While Jiang Kui’s head had been sent flying, his body remained on the spot, frozen in shock. He’d never fathomed that a sixth person could be hidden in the shadows!
“Who goes there?!” His head didn’t react until it’d flown far away. Even as he roared with anger, his body crumbled into dust. However, blood vessels grew out from the stump of his neck beneath his head and gradually traced out a complete body. Before it could fully form, the newcomer punched Jiang Kui again, this time smashing his head to pieces as well.
Incandescent rage lingered in the air long after the last vestiges of Jiang Kui drifted away. It wasn’t his primary body in the tomb, but a replica made out of a zombie king.
Princess Mu had fled the scene long ago, leaving the three staring at each other.
“Um, um, um, hello handsome!” The Demonic Vine bashfully sidled up to the man and looked at him with a flushed face. “Who might you be, where are you from, and are you married?”
The newcomer froze when he saw the blushing beauty.
“Demonic Vine!” Jian Bu’er roared. “You’re the future lady of the sword master!”
“Um, oh, um, I guess.” The vine blinked and came back to her senses. “Hey handsome, do you want to be the sword master?”
Lu Yun: ……
Jian Bu’er nearly spat blood.
“Oh? Are you sure?” The newcomer chuckled mysteriously as black smoke wafted from his body, turning him into a suspiciously familiar figure.
“AHHHHH!!” shrieked the vine and her diminutive being vanished. She clung to Jian Bu’er’s neck when she next appeared. “The Curse King!” she sobbed out.
The Curse King had once hunted her throughout Myriadsea World. Though Jian Bu’er had saved her, she was traumatized after the experience. Who would’ve thought that the handsome fellow to save them today would be the Curse King!
Jian Bu’er’s expression also darkened. He suddenly understood why the newcomer had spat at him first. The Curse King’s replica had eaten a mouthful of his spit in Myriadsea World!
“Heh heh heh, aren’t I lucky to find something by chance after traveling far and wide in search of it!” the Curse King cackled with glee and filled their surroundings with haze. Jian Bu’er and the Demonic Vine shuddered in unison and the vine buried herself in Jian Bu’er’s chest, not daring to look around.
“Alright, enough of that.” Lu Yun waved a hand. “What are you doing back here?”
It wasn’t the Curse King in front of them. If his guess was right, this was the Poison King—one of Chu Xingran’s replicas.
“Boring,” huffed Chu Xingran. “I thought you’d come here, so I waited for you.”
“You killed Xie Tianxun?” Lu Yun asked.
“Xie Tianxun? You’ve seen him? He’s not dead?” Chu Xingran’s eyes went wide. “He’s alive after being hit with one of my poison curses?”
“I don’t know, he’s hiding with me now and doesn’t dare come out.” Lu Yun spread his hands in bafflement.
“Well, that makes sense. Qing Buyi killed the Esteemed Nebula, so Xie Tianxun has to stick with you if he doesn’t want to die too. Eh? Does this mean you’ve obtained his cultivation methods since you’re willing to take him in?” With Chu Xingran’s sharp wits, he quickly seized upon the crux of the matter.
Lu Yun nodded.
Chu Xingran then told him everything that’d happened in the outside realm, including how Qing Buyi had trespassed on Moran territory, killed Esteemed Nebula in full public view, and threatened all of the powerhouses in the realm.
Lu Yun’s jaw dropped the more he heard. He had no idea Qing Buyi was so ferocious!
Jian Bu’er and the Demonic Vine didn’t know what to make of their conversation. The Curse King was plainly an enemy and had almost killed Lu Yun in Myriadsea World, so why were the two acting like old friends now?
Additionally, the Curse King’s strength was indiscernible. Though Jiang Kui had been in a zombie king’s body, he’d died to two simple punches!
“Let’s go, this is no place for conversing. I’ve moved the tomb owner’s coffin.” Chu Xingran beckoned to Lu Yun and vanished on the spot. The young man followed him without hesitation.
……
They stood in front of a moderately sized pile of dirt. While it looked like a burial mound, it was truly just a pile of dirt. Chu Xingran had shoved the tomb owner’s coffin inside it.
Lu Yun rubbed his forehead and found himself pitying the tomb owner. Here was a heaven-defying personage who’d volunteered to be buried in this locale so he could trigger the layouts to nurture a world of sequence. The Corpse Refiners had relocated him into a tomb for the living, Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi had dug him up to dump him under a burial mound, then the Corpse Refiners placed him in a tomb for the living again, and now Chu Xingran dug him up, again.
What was most surprising of all was that there was no hint of resentment from the tomb owner after all of that. There was no anger at all. If it’d been anyone else, bitterness would’ve brewed long ago and turned the layout of the great tomb into a den of ghosts.
“Don’t bury him in a tomb, if you do that, the Corpse Refiners will find him no matter what you do. Just bury him anywhere or in a burial mound,” Chu Xingran looked at Lu Yun.
“Did Qing Buyi tell you that?” Lu Yun blinked, finally understanding where his flaw in thinking was. If even he could pinpoint direction and determine location within the tomb, so could the Corpse Refiners.
They worked primarily with corpses; apart from refining the living into battle zombies, the most direct source of bodies was to excavate bodies of ancient heavyweights from their tombs. A simple burial would never fool them.
While his knowledge of feng shui and the way of burial was the greatest in the Land of Reincarnation, it didn’t amount to much in the outside realm.
“I see now, but the senior has no reason to stay here and suffer after the world of sequence has matured. Hmm, I’ll take him with me.” Lu Yun waved his hand before Chu Xingran could respond and opened the world inside the Tome of Life and Death, retrieving the coffin beneath the dirt.
Other worlds in other treasures might not manage the act, but the world inside the book could do so very easily. Neither was Lu Yun doing this purely out of altruistic motivation. If he could resurrect this heavyweight, it would be an immense boon to the land. Plus, the senior had gifted him a great opportunity before.
“You… are utterly reckless!” Chu Xingran chuckled.
Having caught up to them, Jian Bu’er and the Demonic Vine looked at each other, not understanding what was going on.
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