Lu Yun was here for the spleen of the world. At the same time, he was loath to relinquish the bloodline of a premier divine beast. How strong would the only offspring of the only Moat Snake be?
Once it grew up, it would be at least as strong as the primeval human kings, if not a great emperor in its own right.
“Milord!” Following silently beside them all this time, Xuanxi suddenly said, “The moat snake has some kinship with the divines. If I go with Zhaoqing, we may be able to capture its descendant.”
Lu Yun’s eyes lit up and Zhaoqing walked out of hell, sweeping a graceful curtsy in front of the young man.
Incredulous, Ashu held his breath. He knew full well who Zhaoqing was—the daughter of the Exalted Divine emperor! Progeny of a true great emperor, she was one of Lu Yun’s followers as well??
“How eminent and dignified is one who doesn’t need to show especial respect to even the three holy kings… so she’s also…” Ashu swallowed hard.
“I’ll go as well, that guy might not really be dead. Perhaps the trace of bloodline it left behind is itself.” A crisp and energetic voice sounded as a ripple of red spread through the air. A young girl roughly eighteen years old materialized out of the void wearing a red silk dress.
“Carmine Eternal!” shrieked Ashu when he saw the newcomer. Fear mixed with veneration mixed with incredulity shone out of his eyes.
The last time Carmine Eternal appeared and deterred the Blood Sea, Holy King Atrophy had been by Lu Yun’s side. Ashu hadn’t dared look or send his consciousness in their direction; he didn’t want to chance showing himself for fear that the holy king would discover him.
So now that the human form of Carmine Eternal emerged on the premises, the shock of seeing her for the first time startled Ashu into a yelp. Color drained out of his face as an aftereffect of panic and despair.
“Is this sis that scary?” Carmine Eternal was adorably charming with a hint of naive cheeriness. While her face wouldn’t launch a thousand ships and neither would she be described as a stunning beauty, there was a peculiar quality to her bearing that made her seem both bloodthirsty and pure.
It was a very strange and contradictory feeling.
Trembling, Ashu couldn’t form a single word. He finally understood how Lu Yun had won that day, how he’d subdued the Blood Sea and struck fear into the creatures of its depths so that they wouldn’t dare emerge from the waters.
The she-demon Carmine Eternal was by Lu Yun’s side!
The girl hopped over to Ashu and lightly patted his cheek. Despite the gentle gesture, the former holy lord instantly turned translucent, and his body that’d been coming back to life flooded with death energy.
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you. Be careful not to let your main body find you, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re eaten… then I suppose I’ll have to kill you once I’m recovered, no matter how distasteful the task may be,” Carmine Eternal said merrily.
Ashu’s breathing and heartbeat stopped simultaneously; his skin turned grayish white as black fog rushed out from his body. He’d returned to being a living dead and the strongest holy lord of the underworld!
“Is… is this young lady that frightening?” The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign had seen everything clearly and how Ashu’s life force had dissipated due to excessive fright. In other words, Carmine Eternal had just scared him to death. An entity almost returned to life had spontaneously returned to being a living dead!
“Honestly…” Carmine Eternal took back her hand from Ashu’s face and giggled, “The moment you return to life is the moment your main body finds you. Therefore, you should just be a good little boy and stay a living dead.
“You wish to be alive, but so does your main body want to be a living being. Eating a living version of you is its only hope. Or rather, the start of its hope since it’ll have to eat a lot more living beings after you.”
Her tone grew frostier the more she spoke and an eerie red light began glinting in her eyes. Ashu nodded expressionlessly.
“If it wasn’t for you following Sir Lu Yun, I would kill you on the spot right now and make sure you can never come back to life. That way, the trouble you left behind will have to root itself in the underworld forever and won’t be able to stir up further trouble,” snorted Carmine Eternal.
In this moment, Ashu and Lu Yun finally gained a thorough understanding of why the three holy kings had so easily let Ashu leave the underworld and dismissed him from being a mausoleum keeper. His main body, that something he’d been instinctively fearful of, had already tracked him to the underworld.
As things were, Ashu would still provide enough food for the zombie tree to become a great demon king even if the holy lord didn’t return to life. After sensing Ashu’s existence, the zombie tree had patiently taken root in the underworld and settled down to wait because it’d also discovered that its spirit was in the process of resurrection. It could wait—Ashu would be much more useful once he was alive.
……
Carmine Eternal left with Zhaoqing and Xuanxi to search for the bloodline of the moat snake.
“What’s that woman’s background, and why is Ashu so afraid of her?” This was the only thing on the demon sovereign’s mind after a long befuddled silence.
In his eyes, Ashu was a great holy lord of the underworld. Invincible and knowing no fear, no one other than the holy kings could touch him. And yet, a harmless and innocent young lady had scared him back to death!
Lu Yun too was curious as he wanted to learn of Carmine Eternal’s background.
“All you need to know is that… before Emperors Fall, Carmine Eternal once personally eradicated thirty-six major worlds with great emperors at their helm.” Ashu fell silent after this opening, then elaborated distantly after gathering his thoughts. “There are two great personages in the world unrestricted by limitations of any kind. They subdue all races and ensure that every powerhouse follows the rules and toes the line.
“Those two are unrestricted by anything not because they’re the strongest, but because they really will do anything!
“Before Emperors Fall, the great dao flourished in prosperous glory, birthing countless connate treasures in nature. Because of that, one of them felt there were so many connate treasures in the world that they were a detriment to general cultivation. Based on that belief, he invaded the vaults of various factions and personally destroyed countless treasures!
“The other felt that there were too many powerhouses in the multiverse at that time. Since there were so many, they could exert control over the heavenly dao and impact its operations, thereby obstructing the development of life. So she chose the thirty-six strongest major worlds at the time and killed every single cultivator in them, including the great emperor!
“Reality later proved her to be… right.
“And now those two wholly lawless individuals… no, those two sheer lunatics, are Lu Yun’s followers.” Ashu looked at the young man like he was looking at a freak.
Lu Yun shrugged a bit awkwardly while Ge Long cackled in hell. It wasn’t a bad feeling to hear others recount his grand feats and famous achievements.
“Well, the two of them did something even crazier, and they dragged in a lot of others as well.” Ashu smiled wryly. “I’m not going to speak of that though, it was sheer madness!”
