“Haidong Lin, I thought you were dead. To think that you’d entered this world of sequence as well!” the Soldier King addressed the Sea Lord first.
“Soldier King!” the Sea Lord spat out with a brooding expression. “So there are indeed flaws in formula dao, I didn’t calculate your existence!”
The Sea Lord had used formula dao to analyze the trajectory of his own existence. Results indicated that while this venture would be risky and dangerous, it would not result in his death. Rather, he would reap rich rewards.
He naturally simulated various situations, but never came across one in which the Soldier King would appear in good health. The latter’s emergence was essentially a death sentence. The Sea Lord could barely manage to protect himself when facing the Soldier King in peak condition, much less than being caught in a world of immortal dao now.
Despite that, he still sought to play a small scheme and cast a shadow over formula dao. If possible, he would shake Lu Yun’s confidence in his creation.
“It’s not that formula dao is incapable, but that the secrets of heaven are in constant flux. Who can define matters of destiny with any certainty?” The Soldier King shook his head and slashed forward, sending out a ray of hazy purple sword light from Purple Sunrise and bringing it down on the Sea Lord’s head.
The lord was hardly one to sit back and await his doom. He raised the metal bident and deployed Myriad Sea in response.
However, Lu Yun’s combat art of hell dao had previously shattered it. Once shattered, there would be flaws. Something that even Lu Yun could defeat was as fragile as paper to the Soldier King. His stroke ripped through Myriad Sea and broke the bident.
The Sea Lord spat out blood; he’d nearly been hewn into two!
“So it turns out I would die at your hands.” His chest heaved rapidly. In the outside world, the vast ocean of Myriadsea World was his body. He was invincible as long as a single drop of water existed. But while his body was eternal, the same couldn’t be said for his consciousness. His entire mind and core essence was trapped in the world of immortal dao. This world was isolated from the outside world and there was no place to run to.
Surprisingly, the Soldier King stayed his hand and sheathed Purple Sunrise.
“You may go,” he waved his hand.
The Sea Lord paused, incredulity blooming across his face. Just like that?
Jian Bu’er, Dongfang Mo, and the Demonic Vine were likewise shocked. With the Soldier King’s strength, it was feasible for him to kill the Sea Lord in the world of immortal dao. But he wasn’t finishing the job?
“You’re showing me mercy?” the Sea Lord asked in disbelief.
“Naturally,” the Soldier King chuckled. “Didn’t you use formula destiny to determine that you wouldn’t die on this venture? So let me fulfill your deduction. Not only will you live, but you will also reap great rewards.”
Just for… that? The Sea Lord gaped. Dongfang Mo remained unmoved while Jian Bu’er yelped with outrage. With the Sea Lord present and his sea dao intact, immortal dao would be unable to refine Myriadsea World. What in the heavens was this Soldier King thinking?!
An exit opened up in the world of immortal dao; the Sea Lord regarded it with wariness and confusion.
“Leave behind your sea dao and have it fully meld into immortal dao,” the Soldier King suddenly shouted.
“I see.” The Sea Lord finally understood. If sea dao was completely incorporated into immortal dao, the latter would replace sea dao to wholly occupy Myriadsea World. Sea dao would become immortal dao, and Myriadsea World would become Immortal Dao World. That would accomplish their goals once and for all.
“Not only that,” the Sea Lord suddenly narrowed his eyes in thought. “You’re afraid of a death strike if you try to kill me, aren’t you? That I’ll injure you so heavily that a mantis will be able to stalk a cicada?”
He glanced at the opening and continued, “There is another, no, two more terrifying existences in this world of sequence. One is in Ruina and the other is one of the dao beholders!
“The one in Ruina has always been asleep and will not awaken unless Ruina is disturbed. What you are vigilant against is the one among the dao beholders.”
“Correct,” Lu Yun nodded. “I can also tell you who that is—the Curse King.” He waved the withered wood burning with hellfire around. “This piece of withered wood that all of you tremble at is his creation.”
“Bastard!” Waiting outside to play his role as the oriole, the Curse King flew into a rage. “Don’t clap that crime onto my head! What would I create something so awful for?!”
The notorious withered wood had appeared in various places and times. Many experts in the known and unknown expanses of the Boundless Planes were terrified of it. Numerous powerhouses of great virtue or strength had voluntarily sacrificed themselves with it, but it’d always emerged unscathed later on.
“Not you?” Lu Yun frowned tightly at the Curse King who’d suddenly shown himself. He’d been waiting on the sidelines all this time. If the Sea Lord had flounced off earlier, he would’ve been attacked and devoured.
The Soldier King had stopped also because he’d discovered the Curse King—the latter was too frightening. The strength he currently displayed was nothing compared to his true capabilities; it’d been an act when he’d scurried away from the Demonic Vine. Jian Bu’er had spoken truly, that he couldn’t defeat the Curse King. His words might be mindless rambling in others’ eyes, but he really couldn’t fight the true Curse King.
“Not I,” the Curse King scoffed. “Don’t try to make me the scapegoat, I’m not willing!”
“Your side destroyed the original Hongmeng, no?” Lu Yun asked frostily.
The look in Dongfang Mo’s immediately chilled when he heard the question. The original Hongmeng had been his home.
“Yes, but also no.” The Curse King knew that life for him would become extremely difficult if he didn’t properly explain himself. The curse on the withered wood was part of curse dao, and he so happened to be the greatest expert of curse dao.
“The original Hongmeng was the core of the Boundless Planes. The unknown expanses that you speak of are the broad categorization of the land of darkness and others. The world I’m from is precisely in the so-called unknown expanses, a world separated by darkness.
“Our existence is a blank sheet of paper and we are all holes in it. But because of your world—the original Hongmeng—you become the paper itself. Many experts could pass through the darkness to reach other worlds…”
“Get to the point,” the Soldier King interrupted curtly. Everyone present already knew what he was reeling off.
“The wood once traveled through space and time to arrive at my world. It caused endless slaughter and violence, so I followed it to its source—the original Hongmeng!” the Curse King fell briefly silent. “I’ve traveled through many worlds and seen the withered wood in all of them. It destroyed a large number of those worlds.”
“So you wanted to do a good deed and destroy the source of the wood? And you attacked the original Hongmeng for it?” Lu Yun raised an eyebrow.
“Do I look like I have that much spare time on my hands? But I did provoke a few worlds into attacking the original Hongmeng with me. That was just a diversion, since my goal has always been curse dao!” The Curse King’s cheek spasmed. “Since the withered wood comes from the original Hongmeng, I thought there was terrifying curse dao in the original Hongmeng. But it turns out…”
It wasn’t until the original Hongmeng perished that he realized the nature of the wood’s existence, but it’d been too late. Of course, it hadn’t meant much to him since it wasn’t his home that’d fallen.
“So… in other words, you did create this withered wood.” Lu Yun looked at him superciliously.
The Curse King was at a sudden loss for words.
etvolare’s Thoughts
…the wood is the Great Filter, isn’t it?
