Lu Yun moved at great speed and travelled five hundred thousand kilometers with every breath, but it still took him a full day to traverse the East Sea and reach its end.
According to legend, this was where the Fusang Purewood grew and the sun in the primordial world of immortals rose. It also marked Empress Myrtlestar’s territory—the East World of Immortals. However, a question had always floated in Lu Yun’s heart: Why would Empress Myrtlestar become the empress of the East World of Immortals when her Imperial Star was of the north?
“This clearly isn’t the East World of Immortals in the past, where countless immortals made their pilgrimages.” Lu Yun stared off into the distance from the edge of the East Sea, his brows furrowed as he looked upon the world in front of him.
“It isn’t.” Qing Han nodded. “The East World of Immortals has fallen and turned to ashes. This place is something else.”
Before them was a coastline that seemed to demarcate the other end of the East Sea. It outlined a dark continent shrouded with sinister energy. No one knew how or where it’d come from—it’d simply sprung into existence one day, to the great surprise of the East Sea monster spirits. Countless ghosts, undead, and other things that went bump into the night charged out from the continent, inflicting horrendous casualties on the marine inhabitants.
The East Sea court used to be the peak faction in the world of immortals. Previous emperors had even nursed the ambition to invade the rest of the world and conquer the nine majors, ten lands, and other three immortal seas.
Then, however, emerged the ghost realm bordered by this coastline. A zone taboo to life itself and a realm of death, the East Sea court had its hands full with the hordes of monsters that poured out of it every now and then.
In other words, this ghost realm was akin to the ancient tombs in the four provinces of Nephrite Major, the ones where tides of yin spirits reared their heads every once in a while.
However, enemies from the ghost realm were much more numerous than the occasional flare-ups from the four ancient tombs. Every instance took a great toll on the East Sea, claiming many of the court’s dao immortals. Even a number of East Sea emperors had gone down fighting in these historical outbursts.
The current emperor had ascended to the throne not long ago. He’d been working hard to recover the East Sea to its former glory, and Xiangliu Hongzhen, the Deaf Prince, was his son.
Lu Yun could clearly see a natural barrier dividing the East Sea from the ghost realm, which was too powerful for even his Spectral Eye to penetrate. He couldn’t get a good look at the world on the other side.
However, he could see cracks and scars on the barrier. Tiny yin spirits were tearing into the cracks with claws and fangs, attempting to burrow through.
The barrier was coalesced by the power of heaven and earth in the world of immortals, which made it the natural bane of the yin spirits on the other side. They disintegrated as soon as they passed through.
Nevertheless, there were far too many yin spirits on the other side, steadily weakening the barrier bit by bit.
“Lu Yun…” Qing Han began with a slight tremor in her voice. “Don’t you find the world on the other end of the coastline very familiar?”
Lu Yun paused, then nodded.
“It does feel very familiar. It’s like I’ve been there before…” With a frown, he chewed on how that world made him feel.
“The central world… the Sovereign World!” Qing Han’s voice gained an edge of inexplicable fear. “It feels like the central world… no, it is the central world! The presence is the same!”
“The central world is a dead world!” Lu Yun continued. “If my guess is right, this should be the edge of the world of immortals and the end of the East Sea. We should be seeing a boundless, vast cosmos here. Why is there a dead world here instead?”
Lu Yun scanned the area with his Spectral Eye.
The crippled origin dao immortals had caught up to Lu Yun and Qing Han, but couldn’t overhear the conversation.
“I can tell that the barrier formed by the world of immortals can’t keep the dead world at bay forever. The ghost realm is encroaching upon the East Sea at a barely perceptible speed, and it’ll one day devour it!”
The East, West, South, and North Seas were interconnected with each other, surrounding the twenty-four facets—including the central world—and keeping the world of immortals in one piece. Once the ghost realm devoured the East Sea, the world of immortals would fall apart. The complete major world would separate as shards with no singular heaven and earth.
“The central world is a dead world too. Or rather, it’s a world that was devoured by the ghost realm! Someone pulled it out of the abyss of death!” Qing Han froze in place as her mind flew through theories and speculations, inferring the truth of the central world thanks to the wisdom of the Dao Flower and support of the immortal dao.
“Come on, let’s go check it out!” Lu Yun took a deep breath.
Many immortals had entered the ghost realm while Lu Yun and Qing Han were having their discussion. The barrier could stop yin spirits from passing through, but not immortals from this side.
Although the ghost realm abounded with dangers so severe they could claim even dao immortals, with high risk came high reward. There were many tombs in the realm, all of which buried powerful immortals.
There were also many tombs interring ancient lords; the desolate land housed dead beings from many eras.
“You must not enter!” The dao immortals tailing Lu Yun and Qing Han hurriedly intervened.
The ghost realm was unpredictable, alternating between completely harmless to extremely dangerous in split seconds. When it was safe, even a mortal could enter and acquire countless valuables. When it was dangerous, however, even personages such as the nine celestial emperors would be killed upon entry.
Three of the origin dao immortals stepped forward to obstruct Lu Yun and Qing Han when they saw where their quarry was headed.
“Get out of our way,” Lu Yun growled with a dark look. He’d tolerated their ‘protection’, but he wouldn’t allow them to interfere with his business.
“The ghost realm is too dangerous. You two haven’t ascended to immortality…”
“Get out of our way!” A black cannon emerged before Lu Yun, mouth flickering a deathly white as it aimed at the three origin dao immortals. The Black Emperor was charging to its full power!
The origin dao immortals scowled. They hadn’t expected such a strong reaction from Lu Yun.
“Do you really think you can have your way just because Qing Han and I are alone?”
Rumble!
The Divine Glory appeared beneath the two youths’ feet, transforming from a fortress ship into a terrifying cannon. The Formation Orb embedded within glowed faintly of doom.
