“I am the overlord of the Plane of Ice,” said the giant in the iceberg. Since he was encased in ice, he couldn’t speak via his mouth. Instead, he used a special art to emit a booming voice. “Young man, believe me when I say that that withered wood will bring you misfortune and ensure that you never reincarnate into a new life.” A hint of anxiety and unease colored his tones.
“Are you also a Nihil World Sovereign?” Lu Yun asked instead. He’d used the Tome of Life and Death to seal off the area during previous events, so the giant couldn’t have seen what’d taken place earlier—including the summoning of the six hells.
All he saw was the final glimpse of the young man storing the withered wood inside a book-like treasure.
Lu Yun was gradually making out the cultivation level of the giant in front of him—Nihil World Sovereign! The giant was bigger than all of Dragonmountain Clime. Perhaps he was peak Nihil World Sovereign and could peer into the next level!
“Yes, I am a Nihil World Sovereign,” answered the giant. “You would be well served to heed my advice and give up that piece of wood.” He was still bent on persuading Lu Yun.
“You’ve seen it before? Do you know what it is?” Lu Yun retreated another one hundred million kilometers and continued to maintain his distance from the other. Although the giant was sealed in the iceberg, it would be very easy for him to take action if he wanted to.
The strength and methods of a Nihil World Sovereign were unfathomable. He’d be able to deliver indelible damage to Lu Yun with a single thought.
“Ai!” the giant sighed to see the young man be so wary. “True, who wouldn’t be tempted by such a treasure? Young man, I will pass a nihil method onto you instead. If this item causes trouble in the future, you can activate the sequence of time through this method and exile it into time.”
A mammoth will appeared in the void before Lu Yun could respond and surged into his mind. It was colossal and completely dwarfed his thoughts. Such was the giant’s will, and the difference between them was that of heaven and earth—similar to how Longshan Yin was in front of the Divine Fire World King!
No, even greater than the gap between those two.
“You have a weak core essence and weak will, but your nascent spirit is uncommonly strong. No wonder you can’t control your greed,” sighed the giant.
His exhale turned his immense will into a gentle force, trickling into the depths of Lu Yun’s thoughts like babbling brooks and delivering a method that the young man had never heard of. Not even formula dao could derive it.
“This nihil method is one that I comprehended at the peak of nothing. It can open the doors to the sequence of time. That withered wood is an inauspicious item and will doom not only you, but also bring misfortune to all things. Only the sequence of time can safely banish it,” the giant explained.
Shock filtered through Lu Yun’s eyes. This was a true method of nothing, and one formulated at its peak! He was so absorbed by it that he didn’t have thought to spare for the mysterious “sequence of time”.
When he came back to himself, the giant and iceberg had disappeared from sight.
“The overlord of the Plane of Ice?” Lu Yun frowned with deep thought. Based on his understanding, numerous worlds floated within the fourth realm—such as Dragonmountain Clime. Multiple worlds made up one stratum, and multiple stratum made up one plane.
Just as he’d been in the Plane of Fire before, he was now probably in the Plane of Ice. In the words of the fourth realm inhabitants, they called the fourth realm the Boundless Planes.
An overlord of a plane was an absolute powerhouse in the Boundless Planes. The Divine Fire World King, for example, only dared to name himself the strongest in the plane and not its overlord.
“He didn’t bear any malice toward me and there was even a trace of fear in his emotions. He’s afraid of the withered wood.” Lu Yun’s frown deepened. “And it’s because of the withered wood, not the Thunderstruck Wood that it was before. The giant didn’t appear until it became the withered wood.”
Lu Yun sighed and dropped that train of thought. Since the Tome of Life and Death was refining the wood, there wasn’t much he was worried about.
“Thankfully, I didn’t attract any scary fellas during this process, just a hugely strong Nihil World Sovereign. Mm… time to go back to the Hongmeng.” He subconsciously wanted to call upon the Gates of the Abyss to return to the third realm, but a sudden idea struck him and he deployed the death art Boundless Step instead.
Lu Yun’s body vanished and he reappeared by the banks of the Hongmeng at almost the same time.
“Death arts really showcase their true power only in the fourth realm!” He could at most cross five hundred thousand kilometers with the Boundless Step in the Hongmeng, but he easily traversed an entire plane in the fourth realm!
He returned to regular size and strode into the third realm—not through the gap beneath Azure Dragon Lake, but through regular means.
“This is the place!” Lu Yun gasped when he looked at the Hongmeng. Tombs forested the void, forming a massive mausoleum. The soil inside the mausoleum was mauve colored and flowers of six colors blossomed everywhere.
He didn’t know what the flowers represented, but compared to the world below, this place seemed more like a real Hongmeng. When one stood on the world below and looked up, the mausoleum appeared as if the night sky, all of the tombs glittering like crystalline stars and illuminating the earth.
“This was once a prosperous world,” sounded a female voice. “Just as prosperous and thriving as the so-called fourth realm. Living beings didn’t need to break through a so-called Hongmeng barrier to enter the fourth realm. They could travel through it at will and discuss dao with those of the fourth realm.”
Hong appeared in front of Lu Yun, still wearing her red dress. She continued in a melancholic voice, “A devastating war descended at the end of that age and shattered the Hongmeng. Everything here died…”
“Wait, what did you say?” Lu Yun started and interrupted, “The Hongmeng was shattered? This Hongmeng isn’t complete?”
“Of course not,” Hong nodded. “There are a hundred and eight thousand Hongmeng worlds… no, more than that in the fourth realm. Endless and innumerable, they are all derived from the fragments of the original Hongmeng. They gave rise to an incomplete Hongmeng, gave rise to order, gave rise to life forms…
“This patch of Hongmeng is the source of all Hongmeng worlds in the fourth realm and the origin of the fourth realm itself.” Hong cast Lu Yun a glance. “Those buried in this mausoleum are the original inhabitants of the Hongmeng.
“The overlord of Ice was correct, you shouldn’t have become involved with the withered wood.”
