A dull thud echoed—something seemed to have been sealed off. Lu Yun and Chu Xingran’s expressions instantly turned ugly. The gates to the Corpse World had just closed. Even Lu Yun would now have to dedicate certain time and effort to leaving if he wished to depart from the world. However, the dense masses of corpse qi zombies beneath them would never give him the chance to reopen the doors.
A world was a layout formed from order. When the World Gates were open, the world was in an open state. Anyone could freely enter and leave. But once the gates were closed, a thick world barrier descended, much like the one once around the world of sequence.
In the same vein, Lu Yun’s hell, kingdom of hell, and Qing Yu’s heavenly palace were all sealed off worlds. No one could enter or leave without their permission. And now, the Corpse World was also a sealed off world.
A dense world barrier wrapped around the world. The horrific zombie farms, Great Formations of Corpse Refinement, and eerie corpse qi zombies pooled their strength to furiously pummel the hell battleship. As sturdy as the vessel was, it creaked and groaned from the impacts. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun integrating the Abyssal Hell into the ship before this trip, it would likely already lay in pieces.
“The Corpse Refiners probably never thought I’d walk around with the Abyssal Hell,” Lu Yun murmured.
“I know,” Chu Xingran suddenly said. “It wasn’t that the Corpse Refiners didn’t want to take the corpse qi zombies with them or that they wanted to use them against you, but that they couldn’t take the zombies with them.”
He raised his head to assess the world’s sky and compared it to a thick book in his hand. “The zombies are born from the layouts in this world and will dissipate if they leave.”
Lu Yun grinned involuntarily when he saw the book in Chu Xingran’s hand. It was the Fundamentals of Feng Shui that he’d put together. Feng shui and formations were two sides of the same coin and both fell under formation dao. Formation dao had long since assimilated into formula dao, which was part of immortal dao. Hence, formation dao was also strengthened when immortal dao improved.
Although Chu Xingran was accompanying Lu Yun due to Qing Buyi’s request, he also wouldn’t bypass any opportunity to enhance his skills.
“You’re right, it’s not that the Corpse Refiners didn’t want to, but that they couldn’t. These infinite corpse qi zombies are a result of the layouts here. They can protect the world, but they can’t leave it. They fade away if they do,” Lu Yun nodded. “Though the sect is no longer here, they must’ve guessed that I would come with you. Thus, they set up a tight encirclement and waited for us to set foot into the trap.”
“But it’s empty here—how could they be so sure that we would come?” Chu Xingran blinked.
“Because it’s me and you, so they knew we’d come,” Lu Yun responded definitively. “My formula dao working in conjunction with your feng shui can destroy the Corpse Refiners on this world and even uproot the corpse dao in the fourth realm!
“And to lure us here, they left the local foundations of corpse dao intact.”
Lu Yun had wanted to use the dao himself and conquer it for the immortal dao. A dao of corpse refinement was a perfect supplement to tomb raiding. But with the ancestor of the dao—Jiang Chen—alive, immortal dao would never subdue this great dao. It might even be upstaged by corpse qi and swallowed in turn!
As Jiang Chen was the one who’d brought corpse dao into the Land of Reincarnation, he could manipulate it even when he was no longer present in the land. It was with his permission that the dao had been tamed and integrated into the immortal dao, thus laying the groundwork for it to strike from within after six hundred years. Thankfully, Lu Yun had caught a whiff of this ahead of time and was already uprooting it within the world of immortals.
The root of corpse dao in the Land of Reincarnation lay in this Corpse World—Lu Yun could calculate that given his mastery of formula dao. If the sect had moved it, he and Chu Xingran wouldn’t have visited this world.
They were both thorns in the side of the Corpse Refiners, so the sect went to the lengths using their dao foundations as bait to lure the two in.
It was all a trap.
“You’re right, Lu Yun.” The corpse qi in the air assembled into the shape of a face. Jiang Kui’s face. “We lured you here with the foundations of our dao—not to kill you. Your ship is too odd and it’s like you’ve gone to another world when you’re aboard, even though you’re right here. All we need to do is keep you here.”
He looked at Lu Yun with a very solemn expression. “One thousand years. The World Gates will open after one thousand years and let you out. You can enjoy your stay here until then.”
“Do you think a mere Corpse World is enough to confine me?” Lu Yun shook his head.
“Of course not, but it’ll explode if you and Chu Xingran leave. The secondary worlds will also be blown up and turn into zombie farms. All of their denizens will become our battle zombies,” Jiang Kui chuckled. “The layouts here will spread throughout the void and facilitate the travel of corpse qi. It’ll extend to even the lands of darkness.”
He vanished into thin air. Jiang Kui was deeply afraid that Chu Xingran would suddenly strike him with a curse; he’d only possessed two Lifeline Talismans. Being struck with the curse again would spell his doom.
Confining Lu Yun for a thousand years while Qing Buyi would leave after six hundred… That gave the outsiders enough time to invade the primary worlds. The Corpse Refiners were confident that they’d achieve what they wanted in four hundred years.
“What do we do?” Chu Xingran looked at Lu Yun and saw that the young man was coolly composed, completely unaffected by Jiang Kui’s words.
“The Corpse Refiners have no idea that there’s several thousand of their disciples in my ship.” Lu Yun shook his head and waved his hand. “Minions, you’re up!”
“Understood!” Lu Yun’s Hell Legion—five thousand Corpse Refiner disciples—appeared out of nowhere. Uniformly wearing black battle armor, they assembled into a battle formation and marched into the Corpse World.
As strong as the corpse qi zombies were, they were zombies in essence. Corpse Refiners could subdue any zombie!
Not even Jiang Kui could’ve imagined that the dead disciples would become Lu Yun’s subordinates and help him resolve everything here!
etvolare’s Thoughts
Well, that was easy.
