“What the hell?” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped at the sight of the familiar figure in front of him. He’d only wanted to manifest a moat snake through the connate power of shu earth so he could use it in a formation of the connate five elements. With all five divine beasts assembled in an array, he would then be able to counter the dead dragon’s strength.
He’d never imagined that a happily snacking Carmine Arbiter in hell would suddenly be pulled to the Hongmeng and become one with the moat snake when it appeared!
“Eh? What’s going on?” Carmine Arbiter manifested her human form on top of the snake’s head and looked blearily at Lu Yun.
“…your destiny has arrived.” Lu Yun suddenly grasped the reason for this development.
Carmine Eternal and Arbiter had been royals in a world destroyed. After they reincarnated into the great wilderness, Hongjun and the others ensured that Carmine Eternal would grow up in the Blood Sea and become its mistress.
Meanwhile, Carmine Arbiter was to wield the power of the earth through Mount Buzhou and become the fifth divine beast after Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise!
The essence of earth was the power of shu earth from the center cardinal direction.
Carmine Arbiter instinctively imitated Lu Yun’s death art after arriving in the third realm and grasped the core essence of connate shu earth. Thus, she immediately became the divine beast that controlled this power in the Hongmeng.
However, she was only a divine beast and not an ancestral god. The azure dragon was an ancestral god because he’d been born from creation.
But…
“My… destiny?” Carmine Arbiter stared blankly at the ball of energy in her hand. This… didn’t seem to be in the Hongmeng. They were in a different world that belonged to the third realm, but was also separate from it. It was intimately related to the Hongmeng.
“Is this connate shu earth?” Understanding dawned on her. “No, no. This power is concealing another existence!
“Creation, origin, truth, eternity… My order of earth contains life itself. Creation is the source of life and the eternal truth of this world!” she murmured.
Lu Yun’s eyebrows shot into his hairline at her words.
“Do you realize what you’re saying?” He looked at her incredulously. “This is what the fifth ancestral god would say! Are you becoming an ancestral god?”
“I guess…?” A lost Carmine Arbiter nodded hesitantly. “But why am I the one to be an ancestral god? It should be a black qilin fulfilling the role.”
Lu Yun thought of the black qilin in the lost ancient city.
Now that Carmine Arbiter had obtained the core essence of an ancestral god, she understood many things despite her weak cultivation level. The fifth ancestral god should’ve been a qilin, never a moat snake.
Despite that, not only had she received the power of shu earth from the center, she’d reached a higher state of existence through it.
“How do you compare to the other four ancestral gods?” Lu Yun quickly asked.
“They’re all still waking up. If they were here… I’d die if they simply breathed on me!” Carmine Arbiter glared at Lu Yun. “I’m just a chaos realm sovereign, you know! The four ancestral gods are infinitely close to the fourth realm! How do I compare to them? The only thing I’d win at is how fast I die!”
Since she was now a young ancestral god, all of their secrets were laid out in front of her.
“There are six orders of the highest degree in the chaos. Likewise, there’s five supreme orders in the Hongmeng—creation, origin, truth, eternity, and life. The Hongmeng, chaos, and worlds seem like three separate realms, but in reality they’re all one—eurp!”
About to launch into a speech to show off her newfound knowledge, Carmine Arbiter quickly snapped her mouth shut. There seemed to be an invisible pair of eyes slowly opening in this strange place.
Lu Yun nodded slowly. Though she hadn’t finished speaking, he understood her meaning. Despite the difference in sophistication of life between the three realms, they were different sides of the same coin. There was no hierarchy to speak of, and the orders that oversaw each realm were on par with each other.
The former six sacred palaces of the chaos had been the realm’s true sacred land because they controlled the six greatest orders. In the Hongmeng, the four ancestral gods were the overseers of the realm because they wielded four supreme orders. However, they’d become part of legend long ago and the realm’s modern day denizens only knew creation. No one was aware of the other orders.
The one of life had never even materialized.
As for the world of immortals… the treasure of the immortal dao was the Jade Record of Creation and it embodied the power of creation. Lu Yun knew that to be a front, however, as it was actually the crucial piece to the world of immortals integrating with the Hongmeng.
The order to oversee the world of immortals had yet to reveal itself.
“Should I go back now?” Carmine Arbiter looked carefully at Lu Yun. She was only an inferior cultivator in the Hongmeng—not even an ant. If it wasn’t for the power of earth shooting into the sky due to the dawn of the order of life, she would’ve been crushed by the remnants of the Fish King’s formation the moment she appeared.
Even so, she remained safe only because she stayed within the world of connate shu earth that was infused with her new order.
The great battle outside? If she dared become involved, she would die a grisly death.
“Don’t go back, stay and cultivate in the Hongmeng.” Lu Yun shook his head. “You’ve received the order of life and become an ancestral god. You won’t be able to cultivate if you go back to the world of immortals. Only by staying here will you truly become the realm’s ancestral god.”
He opened the Gates of the Abyss and sent her to the Immortal Pagoda in Multitude City. The moment Carmine Arbiter left, the world created by shu earth collapsed.
Only an eye blink had passed in the outside world; the moat snake that Lu Yun had summoned was still here.
“What happened?” The Fish King looked darkly at Lu Yun. It’d only been the blink of an eye, but the living moat snake had disappeared. A moat snake of shu earth stood in its place, devoid of life and just a puppet.
“I don’t know either.” Lu Yun grinned brilliantly from hundreds of millions of kilometers away. The moat snake of shu earth, azure dragon of yi wood, vermilion bird of li fire, white tiger of geng metal, and black tortoise of kui water roared at the same time when he beckoned.
The domineering power of the five elements exploded into a formation of the connate five elements.
