“Mayhem and turmoil have overcome Azure Dragon Region and high level kings lurk around every corner. Won’t we be robbed by bandits if we go to Azure Dragon City like this?” Azureclad laughed wryly. “If the Immortal Pagoda is willing to make a move, the region would already be unified under one flag, no?”
It’d been three months since the end of the Dragonling Assembly and Azure Dragon Region had been mired in pandemonium ever since. But whether it was Dragonhollow Mountain or the Immortal Pagoda, neither faction showed an inclination to intervene.
While it appeared that Azure Dragon and Coiling Dragon City possessed the upper hand, the region was as if an enormous swamp that completely preoccupied the two ninth step kings. Even Lu Yun had underestimated the forces hidden within the shadows.
He shook his head without saying anything.
“Let’s go.” Lu Yun waved a hand and summoned a fortress ship that came drifting through the void. It was the Immortal Region Glory that he’d traversed Multitude Region and the river of time with.
At the time, he hadn’t known there was an Immortal Region in the Hongmeng, which was why he’d given the ship that name. He’d now changed the ship to the “Eternal Life Glory”. There’s no way there’s an Eternal Life Region in the third realm.
“This fortress ship is magnificent! She’s so damn fine! But where are we going? This isn’t the way to Azure Dragon City.” Azureclad continuously ran his mouth after boarding the ship. His mindset had undergone a complete change after returning from the Dragonling Assembly. He was no longer the pompous, overweening Azureclad Duke with his talents and intelligence on full display at all times.
He wouldn’t have agreed to disguise himself as a servant otherwise.
“Qing Yan!” Qing Ting couldn’t put up with her brother any longer. She ground her teeth. “Father and uncle are trapped in Crouching Dragon City, of course we’re going there first to rescue them! What the heck is located between your ears?? It’s not brains!”
Azureclad paused, shook his head rapidly, and said no more.
Crouching Dragon City was surrounded by multiple force fields, disrupting all of its transportation formations—including the ones of the cities around it. If one wanted to travel to the city, one had to fly.
Lu Yun stood at the bow of the ship and peered ahead. These days, a thin layer of azure-colored fog filled Azure Dragon Region. With his eyesight, he could only see roughly fifteen hundred kilometers ahead if he didn’t use the Spectral Eye. Anything beyond that was an indistinct haze.
“Have true kings taken the field?” He tilted his head up to the sky. The customary purple sky overhead had been replaced by pale blue. “There should be more cultivation realms after true king… It’s just a stop along a path, not the final destination.
“True kings undertake dao rule fusion. The little fox is still a true king after combining nine rules into three. Will she remain a true king if she combines three into one?” Lu Yun frowned slightly.
He recalled the man who’d taken Jin Gushen away in Multitude City. The man had called himself the Metal Potentate. His cultivation level exceeded ninth step kinghood and Lu Yun had speculated that he was a true king. However, he’d never referred to himself as a king. He’d called himself a potentate.
Therefore, it followed that there was indeed another cultivation realm after true kinghood—“potentate”.
Of course, this was just Lu Yun’s idle conjecture. He had no idea of knowing whether or not it was true. The current iteration of formula dao was inadequate to derive the heart of the matter.
However, he could deduce that combining nine dao rules into one would not be the end of cultivation in the Hongmeng. If ordinary kings were a measure of one’s battle strength, then true kinghood was the actual cultivation realm.
The king soldier in the Army Pagoda had said that Hongmeng kings were on the wrong path, that setting foot on the path of true kinghood was the proper way forward.
……
“What a big ship! What a delicious yum-yum!” A loud exclamation thundered through the sky as terrifying force traveled toward them.
Rumble—
The Eternal Life Glory jerked to a halt, knocked out of its route.
A young man with an emaciated body had appeared in front of them at some unknown point. His hands were wrapped around the ship’s bow; he was shifting Lu Yun’s personally refined ship through just his strength alone.
“What?!” Lu Yun’s eyes shot wide open and he gasped, “A first step king??”
“That’s impossible!” Jin Naluo shouted as well. The malnourished young man dressed in ragged animal pelts was only a first step king! He was using his own body to stop an Eternal Life Glory that was steaming ahead at full speed!
“Ya ya ya!!” shrieked the young man as he lifted both arms, raising the ship perpendicular to the ground.
Lu Yun, Qing Ting, Azureclad, and Jin Naluo hastily abandoned ship.
Boom!!
The young man slammed the Eternal Life Glory back to the ground, creating an enormous mushroom cloud.
“Hahaha!!” He threw his head back with laughter. “What a huge ship, it looks very tasty!”
Under Lu Yun’s dumbfounded gaze, the young man opened his mouth and bit down on the ship, ripping off a large chunk from Lu Yun’s carefully tempered treasure!
Crunch crunch crunch!
The scrawny young man hugged the ship to himself and plopped down on the ground, taking large bites out of it. He was like a tiny ant nibbling away at a large mountain. The sight seemed incredibly incongruous, but it was legitimately happening before Lu Yun.
“…what kind of monster is he?” murmured Azureclad with his jaw dropped.
“Hmph!” Jin Naluo snorted and sent his heavy blade forward with a flash of bloody light, aiming a stroke at the young man.
“Piss off!” The young man jerked his head up and flung the ship at Jin Naluo.
Boom!
Ship and blade collided—Jin Naluo flew backwards with no control over his body as a wave of overwhelming force came from the ship. Even his body fractured with tiny cracks.
“You bastard!” Jin Naluo roared and materialized his seven dao rules. Once his body was repaired, he charged the young man again.
“Don’t interrupt me eating!!” The young man almost lost his mind and threw the Eternal Life Glory at Jin Naluo. He was so fast and so strong that he managed to grab Jin Naluo before the latter came close, throwing him to the ground and pummeling him with blows.
The earth shook and trembled while Jin Naluo howled in fury, but he couldn’t break free of the dreadful strength.
“Immortal King!” The young man looked at Lu Yun with the eyes of a hungry wolf. “I’ll take care of you once I’m done eating, heh heh heh!”
His laughter was eerie and sinister.
My friend, have you met Ge Long before?
