Lu Yun’s face twitched to see the little fox resemble Ah Bao and tug on his hem like the mountain ghost once had. Though she’d last seen him hundreds of millions of years ago, to him, he’d only bid her farewell a dozen years past. She was now Wanfeng and had recovered her previous memories, and administered Dusk Province for him.
When he saw the mountain ghost again, a peculiar distress rose in his heart when he thought of Wanfeng. His farewell of a dozen years had been hundreds of millions of years of interminable waiting for Ah Bao. Just like the fake Fuxi had said, Lu Yun’s ten years were too long.
“Why don’t you go back to your own form?” He rubbed his nose.
The little fox rolled a sultry eye and returned to the shape of a dusty fox with a shake of her body. She jumped to Lu Yun’s shoulder and looked around blankly.
“Where are we?”
They were on a desolate star that likely belonged to a planet somewhere. Though dead spirits roamed the star, there weren’t that many of them. The little fox had visited some lower worlds during this time, but this one seemed different from the ones she’d set foot on before.
“This is a newly born star.” Lu Yun lifted his head to look at the sky above. It was gray and nebulous, without life. It wasn’t the boundless night sky above it, but the chaos.
Within the multiverse, the energy of a realm refined the chaos and created stars according to the laws of celestial bodies. There was a shifting boundary between the intersection of the multiverse and the chaos, and this star had just been born out of the chaos.
If Lu Yun wanted to seek out his own chaos dao fruit, he had to search in places like these.
This was a primitive star in which the laws of a realm collided with the chaos. There were still traces of energy from the chaos on this newly born star. However, it was too weak for him and couldn’t become his dao fruit. It’d be shattered by the strength within his body the second he refined it into himself.
“What a shame that I destroyed my opportunity with my own hands,” he chuckled ruefully. He’d personally struck twice to destroy the chaos dao fruit that Fuxi had nurtured within his tomb.
The first time had been to resurrect Fuxi—killing the four divine spirits had also destroyed the budding dao fruit. The second time had been when he combined the essence of the Ascension Pool with its body; the essence had been the core of the tomb. Though it was now stored in hell, it was almost impossible that it birth another chaos dao fruit.
“Have you ever considered that maybe the chaos can also nurture its own stars?” The little fox jumped on top of Lu Yun’s head and looked into the shifting gray. She murmured, “The chaos is such a mysterious place. No one knows what exists within it.”
“Maybe, but the chaos is too big for me. I don’t have the ability to enter it like Fuxi did.” Since there was no sense of time in the chaos, Lu Yun couldn’t guarantee that the world of immortals would still exist after he entered it and found his dao fruit. He’d been able to locate Fuxi’s tomb last time only because the demon god had subconsciously led him there.
“If I had the ability to travel the chaos, then the dangers facing the world of immortals would be resolved,” he snorted wryly and comforted himself, “But the energy of a realm possesses a fatal attraction for many things in the chaos. Perhaps a star born there will be attracted by the laws of celestial bodies here.”
“Young man, how much for your fox?” a slightly hoarse and weak voice sounded behind Lu Yun.
He turned around to see a malnourished elder almost drooling over the little fox. Uncomfortable with the stare, Miao darted into Lu Yun’s robes.
Though the elder appeared in human form, Lu Yun was certain he wasn’t human. The elder’s skin was blackish gray and two horns poked up from his head. A slight bulk protruded from his back—something else should be there as well.
“Not for sale.” Lu Yun frowned and declined without another word. He’d sensed the existence of other life forms on this primitive star, but couldn’t identify how strong the unknown creature was in front of him. Despite that, he could sense the greed and desire from it.
“Even a leg would be fine… I haven’t eaten in three years.” His eyes shifting green, the elder stared at the bulge in Lu Yun’s robes. “No food in three years, I’m going to die from starvation!
“A spirit stone for its leg!” He swallowed noisily. “You’re human, so I can’t eat you, but I won’t be punished for eating a fox. Give it to me for a spirit stone!”
He advanced on Lu Yun with eyes that glowed green, exuding a strange ripple from his body that seemed completely foreign to that of life forms beneath the immortal dao.
Frowning slightly, Lu Yun twitched his fingers and summoned Quietus to him from a faint ripple in the void.
“Young man, you wanted to attack me first. They won’t say anything now that I beat you and take your fox away.”
Humm.
A pair of black bat wings extended from the elder’s back and he vanished on the spot in a blur.
Irritated, the little fox itched to take action, but Lu Yun shoved her back in before she could do anything.
“Just stay quiet. Every expert in the multiverse will know I’m here if you try anything.” As he spoke, Quietus transformed into a water ripple and slashed at a certain corner.
No one apart from Lu Yun, Qing Yu, Fuxi and some others knew about Quietus, that it was a treasure of the chaos. Lu Yun had never displayed it before others, and the connate demon gods in the chaos didn’t have the courage to return to the world of immortals yet.
Quietus recognized Lu Yun as its master and was very well matched to him, so Lu Yun was able to bring a corresponding level of strength to bear with his cultivation. He didn’t use any combat arts or techniques with this slash, just followed the most fundamental trajectory of immortal dao without any extraneous flourishes.
Whoosh—
A single stroke was enough to make the vanished elder materialize again, his face full of sweat. Quietus was halted less than half an inch from his forehead.
No killing intent exuded from the unknown life form, or Lu Yun would’ve taken his life with this move.
