“I’m a little bit of one, yes.” Meng Wang nodded without a flicker of change in his expression.
Lu Yun: ……
“While you may be a coward, I’m not,” he harrumphed. “Did you bring me here just to resurrect you? And where are we?”
He stood up for a look around the premises. It was the same as any place in the yang tomb, but Lu Yun could no longer see the layout of burial in his surroundings. They shouldn’t be in a tomb anymore.
“We are inside the world of sequence,” Meng Wang responded.
“Huh?? Inside the world of sequence? But the world barrier is still there, so how did you get inside?!” Lu Yun’s eyebrows shot into his hairline.
“The living can’t enter, but the dead can,” Meng Wang responded nonchalantly. “I turned myself into a ghost with complete peace of mind when I discovered that you were in the Abyssal Tomb too.”
He wouldn’t have dared die if Lu Yun wasn’t present, and turning into a ghost would’ve been even less likely. The only possible outcome for him then would be assimilation by the Abyssal Tomb and becoming one of its residence ghosts.
The yang tomb didn’t look like an ordinary tomb and neither did Lu Yun discover anything out of the ordinary about it, apart from the dead sea when they first arrived. This was due to the world of sequence.
The world matured after the joint events of the group meeting Ao Qin and powerhouses from all sides engaging in earth-shattering battles. What ghostly creatures or uncanny entities in the yang tomb didn’t dare show themselves then.
Meng Wang had once been the luopan’s treasure spirit and resurrected in the sea of Hell Flowers when the treasure was no more. Upon seeing the six paths of Lu Yun’s nascent spirit, he had a full understanding of the young man’s capabilities and thus was comfortable with dying and transforming into a ghost.
“So you just upped and died and left your descendants behind?” Lu Yun frowned faintly. Meng Wang had brought Di Yin and his lovingly-guarded family to the tomb. Apart from Di Yin, they were all dead after the emperor’s demise. Lu Yun could still remember the latter’s forlorn back when he set foot onto the Bridge of Forgetfulness.
“I saved their life brands in the kingdom of hell, so they’ll be reborn in Hell Flowers if they die,” Meng Wang paused. “You bestowed upon me the authority to do so.”
Lu Yun had once brought back countless life brands from the great wilderness—those beings had all been reborn under Meng Wang’s guidance. Jurisdiction over the sea of Hell Flowers had also gone to Meng Wang.
Nonetheless, the young man blinked at the response.
“During the era of the original Hongmeng, I derived a flower of six colors that could contain life. Some of my subjects instilled the flowers with their life brands, but that flower proved to be inferior to the Hell Flower. It retained only my subjects’ great dao, but not their lives,” Meng Wang explained sadly.
Lu Yun thought of the flower of six colors carpeting the mausoleum in the sky. Hong had once gifted him a specimen to raise his cultivation with, but it would seem that it hadn’t been the flower that strengthened Lu Yun—it was the great dao stored within it. However, the great daos inside the flowers were slowly fading away after all this time.
“Will Di Yin end up in the kingdom of hell after his death too?” Lu Yun blinked.
“No,” Meng Wang shook his head. “He carries too many unnecessary burdens on his shoulders, so he needs a metamorphosis of the mind. He will be incomparably strong once he fully releases himself and exceed me!” He was highly confident in this descendant.
“Alright, we’ve gone on many tangents, but you brought me here to claim the world of sequence, didn’t you?” Lu Yun lifted his head to assess the world. It looked the same as the outside world and he couldn’t glimpse any special sequences. Or anything special, at all. It looked like a very ordinary world.
“Sequence is nurtured at the heart of this world and will be set free after the world barrier is shattered. But you have Dao Flowers, so you can influence the sequence before it’s released and refine it!” Meng Wang explained gravely. “But there’s one thing you need to keep in mind—you have two Dao Flowers. One of the sea, and one of darkness. Whichever one you choose to influence sequence with will ultimately change this world into a world of sequence for that great dao!”
“The dao of the sea… and of darkness?” Lu Yun looked lost. Two Dao Flowers appeared in his hand—one from Mo Yi and another looted from Ao Qin.
“No wonder the dragons and Morans brought their Dao Flowers here. Even if it’s taken by another, it’s very possible that it influences the world of sequence. Though the world may not be theirs, they can become allies with whoever claims it.” Lu Yun immediately saw the sequence of the world when the two flowers appeared and how it eagerly reached out to him.
“I recommend that you choose… the dao of darkness,” Meng Wang said. “The fourth realm is under attack by the land of darkness. If a world of dark dao sequence appears, it can potentially swallow the land!”
The land of darkness was part of order—the order of opposition. The true nature of the land was dark dao and dark sequence.
Mo Yi had had the same thought when she delivered the Dark Dao Flower to Lu Yun, but she didn’t impart anything to the young man. She was merely giving him an option, the final decision was up to him.
“Don’t think of using the Immortal Dao Flower in Mount Xuanhuang to influence the sequence here!” Meng Wang suddenly thought of something. “The outside world will detect when the world of sequence is refined and they might attack the world out of anger. Qing Yu is too weak. Anything that happens to this world can crush her to pieces!”
The Immortal Dao Flower was Qing Yu’s nascent spirit. If Lu Yun wanted to dye this world with immortal dao sequence, its Dao Flower would have to be present. Once the world was attacked, the flower would be exposed to the brunt of the offensives.
A Dao Flower could not be destroyed, but Qing Yu could be shattered in body and spirit, leaving behind the empty shell of a nascent spirit.
“Darkness or sea.” Meng Wang stared intently at the young man.
Rumble—
A massive explosion sounded between heaven and earth as the world trembled slightly.
“The twentieth level sequence zombie is attacking the world barrier.” Meng Wang tilted his head back to assess the horizon.
Three years of brutal conflict had weakened the world barrier, and a twentieth level sequence expert might succeed where eighteenth levels had failed.
“It’s up to you how you want to choose. I’m going to hold off the zombie.” Meng Wang waved the donkey hoof and vanished with a leap up.
Lu Yun looked to the center of the world. Its sequence was slowly being drawn out due to the presence of two Dao Flowers. Translucent chains dragging a tremendous ball of light approached the top of Lu Yun’s head.
……
“Fucking hell!” was Ao Qin’s first reaction at seeing Meng Wang.
“Isn’t this a wonderful surpriiiiiise~” Meng Wang merrily greeted the dragon.
“No, not a wonderful surprise at all, it’s a jump scare! So you’re the emperor of the original Hongmeng?!” Ao Qin had once been the Azure Dragon King under the Immortal Emperor’s banner. He’d ruled over the azure dragons in the world of immortals. By that time, both of them had lost themselves and forgotten their true identities.
Now that they were free of the cycle of reincarnation and returned to their origins, it still boggled the mind that Ao Qin’s old liege lord was the mythical figure of the Land of Reincarnation—the emperor of the original Hongmeng.
“Let’s go, you still have a bit of energy left. Help me ward off the zombie,” Meng Wang sighed gently as he looked at the dragon and gave him the donkey’s hoof.
“Alright.” Ao Qin also understood why his old lord had appeared. The dragon had seen through to the heart of this world the moment he arrived. As the greatest genius of his race, he’d entered their world of sea dao sequence numerous times. Ao Qin was very familiar with the aura of a world of sequence.
Lu Yun wouldn’t stand a chance if the zombie smashed through the world barrier. The two Dao Flowers would immediately become a death sentence and he’d be executed the next second.
“Count me in,” the silence Chu Xingran said. “Although it was against my will, I still owe too many karmic debts to this land. It’s time to settle them, once and for all.”
“Mm,” Meng Wang nodded. The three of them flew into the firmament and headed for where the zombie was attacking.
Golden radiance erupted when Ao Qin tossed out the jumbo-sized donkey’s hoof. It pierced through the world barrier and blasted the zombie in the chest.
The zombie wasn’t here to kill and conquer; its only task was to break the world barrier in front of everyone. Only then would morale be so affected that the crowds wouldn’t dare fight the Corpse Refiners for the world of sequence.
