distance away, it was also poles apart. Despite the king’s proximity, he remained meandering in the bog and always fell short.
Thus, he almost lost his dao heart and nearly went insane when he saw Lu Yun refine the Pills of Creation.
The humanoid figure clenched its fists and deployed a crude combat art, smashing it down on Lu Yun and the little fox. Though the figure couldn’t become a titled king, its strength was on par with a sixth step king and not too far off from Hua Fengwen’s.
Lu Yun recollected his thoughts and summoned another ten thousand formations to protect himself and the little fox, forcefully standing up to the churning of the giant millstone. He flung out three thousand more formations and restrained the figure of pills, but it was so strong that it immediately bashed Lu Yun’s new formations to pieces.
“Alchemist King!” Lu Yun suddenly roared. “Let me show you why I can refine creation!”
“Creation!” Alchemist and Wild Formation brightened. The ultimate peak of supplemental dao was creation! Judging from the Immortal King’s words, was there a shortcut to this level of achievement?
Whoosh!
Lu Yun began to burn up as a silver flame darted out from him. Affected by the flame, the ten thousand formations around him shimmered with change and… somehow gained the presence of life.
They shook in unison as ten thousand living beings jumped out.
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
Incredible killing intent soaring to the sky, the sentiment formed a massive silver “kill” character and bore down on the humanoid of pills.
“Creation!”
“Creation of life!” Alchemist and Wild Formation shrieked at the same time. Whatever they’d expected to see, they didn’t expect that the Immortal King would employ creation right beneath their noses and turn ten thousand formations into living beings!
These were true life forms—though they lacked souls, their true spirits were fully formed and would evolve soul parts given enough time. Those would then form a soul and become a true core…
“What is that fire called? It can set the formation aflame with creation!” Alchemist gabbled. “The Immortal King was able to refine the Pills of Creation because he used that fire!”
Boom!
The silver “kill” character crushed the Alchemist King’s humanoid pills and filled the air with pill dust. He was neither angry nor depressed at this outcome. On the contrary, enthusiasm beamed from his eyes and he stared fixedly at the silver flames over Lu Yun’s body.
Obtaining that fire would enable him to pry into the secrets of creation and refine it!
Those were also Wild Formation’s thoughts, so the two joined efforts and sent the massive millstone rolling toward Lu Yun again.
Though the ten thousand beings had destroyed the humanoid of pills, the sheer difference in cultivation level meant that the ten thousand were still far outclassed. The millstone was Wild Formatin’s dao and the culmination of his life’s work. If Lu Yun wanted to break it, he needed more than half-formed creation.
His ten thousand beings were swiftly pulped and returned to ten thousand formations.
Creation was the product of order!
All living beings existed in an objective state in the multiverse, containing no will from a third party. But when impartial beings were defined by order, they became subjective.
Violetgrave had once said that the sixth hell was the foundation of all life, and that the sixth hell was one of order.
Order gave rise to all daos, of which creation was one. Not only could order create life, but its existence changed everything about creation as well. It identified the parameters under which life could exist and imposed logic and reason on everything.
Being this impartial truth, living beings could only borrow it and not cultivate it. Lu Yun’s tiny flame of order was coalesced from the five hellfires and the first step to understanding order.
……
“Miao, hold off the millstone for three breaths!” Lu Yun turned to the little fox.
“Okay,” she responded calmly, but a rarely glimpsed gravity appeared on her face.
Mirage Sand hovered around her in the form of a white chain and the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals materialized as well. Dreamlike splendor blossomed from her body as if it was something tangible and strongly defied the terrifying millstone.
Lu Yun took advantage of the opportunity to open his seed storage and withdraw a million formation stands.
He’d been using formations without foundation to battle the Wild Formation King’s tangible formations, and now he was finally going to set up his own!
A million formation stands exploded forth at the same time, shooting pillars of light into the sky as they expanded into full formations and eked out space within the enormous millstone.
Fresh blood once more spewed out of the shocked Wild Formation’s orifices and it drifted in the air as bloody mist. A frantic Alchemist King quickly took out a bottle carved from purple crystal and shattered it to pieces, directing the pills within as a stream of air current into his friend’s body.
Wild Formation’s injuries instantly healed and he darted back into his two formations, forcing out its strongest power to crush the life out of his two opponents.
Three breaths had passed.
The little fox’s Mirage Sand trickled away and the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals dimmed immensely; blood drenched her body.
Whoosh!
Energy from a million formations covered Lu Yun’s body and he bathed in a wondrous radiance of endless formation light. It formed a layer of “formation robes” around him. Thus reinforced, he took a step forward and punched the center of the millstone.
“Wild Formation King!” he roared. “A millstone isn’t just two slabs of stone stuck together! Yours lacks a millrind—which happens to be its most important component! That’s your fatal weakness!
“And now, break!!”
Boom!
The two great formations exploded from a collision with Lu Yun’s one million formations.
