The Blood Sovereign had reversed life and death, struggled free from death, and become a living soul thanks to the Tome of Life and Death. However, his three peers remained dead. The Shadow Sovereign, Corpse Sovereign, and Fog Sovereign were the most terrifying vicious ghosts in the Tomb of the Original Emperor and also its guards.
They had been guided into manifesting their forms by the tomb’s rules, as opposed to exercising their own thoughts and consciousness. The three were truly dead, having completely dispersed upon the wind and their true spirits scattered. No one would be able to resurrect them unless they also controlled all of life and death in a manner similar to the Tome of Life and Death.
And yet, the sovereigns were more terrifying in death than they had been in life.
The living possessed thoughts, intelligence, judgment, and consideration of gain and loss. The dead was just the dead and blindly followed fixed rules.
……
The Blood Sovereign retracted his bloody radiance and took a position next to Lu Yun.
Murky gray fog shrouded their way ahead, filling the entire world while shadowy figures moved inside. It was wholly different from the bloody light and shadows of earlier. Though there were shadows inside the new fog as well, they were eclipsed by boundless killing intent and violent auras that flooded the area.
Not even Lu Yun dared venture in. The fog emitted by the poisonous tumor near the entrance came to mind—an enormous coffin sealing away an unknown world. The fog it exuded could turn the living into zombies.
Those zombies, including the ones that Jian Juexian killed, had vanished without a trace after the fog dissipated.
“That coffin…” Lu Yun looked at Yun Zhongzi.
“Is the Fog Sovereign’s coffin. His great dao is buried inside,” Yun Zhongzi answered gravely. “I didn’t think that he can so strong without his coffin.”
“He was the strongest out of the four of us,” the Blood Sovereign nodded in agreement. “I, the Shadow Sovereign, and the Corpse Sovereign together are no match for him.”
“Are all of you Nihil World Sovereigns too?” Lu Yun asked.
“Yes, all of us are, including the Hallowed Emperor. He cultivated the fourth realm’s methods anew to become a Nihil World Sovereign and attempted to suppress the realm so its orders would stabilize, but we failed,” sighed the Blood Sovereign. “If he hadn’t severed his own cultivation, he wouldn’t have died here.”
Nihil World Sovereigns were the strongest entities of the fourth realm, but they were just ants to the denizens of the original Hongmeng. In that epoch, only fourth realm beings who’d activated sequence had the right to ascend to the original Hongmeng.
“Then there’s nothing to be afraid of if he’s a Nihil World Sovereign.” Lu Yun manifested the Glacial Fire Hammers with a shake of his hands.
“The Fog Sovereign can crush the overlord of Ice with a single hand,” Yun Zhongzi frowned.
The overlord of Ice was a definitive genius of the new epoch and had reached peak Nihil World Sovereign. He’d utilized certain loopholes to open the doors to sequence. Lu Yun could just manage to see his full body, which meant that the overlord could smash him with a single hand.
But since the Fog Sovereign could crush the overlord with a single hand, that meant he could squash Lu Yun with a single finger.
Lu Yun paused, looking disbelievingly at Yun Zhongzi.
“Who’s the overlord of Ice?” A confused Blood Sovereign was unfamiliar with the being. “Is he strong?”
“About the same as you,” answered Yun Zhongzi. “But we might stand a chance thanks to the withered wood!” He looked at Lu Yun. “The resentment of an entire epoch and the original Hongmeng lurks within the wood. You can use it against him.”
Lu Yun shook his head. “I don’t know how to use it, and this thing’s too uncanny. If I don’t get things right, it might eat you and the Blood Sovereign instead.”
Those around him had been cursed to death thirty-three times already. Lu Yun didn’t want the withered wood to succeed yet another time.
“How did the Fog Sovereign die?” he asked the Blood Sovereign.
“Someone… crushed him to death,” answered the Blood Sovereign despite not wanting to review the moment. “Not only him, but the same happened to me, the Corpse Sovereign, and Shadow Sovereign.”
“Well, I can’t do that, so it has to be a head-on fight.” Lu Yun had wanted to use the sovereign’s cause of death against him, but when a single hand had ended the sovereign’s life?
That meant a display of overwhelming strength, something that Lu Yun didn’t command. His only recourse was to find the one who’d killed the Fog Sovereign, but that person would likely also kill Lu Yun as soon as he appeared.
He’d been the enemy and murderer of the original emperor, which also made him Lu Yun’s enemy.
“I think I can continue setting up layouts and slowly erode the Fog Sovereign’s… eh? Eh? EH??” Yun Zhongzi trailed off with incredulity.
Thirty-six golden armored warriors had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Sparkling with aureate radiance, they all rivaled Lu Yun—Nihil World Sovereigns! Without further ado, they charged into the fog with loud war cries.
The Blood Sovereign shrugged nonchalantly. He’d spent some time by Lu Yun’s side and was used to seeing the bean soldiers method.
Thirty-six golden warriors were annihilated the moment they rushed into the gray fog. Lu Yun threw thirty-six soybeans to the ground again and summoned another thirty-six warriors, who charged forward in the same fashion.
The same sequence of events occurred again.
And again, and again, and again…
Since all six hellfires were gathered in his body, Lu Yun’s death arts were operating at their highest levels. He was able to summon golden-armored warriors without pause, so long as the soybeans remained in his hands.
Wave after wave of fearless warriors rushed into the fog, gradually increasing their duration of survival before returning to the void. Finally, sounds of fighting traveled out of the fog.
“It’s time!” Lu Yun stretched out his right hand and splayed his fingers. Bolts of black lightning danced on his palm—the thunder tribulation that he’d collected from the Thunderstruck Wood, thereby turning it into a section of withered wood.
Though a large portion of the heavenly lightning had dissipated and a majority negated when it attacked Lu Yun, he still retained a decent portion in the form of a thunder bead circulating around his nascent spirit. This was his trump card and the source of his confidence in traveling through the fourth realm.
He deployed Thunder Palmstrike and transformed the bead back into lightning, directing it as a stream into the gray fog.
“Roar!!” An enormous human face slowly floated out of the fog and snarled with outrage. “How dare you betray the emperor, Blood Sovereign!”
It opened its mouth and released a pillar of gray air at the sovereign.
“If the emperor was here, he would not stop us from entering the tomb to recover the seal.” The Blood Sovereign remained unmoved and summoned a ball of white flame with a wave—Hadal Bonefire.
