The sudden development caught the yet half sleeping realm monster off guard and flabbergasted the frozen Qinglin.
This version of the Judgment of Life or Death employed a hellfire that was the combined product of the six hells. Thus, it was a hundred million times greater than when Lu Yun powered it with only Hadal hellfire. The frozen Myriadsea World spontaneously turned into a realm tossing and turning with flames.
Hellfire churned with not only heat from hell, but also the Judgment of Life or Death!
One judgment to determine life and death!
Retribution encircled the realm monster as it’d committed massive acts of atrocities and slaughter. When Qi Fengyun determined the future of boundless blood, violence, and death, he’d derived the existence of the realm monster.
The thought had occurred to Lu Yun then that whether it was Qinglin or the realm monster, both were his enemies. If he could capture them in one fell swoop, he wouldn’t need to take action again. Thus, he’d called out to the realm monster, attacking it when it was focused on Qinglin and still half asleep.
It was an inert world instead of a living being when it slumbered; Lu Yun’s death art had no effect on it. Only when it was awake and turned the world into a realm monster could the Judgment of Life or Death take effect.
Although the realm monster was beset with flames, the raging hellfire didn’t harm any other living being. The flames consumed only the realm monster. It wailed, shrieked, and howled. In its half awake state, it couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Though it could tell that Lu Yun was using a combat art against it, it was a mighty being! Even Qinglin, the previous mistress of Ruina, had to sever her soul, sacrifice her body, and destroy her foundations to barely manage to seal it away.
How could a somewhat decent young man, just starting to rise to the forefront of the Boundless Planes, hurt it?? And even possibly kill it?!
Immobilized in the ice, Qinglin’s jaw mentally dropped.
“Is this… a combat art of hell dao?” Her eyes widened and the scales on her body trembled. This kind of art exceeded the limits of her understanding.
She couldn’t grasp why a tiny Lu Yun, one that’d barely reached Void World King, could burst forth with such magnificent and terrifying strength. How could he burn the realm monster with hellfire and also refrain from harming anything else in the process?
Hellfire had developed to great perfection and would incinerate the heavens once it ignited. This was a flame that nothing could deny when it blazed with full fury.
“He’s not going to release all of the strength to be found within hellfire, not at his cultivation level. He wouldn’t be able to control it then. This can only mean that the fires blazing now are his combat art!”
Crack crack craaaack.
The ice around her fell away and vanished into the void. Qinglin was free again, but she’d lost the altar beneath her feet and the power of Ruina in this world. Her eyes bright, she stared unblinkingly at Lu Yun.
The demise of the realm monster’s seal meant that the horrific being was dead. Its true form had turned into a real world, one grasped in Lu Yun’s hands.
The realm monster had flung the altar at Lu Yun not because it wanted to gift the great dao of Ruina to the young man, but because it wanted to sacrifice the altar to claim his life. That would free it from the last vestiges of constraint—Lu Yun was just one of its pawns.
A barest hint of its thoughts had escaped being sealed away and traveled through the Boundless Planes, attaching itself to the overlord of Ice. It glimpsed a bit of threat from the overlord and thus sealed him away when the Luminaries came to warn him. The realm monster sought to both prevent the overlord from opening the door to sequence, and to preserve his body to be one of its replicas after it was freed.
The realm monster had also seen Lu Yun then, as well as the budding hell dao on the young man. Thus, the hint of its thoughts connected to its primary body and utilized Qinglin’s altar to bring Lu Yun to Myriadsea World. Once hell dao was complete, the realm monster would find a way to have Lu Yun awaken it.
Who would’ve thought that Lu Yun would do the deed without needing any prodding and then execute the realm monster with a single death art??
The strongest of powerhouses and most capable of experts didn’t dare let retribution stain themselves. Even a heavyweight that walked the path of slaughter would try to shunt their karmic repercussions elsewhere. To be soiled with retribution was to have a weakness.
Combat arts such as the Judgment of Life or Death weren’t rare in the world. However, there were none that could kill via simply igniting retribution.
With the realm monster’s death, the power of Ruina it’d delivered to Lu Yun before became the young man’s possession and he slowly refined it into himself. The strength of Ruina was the strength of the seas, their origin and ultimate destination. It nurtured the power of the Ruina Hell, which was what Lu Yun wanted.
When the strength of Ruina’s hell assimilated into his hell dao, the latter would be truly complete.
“I see merit on you, unfathomable merit.” Lu Yun suddenly looked at Qinglin. “Although there’s a bit of resentment mixed in with it, I know that you’re not my enemy.”
Qinglin stayed silent.
“Are you the mythical sea goddess… Mazu?” [1]
Tales of Mazu abounded in the great seas of all major worlds. She was the goddess of the sea and protector of all. Any living being born of the sea worshiped her.
Lu Yun had never imagined that this legendary goddess would control Ruina and perish together with a horrific realm monster. She’d lured all of the dao beholders to this fake world of sequence in order to fully suppress and kill her enemy.
Lu Yun didn’t know where the realm monster came from as his Spectral Eye couldn’t glimpse the start of the world yet, but he could identify the boundless merit on the goddess.
Qinglin remained quiet for a long time. “You are correct. I am Lin Mo.”
“May I have the kingdom of Ruina?” Lu Yun asked.
“You eliminated the realm monster and pacified potential disaster. Take Ruina if you want it.” Qinglin faded away as they spoke. “I have no further regrets now that the realm monster is dead. Ruina does indeed need a ruler.”
She vanished without a trace.
“She…” Dongfang Mo stood at Lu Yun’s side.
“She was already dead. She was able to turn into a ghost because her obsession refused to fade away since the realm monster was still alive. Now that it’s dead, what’s left of her can rest,” Lu Yun sighed. “She is the sea goddess who protects all beings. Her spirit will be reborn as long as everyone worships her.”
A tiny altar appeared in his hand with a flip of his hand—Qinglin’s altar.
“It can’t,” the Soldier King responded. “The realm monster was so strong that even Mazu couldn’t withstand it. Her death was a true one. Even if a second Mazu appears on the altar, it won’t be the one from before.”
Lu Yun remained silent.
1. Mazu is a Chinese sea goddess thought to roam the seas, protecting her believers through miraculous interventions. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Mazu is generally regarded by her believers as a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven. ☜
