“But there’s one thing you’re right about—I am here to stop you,” the girl said meaningfully. “The Fire Virtue Potentate is close by. If you disturb him in any way or form and awaken him, the seal in the lake won’t be able to keep him under. He’ll turn into a horrific undead and charge out of Azure Dragon Lake, turning the Hongmeng into his world.
“There was once a group of brutal and vicious powerhouses in the fourth realm who continuously attacked the Hongmeng, wanting to refine it into their own world. Those people were later suppressed in the Hadal Hell, never to find redemption, and the Fire Virtue Potentate was one of them.
“Though he was grievously injured, he managed to evade capture and escaped to this Hongmeng world, attempting to refine it into his own so he could recover from his injuries.
“When we look at modern times, the four ancestral gods of the realm have just returned to their rightful positions in a half crippled state. The six supreme gods have long vanished from existence and their heritage is cursed by the potentate. Who do you think can rein him in now if he breaks free of the seal?”
Lu Yun had heard She Nong speak of the Hadal Hell when he visited the fourth realm. The hell had taken shape to keep certain evils in check as those fiends had stopped at nothing and refined or destroyed countless Hongmeng worlds.
The prisoners he’d seen in the Hadal Hell were indeed beings of the fourth realm, but there were also a few corpses that bore no traces of life. Those should be the devils that She Nong had spoken of.
The snake’s words hadn’t been a complete exaggeration as such heartless brutes had indeed once existed in the fourth realm. The Fire Virtue Potentate was one who’d slipped through the cracks. He wasn’t a potentate of the Hongmeng—he’d received this title because his cultivation level had dropped to the potentate realm when he fell to the third realm. No one knew what his real name was.
“Can you and the eleven rulers of the divine nations not do it, little miss?” Lu Yun asked, taken aback.
“Me? Have you not identified who I am yet?” The girl twirled around, eliciting a dry mouth and an involuntary hard swallow from Feng Qi.
“You are… the Fire King?” Lu Yun asked hesitantly after he took a close look at her.
“That’s right, I’m the Fire King—the manifestation of the order of fire in this realm,” she nodded. Just like the previous Talisman King, she was the physical form of an order instead of a living being. Their difference was that she was much stronger than the Talisman King. The Talisman King was just the projection of talisman dao, but she was born of the order of fire and much closer to the core essence of the Hongmeng than talisman dao.
“As I thought!” The Fish King lit up. She’d accompanied Lu Yun on this trip because she wanted to see if he could inspire appearances from the other orders of the realm. First it’d been the Talisman King, now it was the Fire King!
These kinds of existences bore a fatal attraction for a supplemental king like the Fish King; they were as if dao itself.
“You’re not bad at all, little girl.” The Fire King reached a hand out at the Fish King and tapped the center of the woman’s forehead with a finger.
Humm.
A glyph of fire flashed between the Fish King’s brows and sank into her nascent spirit.
“My deepest gratitude for the Fire King’s favor!” The Fish King beamed and curtsied to the manifestation of fire. What she’d received was a brand of the essence of fire order—it was priceless for a supplemental king like her! It would enable her to break through to another cultivation realm and explore an entirely new field.
“I am one of the core orders of the Hongmeng, so I cannot take any action,” the Fire King responded to Lu Yun. “When the Fire Virtue Potentate invaded our Hongmeng, the realm possessed many cultivators on par with the eleven divine rulers. They are now all creatures of destruction in this tomb.”
Wrapped up in joy one moment prior, the Fish King shuddered at the explanation and Feng Qi’s jaw dropped. They could all tell that the creatures here were transformed from the bodies of the powerhouses that’d died in the tomb, but no one had imagined that these bodies would be the corpses of potentates!
“Additionally, the current eleven potentates reached their heights only through the Hongmeng Tower’s bequest. They didn’t attain it through their own cultivation, so they’re far weaker than the potentates who died here all those years ago.
“Although the Fire Virtue Potentate’s cultivation has much decreased, he’s still far, far stronger than them. In that era… the current divine rulers wouldn’t even count as cannon fodder.”
“What about Hong?” Lu Yun asked. “Is she unable to as well?”
“The Fire Virtue Potentate would’ve ended her a long time ago if she could do anything,” replied the Fire King. “But she also must refrain from taking action in the Hongmeng.”
Lu Yun suddenly understood, thinking back to when he first met the Bridge of Forgetfulness. The bridge had wanted to swallow him and Qing Yu, but Hong had appeared. She’d possessed the strength to stop the bridge then—she was a bonafide heavyweight of the fourth realm.
As strong as she was, she seemed to be limited by something and couldn’t deploy her full strength. In Lu Yun’s eyes, she was more of a tomb keeper who watched over the mausoleum in the Hongmeng’s skies.
“Do you still dare disturb the Fire Virtue Potentate?” The Fire King’s scarlet eyes reflected an upside down image of Lu Yun.
“Of course! I’m here to destroy this potentate and take care of this trouble, once and for all!” Lu Yun declared resolutely. “His curse will continuously afflict the chaos creatures if he exists. If that holds true, then they will be irrevocably discarded by the new world order when the immortal dao runs through the Hongmeng and the three realms become one!”
“On what basis do you presume to destroy the Fire Virtue Potentate?” the Fire King frowned. There was nothing wrong with what Lu Yun was saying—anyone who knew the truth of this tomb wanted to permanently resolve the latent threat.
But no one had the ability to.
Those with sufficient strength were limited by the rules of the Hongmeng, and Lu Yun was one of those lacking sufficient power. In some people’s eyes, he was just acting like a child.
The eleven divine rulers didn’t dare come, but he, a mere superior realm cultivator, was here and whining about destroying the Fire Virtue Potentate. What was this if not being a child?
That was why the azure dragon, big-headed doll, and the Fire King had all materialized to stop him.
“But you can come with me, Fire King. If I can’t hold out, you have your ways of sealing him away again, right?” Lu Yun etched a formation disk with the layout of the six royals and handed it to the Fire King.
She stiltedly accepted the item and wasn’t sure how to react. I… manifested to stop him, so how am I suddenly in cahoots with him?
“If only that big-headed doll was here too… His Soulprison Wood coffin can definitely restrain the potentate,” Lu Yun murmured.
“Who are you calling big headed?? You’re big headed, your whole family’s big headed!!” rang out an irritated voice.
Lu Yun’s “making” more allies again.
