Lu Yun took a deep breath and nodded slowly. He knew what becoming one with the mountain meant—death. The Sky Sovereign King had used his life, his own body, to block the darkness that would invade the known expanses. He was dead.
“Don’t tell anyone what I just told you, including the Sun Sovereign King.” Lu Yun thought for a moment. “Nothing good will come from more people learning of this matter.”
“I understand,” Yueyi inclined her head. She knew how to weigh up the importance of something. Compared to her blank paper and holes metaphor, it was far more likely that her martial grandfather had spoken to the truth of the world.
“I’ll pass formula dao onto you so you can teach the rest of the Luminaries,” Lu Yun continued. “The people of your faction will innately refuse to listen to anything I say. It would just have the opposite effect. Only when one of their sovereign kings personally teaches them will it inspire motivation.”
“I see,” Yueyi chuckled ruefully. She had indeed wanted Lu Yun to be their teacher as according to what she knew, or rather the bits and pieces that her master had spoken of, Lu Yun had created formula dao.
The creator of a dao personally teaching others would see much better results than others filling in the position.
Formula dao gradually percolated through the fourth realm these days. As a faction that focused intensely on disseminating all sorts of dao in order to corral order, the Luminaries had detected formula dao the moment it appeared.
When the Great Brahma visited the Star Sect, he’d ostensibly come for Xing Chen’s head. In reality, his mission was to gather intelligence on formula dao. Yueyi’s later return had paused the Sun Sovereign King’s plans for the sect.
His original list of priority targets had been Ingress Sword Island, then the Sword Clan, and finally the Star Sect. The first had been assimilated by the Luminaries and the rest were no longer a problem, so there was no need for further action.
Lu Yun began teaching Yueyi formula dao, unexpectedly taking ten years for it. While he taught his martial grand disciple everything he knew, so did formula dao continue to advance in the Star Sect. Thus, his curriculum was constantly updating.
As a sequence expert, Yueyi’s abilities to comprehend and accept new ways of thinking were unparalleled. She could even draw inferences from other cases and deduce concepts that weren’t yet present in formula dao, thereby giving feedback to the great dao. Not only were these ten years a period in which Lu Yun initiated a new pupil, but they were also a time in which a sequence expert joined the group deriving formula dao.
“Formula dao is incredible!” Ten years later, Yueyi finally took a break and stared dumbly where she sat, unable to come up with any other words. “I… see the threshold of the ninth level of sequence now,” she murmured after a long period of time.
She’d already accessed eight levels and was second to only the Sky Sovereign King. With her potential, eight levels should’ve been the peak of what she could reach in this lifetime. There was no hope for her to advance further.
She could see the ninth door thanks to formula dao, making another breakthrough possible. Although it was almost hopelessly far away, she had a new goal to strive towards.
Yueyi looked up at her martial grandfather. “So this is formula dao?”
“Yes,” Lu Yun nodded. “But there are many types of formula dao and all sorts of branches. What you are skilled in should be formula theory—the branch that deduces all sorts of laws and orders.
“You can now teach others the various basic theories and formulas of formula dao. If Luminary disciples wish to specialize in a discipline, they can travel to the Eastern Cluster.
“An academy will be established there before long. It will be open to everyone in the fourth realm and every student will be treated equally. Formula dao in the Boundless Planes originates in the Star Sect, so let’s have it flourish in the Eastern Cluster.”
“You…” Yueyi stared at Lu Yun, not knowing what to say. There was nothing left in the Eastern Cluster anymore, just a lone Central Hongmeng—an existence that the Luminaries were most wary of.
The Central Hongmeng was formed from a fragment of the original Hongmeng and could very well grow back into one. It would absorb and suppress the fourth realm’s orders then, but its ideals ran counter to the Luminaries. Once it appeared, it would invalidate everything the faction had striven for in the new epoch.
The original Hongmeng was a failure since it’d once been destroyed. It would solve no problems if it reappeared, but instead, create an easier target for the creatures of the darkness and result in greater disaster.
“I’ve recreated the Dragonquake Scripture,” Lu Yun said calmly. “But I’ve also given up on recreating the original Hongmeng. It lost once—no matter the reason, it still lost. If it reappears, that’s only the beginning of another end.”
Yueyi stared intently at him, then broke out in a smile. “I believe you.”
“Mmhmm,” Lu Yun nodded. “I will create an academy of formula dao in the Eastern Cluster and disseminate formula dao from it so that the dao prospers throughout the fourth realm. However, the Luminaries can no longer disturb the Central Hongmeng.” He ended with a sharp crack of his voice.
“Three times, the Luminaries entered the Central Hongmeng, and three times we failed. The matters of that Hongmeng have nothing to do with us anymore.” Yueyi understood Lu Yun’s meaning. “The Sky Sovereign King entered the Central Hongmeng the first time in search of the seeds of nothing. He returned heavily injured and became one with the mountain not long thereafter.
“The Sun Sovereign King conducted the second attempt. He was also heavily injured and almost perished. The third time was me, and my outcome was hardly any better. The greatest plotter in the Central Hongmeng comes from the unknown expanses.
“Martial grandfather, your enemy has never been the Luminaries. In fact, many in the known expanses view us as their enemy—a situation that was also caused by the creatures of the darkness.”
“Pfft, is it not because you want to exterminate others at the drop of a hat?” Lu Yun half rolled his eyes. “The Sun Sovereign King killed the Quiet Sovereign King, didn’t he? And your plans this time are to destroy the Sword Clan?”
“Xing Chen of the Star Sect destroyed the Snowsword School, but no one says anything about that,” Yueyi chuckled wryly. “Life is the most worthless thing in the Boundless Planes. The weak are food for the strong and the law of the jungle reigns. No one will pity the weak—if you don’t want to die, you must grow stronger.
“The Boundless Planes are too big. There is no unifying rule, order, or ethic in this realm. Who cares about the life or death of another?”
“Is that why the Luminaries wants to imitate the original Hongmeng and conquer the fourth realm?” Lu Yun started.
“That is the root cause of why we’ve become the enemy of so many people. While no one cares about the life or death of another, we all yearn for freedom. Who wishes to be ruled by others? Some slight instigation was all it took for us to become a public enemy. Well, of course, some of our methods were a little too extreme.”
