“Many peak powerhouses died or went missing before the cataclysm descended…” Lu Yun rubbed his chin. “And then Yuchi Tianhuang went back a hundred and fifty thousand years to bring you information about the great war’s outcome… To me, it seems like this so-called enemy wasn’t all that strong.” He tapped his chin as he mused about this.
Fengbo blinked.
“The Monster Celestial Master is dead, correct?” Lu Yun asked.
Fengbo nodded, disconsolate at the mention of the celestial master. The initial plan had been for the celestial master to bury himself and remain in suspended animation, to be revived whenever needed.
But for reasons unknown, he’d died for good and his soul had completely scattered after his burial.
“In refining bricks from countless mortals, he engendered great resentment and accumulated titanic levels of bad karma. The heavens wouldn’t have suffered him to live! This bad karma was further passed on to the primordial immortal court and eroded what little fortunes were left.” Lu Yun scoffed. “The immortal court wasn’t done in by so-called enemies, but destroyed from the inside. It cut off its destiny with its own two hands!”
“W-what? How can it be like that!” It was too horrendous a possibility for Fengbo to contemplate.
“Why can’t it be like that?” Lu Yun continued with a frosty smile. “First, sow general fear and panic by killing peak powerhouses one after another. Then, as luck would have it, Yuchi Tianhuang returns to the past at this precise moment to show you a hopeless future.
“And it just so happens that the Monster Celestial Master possesses an exceedingly venomous layout that can revive the dead! That’s all that’s needed before all of you devotees of the immortal court go willingly to your deaths.
“But did anyone ever stop to consider how terrifying the malice and resentment of those you butchered would be? It would be a hatred so strong that it’s almost tangible. It was that very hate that turned all of you into corpse divines. Did you think you’d still be who you once were upon revival, after spending a hundred and fifty thousand years in such an environment?
“Leigong and Yushi weren’t corrupted by so-called enemies, they’ve lost their senses of self because of the immense malice that’s seeped into the very air here. But even if they hadn’t been tainted… the way to revive them requires innocent scapegoats. It’s a deviant art no matter how you put it. They wouldn’t be the same after coming back to life either way.”
Now that Kui had become his ghostly servant, Lu Yun naturally knew what the creature had gone through. He’d arrived at this tentative conclusion after considering numerous clues and hints: the unknown enemy hadn’t been much stronger than the immortal court they’d destroyed.
However, they’d employed all kinds of plots and schemes to fabricate coincidences that shook the ancient immortal emperor’s courage and confidence, ultimately eroding his strength via many fool’s errands.
“Milord, are you saying that… me going back in time and meeting Yu’er and Uncle Feng wasn’t happenstance?” The color drained from Yuchi Tianhuang’s face.
“Correct.” Lu Yun nodded, then recalled something. As the patriarch of the water qilin tribe, Cangyin had also been one of the ancient peak powerhouses. She’d died to a time art.
“Come, let’s go see the Monster Celestial Master!” Fengbo proposed to Lu Yun and Yuchi Tianhuang, his expression gravely somber.
“All that’s left of the so-called Monster Celestial Master is most likely a remnant spirit.” Lu Yun shook his head gently. “There’s no need to see him. In fact, he probably realized the truth long ago, and passed on his legacy and the inheritance of the immortal dynasty to preserve a spark for the future.”
He was thinking of the East Sea xianglu tribe. Venturing into the tomb and making it out alive—with the celestial master’s legacy in hand, no less—was no easy feat. The legacy had fueled their meteoric rise as one of the most powerful factions of the immortal world. If not for the xianglus being hobbled by the underworld’s yin spirits after establishing a monster spirit dynasty in the East Sea, they most likely would’ve conquered the entire world by now.
Moreover, the East Sea court had always considered itself the right and proper inheritor of the immortal court, and indeed, it seemed they’d truly obtained the ancient court’s legacy.
Plop!
Fengbo slumped down on the ground, despondency creeping in.
“No, impossible!” he suddenly shouted himself hoarse. “His Immortal Majesty was an august sage with unparalleled talent, and the planning of the four celestial masters was flawless. They can’t have been wrong!”
“Uncle Feng, I saw Yu’er earlier,” Yuchi Tianhuang whispered. “She still recognizes me… Uncle Feng, you’re among us, and so is Leigong still. Milord can…”
“Say no more.” Fengbo shook his head and handed a palm-sized, sapphire-colored bag to Yuchi Tianhuang. “Tianhuang, this is my Bag of Wind Divines. Take it with you and leave this place.”
“Since Fengbo doesn’t wish to leave and doesn’t want to be revived… you should accept his legacy.” Lu Yun nodded when his subordinate looked back at him.
Someone of Fengbo’s level could easily discern the relationship between Lu Yun and Yuchi Tianhuang at first blush. To give him the bag was as good as handing it to the king of the netherworld.
The bag wasn’t just a powerful connate treasure. It also contained the entirety of Fengbo’s legacy, one that could be used by anyone, not only the divines.
The primordial world of immortals had been a unified world, not a potpourri of different tribes. Various techniques and combat arts had matured through mutual learning and exchange. It had been a time of extreme prosperity.
In contrast, the current world of immortals was still in a primitive state. It might have given rise to the various heavenly and monster spirit courts of the nine majors, ten lands, and four immortal seas, but immortals were primarily centered around tribes and clans. Even sects were a rare sight. Tribalism was the way of life, and combat art development idling in its infancy. Most were established by various geniuses belonging to major factions after they incorporated what little was left of some ancient arts.
“You can go now.” Fengbo waved his hand, sapped of all strength. He’d persisted for a hundred and fifty thousand years, but it was all for naught.
“Well, it’s not like a solution doesn’t exist.” Lu Yun noticed the ancient’s mood. “I can cleanse the accumulated resentment and set up a resurrection layout. There’s hope yet for the ancient immortals buried here.”
The primordial divine lifted his head and glanced at Lu Yun, then shook his head. “There used to be a so-called great resurrection formation here eons before, but someone took it away a hundred thousand years ago.”
Lu Yun shook. “A resurrection formation… was it perhaps a floating peak?”
“Indeed.” Fengbo nodded.
“Was the Monster Celestial Master the one who created the floating peak?” Lu Yun was positive that the floating peak Fengbo spoke of was the same one he’d obtained from the burial mound underneath Myriad Formation Summit.
The peak itself was a resurrection layout far more sophisticated than the ones he could set up. Something like the floating peak was much beyond him.
A resurrection layout was a formidable grand influence over the world. It was possible for him to create one through various means, aided by the Dragonsearch Invocation, Dragonshift Method, and earthen veins, but that was his limit.
Refining it into a mobile, floating peak was simply impossible. Such a task required skill that could only be described as earthshaking and beyond human reach. His own resurrection layouts could only exist by drawing on earthen veins and couldn’t possibly be shifted.
Fengbo shook his head. “No, the formation predated him. It was already present on the edges of the abyss before us, and there was even a corpse being revived on it.”
Once upon a time, this place had been the underworld, a forbidden land of the world of immortals. Back then, the two worlds had still been separate. As for the Abyss of Divine Burial, peak powerhouses from the ancient era had knowledge of it and the numerous ones that existed now. Fengbo was a divine; back in his time, there’d been an Abyss of Divine Burial where many dead divines were laid to rest.
“Corpse?” Lu Yun’s figure shook once more. “What kind of corpse?”
“The corpse of an imposing man.” Fengbo thought for a moment. “There is a depiction of him in the skies above. With one punch, he carved out a path through the abyss.”
“Is it him? Did he die?!” Lu Yun stared agog.
Fengbo nodded. “He did. Even such a formidable existence ended up dying… In this world, who can live forever? Alright, that’s enough, you should go.”
Fengbo waved them off as his voice fell. The previously bright and spacious hall vanished, replaced by dark and gloomy winds. However, the black shadows within them were also gone.
“Milord!” Yuchi Tianhuang looked at Lu Yun, entreaty in his eyes.
“I know what you’re thinking of. Go, find your Yu’er and bring her to hell. I can make her an Infernum.” Lu Yun nodded.
“Thank you, milord!” Elated, Yuchi Tianhuang bowed respectfully to Lu Yun before taking his leave.
“What a wild goose chase. All that effort for nothing,” Lu Yun sighed and contacted the kui inside hell. “Kui, even Fengbo has a connate treasure on him. Where’s yours?”
“Milord, my connate treasure lies inside my tomb,” the thunder god hastened to reply.
However, Lu Yun didn’t plan on letting it show itself for now. This was a peak origin dao and ingress realm physique trump card. Despite that, it was still no match for the silver scarlet ape, who’d killed it with one punch.
“But my connate treasure, the Thunder God Hammer… the two scarlet apes must have already taken it.” Kui added, a little hesitantly.
After the yin and yang tombs had fused together, Kui quickly found a hapless victim to revive itself, then was subsequently hunted down by the two apes. After escaping to the edge of the tomb, the silver ape had punched a hole through its body.
Kui was different from Fengbo; the latter was the patriarch and leader in truth of the wind divine tribe. The tribe itself had been a major tribe among the divines, thriving and prosperous.
There was only one Kui in the world, a lone, solitary existence. While it was the God of Thunder, its nature was that of a divine beast. Unlike the thunder divines, his godhood was one conferred by the immortal court.
“Alright.” Lu Yun nodded gently. “Forget about it then.”
He didn’t want to antagonize the scarlet apes yet. The golden one was incredibly violent, while the silver one was extremely moody. They’d let him go once, but a second time didn’t seem very likely.
“After the yin and yang realms merged, the nests and tombs of the qilins, turtles, kunpengs, and scarlet apes should’ve all flown out of the abyss and landed somewhere inside the tomb. Beigong Yu, where’s the kunpeng nest?”
“Milord!” Beigong Yu hastened to answer in the middle of troop exercises. “The kunpeng nest has been destroyed, but your servant collected the kunpeng egg… Ah, the Skyqilin Pearl is also back in the qilin nest.”
He hadn’t forgotten Lu Yun’s ultimate goal in the celestial master tomb: to locate the Skyqilin and Skyturtle Pearl.
“Milord, the two pearls should be in the qilin and turtle tombs, respectively.” Beigong Yu hadn’t mentioned it until Lu Yun asked, which made him somewhat apprehensive of his delay.
“Alright.” Lu Yun didn’t blame him. After all, he himself had been completely shellshocked by the Path of Ingress and the projection. “Give the little kunpeng a name, then write that name down on the Tome of Life and Death.”
