As the shadow giant smashed down on Lu Yun, the two virtue orbs by the young man’s side flared with their respective worlds and met the blow.
Kabooooom.
The giant scattered as a multitude of shadowy shards; energy from the two worlds churned the shards into nothing. Lu Yun had identified long ago that the power of a world was the antithesis to these shadows. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to so easily destroy them with the drawing compass.
Horizon’s Edge was now an enormous drawing compass five thousand kilometers wide over Lu Yun’s head. It began tracing circles in the void, creating one huge circular world after another. They interlocked with each other to form an even more massive and durable world.
Lu Yun didn’t immediately cover the burial mound with the world. He was thinking. The headless corpses on the ground were twitching again, but nothing else was happening.
“What are you waiting for?” Xing Wuliang asked when Lu Yun continued to hesitate. Brightheart also looked at him, but Lu Yun was looking at Jian Juexian.
“I’ve fallen into a trap,” he transmitted to the young man.
“What?!” Jian Juexian blinked.
“We shouldn’t have excised those tumors. They aren’t trying to erode the tomb, but to break the tomb’s layout! Therefore, I’ve set foot into a trap.” Lu Yun brooded ominously.
Cutting out poisonous tumors had granted him the freedom to utilize the strength of a Nihil World Sovereign within the Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor. A world sovereign could break the layouts in the tomb!
The Cloud Sovereign was dead and the tomb had stood for countless eons. Many of its layouts had been depreciated by time. A Nihil World Sovereign was enough to dismantle all of them completely.
If he did so, he would fall into another layout—the one who set up the tumors in the tomb.
“The layout isn’t for the entire tomb—it’s just for this tomb realm,” Lu Yun’s voice echoed in Jian Juexian’s ears again. “The creation seed is here!”
“The creation seed is buried over there!” Jian Juexian jerked with realization. It wasn’t a person under the pile of dirt, but the creation seed!
As a mighty Nihil World Sovereign, Jian Juexian would never come in search for another sovereign’s legacy, even if that one had opened the doors to sequence.
The creation seed!
“That’s right!” Lu Yun and Jian Juexian conversed in a way unique to Nihil World Sovereigns. Anyone below their level couldn’t see their actions or hear their words.
Lu Yun turned to Xing Wuliang, suddenly grasping why the latter’s shadow hadn’t done anything other than simply vanishing on the spot.
Xing Wuliang had also fallen into the trap, but his shadow hadn’t due to the other pair of eyes in his pupils. Though he wasn’t a Nihil World Sovereign, he was a powerful supplemental grandmaster. His shadow had likely realized something to result in its inaction.
These shadows are controlled by something. Lu Yun once more looked at the headless bodies on the ground.
“Do you sense something off?” he asked out loud.
Xing Wuliang looked around uncertainly, feeling that something had gone wrong now that his junior brother mentioned it.
“…soul force!” He took a deep breath and smiled wryly after cautiously sending out his consciousness. “My shadow is telling me through soul force that I can’t die no matter what, and that I shouldn’t use the grandmaster-level soul force in this world.”
Bitterness welled up in his mouth; he believed his shadow. The others had been attacked by theirs as soon as the shadows broke free, but his hadn’t done anything.
He looked at Brightheart; her eyes shone brightly with comprehension.
“Those poisonous tumors,” she said calmly without a change in expression. “Both of you took care of them and received some benefits for doing so. Your grandmaster-level soul force comes from the tomb!”
“Yes.” Xing Wuliang nodded. The world king was immensely experienced and no fool. She could quickly connect the dots after momentary thought.
“I really am a useless lump now, you three need to protect me!” Xing Wuliang said seriously. “My shadow says that if I die here, you’ll face thousands of supplemental grandmasters.”
He subconsciously looked at the bodies on the ground. He would join them if he died and become their king. His shadow was feeding information about everything to him, including the fact that the creation seed was buried here!
“You and him are both caught in the trap, so you can’t do anything and you can’t die,” snorted Jian Juexian. “Little girl, only you and I can fight back. How do our chances of survival look if we work together?”
Lu Yun’s world from the Horizon’s Edge had fully taken shape and fell down from the sky, enclosing them with protection. His worlds of sword and water virtue had completely eliminated the shadow giant. The tomb world was calm again, as if all danger had been taken care of.
However, the burial mound no longer had a shadow.
“If only you and I work together, then the group’s chances of survival are none.” Brightheart shook her head and asked with surprise, “Junior brother Feng has already counterattacked a few times. Why hasn’t that resulted in backlash from the tumors?”
“Because I can destroy this place even without falling into the trap. But right now, we need to protect Xing Wuliang. If he dies here…” Lu Yun’s blood ran cold with the thought of countless supplemental grandmasters popping out of everywhere. If he’d exerted the strength of a Nihil World Sovereign at any point in time, a layout targeting him would’ve also appeared. That layout would be one of a Nihil World Sovereign and not soul force of supplemental dao.
“Then we keep going!” Xing Wuliang set his jaw. “The master of these tumors wants what’s buried in the mound. If we touch it, he won’t be able to sit still. We have a chance once the layout changes!”
He took large strides forward and headed for the center of the tomb realm. The creation seed was there and he was sorely tempted. All he needed to do was to take one look at it.
Lu Yun knew what Xing Wuliang was thinking and didn’t object. That was indeed the best course of action—if they had to remain unchanging, then the layout had to change. Flaws would appear once the layout changed.
The plotter had likely never imagined he’d attract a perverse existence like Lu Yun. Here was a Nihil World Sovereign with incredible soul force who could use a connate treasure!
Lu Yun guided Horizon’s Edge to keep its world covering them at all times. As they headed deeper into the world, the burial mound’s shadow appeared at some point in time. The shadows that Lu Yun had eliminated also reappeared and jumped into the mountain’s shadow to keep a covert eye on the young man.
His own shadow wanted to freely run around too, but he kept it firmly underfoot.
