As for why the realm monsters wanted the world of celestials, well, the blood demon had no idea. Luo Houluo and the realm monsters were just using each other, but upon the former’s transformation into Asura, his heart was flooded with the desire for annihilation and he no longer paid any attention to the realm monsters.
He would also be a direct cause for the future demise of the realm monsters, which was one of the main reasons why Hongjun hadn’t personally killed Asura in his infancy.
“So where are we and why is the bow’s world connected to the outside, enabling those creatures to flood in?” the blood demon asked again when the human youth didn’t answer him.
“Pangu’s tomb,” Lu Yun continued a beat later, “Akasha ghosts of the future are mutated from great emperors, so where are the ones here coming from?”
“Pangu’s tomb!!” shrieked the blood demon. “Do you want to die?! How dare you enter Pangu’s tomb? Do you not know that all of the most preeminent existences at the start of the world—staggering powerhouses on par with Leize—died inside Pangu’s tomb?!”
“Existences on par with Leize? And a lot of them?” Lu Yun blinked.
“Where else do you think the sky full of stars comes from?” the demon sneered. “In that first batch of most preeminent connate demon gods, Leize and Huaxu were just the lowliest, most ordinary members. But they all died in this tomb, down to the last demon!
“You’re just seeking death by coming here, and you’ve dragged me down with you!” the blood demon concluded with an indignant outburst.
He should’ve just squashed this harbinger of doom in its infancy the first time he met the human youth. Who cares about the future? He could’ve set up his own empire in the great wilderness and lived off the fat of the land as its supreme ruler!
Plus, with his knowledge of future events and personal experience in many matters, he would be able to pursue good fortune and evade disaster for a longer life.
“And, I can tell you that there were more than three creators upon the world’s inception. There were a full hundred and eight of them! They’re all dead now, all of them. There’s only Pangu and God left!
“That mysterious Daoist Hongjun didn’t reach this phenomenal level until later on in life. The great wilderness already once endured a cataclysm of great destruction before Taiyi, Fuxi, Dijiang, Nuanzi, and the others were born!
“Do you know what great destruction means? It was the utter collapse of the heavenly dao and death of all living beings. Even the skies were pierced through!” The blood demon became highly agitated. “Do you know how the Blood Sea was formed? Where do you think the endless blood comes from? It’s the blood that flows through the veins of all living beings from when the great wilderness crumbled!
“And do you know how Pangu died? He—” The blood demon suddenly cut off when he was about to reveal that incredible secret. All Lu Yun saw was soundless mouth shapes, and even the mouthed words slowly became disorderly and obscure.
“It looks like the great god’s death is another taboo,” he sighed with resignation.
Turning beet red from the force of his efforts, the demon god finally roared, “Release me!”
“Release you so that you can destroy the world?” Lu Yun snorted.
“I came to my senses after returning to the great wilderness! The obsession for seeking out annihilation has dispersed! I’m a blood demon now, not Asura!” The demon struggled futilely.
Raising an eyebrow, Lu Yun summarily released the blood demon.
Jerking with shock, the blood demon stood up, stretched with great relish, and then… pounced on Lu Yun with a snarl.
Rolling his eyes, Lu Yun slapped him back with a casual backhand.
The blood demon glared at the human for a very long time before plopping on the ground. “This is your world, you make the rules!”
“Out with it, what was the cataclysm of great destruction about? And why do you know all this?” Lu Yun asked coldly.
“I can’t speak of the cataclysm. The truth of it is hidden in the netherdark. It will see the light of day sooner or later,” the blood demon explained moodily.
Lu Yun nodded. “Be a good demon and stay here quietly since your obsession has left you. I might grant you freedom if we return to the future someday.”
With that, his projection faded away.
……
Lu Yun was still perplexed by the fact that there were akasha ghosts in Pangu’s tomb. According to what Zhi Guangji had once said, these ghosts were creatures mutated from the lingering resentment of great emperors.
“It looks like things here aren’t as simple as I thought.” Two balls of hell fire ignited in his eyes, followed shortly thereafter by the bow.
Since akasha ghosts had weakened the bow’s core by a third, Lu Yun decided to just refine the entire treasure with hellfire and turn it into a great treasure of hell. After an indeterminate period of time, the black flames in his eyes slowly sputtered out, leaving behind a sun blazing with hellfire behind his head.
Throughout this process, the blood demon quietly sat cross-legged in its center, shivering with fear from the changes and not even daring to think of trying anything else.
Pangu’s tomb was so vast that it seemed unending, or like a world. Its structure was roughly the same as Yi’s tomb—a magnificent and extensive palace. There weren’t any extraneous tunnels or burial chambers as it reflected the most primitive layouts of the dao of burial.
However, these kinds of layouts appeared most dangerous in Lu Yun’s eyes.
“The mother altar and the origin divine.” He sucked in a sharp gasp when he reached the center of the palace.
He’d once seen the mother altar in the Exalted Divine Tomb, as well as a sculpture of the origin divine. However, the mother altar there had been an empty shell since the genuine article was in the Xuanyuan Tomb. The sculpture there had also petrified into nothing but pure stone.
On the contrary now, the one before him was a true mother altar. Five other giant altars floated above it—the altars of metal, fire, water, wood, and earth!
The four-headed, eight-armed origin divine slept silently on its bed. It was alive, but it rested on the mother altar to receive worship since its true spirit was yet incomplete.
“This is first divine spirit that God created?” Lu Yun frowned at the sleeping origin divine, finally realizing what was wrong here.
The mother altar’s strength was defined by the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—as represented by the five elemental altars floating above it. However, the source of the origin divine’s strength should be the four divine elements—earth, air, fire, and water.
In other words, it was impossible for the origin divine to have been born from the mother altar.
“Is there another set of altars somewhere, and that mother altar is where the origin divine was born?”
As Lu Yun mused upon this, the thud of footsteps traveled out of the depths of the palace. Troops of black-armored soldiers marched out, backs ramrod straight and feet marching in unison. They came in Lu Yun’s direction and didn’t change their advance though there was an obstacle in their way.
The soldiers weren’t alive, of course. Lu Yun saw the green flicker of ghostfire in the shadows of their helmets.
“Make way for yin soldiers!” His expression turned exceedingly ugly when he saw what approached him.
