Lu Yun hadn’t known who his enemy was until the Curse King appeared. Everything from the great wilderness to the world of immortals, and from the chaos to the Hongmeng, was from the Curse King’s hand.
Even the chaos tribulations of the second realm and the Fire Virtue Potentate that’d nearly destroyed the original Hongmeng were his work.
With what Lu Yun now knew of the situation, the Curse King might not be one singular person. He possibly represented a group, a world, or even a new order. After all, he sought to destroy the immortal dao and Central Hongmeng, which would completely destroy hope of the original Hongmeng returning.
“Perhaps,” Yun Zhongzi sighed, then laughed ruefully. “You’ve filled out your wings and departed from the path that Fuxi laid out for you. Us old farts from the last epoch don’t seem to be of much use in the trials to come.
“What were once our enemies will have to be met by you.”
Lu Yun nodded, not taking Yun Zhongzi’s mention of the enemy to heart. His true goal was to escape the endless cycles, to leap out of the river that ran in a circle. For now, he was just a wave in the river. There were many like him, but they never amounted to true change in the end.
He couldn’t see who’d created the river—they were too big, like Mount Zhou. Lu Yun was just an ant at the foot of the mountain; a pebble was his entire world.
“What should I do if I want the Imperial Seal?” Lu Yun took a deep breath.
In the last thirty-three cycles, he never succeeded recreating the original Hongmeng. If he was to change things this time, he had to complete what he hadn’t before.
Yun Zhongzi smiled.
“The Imperial Seal is already in the tomb, but you’ll need the creation seed first if you want it.”
……
Yun Zhongzi didn’t mention the Jade Pure One again, or why he and Daoist Ingress were reenacting events of the original Hongmeng in the great wilderness. Neither did Lu Yun ask.
He could, however, make an educated guess. The events of the original Hongmeng likely followed the trajectory of the realm’s growth. If they wished to recreate the realm, they had to restore the original Hongmeng’s growth trajectory first. The worlds needed to show the same progression.
Someone who’d suppressed all races and created human dao had wielded the Imperial Seal in the original Hongmeng. Lu Yun had most probably been imitating him in the past cycles, and that person had likely been the emperor of the original Hongmeng.
……
Yun Zhongzi had crafted the Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor. But once the Hallowed Emperor was buried here and used his bloodline to manifest the original emperor, he completely ceased to exist. It was like he’d never come into being.
The Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor therefore became the Tomb of the Original Emperor.
When faced with the emperor of the original Hongmeng, Yun Zhongzi could no longer control the tomb—despite being its creator. All he could do was to create layout upon layout to erode it, converting anyone who fell into them as one of his tools to obtain the seal.
That was why whoever excised the poisonous tumors would be rewarded by the tomb, but also be fully caught in the trap. All of this was a function of Yun Zhongzi’s original plans.
It wasn’t enough to have a Tomb of the Original Emperor if they wanted to obtain the Imperial Seal. Thus, the Hallowed Emperor died with a creation seed on his body. Only its power could truly attract the seal, and the treasure was now incorporated within the seed.
Of course, word of the creation seed had been spread far and wide so people would come and fall into Yun Zhongzi’s traps. This wasn’t the tomb’s first emergence, but it was the first time it’d manifested after sensing Longshan Yin’s existence. He wasn’t just the descendant of the Hallowed Emperor, but of the emperor of the original Hongmeng as well.
Since the Hallowed Emperor no longer existed, that made the legacy inside the tomb a bequeathment from the emperor of the original Hongmeng.
Once Yun Zhongzi left, this world returned to its original form. Though he could no longer control it, dangers still abounded. All of his replicas in the tomb congregated to where the primary self was; he would retrieve the Imperial Seal for Lu Yun even at the cost of his own life.
The tomb where the emperor was buried was the core of the Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor, its air dyed red with endless bloody light.
A layout without Yun Zhongzi overlooking it was even more perilous than before.
At the tomb’s establishment, four powerhouses who’d once followed the emperor of the original Hongmeng sensed the summons and transformed themselves into burial mounds standing guard in the four cardinal directions. Protecting their master’s final resting place, the Shadow Sovereign, Corpse Sovereign, Blood Sovereign, and Fog Sovereign had also perished in the Broken Primeval Plane. They, too, were heavyweights who’d reached the peak of dao.
During this adventure, Lu Yun happened to pass through the location that the Shadow Sovereign guarded. If it wasn’t for Yun Zhongzi’s various layouts and usage of Xing Wuliang’s shadow to break the Shadow Sovereign’s shadow dao, Lu Yun wouldn’t have made it through so easily.
Yun Zhongzi had shattered the Corpse Sovereign’s layout with the Roastwave World King’s body, a layout which was then completely ruined by Lu Yun’s dao of herding corpses.
Only the Blood Sovereign and Fog Sovereign remained. Where bloody light danced ahead of them was the Blood Sovereign’s domain.
“Heh heh heh, you’ve finally come here, brat!” A piercing shriek came from ahead the moment Lu Yun set foot into the light. Boundless radiance condensed into a scarlet body that blocked the young man’s way.
Yun Zhongzi followed behind Lu Yun; he’d given up using Roastwave’s body and now inhabited an unknown Nihil World Sovereign’s body. He’d gone to a great deal of effort to lure a personage of this level into his traps. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun’s arrival, he never would’ve brought it out. This body came with a stunning background that not even the current Yun Zhongzi was willing to antagonize.
Lu Yun, however, ignored his follower. He stared unblinkingly at the abruptly appearing Blood Sovereign, his eyes growing wider and wider until he cursed loudly.
“Oh what the fuck?! Why is it you?? You’re the Blood Sovereign who’s reached the peak of blood dao?” Lu Yun pointed at the Blood Sovereign with a shaking finger.
“That’s right, that is indeed this grand one!” The Blood Sovereign clenched his jaw, then deflated and sank to one knee in front of Lu Yun. “Greetings to the young master.”
The blood demon!
When Luo Houluo and Darkriver combined into Asura, Daoist Ingress had suppressed him with the four evil coffins. Asura had then followed Lu Yun back to the great wilderness and then again to the world of immortals as the blood demon!
Yun Zhongzi gaped, unable to process the sudden revelation. The Blood Sovereign was… the infamous blood demon? And they were on the same side?
They’d fought each other for an indeterminable period of time; Yun Zhongzi had never been able to shatter his blood formation. But it turned out they knew each other from the great wilderness?!
“Why is it you?” Lu Yun chuckled ruefully.
“Why isn’t it me?” The blood demon sighed and stood up. “Yun Zhongzi almost obtained the Imperial Seal back in the day, but the treasure was supplanted by another existence. That existence sent me to the great wilderness and split me into two!
“Part of me entered the Blood Sea and became the blood demon. The other part entered the world of celestials to become Luo Houluo. Then… for various reasons, my two selves combined as one. I was Asura and the blood demon, ultimately joining the young master.”
The existence he spoke of was the Tome of Life and Death. If it wasn’t for the book, then Yun Zhongzi and Fuxi would’ve sent the Imperial Seal back to the great wilderness.
“Young master came here, so my true spirit came back with you,” the blood demon laughed wryly.
He’d been overseeing grand affairs in the world of immortals just one second ago, his cultivation level having reached a sovereign in the chaos. He was about to set foot into the Hongmeng, but had been mysteriously pulled to his master and somehow became the Blood Sovereign beneath the banner of the original emperor.
Ah, no. Since the Blood Sovereign had been subdued by the Tome of Life and Death, he was the Blood Sovereign beneath Lu Yun’s banner.
Yun Zhongzi stared wordlessly.
“So… uh… now we only have the Fog Sovereign to deal with?” Lu Yun cocked his head quizzically.
“The Fog and Shadow Sovereigns, and the Corpse Sovereign are all the same. They’re all dead and without intelligence. They operate based on instincts according to the rules present,” explained the Blood Sovereign. “If young master wishes to obtain the Imperial Seal, you must eradicate them with brute force.”
etvolare's Thoughts
This is one helluva throwback. Do you guys remember the blood demon chasing Lu Yun, causing the ruins at the West Sea to blow up, throwing him to the great wilderness? That guy.
