“The Immortal King is a meticulous plotter, alright,” sighed the azure dragon upon seeing Lu Yun vanish with the Fish King and Feng Qi.
“What’s so meticulous about him?” grumbled the big-headed doll.
“He took those two with him because he doesn’t want to be affected by any karma. Either Feng Qi can eat the treasures they encounter or the Fish King can take them. He won’t touch any,” explained the azure dragon. “If he loses control over his greed and claims any of the treasures, he’ll form a karmic relationship with the Fire Virtue Potentate. once that happens, he won’t be able to kill the potentate.”
“So he can’t control himself at the end of the day, that’s all there is to it,” sniffed the doll.
“Only someone like the Fire King would remain unmoved by the potentate’s treasures. There are none in this Hongmeng who can ignore them entirely. Can you do so?” the azure dragon shot back as he toyed with his formation disk.
The big-headed doll opened his mouth to retort, but didn’t say anything.
……
Indeed, Lu Yun couldn’t bear to ignore the dazzling array of treasures floating around him, but he also couldn’t take any, which was why he’d brought along Feng Qi and the Fish King. They’d stumbled into an unexpected area. According to the layout of a tomb, this should be where the coffin of the Fire Virtue Potentate was located.
Except, the tomb wasn’t meant to lay the potentate to rest, so the coffin here wasn’t a coffin either. It was replaced by another kind of layout.
The four ancestral gods and six supreme gods had once sought to destroy the Fire Virtue Potentate—a fact that the potentate was well aware of, which was why he’d placed boundless treasures around him. These were all premier treasures of the Hongmeng and ultimate treasures of the fourth realm.
Anyone who took a treasure would form a karmic relationship with the potentate and thus be unable to fully kill him. The potentate could even utilize certain methods to assimilate the treasure holder into his own body.
“There… are so many treasures here.” Feng Qi swallowed hard. “So many treasures that are yummier than the big-headed doll’s coffin!”
“They’re all ownerless, so you can eat whatever you’d like to eat.” Lu Yun nodded.
“They won’t poison me?” Since he’d just eaten a plank from the doll’s coffin, Feng Qi wasn’t too hungry at the moment. Thus, he had the mental capacity to doubt Lu Yun’s words.
“Don’t worry, nothing will poison you when I’m around.” Lu Yun shook his head confidently.
“Then here I come!” Feng Qi shot out like the wind and grabbed a spear blazing with flames that was hovering in the air. He gleefully bit down on the weapon.
The Fish King’s heart bled. She could tell with a single glance that the spear wasn’t a treasure of the Hongmeng. It was a weapon refined from materials of the fourth realm that Feng Qi was happily chomping through! Even the eleven divine rulers would fight over it if the spear was in the third realm.
But now, it was being devoured by Feng Qi like a piece of bread.
“That spear isn’t even the best of what’s available here, so you go as well.” Lu Yun nodded at the Fish King.
“Won’t we be assimilated by the Fire Virtue Potentate if we lay hands on anything?” the Fish King paused.
“That would be the case if I wasn’t here—you guys would become his replica or puppet. But with me here, he’s dead if he dares make a move.”
“And you aren’t tempted yourself?” the Fish King continued.
“Of course I am! Many of these items are rare even in the fourth realm. Would I bring you two here if I’m not?” Lu Yun responded matter-of-factly.
“Then that’s weird, it’s ours if we take it and we won’t give it to you afterward. Are you going to take it from us by force?” The Fish King would never give something to Lu Yun after she obtained it, including the egg that the Fire Virtue Orb had taken shape as.
“You’ll know when you go,” Lu Yun smiled faintly. “Hurry and snatch some treasure from Feng Qi, or you’ll really cry when he eats the good stuff.”
“Then I’m going, and everything I get is mine! Don’t expect me to give you anything!” The Fish King leapt upward and vanished on the spot.
It was a land of purest fire virtue here without anything else present—order and destruction were unable to share the space. Countless treasures floated in the air, too many to fathom counting. They were as if the stars in the night sky, and the potentate had purposefully placed them here.
Whoever took any of them would form a karmic relationship with him, and he’d be able to take his next steps through these ties.
Even Lu Yun found it hard to restrain his greed, but he was now at peace with things.
“You’re my martial granddaughter, so I’m just giving things to my own people. That’s alright,” he muttered and walked further into the depths. “Yo, you really created a coffin for yourself, you old fella.”
An enormous scarlet coffin laid at the center of this locale. Flaming glyphs covered its surface—the fire virtue glyphs of the void.
Fire virtue was something that later came to be in nature—fire controlled by living beings. These glyphs were the traces of when fire virtue had been wielded by another. Plainly, the Fire Virtue Potentate had crafted this coffin for himself.
“Are you really going to kill me?” came a clear voice as a young man in black appeared out of nowhere, sitting on the coffin.
“I don’t need to, you’re already dead. I’m just here to eliminate you.” Lu Yun nodded.
The young man in black possessed black hair and eyes, and a strength that was at odds with the realm emanated from his body. He existed to destroy this world; its orders viewed him as a great enemy.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked with a meaningful look at Lu Yun.
“Fire Virtue Potentate? That’s the name that this Hongmeng has given you—or do you have another name?” Lu Yun blinked.
“Ai,” sighed the young man. “I am Fire Virtue, the fire god venerated by countless chaoses and beings. I brought fire to humanity and scattered the seeds of fire through the worlds, sowing the murky chaos with civilization.
“But for that, I was labeled a demon and a deviation, slandered and hunted by endless others…”
“Whatever deeds of merit you might have accomplished before coming here was a thing of the past the moment you aimed your blade at the Hongmeng,” Lu Yun interrupted.
“You’re right,” Fire Virtue paused with surprise. “Someone else once said the same thing to me, but what of it? I am viewed as a demon because I broke the taboo and gifted civilization to the third realm. When did you see me aim my blade at Hongmeng beings?”
This almost kinda feels like the JD vs AH case…
