“See, I was right, there are many flaws and holes in formula dao. It’s not a perfect great dao.” The Sea Lord tilted his head up to Lu Yun and smiled. “At the very least, you failed to derive that I am the master of the altar.”
Lu Yun silently looked down at the Sea Lord beneath him.
“You announced your findings and speculations in a loud manner to draw me out, didn’t you?” the Sea Lord continued. “So here I am, right in front of you. Satisfied?”
“Still trying to throw me off balance even now?” Lu Yun slowly breathed out and smiled in return. “It’s true, I didn’t calculate that you’re the master of the altar and the terrifying existence lurking in Ruina.
“But does it really matter to me whether or not I figure it out? Is it important to formula dao? If formula dao really can take every conceivable possibility into account, what would that mean to living beings?”
The Sea Lord’s expression shifted as he listened to Lu Yun.
“Everything that exists is unpredictable, constantly changing, unfathomable, and unpredictable. Even I can’t possibly know everything that is to happen in the future and took place in the past. Though the cycle of reincarnation has repeated infinite times, many changes have still cropped up. It’s not always one hundred percent the same—I am an anomaly in this iteration, and perhaps other unexpected developments also appeared in others.”
“I see, so you knew about that long ago.” The Sea Lord’s mood changed slightly. “That Curse King told you about it, didn’t he? He came here because of me, to eliminate the aberration that is me. Refining a world of curse dao sequence is just a ruse, but to think you are an anomaly as well!
“How about the two of us ally together to break free of this misbegotten place?” The Sea Lord looked seriously at Lu Yun. “This forsaken place is a massive prison, an enormous tomb. Everything drifts sluggishly along the never-ending cycles of reincarnation, repeating the same things again and again. True freedom is forever out of reach and we are never able to shake off destiny.”
“Ally with you?” Lu Yun raised an eyebrow. “How?”
“Give me immortal dao, give me formula dao, and give me hell dao. Also, give me that treasure that’s enabled you to break free of these endless cycles. Help me return to my full strength so I can blast apart the destiny here.” The Sea Lord stared intently into Lu Yun’s eyes and carefully enunciated each word.
Lu Yun: ……
“How about it? I will reward you handsomely if I escape and bring you out with me. What do you think?” The Sea Lord rose into the air to draw level with Lu Yun.
“Look into my eyes.” Lu Yun was uncommonly grave at this moment as well.
“Mmhmm, I am.” Success was within reach! The Sea Lord stared sincerely into Lu Yun’s eyes.
“Do. you think. I look like a fucking idiot?” Lu Yun articulated gingerly with the same grave expression.
The Sea Lord blinked.
“Or do you think I’m a fucking idiot??”
Whoosh!
Black flame ignited around Lu Yun and he slammed his fist into the Sea Lord’s face. Crying out with anguish, the Sea Lord lost his mermaid body from that single punch.
“I wouldn’t dare come if you were alive, but you’re just a dead thing! You know that this young master practices hell dao and can restrain all ghostly and dead entities, but you still dare scheme against me?” Lu Yun sneered. “There’s holes in my formula dao? I didn’t calculate your existence?? Fuck you motherfucking piece of shit! Do you think that little of me?! Would I have come to my death if I hadn’t already derived what you were??”
The dead entity once more coalesced a mermaid body, but Lu Yun punched it to pieces before it was complete. A pained wail echoed around the vortex.
Lu Yun’s hell dao had truly taken form and could restrain all ghosts within creation. He no longer feared even the ghost race or yin spirits of the world of immortals. Though he couldn’t command their lives as of yet, he could trounce any ghost in single combat, including the one in front of him.
He hadn’t believed anything that the bastard had said. Lu Yun had come with only one goal in mind—beat the living daylights out of him!
His analysis had been correct, with one modification—the ghost had absorbed part of the Sea Lord’s power to transform into his image. The ghost wasn’t strong. If he was, he wouldn’t have set a fake Sea Lord as bait. It would’ve been the ghost himself.
That Lu Yun had dared come meant that he was in full control and assured of kicking the other’s face in. In fact, the ghost turning into the Sea Lord to deceive him meant that the ghost was afraid.
Sadly for him, Lu Yun wasn’t.
Punch after punch. Power from the Hadal, Nether, Sanguine, Nihil, Abyssal, and Disordered Hells transformed into six basic combat arts of hell dao. Their combination gave rise to even more sophisticated combat arts, similar to the calculation methods and formulas of formula dao. From elementary came advanced, from ethos to burgeon to creation…
The unknown ghost gave up the form of a shark spirit and took his own—half of a face.
It wasn’t a human face, but that of an unknown species. Lu Yun couldn’t determine what it was either. It was dark blue and covered with tiny scales, looking rather like a reptile. It had no mouth or nose, just a broken eye.
Lu Yun smashed punch after punch into it, dimming the face with each blow.
“ROAR!!” The face suddenly formed a mouth and snarled with fury. The enormous vortex beneath it erupted and an ice-blue hand reached out, grabbing for Lu Yun.
“Finally!” Lu Yun brightened. The sudden hand was no ghostly force, but pure strength from sea dao. When the terrible strength closed around Lu Yun, it crushed him out of existence and reduced him to a shriveled soybean.
Endless sea waters gathered together into a transparent body and wrapped around the face. They reformed into the body of the Sea Lord—a shark spirit.
Extreme fury was visible on the ghost’s face. He’d guessed that Lu Yun wasn’t here in the flesh, that the young man was just a replica. That was why the ghost hadn’t called upon his own strength—he was preoccupied with all of the dao beholders in Ruina.
However, he hadn’t imagined that just a soybean replica would nearly devour him! In the meantime, the dao beholders that he’d lured in struggled free from their confinement due to his distraction.
