The matter had become a knot in Lu Yun’s heart and he wouldn’t be able to cultivate with peace of mind if he didn’t eradicate the latent threat. He had to ensure that no one would disturb him in his training.
“Your master!” Moran Dongning turned grave. “The one on Earth, the one who raised you and helped you become the strongest mortal commandant of the tomb raiders!
“His resentment brews—you have the ability to resurrect him, but you don’t. Therefore, he’s turned into a demon that will haunt you for the rest of your life! He won’t appear when you are on your guard. Only when you’re at ease and completely relaxed will he show himself. His appearance will mark your doom!”
She took a deep breath. “Don’t underestimate resentment from mortals. No matter what kind of powerhouse you are, mortals are the bedrock of the realm. The great dao is not born from cultivators, but from the will and thoughts of countless mortals. What I told you last time has caused you to be alert at all times, so your master will not reveal himself under those circumstances.”
“My master…” Shell shocked, Lu Yun mumbled to himself, “How is this possible? I thought he was resting at peace and that his greatest wish was to have nothing to do with the affairs and grudges of the mortal world. So why…”
“The living are different from the dead. When the living fulfill their wishes, they can be at peace. But when one dies and leaves behind even a hint of having once been alive, the desire to live flares anew in their heart.
“You were tainted by your master’s resentment the last time you returned to Earth. It’s a resentment that you can’t expunge by yourself.” Moran Dongning looked into Lu Yun’s eyes. “It’s also too late and won’t change a thing if you resurrect him now.”
“Is there no way to resolve this?” Lu Yun frowned ferociously. Malice formed by a hint of resentment that ultimately turned into a demon wasn’t a ghostly entity. It couldn’t be exorcised.
“There’s a way!” Xie Tianxun spoke up before the girl had a chance to answer. “I’ll tell you if you let me go!”
“Piss off,” Lu Yun glared at him.
Lu Yun was an orphan. His master had raised him and taught him the tricks of the trade and what kind of person he should be. There would be no Lu Yun without his master. He’d once thought of using the Tome of Life and Death to forcefully revive his master, but when he thought of how serene his master had looked in his final rest, Lu Yun gave up the thought.
His shared destiny with his master had come to an end and his master had died a natural death, unlike Fuxi who’d died a contrived death before his time. Resurrecting his master would result in undesirable karmic consequences and invite greater disaster to befall his master because of it.
Lu Yun had no idea how he might handle the matter. Even if he returned his master to life now, the demon of malice would still exist. It wouldn’t dissipate just because the dead had come back to life.
“I really do know!” Xie Tianxun rolled his eyes. “How about this, I’ll tell you how to resolve it first. You can let me go after!”
“What, I’ll let you go find the Esteemed Nebula?” Lu Yun snorted. “He’s probably dead already.”
Xie Tianxun halted in his tracks, staring at Lu Yun with complete stupefaction.
Though Lu Yun didn’t know what’d happened in the outside realm, he’d seen the satisfaction on Qing Buyi’s face when that matter came to an end. Knowing the man’s personality… the Esteemed Nebula was probably scattered around in unrecoverable pieces. Would those of the outside realm respect his demand of an additional three hundred years if he didn’t make an example out of someone?
“You’ll probably die to Chu Xingran if you leave now, or there’s a small possibility that Qing Buyi will end you.” Lu Yun waved open the doors of the Disordered Hell. “Be my guest.”
He’d kept Xie Tianxun here for his cultivation methods. Now that Lu Yun had them in hand, it didn’t matter if Xie Tianxun stayed or left.
Xie Tianxun summoned a golden pearl with a flip of his hand. It was cracked and empty—something should’ve been inside.
“He really is dead…” he sighed woefully and sat down without another word. The Esteemed Nebula had been his only backer in the realm and the pearl was a soul pearl that connected to the esteemed personage. There was a wisp of the Esteemed Nebula’s will inside.
Xie Tianxun’s original plan had been to assume an identity, settle down, and contact his backer through the soul pearl so the Esteemed Nebula could descend upon the land again. But in the Disordered Hell and suppressed by the Tome of Life and Death, the soul pearl hadn’t been able to establish a connection.
It successfully initiated a message to the outside world when the doors to hell opened and received feedback of the esteemed personage’s death. The hint of will inside the pearl crumbled away.
“You can etch a Netherdark Talisman and stick it to a doll made from Soul Extendere Wood. If you bury the doll, you’ll be able to lure the demon of malice into the tomb,” Xie Tianxun said quietly after a long moment. The doors of hell remained open, but he showed no signs of leaving.
“I know what Soul Extendere Wood is, but what’s a Netherdark Talisman?” Lu Yun blinked.
The wood was an ultimate treasure that sometimes grew in tombs or ancient battlefields. There’d been a small forest of it in the remains of the Hadal Hell. But he’d never heard of the talisman before and formula dao wasn’t forthcoming with any answers.
“Is it something from the outside realm?” Lu Yun quickly asked with dawning realization.
“Yes,” Xie Tianxun nodded. He extended an index finger and drew a talisman in the air. Lu Yun brightened—this was a doorway to the talisman dao of the outside world!
“Xie Tianxun’s definitely got some tricks up his sleeve,” Moran Dongning mumbled. “The one who invented The Kinship of Heaven and Earth rests in an uncommonly dangerous tomb. Many supremes lost their lives after venturing in…”
Lu Yun nodded, but his eyes were fixed on the Netherdark Talisman. This was a talisman completely different from the ones in the Land of Reincarnation. Not only was it a talisman, but there was another inexplicable power inside it.
“Do you understand it? Need me to teach you step by step?” Xie Tianxun regained a bit of confidence with the talisman and raised his head with a half smile.
His eyes bulged out the next second.
Lu Yun drew a Netherdark Talisman in the air based on the one in Xie Tianxun’s hand. Though it wasn’t the same, it was very close. He drew another, one that was virtually identical to the one held by the other.
“How is this possible?!” Xie Tianxun shrieked with surprise. “The talisman needs the power of earth in order to be complete, but the worlds of this Land of Reincarnation are incomplete, so you can’t possibly create this!”
He’d dismissed the desire to leave after learning of Esteemed Nebula’s death. He would wait for everything to be concluded and leave with Moran Dongning. He had no feud with the Morans and the clan would surely extend him an olive branch after they received one of their own. He was a genius, after all.
The Netherdark Talisman was a show of courtesy to Lu Yun and his guarantee for making it out alive, but the native had replicated it with just a few glances!
“The worlds in this land are indeed flawed, but I have a world that is whole and intact,” Lu Yun murmured. The Tome of Life and Death emanated pure force the moment the talisman was complete to help it fully form. It’d projected the power of earth from a world.
The power of the worlds came from heaven and earth within the Central Hongmeng, but they were incomplete. Lu Yun had never imagined that the world inside the Tome of Life and Death would be a complete one!
As the Tome of Life and Death was now his nascent spirit, that meant Lu Yun’s path of cultivation would be the same as the one in the outside realm—sound and flawless.
He wasn’t able to release the world in his nascent spirit to make the ones in this land whole, because the former was similar to the inner world that cultivators crafted in the void realm. It was applicable only to the cultivator, even if one from the Tome of Life and Death was infinite times stronger than its brethren.
……
“Although the Netherdark Talisman doesn’t have much offensive power, it can dispel the resentment of the dead…” Formula dao imparted the uses of the talisman to Lu Yun. If he brought it on his tomb raiding journeys, no ghostly entity bearing any resentment would dare approach him. Their lingering hatred would be dispelled as soon as they did so.
He’d never thought that such wondrous talismans would exist in the outside realm! For the first time, a spark of interest flared to life in his heart.
