“Lieshan, do you fancy yourself a top chaos realm expert in the great wilderness after killing Huashe and Fuzhu?” These were Wahuang’s first words to Lu Yun upon seeing him.
“Why does the holy emperor say so?” Lu Yun replied, flabbergasted. “There’s nothing special about Huashe and Fuzhu. The chaos realm masters who have transformed into suns in the cosmos are all countless times more powerful than them… Why should I feel any sense of accomplishment after killing the two?
“Besides, there are many more great powers in the great wilderness and many connate demon gods who can take my life. In fact, Luo Houluo can also kill me with a single thought. He must have stayed out of this conflict out of respect for you…”
Wahuang glared at him ferociously. “What am I supposed to say after you’ve said all this? I’ll give you another chance!”
After a bemused pause, Lu Yun ventured tentatively, “The holy emperor is right. Fuzhu and Huashe are both connate demon gods. Since I could kill them, I must be one of the greatest powers in the great wilderness.”
“Watch your arrogance!” Wahuang scoffed. “Fuzhu and Huashe are nothing special. It’s no great deed that you managed to kill them! The connate gods who have transformed into the suns in the cosmos are all far more powerful than they are!”
Ehh… Lu Yun swallowed his protests.
“There’s no place for your arrogance here, you must learn to be humble! There’s no shortage of great powers in the great wilderness who can take your life!”
Lu Yun remained silent until Wahuang shot him a sideways glance. “How droll. Remember not to take the words out of my mouth next time!”
“Understood, I won’t!” Well, this holy emperor of the human race, the Lady Nuwa he’d heard so much about in future legends, was certainly quite different from what he’d imagined.
“Alright, why did you come to Mount Buzhou this time?” Wahuang asked in a softer voice, gracelessly sprawling into a cross-legged position onto a nearby azure rock.
She’d assumed that Lu Yun would either stay in a human tribe and cultivate studiously, or pay a visit to the Mu Tribe in the East Sea so he could ask Ling Weiyang to acquire the Constellation Willow from Luo Houluo.
But here Lieshan was, in Mount Buzhou.
Lu Yun hurried to explain, “In response to the holy emperor…”
Wahuang waved a hand at him and interrupted, “Though you haven’t reached the chaos realm, you are capable of killing those in the realm. That makes you one of us. You may call me ‘fellow daoist’.”
“Fellow daoist!” Lu Yun sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Then, he gingerly set up a formation to create an isolated space, upon which the little fox popped out of Lu Yun’s embrace.
“Tushan? I thought you didn’t have anything to do with the opposite gender.” Wahuang’s eyes shot wide open. “Taiyi almost divorced Yinglong for you… You… you… Why would you put yourself in a man’s arms?”
The little fox twitched her furry ears. With a flash of dreamlike silver light, she manifested as the stunning woman who could topple a city with her beauty.
“He might as well be a hunk of rock. There’s no space left in his brain for anyone else, so he won’t have any untoward thoughts toward me.” Tushan plopped down on the giant boulder much like Wahuang had.
Lu Yun smiled wryly.
“Yinglong entrusted these to Lie Shan.” The little fox brought out the two eggs. “They’re her children with Taiyi!”
“It’s them! They were born in the great wilderness through Taiyi and Yinglong!” Wahuang couldn’t contain herself when she saw the two eggs and hurriedly muffled her exclamations. “I understand now… Follow me!”
She jumped down from the boulder and made her way to the depths of Mount Buzhou. Tushan transformed back into a little fox and burrowed into Lu Yun’s arms.
After a beat, Lu Yun huffed out a resigned laugh and followed Wahuang.
“Arbiter bears too much killing intent. If she’s sent into the blood sea, she may very well become the world’s most dangerous, crazed fiend bent on murder. Only sites blessed with the most magnanimous energy of the earth can counter her bloodthirsty nature.
“Mount Buzhou is the origin of the great wilderness. It serves as a pillar for the cosmos above and a doorway to the netherdark. Nurtured here is the purest of earthly energy, Yinglong was born here as well,” Wahuang explained as she walked.
“Eternal is mild-tempered and personable. It will be difficult for someone like her to survive in the great wilderness. Therefore, she must go to the blood sea and inherit its vicious violence and killing intent. Only then she’ll become a vicious god of slaughter for whom nothing is off limits.”
“Will the connate demon gods really go extinct in the future?” Lu Yun asked.
Wahuang answered with a question of her own. “Have you encountered any connate demon gods in your time?”
“In my time?” Lu Yun shook his head. “I am too weak to see the cosmos.”
The world of immortals was a complicated place, much more so than the great wilderness. Here in the wilderness, any sentient being, even the lowliest ones, knew about connate demon gods as the greatest power in the world, rivalling figures such as Celestial Emperor Taiyi. They also knew about the existence of certain creators in their time.
In the world of immortals, on the other hand, such truths were only known to those who had reached a certain height in their cultivation.
Lu Yun had once thought that immortals were the most powerful beings in the world of immortals, with the nine celestial emperors placed at the very top. As he grew stronger and stronger, however, he learned from what he heard and saw. Still, it felt like he could never see the sky and never glean the deepest truths of the world.
Had connate demon gods really gone extinct in his time? Had realm monsters really been erased?
Lu Yun suddenly couldn’t be certain of what was and wasn’t in the world of immortals.
Wahuang fell silent as well. She hadn’t been to the future and hadn’t seen the world of immortals with her own eyes. Although Fuxi had told her about how things would develop from their time, his version of the story might not be entirely accurate.
……
A ball of terrifyingly powerful life energy resided at the heart of Mount Buzhou, where a mighty divine beast was to be born.
“There are five cardinal directions between heaven and earth—east, west, south, north, and center.” Wahuang stood before the ball of concentrated energy. “Azure Dragon of the east, White Tiger of the west, Vermilion Bird of the south, and Black Tortoise of the north have all been born, each ruling over a cardinal direction… The god of the center is the only one who remains unborn.”
“Moat Snake!” Lu Yun voiced his realization.
“That’s right, Moat Snake.” Wahuang nodded. “It should’ve been born as the lord of the central world, but my parents, Leize the connate divine dragon and Huaxu the connate divine snake, sealed it away.
“They did it for her.” She summoned Carmine Arbiter’s egg with a wave of her hand.
“She was to be the first connate god of the netherdark and its ruler, responsible for establishing the cycle of reincarnation,” murmured Wahuang. “Unfortunately, her fortuitous opportunity was claimed by Darkriver and so mastery over the rules of the world is her compensation. She will be born into the body of the Moat Snake, but with her own soul.”
“What about the original Moat Snake?” Lu Yun frowned. “Won’t this be unfair to them?”
Darkriver had taken Carmine Arbiter’s chance of life, but now, wasn’t she going to do the same to Moat Snake?
“The original Moat Snake?” Wahuang blinked. “You just killed him.”
