Lu Yun usually employed merit for cultivation—the condensed form of goodwill. He normally wouldn’t bother with the insignificant amount of goodwill emanating from his butt.
But now that his connection to the Karmic Tree had been severed, his meridians drained, and the six paths of his nascent spirit almost completely withered away, this tiny hint of goodwill was the sweet rain of life to a parched land.
“Hold on!” Something registered to him. “Six paths of my nascent spirit? My nascent spirit’s gone back to being the six paths?? The Tome of Life and Death is still with me, it didn’t leave…
“So this means I should be in a Hongmeng world… one that’s yet to develop to the fourth realm.
“And what’s that beneath my butt? It’s hard, pokey, and generates goodwill. Eh, whatever, I guess. I’ll let it be for now.” Lu Yun put thought of everything out of his head and focused on absorbing the goodwill beneath him.
However, he’d forgotten that since he didn’t actively command the Tome of Life and Death at the moment, goodwill wouldn’t automatically congregate to him. He was taking it away from somewhere else.
He also failed to detect the overwhelming resentment beneath his butt.
“Seriously, what is wrong with me? What was I doing watching two Nihil World Sovereigns fight?” When he recovered slightly, he could sense that qi filled the air around him. He couldn’t absorb qi in his current condition; the only thing he could make use of was the occasional goodwill that he took from underneath him.
Lu Yun had grown used to the identity of a Nihil World Sovereign in the fourth realm. Though he’d later sealed that cultivation level away and operated as just a World Manifest, he still instinctively kept some world sovereign habits.
Watching two Nihil World Sovereigns fight, for example. He’d stood by and observed them without a care in the world.
“Thank goodness I was quick on my feet. Otherwise, I would’ve been crushed to death and there’d be no coming back from that.” He could feel his condition steadily improve, but the goodwill emanating from beneath him was beginning to decline. This was a dissatisfying turn of events.
“I wonder what’s beneath me that it continuously gives off goodwill?” Though Lu Yun was curious, his brain wasn’t functioning very well at the moment. While he was on the path of recovery from nearly dying, he didn’t have effort to spare for much else.
……
“It’s been a month, one entire month! Why hasn’t the immortal woken up? The preceptor hasn’t returned from Ruina Immortal Nation either…” Xia Xu stumbled beneath the altar, his eyes threatening to roll back in a dead faint. Increasing numbers of citizens had died in the past month and the terrible beast tide continued from all directions. They were now less than fifteen hundred kilometers from the capital—Cloud City.
While fifteen hundred kilometers might be an incredibly long distance to mortals, the beasts could cross it in the blink of an eye! If it wasn’t for Preceptor Situ Lang and Protector of the Nation Marquis Cloudwind, the nation would already be in tatters.
Only Marquis Cloudwind stood against the tide now. The preceptor had traveled to the depths of the Ruina Sea in search of ingredients that would cure the immortal’s injuries. The Truecloud ruler had entered the battlefield a few times, but his presence only served to enrage the beast tide. There was nothing he could do but watch from the capital.
Whoosh!
Pale gold sword light arced through the sky as a bedraggled Situ Lang fell down from the air. He was missing an arm.
“I’m back, I’m back! Thank heavens I’m back in time!” Clutching a flask of gold jade with his remaining arm, he tripped his way to Xia Xu. “This is from the center of Ruina Immortal Nation, the—”
His liege snatched the flask from his arm before he could finish; Xia Xu jogged over to the altar. Situ Lang smiled ruefully and wasn’t angry. Instead, he fished out a small pill bottle, carefully poured out a pill, and placed it in his mouth to recover from his wounds.
The altar had been built out of immortal stone and should’ve been indestructible, but was now fractured and cracked, like something had smashed into it. A bema was located in its center and completely shattered while a human-shaped piece of charcoal quietly lay atop the fragments.
If it wasn’t for the slightest hint of breath coming from it, everyone would think it was dead.
“The anti-reversion passages of the world of immortals are simply terrifying! They burned an immortal to a crisp!” Xia Xu unstoppered the flask and released a dense fragrance that surrounded the altar.
……
“Eh?!” Focusing on operating the Method of Life and Death, Lu Yun’s attention was suddenly caught by something. “It’s the Immortal Myriadtree! This is strength from the tree—but how??”
His sleeping immortal force stirred to life in his body and began circulating throughout. Beams of milky radiance rose in his consciousness.
“This is sap from the Immortal Myriadtree, but I’ve already refined it into my body of the world and sent it into the cosmos around the world of immortals. Why is it here?”
His heart sank. “Can it be… that I’ve traveled through time again… and gone back to the past?
“No, no!” His mind was growing clearer. “While the Immortal Myriadtree I refined was a connate spirit root, it was at most on the levels of the worlds. It hadn’t reached the Hongmeng—it hadn’t even reached the chaos!
“The strength of this Immortal Myriadtree is infinitely greater than that one. My true cultivation level is minor World Manifest and my injuries were caused by Nihil World Sovereigns. Regular trees should have no effect on me, but…
“Oof, it’s getting stronger!” Lu Yun shoved everything out of his mind and hastily called upon the Method of Life and Death, furiously absorbing the new strength.
He wouldn’t be able to absorb any other power in his current condition, but the Immortal Myriadtree was the source of immortal dao. As the headmaster of immortal dao, Lu Yun naturally possessed an echo of it in his body.
With the tree being present, it resonated with the immortal dao in his body and sent its power throughout his being. Though it facilitated his recovery, his injuries were so severe that he couldn’t fully heal for a while.
However, recovering even a ten-thousandth of his previous form was sufficient for him to sense the world around him. His powerful consciousness spread out after a hundred breaths and blanketed the land five thousand kilometers around him.
“No wonder the goodwill has been dwindling.” He assessed the situation as soon as he released his consciousness. “How dare pathetic monsters dare slaughter human cities? You court death!”
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