Seemingly satiated, the flock of black birds moved into the distance and faded away.
“The corpsefish was just food?” Chu Xingran stared incredulously.
“No wonder it didn’t dare stray too far from the water. Its tentacles can reach more than one hundred and fifty million kilometers above the surface, but it was afraid of the flock of birds.” Lu Yun looked down at the sea—numerous corpsefish peered back from beneath the surface. Their human faces bore a trace of greed and plenty of fear.
There was more than one corpsefish in the enormous dead sea. There were thousands and tens of thousands, perhaps even a limitless number of them.
“Is that a corpse up ahead too?” Chu Xingran pointed at a dot exceedingly far away. There was a tiny black smear there, like an island floating over the sea. It looked to be possibly the end of the dead sea—land.
It was so far away that even Chu Xingran’s vision could see only the faintest trace. Lu Yun started and opened the Spectral Eyes, reading no signs of a corpse up ahead.
“I don’t see a corpse. According to my calculations, that direction does mean safety.” He carefully etched two talismans in the air and passed them onto Chu Xingran and Haidong Lin, concealing their auras of the living.
“Who did that earlier corpse belong to?” Haidong Lin suddenly asked.
“I don’t know,” Lu Yun shook his head. He could glean the owner’s name from the corpse and even tell that that part of the sea had become a dead sea because of the body. The closer they drew to it, the more dangerous the situation would become.
“You don’t think it’s the Sea Emperor’s, do you?” he chuckled when the thought struck him. “I can tell you clearly that it’s not.”
“The previous emperor set foot into seventeen levels of sequence and entered the abyss after the current Sea Emperor took his throne.” Haidong Lin continued looking in the corpse’s direction.
“The previous emperor?” Lu Yun blinked. “What was his name?”
He could only pick out the body’s name from the death information and nothing else about its experiences or identity. The corpse was too big for him.
“Emperor Unmeant,” Haidong Lin responded.
Lu Yun trembled, then shook his head. “It’s not him.”
“How do you know?” Haidong Lin looked at him.
“My combat art can tell me what the person’s name in life was. It was Ao Qin, a powerhouse of the dragon race.”
“Ao Qin?!” Chu Xingran’s eyes widened. “Ao Qin’s dead? He… died here?!”
“You know him?” Lu Yun turned to him.
“I know him, but he doesn’t know me,” Chu Xingran chuckled ruefully. “He is the greatest genius of the younger generation. Compared to him, Jiang Kui is dirt beneath one’s shoe.
“The dragon race is one of the predominant factions in the outside world. A faction earns the predominant prefix if they possess their own world of sequence! The Morans and dragon race are such examples! Ao Qin is part of their royal clan and accessed seventeen levels of sequence. He was rarely matched among his peers, but he died here!”
The Moran Clan specialized in the great dao of darkness.
“Seventeen levels of sequence makes him part of the younger generation?” Lu Yun blinked rapidly. “Then what does that make me? I’ve yet to access sequence.”
“An ordinary person, I guess.” Chu Xingran assessed Lu Yun. “The cultivation system of the outside world is very similar to the Land of Reincarnation. Multiple paths vie for glory and there is no dao that rules over all. Everyone walks the path of cultivation and accesses sequence. Someone who’s yet to set foot into sequence like you counts as a mundane person at best.
“In the outside world, only through accessing sequence does one count as having truly set foot onto the path of cultivation.”
“Okay,” Lu Yun nodded.
“What about you?” Haidong Lin couldn’t help but ask. “How do you compare to Ao Qin?”
“He is not my match in terms of looks.” Chu Xingran stroked his face with great satisfaction.
“You know, I liked the old Curse King. Even though he was devious, sinister, and entirely deceitful, he wasn’t so in love with himself.”
“I want to go back!” Chu Xingran set his jaw. “Ao Qin is the pride of the dragon race and he must carry many dragon treasures on him. If I can claim them…”
“Aren’t you afraid of vengeance from the dragon race after you leave?” Lu Yun raised his eyebrows at him. Dragons everywhere shared common traits—miserly and completely biased toward their own.
He was certain that if Chu Xingran left with dragon loot, the race would come for him and retake their treasures. They would clap great crimes on his head in the process.
“You have dragon subordinates, don’t you? One of those delicately pretty beauties.” Chu Xingran thought for a moment. “Although I won’t go back to the Land of Reincarnation and won’t revert to the Curse King, I know that our matter is not yet over, not with your personality. You wouldn’t let me follow you around otherwise.”
As he looked at Lu Yun, the young man suddenly felt that his thoughts were laid bare to the other.
Lu Yun did indeed want to raise his hand against Chu Xingran. After all, the latter had set up curses in the world of immortals and controlled the Immortal Region in the Hongmeng. His hands dripped with blood. To sever all those karmic relationships just because he was no longer the Curse King? That was letting him off way too easily.
Thus, Lu Yun had been searching for opportunities all along, whether it was with the corpsefish or flock of black birds. He’d wanted to make a move numerous times, but Chu Xingran was also on his guard.
There seemed to be peace between them, but plots and counterplots abounded. Chu Xingran revealed this much of the outside world to Lu Yun because he wanted to demonstrate his value and continue living. He wouldn’t be afraid of the young man if they were in the outside world, but in a yang tomb that was rife with danger, there was nothing he could do. He had to rely on Lu Yun if he wanted to live and also constantly be on high alert.
“If I can obtain the ultimate treasures of the dragon race for you, will that cancel out our grudges?” Chu Xingran asked carefully as he looked at Lu Yun. “Ao Qin’s treasures might have something to do with his race’s world of sequence…”
Lu Yun looked steadily at him and nodded. “That could be done, as long as the treasures are valuable enough.”
He was a pragmatic sort. While killing Chu Xingran would give him momentary joy, it wouldn’t be as useful as obtaining tangible benefits from the man. Something having to do with the dragon race’s world of sequence was very tempting.
“Xingzi!” Lu Yun called out softly. A fifteen year old girl dressed in black appeared in front of him.
“Greetings, sir!” She swept a graceful curtsy.
etvolare’s Thoughts
Too bad we didn’t see any abortive attempts on Chu Xingran’s life, that would’ve been fun to see. I wonder if Aoxue and Ao Qin are related?
