Lu Yun returned the bag with a flick of his wrist. “Better not, I’m worried I won’t be able to keep myself from destroying it.”
Back on Earth, tomb raiders sought to profit only from the dead. Harming the living was a great taboo. The Bag of Corpse Refinement was an evil item that refined living people into zombies, so according to his sect’s principles, such a thing had to be destroyed.
Lu Yun wasn’t a stickler for the rules, but the tenets of his tradition were indelibly imprinted into his mind and soul. At the very least, he knew right from wrong.
If Ghost Dragon hadn’t already taken possession of the bag and was using it to ward off the zombies here… he would’ve already destroyed it. The ability to turn the living into the undead was positively profane.
Ghost Dragon nodded. He put away the bag, then poured all his power into the Realm of Unearthly Water in opposition against the ghost tree.
“Take my feng shui compass, Qing Han. Do all you can to hold the ghosts back here. I’ll be back soon enough!” Lu Yun handed over the luopan to his friend, who nodded resolutely.
Ghost Dragon’s pupils contracted with shock. Water and fire had carved a new dimension in this space, but the human had come over with remarkable ease.
“Be careful in all that you do.” Qing Han didn’t sound at all worried. For Lu Yun, chopping off a zombie’s head would be as easy as pie.
“Remember. Whether you succeed or fail, you must return here in three days. If you don’t, the phoenix won’t be the only one to perish. The old turtle in the Unearthly Waters will awake and eat me as well,” said Ghost Dragon.
“Keep him safe.” Lu Yun pointed at Qing Han.
“Of course.” Ghost Dragon nodded.
……
When Lu Yun walked out of the Blithe Entrapment Formation, he found the immortals that’d all previously left waiting with bated breath. [1]
The space ahead of them had become hazy and indistinct, although the wailing of ghosts and the shrieking of zombies remained perfectly audible. The clash between Ghost Dragon and the ghost tree had slain innumerable undead, but too many still remained.
Situ Zong rushed up to his young lord, still carrying the black cannon on his shoulder.
“I’m going to slay a zombie and break the death formation here. Who’s with me?” Lu Yun declared coolly before a rapt audience.
“I’ll come!” Xiangliu Ting offered immediately. “This place is gradually turning into a ghostly realm. If things are allowed to continue, the heart of the North Sea will become anathema to all life!
“My East Sea is already troubled by such a place. The same can’t be allowed to happen to the North Sea!”
The monster spirits behind him stepped forward as well. “If you have a way to break the death formation, then we East Sea monster spirits will not shrink back.”
“I will go as well!” Sidling up to his master, Situ Yun gripped the hem of the old man’s clothes as tightly as he could. He didn’t want to be punted out yet another time.
“I want a hundred and eight peerless immortals,” Lu Yun shook his head. “Dao immortals need to stay here to protect the others. Someone needs to keep the formation safe, and the ghosts locked inside could very well break out and attack.
“The zombie is too powerful for me to kill alone—it’s probably the body of the dragon nest’s lord. If one hundred and eight peerless immortals assemble a formation, that’ll give me a chance to land a killing blow.
“Heh…” he chuckled suddenly. “If that zombie doesn’t die, then we all will.”
He could flee into hell, but he’d still have to come out at some point. Time didn’t pass while he was in hell, which meant he’d be stuck in the same place. However, Xiangliu Ting’s words did inspire him in another way.
A ghostly realm? There’s something like that in the East Sea too, huh?
In this North Sea, there was a Realm of Unearthly Water and a peculiar ghost tree. The two in tandem could create a realm filled with endless dead.
“Is that so? Then I’ll go!” A Donglin peerless immortal signed up. “But we’ll still be mortal enemies after we leave this place, Lu Yun.”
The young man glanced at him and nodded.
Soon enough, the hundred-odd quota of immortals was filled.
The peerless immortals participating were uniformly just a hair below dao immortal, with the strongest of the lot was a Ling clan immortal, one who’d already gained an understanding of aether dao. When he accumulated enough knowledge, he could easily pluck the fruit and break through.
The Ling immortal looked at Lu Yun with unmasked hatred, but he, too, held his peace. It wasn’t because of the nearby Situ Zong, but because these immortals had plenty of experience with this kind of situation. It was quite common for them to put aside their personal grudges and differences to combat some ancient horror.
Necessity demanded it. Plus, it wouldn’t be too late to resume their grudges once the danger was past.
“All of you, come over here.” Lu Yun looked around the group he had gathered, then began relating what he knew to them. “Here’s the truth behind the dragon tomb. This place is actually a draconic ancestral ground. You can call it a dragon nest.”
“A dragon nest?!” His words caused a flurry of excitement to pass through the crowd, and some yelped in shock.
The dragon tomb was actually a nest?
Many found it hard to accept such a claim, while others were strangely unmoved. Evidently, knowledgeable people still existed in the world; they, too, had realized the truth of the tomb early on.
“Right, so where we are is a dragon nest,” affirmed Lu Yun. “However, under us—under this nest—is a different one. A phoenix nest! One that’s been made into a phoenix tomb!”
This subsequent revelation astounded those who hadn’t been surprised by his earlier sharing, and shocked even Tuoba Jie and Donglin E, despite their focus on the Blithe Entrapment Formation.
So this wasn’t just a dragon nest, but a phoenix nest as well? A confluence of dragon and phoenix….
“In the ancient times, dragons and phoenixes were on friendly terms. But, putting their two nests together… and making them into tombs….” Fear flashed in Xiangliu Ting’s eyes. “I hear that the ghostly realm in the East Sea has a qilin nest and a tortoise nest.
“Among the four spirits, the dragon and phoenix are great friends. So are the qilin and the tortoise.”
“A qilin nest and a tortoise nest!” Lu Yun lit up with anticipation. The four spirits’ sky pearls. Skydragon, Skyphoenix, Skyqilin, and Skytortoise!
If the dragon and phoenix nests contained their corresponding sky pearls, didn’t that mean the East Sea’s ghostly realm would have the remaining two he needed?
He forced back the excitement he felt, then uttered a commanding cry, “Alright, everyone listen to me now. The dragon and phoenix nests have combined into a water and fire layout.
“Fire is above, water is below. Where they meet and the two opposite forces merge is a two-headed zombie!
“In this tomb, the dragonlings and water ghosts are far from the scariest. The two-headed zombies are! And that zombie in particular is the reason for all the rest.”
The rest of the immortals nodded wordlessly.
“That zombie has very likely reached the level of a celestial emperor already. Perhaps it’s even gone beyond,” continued Lu Yun.
Finally, some members of the group began reacting.
“Beyond a celestial emperor? Do you intend to lead us into death, Lu Yun? Is this your idea of revenge?” immediately clamored one person.
“Shut up!” the Ling clan immortal cut him off. “Listen to what he says!” His strength and affiliation granted him plenty of authority in this group.
Quite a few people had sent word out to their comrades, and the experts scattered elsewhere in the tomb were gathering in this direction. Three arcane dao immortals with eight fruits had arrived already; one of them was from the Ling clan.
The peerless immortal who’d interrupted Lu Yun lowered his head, too fearful to object any further.
“The two-headed zombie’s strength doesn’t come from itself. It’s a monster born of the two tombs. So as long as we can break the layout here, we can slay it.” Lu Yun stood up. “Therefore, I’ll teach you the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons. We’ll borrow power from the heavens and earth to break the water and fire layout!”
He had to explain the full scope of what they were going to do. Otherwise, none of them would give it their all and the effort would ultimately fail.
Before anyone else could speak, the young man opened his arms. A rush of energy from the world came to him, transforming into line after line of runes, floating in space before him.
The Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons used thirty-six heavenly stars to represent the heavens and seventy-two fiendish stars to represent earth. When they were brought together in a harmonious whole, the very power of creation was evoked.
“That… that’s a formation without foundation! He really can do it! He’s achieved something that countless dao immortal formation masters have never done!” Quite a few immortals were amazed at the performance. Lu Yun was only a spirit realm cultivator!
“The restoration of the void realm and the incorporation with the world it brings will create a new generation of immortals far more powerful than current ones. There’s both good and bad in that,” proclaimed the young man. “Therefore, I invented the heaven and earth layout and its corresponding formation. If you refine it into yourself and perceive the world…. You, too, will attain oneness with creation!
“However, the formation I’m teaching you right now is only good enough to break the water and fire layout. If you want to refine the world into yourself, there’s still some work to be done.
“Thus, I hereby invite every formation expert and master to come to Dusk Province. I call upon the wisdom of the world to complete this formation.”
The immortals present were stunned by his words. Plenty of them had become mad with fear upon the restoration of the cultivation path, including some very strong arcane dao immortals with eight or nine fruits.
No one wanted to be discarded by the times, and now Lu Yun had infused them with new hope. If they refined the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons into themselves, they could achieve oneness with creation in another way!
“That’s what he meant when he said supplemental paths were king!”
“He won’t stop until he’s scared everyone else half to death with what he can do!”
Qing Yunhe and Canghai Chengfeng traded perplexed looks. “Perhaps that kid has even more up his sleeve….”
Previously, they’d thought that Lu Yun had been talking about his imitation war treasures when he’d said those words. Now, they realized his feng shui compass and incredible formation fit the descriptor far more. This would truly be how the supplemental paths became king.
An alarming thought lingered at the back of Qing Yunhe’s mind: was this really the limits of what Lu Yun was capable of?
“No, we can’t kill him… not before the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons is complete, at least, we absolutely can’t,” Donglin E murmured. “Whoever does so will be the greatest sinner in all of history!”
1. Wtf, so everyone left, but not really, and their leaders all doubled back to see if they could get lucky. Wtf really.
