The Sanguine Hell was a world the color of blood, but the Blood Sea in this one had long since dried up. Only a framework of hell was left behind and it’d been shaped into a Hell Tomb. It was similar to the other two hells that Lu Yun had just visited. Scarlet demonic shapes lurked in the shadows, formed by the blood of the living that the Sanguine Hell had absorbed.
But with Leize present, the demonic shapes again didn’t dare draw near.
Lu Yun shuddered involuntarily. If he’d come here alone or with Chu Xingran, Jian Bu’er, and the Demonic Vine, they would’ve all died horrific deaths. The demonic shapes were outside the range of his knowledge. They were dead entities, but they weren’t ghosts or zombies. They existed in another form of death.
They were stronger than the limits of what Lu Yun could currently discern. He wouldn’t have the room to resist if they all rushed him at the same time. Thank goodness that Leize was here with him!
Fuxi had gone back to his business since he was alive again. He’d previously borrowed the presence of his corpse demon self to conceal his presence from outsiders, but if he visited another tomb, those in the outside realm would immediately detect his presence.
“Oof!” Lu Yun grunted and his expression shifted.
“What is it?” Leize paused with a frown. He wasn’t detecting anything out of the ordinary. A trace of pain floated onto Lu Yun’s face and large beads of sweat seeped out of his forehead.
“The yang tomb corresponding to the Hadal Hell that I just took has shown up,” Lu Yun chuckled ruefully. He’d easily claimed the Hadal Hell they were just in because it was the first hell that the Tome of Life and Death had ever refined. Their core essence was interlinked with one another, so he’d instantly reduced it to a pearl and stored it within the book.
He hadn’t banked on the Ruina forming the yang tomb to follow in its stead. Regardless, the implications were clear. After collecting the Ruina that corresponded to the Abyssal Hell, he’d incorporated it into the Central Ruina that sat in the kingdom of hell. When he opened the Tome of Life and Death earlier, he’d inadvertently released the presences of two Ruinas, thus attracting the yang tomb.
While there were five Ruinas, they were one entity.
“One moment please, senior.” Lu Yun had no choice but to sit down cross-legged and use his full strength to guide the latest Ruina into the kingdom of hell, directing it to reconvene with the Ruinas already present.
They were no longer in the Land of Reincarnation, but the outside realm. The Hadal Hell being collected by another and its associated Ruina vanishing had attracted much attention, but the powerhouses guarding the area didn’t stir. They remained quietly cross-legged in the void and completely motionless.
In a certain corner of the void, a seated figure shimmering with silver radiance struck a careless pose. He chomped on a sparkling aureate karmic fruit in his hand.
“The four hells and the Land of Reincarnation have successfully nurtured a world of sequence. Leize and his family have passed their tribulations, so we won’t stand in the way of anything anymore. Chen Xiao, you don’t need to be so on guard against us like we’re thieves.” A young girl in green robes with long trailing sleeves smiled ruefully.
Chen Xiao shoved the last bite of fruit into his mouth and drawled, “If that’s the case, what are you three still doing here? Obviously, you continue to have designs on the Land of Reincarnation.”
“We…” The girl looked at two other cross-legged heavyweights on the same level as her. They did have certain schemes in mind, such as slipping through the crack guarded by Chen Xiao and making their way into the Land of Reincarnation after six hundred years. It didn’t matter that the Hadal Hell and its Ruina had been collected by another; it wouldn’t matter if the other two hells and Ruinas were taken as well. The world of sequence remained.
It’d become a road that led to the Land of Reincarnation. The four old ghosts that’d originally occupied the tombs could stall Lu Yun and even Fuxi with their schemes, but they couldn’t do anything to the three. They only needed to make their way into the land; they didn’t need to destroy anything.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re plotting.” Chen Xiao cast a frosty glance at the girl and shoved another karmic fruit into his mouth.
Her throat bobbed up and down.
Chen Xiao could take as many karmic fruits as he wanted since Lu Yun had granted him permission to freely enter the kingdom of hell. After the establishment of the Formula Academy and its bequeathment to the entire fourth realm, Lu Yun never lacked for goodwill.
At the same time, it was an exceedingly rare fruit in the outside realm, something to be found only by chance and not through effort. Even these unparalleled powerhouses could only look on with envy.
“The seed of nothing is formed from the ruins of the first world of sequence in this patch of the worlds. While it cannot grow back into a world of sequence, it can evolve into a true patch of grand worlds, something much bigger than the chief worlds we stand in,” Chen Xiao cut straight to the chase.
The worlds in the outside realm were endless and innumerable, infinite times greater than the Land of Reincarnation. Collectively, they were referred to as the chief worlds. It was an exceedingly ancient name that very few still remembered. Most people now had never heard of the term before.
The girl in green exchanged baffled glances with the other two.
“Chen Xiao, we know that you’re very strong. We can give you precedence in most things, but not this! If you want to stop us, it has to be a fight!” The girl rose to her feet with a burst of exuberant vitality. The extremity of life was death, so a wisp of black smoke escaped from her body and colored her pitch black.
The other two rose as well, both girls. One was dressed in red and wreathed in blazing flames, the other wore purple with lightning crackling between her palms.
“I admit you’re quite capable, Chen Xiao, but Qing Buyi isn’t here at the moment. You won’t have the upper hand if you’re up against three!” The girl in purple spoke in an ethereal voice, but her words were tinged with violence.
“Then let’s have a fight.” Chen Xiao nodded and grasped at the void. Some dots of silver flashed by, slowly growing in radiance until they formed the shape of a sword. Purple splendor flickered out of the silver sword of light.
“With time as sword!” The girl in green paled and took three steps back. “A spacetime traveler… Is this the power that one of you wields? You can collect the power of time and condense it into a sword!”
The other two girls also looked askance at the sword in Chen Xiao’s hand. This was outside the realm of their comprehension. Pulling a section of time out of this patch of the worlds and refining it into a sword… was a living being capable of this??
They knew that Chen Xiao was a spacetime traveler, but it was their first time seeing his true strength. It’d always been Qing Buyi clashing against people of the chief worlds; Chen Xiao rarely took the field and had never shown this level of strength before.
“Are you guys fighting already?” A fifth person appeared in the void with a fistful of talismans. He bawled at the three girls, “You should buy some of my talismans first! My Lifeline Talismans can block a blow for you and save your lives!
“How ‘bout it, one heaven and earth ancestral vein for one talisman!”
The speaker was an eighteen-year-old young man who was dressed very extravagantly. His robes were the height of opulence and he walked around with a halo of light from the luster of jewels that he wore. He waved a large fan gilded with gold, and his presence was flamboyant to the extreme. It was as if he was deathly afraid that someone wouldn’t know that he was a good-for-nothing. A good-for-nothing with a capital G!
He was the legendary genius who’d modified the Lifeline Talisman for multiple uses. That meant the talisman had more than doubled or tripled in price, but there were still plenty of people who fought each other to pay the astronomical sums.
“What are you doing here, Lu Feng?” Chen Xiao snorted at the young man.
Lu Feng… Lu Yun’s ready-made brother that’d sprung out of nowhere. He shared no blood relation with Lu Yun, whether in their past or present lives. They were at most foster brothers. Lu Yun would’ve never thought that the famed genius of the outside realm would be his oh-so-convenient older brother!
etvolare’s Thoughts
Just a head’s up, changing space traveler to spacetime traveler!