Lu Yun could feel a headache coming on. Inside hell, Yu Hengluo had reattached her skin and facial features to become a complete person once again, albeit one still riddled with heavy injuries. When he used the power of hell to inspect her… she was indeed Yu Hengluo!
But the young girl inside the chamber in the outside world was also Yu Hengluo!
He was dead certain he wasn’t mistaken. Two Yu Hengluos? What the hell was going on here?
“Are you alright?” He pulled himself together and rushed toward her, scanning the girl up and down. “Did anything unusual happen here?”
He also carefully observed Wayfarer’s projection, as well as the bamboo pole in Yu Hengluo’s hand. The girl shook her head vacantly.
“Two spaces seemed to have fused together here just now. My master disappeared after that.” Yu Hengluo pointed at the sarcophagus. Its lid had been pried open, Wayfarer’s flesh and the Skinning Spike long gone.
“Nothing else? Are you sure?” Lu Yun took a deep breath and asked again. Yu Hengluo merely stared at him in confusion, baffled by his line of questioning.
Lu Yun shook his head. In the end, he refrained from telling her what had happened at the Timelight Tower. This burial chamber had gone through earthshaking changes in the meantime.
Though this wasn’t the main crypt where the Monster Celestial Master was buried, it was nevertheless a core annex, a hub for the entire tomb.
“Sect Head, you have to be careful!” Yu Hengluo’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind. “There are quite a few ill-intentioned people hidden nearby. If not for their fear of this sarcophagus, they would’ve already charged inside.”
Now that Wayfarer’s flesh was no longer inside the sarcophagus, it’d grown even more uncanny. Floating in midair, dark red blood seeped out of it and dripped a macabre painting onto the ground.
“Where’s the Path of Ingress?” Lu Yun murmured to himself, disregarding the immortals hidden in the dark. He could clearly sense the treasure’s existence right inside this burial chamber, but couldn’t pinpoint its specific position.
“It’s with me.” A figure strode out of the darkness and looked at Lu Yun with a smile. “The Path of Ingress is in my possession. If you want it back, trade for it with the Sugato Sword.”
“You?” Lu Yun recognized the speaker at first glance.
The man wore dark blue heavy armor over his tall figure. His head was disproportionately big, his eyes resembled mung beans, and he wielded a big iron hammer in his hand.
Lu Yun knew this man. To be more precise, he knew this monster spirit—Ding Lei, the North Sea’s Admiral Turtle.
Ding Lei had eventually severed his own cultivation to participate in Destiny City’s Sovereign Ranking Battles, where his talent had shone for all to see. But he’d then gone missing afterward and no one knew of his whereabouts.
Lu Yun hadn’t expected to run into this old turtle here, of all places. He could indeed sense the aura of the Path of Ingress on the newcomer. So it would seem the monster spirit isn’t lying.
“You recognize me?” Ding Lei blinked in consternation, his face clouding over. Even Beigong Xuan, the former monster emperor of the North Sea, wouldn’t have been able to recognize him.
“The North Sea’s Admiral Turtle. Tsk tsk, aren’t you afraid of being torn to pieces by the monster immortals of the North Sea after betraying the monster court?” Clasping his hands behind his back, Lu Yun fixed the man with a chilly stare.
You want the Sugato Sword? Quite the ambitious one, aren’t you?
Ding Lei’s face fell. He hadn’t expected Lu Yun would truly see through his disguise, but he didn’t deny things, either. Instead, he lifted his hand palm up and revealed an illusory white path between his fingers.
Lu Yun narrowed his eyes. “The Universe-Encompassing Palm. That’s a primordial art!”
As the name implied, this art could manifest its own universe in one’s palm. In a sense, it was similar to Su Xiaoxiao’s seed storage.
While not a combat art with incredible offensive potential, it also wasn’t something ordinary immortals and cultivators could master… At the very least, Su Xiaoxiao herself had been unable to grasp it back when she’d been alive.
However, Ding Lei could use it to confine the Path of Ingress, a clear sign he’d obtained an ancient inheritance.
Lu Yun couldn’t help his surprise.
“The monster court?” Ding Lei gently shook his head. “The court’s long been destroyed. The North Sea is now ruled by Levitating Island’s sacred land. I simply didn’t want to submit to them, so it’s by no means what you’d call betrayal.
“But if you want the Path of Ingress… bring out the Sugato Sword.” The look in his eyes was grim as tremendous waves of energy exploded from him, making Lu Yun’s heart palpitate.
“You’ve… already undergone your tribulation!!” Lu Yun cried out subconsciously. “But the celestial master tomb’s cut off from the world…”
“Hahahaha!” Ding Lei laughed heartily at Lu Yun’s incomprehension. “Who told you I ascended to immortality inside the tomb? Can I not enter after my tribulation?
“Give me the Sugato Sword and I’ll give you the Path of Ingress. Or, I’ll kill you and take the Sugato Sword from your cold hands.” The smile dropped from his face as he strode toward Lu Yun with deliberate steps.
As if it’d come to life, the Path of Ingress inside the Universe-Encompassing Palm barrelled left and right like a white dragon, but no matter how hard it struggled, it couldn’t escape the palm’s confines.
“Fine. I’ll…” Facing Ding Lei bearing down on him menacingly, Lu Yun took out the Sugato Sword, but before he could finish his sentence, the turtle’s left palm suddenly slapped his way.
The attack’s momentum gave Lu Yun the impression he was about to be crushed by a great mountain. He turned pale with fright. There was no time for him to react except to cross his arms in front of his chest and take the brunt of the blow with his body.
Boom!
Blasted into the air by the impact, he crashed heavily into the sarcophagus.
“Who the hell was it who said the Universe-Encompassing Palm isn’t an offensive art?!” Lu Yun spat out a mouthful of blood. He’d suffered severe damage from the blow just now!
“Sect Head!!” Yu Hengluo cried out in alarm. She hastily lifted her bamboo pole and brought it down on Ding Lei, its verdant light turning into countless illusory stalks of bamboo that landed ruthlessly on the turtle.
“Get lost, ant!!” Ding Lei shook his right hand and dispelled the Universe-Encompassing Palm sealing the Path of Ingress, then smacked Yu Hengluo with a palm strike.
Bang!
Blown away like a ragdoll, she fell bonelessly to the ground.
“Hehehe…” The moment she touched the ground, a crimson figure flashed into existence and grabbed her, then immediately disappeared again. Likewise, the sarcophagus behind Lu Yun, together with the bronze lamp sitting in front of the coffin, vanished under the influence of a special power.
“Yu Hengluo!!” Lu Yun fought to get back on his feet, then looked at the spot she’d previously stood, about to chase after her.
“You should worry about yourself, first.” Ding Lei laughed loudly. His hands enlarged to the size of mountains and he sent Lu Yun reeling back with a prodigious slap.
“Ding Lei, you must be tired of living!!” Lu Yun fumed as a dense network of sword energies erupted behind him.
