The tomb doors were extremely heavy and perfectly set into the earth around it, fully isolating the tomb from the outside. Other than that, Ancestor’s tomb was the very definition of ordinary.
The ghost king and vicious ghosts that attacked Lu Yun had broken up after the sacred supreme perished. Plainly, he was behind all of the ghostly entities glimpsed by the Spectral Eye.
There was no one overseeing the layout once the sacred supreme died. With the formidable power dwelling in the tomb, it easily crushed the layout for breeding ghosts.
Although the layouts aboveground were destroyed, the power generated by the layouts still remained in the tomb, albeit faded into the background. There were no other sophisticated setups in the area—everything was plain to read with a single glance.
The secrets of the tomb revealed themselves to Lu Yun when he dismissed the perspective of an immortal and took up the instincts of a mortal.
“It’s a trap mechanism.” His lips curved upward. “These are tomb doors carved from a separation stone. They look like doors, but it’s actually a dead end, a layout of death.”
There were two types of mechanisms found in tombs that tomb raiders least wished to see. The first was a dragonseal stone, the second was a separation stone. Workarounds could be devised for dragonseal stones, but the installment of separation stones meant a partition of yin and yang.
Normally speaking, the existence of a separation stone meant a dead tomb, a layout that no one could break.
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Lu Yun had encountered separation stones a few times when he dwelled on Earth. Each time he did so, it was the precursor to returning empty-handed. Who would’ve thought that he’d see one in the Three Thousand??
The separation stone in front of them was a layout of pure mechanism.
Feng shui and formations were two sides of the same coin, whereas mechanism formations were also a type of formation. They were a kind more frightening than regular formations.
Regular formations required the infusion of qi from heaven and earth and support from the world. They stopped operating once they were cut off from the power of heaven and earth or consumed their qi.
Mechanism formations, however, operated perpetually so long as their formation cores remained intact.
Lu Yun had been skilled in breaking mechanism layouts when on Earth, so he was even more adept in breaking formations when he arrived on the world of immortals. All he needed to do for formations in the world of immortals was to cut off their source of immortal qi.
A mechanism formation, however, was deeply interconnected to itself. Severing one link immediately prompted another one to step in. It circulated in an endless loop and was far more complicated than formations set up with qi.
Qi was the power of heaven and earth. It conducted everything because it possessed the rhythm of heaven and earth. In the absence of qi, a mechanism formation needed to be very precisely set up and constructed to ensure normal operations.
It was difficult enough to break mechanism formations on Earth. Here, Lu Yun felt that the separation stone in front of him seemed indestructible.
“What are all of you looking at me for?” He turned around and snapped at the cultivators staring at him. “All of you are peak grand supremes and empyrean supremes. Figure out a way to break these doors made of separation stone!”
“You’re the only one who knows the Dragonquake Scripture. If you can’t do anything about it, what are we supposed to do?” grumbled the Daofire Empyrean Supreme.
That was when Lu Yun finally saw the man, but there was no hint of greed to be found. As an empyrean supreme, he could hide his emotions to the point where even the Karmic Tree couldn’t detect that greed had once existed.
“The Dragonquake Scripture can’t break through these doors,” Lu Yun huffed back. “The Cardinal Sacred Palace would’ve broken into the tomb a long time ago if it could. Nothing would be waiting for us here.”
He snorted derisively and ignored the assembly. While he hadn’t detected anything out of the ordinary from the Daofire Empyrean Supreme, he instinctively disliked the man. Becoming an empyrean supreme in the Three Thousand meant forsaking his home. This kind of person was a traitor and Lu Yun didn’t even want to make his acquaintance.
At the same time, it didn’t mean that the Daofire Empyrean Supreme was wrong to have done what he did. Everyone nursed their own desires when it came to pursuing dao. Lu Yun just didn’t like him.
The Daofire Empyrean Supreme fell silent after the unfriendly response and waited for the young man to break the stone. He wasn’t the only one, everyone else on the scene was of the same mindset.
Lu Yun ignored all of them and focused on identifying the layout around the doors. It wasn’t as simple as bronze doors made out of separation stone—what was meant by the separation stone was the entire layout. The bronze doors were just one part of it.
It was a comprehensive layout, but when Lu Yun returned himself to the condition of the commandant of tomb raiders, his mortal eyes couldn’t observe the entirety of the tomb. All he saw was an ordinary burial chamber without qi.
His heart and spirit were too infused with thoughts of cultivation, order, and heaven and earth. He needed to cast aside the instincts of a cultivator to regain the mentality of a tomb raider.
With every gain came a corresponding loss.
Lu Yun was human, a living being. Rather than functioning like a layout, he held his own habits and references. What he could do was set aside those habits, retrieve his past self, and then combine his present mentality in the past.
Whether it was the Lu Yun of modern times or Lu Yun of the past, neither version could break the separation stone. But if the two were combined and incorporated the instincts of a tomb raider with the tendencies of a cultivator, the two would complement each other to the point of possibly finding the way past the separation stone.
BOOM!
A muffled collision rang out when an empyrean supreme couldn’t resist the urge. He brought his sword down on the bronze doors.
Other than Lu Yun observing the doors and identifying the separation stone, no one else had attempted to do anything to it. Thus, this empyrean supreme was the first to make a move. He backed up after his attempt, watching his longsword break into pieces. The fractures crawled up the weapon and then… spread to his body.
In less than three breaths, the incredibly strong empyrean supreme shattered like a porcelain object and scattered to the ground.
Shock and horror rocked the crowd. Lu Yun’s heart leapt with fear as well—brute force was the first idea to try on his list.
“Should we dig down further?” the Disordered Empyrean Supreme asked. “Or dig in another direction?”
“It won’t make a difference,” Lu Yun shook his head. “The separation stone is a layout that protects a tomb. All of the cardinal directions are fully safeguarded once it’s laid down. We’ll run into it no matter what direction we try, and my calculations tell me that these doors are the weakest link of the layout.”
