One hundred and fifty kilograms of Mirage Sand had helped Miao triumph over both the Imagination King and Shenyu. Who knew what she’d be capable of after refining fifteen hundred kilograms?
“Our foundations are still a bit weak,” Lu Yun said with resignation as he walked over to Qing Yu for a look at the ninety-nine story tall Haotian Tower. “With the addition of the Wild Formation, Alchemist, Imagination, Talisman Adept, and Prime Weapon Kings to the tower, it’ll instantly outshine us.”
The furor created by five supplemental kings was too great—and they’d bent the knee to Shenyu! The latter had raised his reputation to stratospheric heights when he picked up the mountain of Earth Light Magneticus, so he already eclipsed the Immortal King.
That further added a mysterious sheen to the Haotian Tower, especially considering the fact that their goods were produced by supplemental kings. Their products would be superior to those on display at the Immortal Pagoda, both in terms of quality and quantity.
It took only three days of business at the Haotian Tower for the pagoda to lose all of its customers.
“But their prices are… half of ours?” Lu Yun mused over this with a strange expression. “I don’t lack for purple crystals and my ingredients are basically free. Does the same hold true for them as well?”
The endless flow of people in and out of the new store across the street mystified him.
“The Supplemental Dao Alliance and the Immortal Region have controlled the most fertile portions of the Hongmeng for countless eons. Their accumulated wealth far outstrips the Ten Valleys of Evil,” sighed Qing Yu. “We wouldn’t measure up to even the alliance if we combined all of the fortunes in the valleys.”
Lu Yun nodded wordlessly.
“With Hopeless Major exiting the Endless Reaches, the world of immortals…” he suddenly asked.
“It’s fine.” Qing Yu shook her head. “Though there’s a specific part of the void that connects the world of immortals to the Hongmeng, there’s also a barrier inside it. All ten valleys have representatives on guard there and the palaces of Hopeless Major and Origin World lead straight to it. If anything happens to it, I’ll immediately sense it.
“Additionally,” Qing Yu paused. “Violetgrave’s true body is suppressing the other side. The node that she’s safeguarding in space is the one that connects the first three realms.
“Oh, right!” she continued before Lu Yun had a chance to respond. “The Army Pagoda is ready. You can enter it to cultivate and ascend to titled kinghood at any time!”
“Kinghood through cultivation?” Lu Yun sank into deep thought. Qing Yu leaned quietly against him when he didn’t immediately respond.
“I don’t know what the rules are for the Hongmeng Tower to make someone king, but if I become a titled king now, the path to cultivating order may be broken. I’d like to continue training with the fire of order and become a titled king only after the fire creates the hell of order.” A nebulous feeling grew in his heart after he used formula dao to determine what was the best path forward. He had a hunch that once he became a titled king through cultivation, the yet unformed fire of order within his body would burn out.
“Little Yu, you and Miao hold down the fort here. I’m going to pay a visit to Redbud Region and converse with the big dragon. I want to see if I can gain any new inspiration,” he said to his beloved.
“Alright.” Qing Yu nodded and realized something. “Are you… going to Starspace Region after that?”
“Yes,” Lu Yun answered. “Dusksnow Morningstar and Zhuo Bufan are still there, their status unknown. I’d like to look in on them, so I’ll swing by as well.”
“Then take the Army Pagoda with you.” She brought out the treasure.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine floors filled out the Army Pagoda—it looked like it was made out of crystal and pulsed with profound energy.
“The Army Pagoda is also a fearsome treasure on par with the Nethersoul or Darkyin Formation of Hopeless Major. However, you need at least a hundred thousand premium crystal veins to activate it, and there aren’t that many in Origin World,” chuckled Qing Yu. “Thus, they never plumbed the depths of the pagoda. The previous ruler of Hopeless Major—the Nether King—coveted this treasure as well, but could never lay hands on it.”
The previous eminent ruler had been so ambitious that he’d also studied the various treasures of the other valleys. Perhaps he knew them better than their own owners did. It wasn’t an injustice at all that the other nine had come together to plot his death.
“On par with the Nethersoul Formation or Darkyin Formation?” Lu Yun blinked. “Doesn’t that make it stronger than my Purple Stellar Mountain?”
“As mighty as your mountain is, it only exerts the power of Stellar Light Magneticus. And as frightening as that is, it won’t hurt a peak ninth step king or even the little fox,” Qing Yu smiled.
Though the little fox appeared to be a third step king on the surface, her three dao rules were the condensed form of nine. When combined with her skill in illusion, that definitively placed her on the same footing as the other eminent rulers of the ten valleys.
How else could she have easily defeated Shenyu and trapped him in a mental illusion, forcing his title out of him?
Qing Yu understood that Lu Yun wanted to temper himself and search out the path of order. Thus, she didn’t raise any objections to his trip. She and the little fox were both premier powerhouses of the Hongmeng now, Lu Yun had to find his own way.
“I see,” Lu Yun laughed ruefully. “I didn’t know what kind of existence ninth step kings were before and thought I could kill them by detonating the mountain. It now looks like even if I can kill their body, I won’t be able to wipe out all of their replicas.”
“You need to be careful…” Qing Yu nodded in agreement. “The Bridge of Forgetfulness is an entity of the fourth realm and prohibited from appearing within the Hongmeng. If it appears too often, it’ll be restrained by the power of the fourth realm.”
Lu Yun understood. He’d heard She Nong relay stories of hell on his first visit to the fourth realm. Though there’d been a heavy dose of falsehood mixed with the tales, part of them had been true. There were indeed many prisoners in the Hadal Hell that’d once been villains of the fourth realm. They’d broken various taboos and entered the Hongmeng to kill as they would.
For their actions, they’d paid the price of withering away into skeletons and dry husks in the Hadal Hell.
……
A vast field of Redbud Grass swayed with hazy motes of purple light in the Redbud Plains. This plain was bigger than the entire chaos.
Lu Yun made his way to its center and the peak of Redbud Mountain. This was also an extraordinarily large landmass, but layer upon layer of spatial folds surrounded it, shrinking down the mountain that would’ve otherwise occupied the entire plain.
Despite that, it was still impossible to measure it.
“Eh? You’re here!” Seeming to sense his arrival, the Redbud King instantly appeared beside him. She was accompanied by a little girl roughly six years old, so charming that she seemed to be carved out of jade and decorated with faint powder.
A… king!
A sixth step king!!
“Is this… the second Redbud Butterfly?” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped when he saw the girl. Born into kinghood?
