The pierced Kui collapsed to the ground in a heap. It twitched a few times, then fell silent.

“Ook! Ook! Ook!” the silver scarlet ape roared loudly to the sky. It beat both of its gigantic fists against its chest with a rhythmic thump, thump, thump. After a while, a husky female voice emitted from the ape’s mouth. “Let’s go.”

“Mmm.” The golden scarlet ape nodded, and the two beasts disappeared in a flash of metallic light.

Four hours later, the golden ape suddenly reappeared.

“Is there really no one else here?” It scratched its head with a furry paw, then vanished once more, leaving behind only the faintest haze of light in the darkness.

Nevertheless, the stone that Lu Yun had turned into remained completely motionless.

After yet more time had passed, the silver scarlet ape reappeared as well. Its light blue eyes scanned the surroundings when it popped back in.

“Could they have left already? That slightest ripple of thought just now didn’t escape my notice.” The silver ape swept a glance at the kui it had punched a hole through. It was still convulsing, but it certainly wouldn’t live for much longer.

The apes fruitlessly searched for three more days before departing, seemingly for good.

“Finally,” Lu Yun breathed a sigh of relief. “So I was discovered after all, huh?”

When the silver scarlet ape had punched a hole through Kui, his thoughts had wavered the tiniest bit. The apes had noticed him back then.

Pop!

His body contracted into a mote of dust, and he carefully drifted toward the kui as best he could.

“It’s not dead yet. It’s alive, but only just!” His eyes lit up with eagerness. “This thing is mine, as long as it’s not dead!”

Lu Yun was overjoyed, as he wouldn’t be able to do much with a dead kui. He didn’t really want to grant it his last slot for an Envoy of Samsara.

While Kui was a master of countless thunder methods, and a primordial principal realm expert besides, Lu Yun didn’t consider it worthy of being an envoy. Moreover, Kui would be limited by its status as a new envoy; its cultivation would be restricted to the peerless immortal realm. What good would that do him?

As for its thunder methods… Lu Yun had the Thunder Palmstrike at his disposal, and could now deploy it instantaneously. When his cultivation improved, all thunder in the world would be at his command.

Lu Yun needed Kui’s battle prowess, not its talents.

Fwoosh!

He expanded to his full size at Kui’s side. The thunder god was incapacitated and immobile, its life force continually draining away. In only a few more moments, it would be completely dead.

Its body was infinitely smaller than the corpse divine that’d shown up in Azure Province. Right now, it was only three hundred meters long. Still, that was quite big compared to Lu Yun’s puny human body.

“I need to kill it fast, or it’ll die on its own.” Lu Yun drew Violetgrave from its scabbard and sent a flash of violet toward Kui’s body.

Clang!

A tremendous collision sent him reeling backward, requiring more than a dozen steps back to dampen the force.

Kui opened its huge eyes to reveal a hint of derision in its fading pupils.

“This kui’s body is as tough as an ingress realm immortal!” Violetgrave was a keen blade, but his cultivation wasn’t enough to make use of its full strength. Lu Yun was a mere void realm cultivator, while Kui was a primordial expert. It had lost most of its cultivation, but it was too mighty at ingress realm for him to even damage.

Kui glanced coldly at the young human by its side, then closed its eyes in resignation. Its aura of life was fading fast.

“What should I do? It’ll die real soon.” Lu Yun was rather anxious. Anything he killed would become his Infernum, but once Kui died on its own, he would only be able to turn it into an envoy.

“Maybe I can drag its corpse into hell… then use Resurrection to bring it back to life. I can kill it again after that, right?” His eyes sparkled with a new brilliant idea.

Resurrection was a death art that allowed him to revive anything that’d died within the last seven days, as long as he had an intact body to work with.

In hell, he was invincible. He could send Kui to hell, revive it, then kill it again. With that in mind, Lu Yun was no longer in a hurry. He sat down cross-legged to await Kui’s death.

Kui opened its eyes just a sliver and locked its gaze on to Lu Yun.

“Moooooo—" It suddenly bounced up, lowing vehemently into the air.

Its cry was filled with anger and anguish. Soundwaves roiled through the tomb in a single instant, stopping everyone inside the celestial master tomb in their tracks. All eyes swiveled to where Lu Yun and Kui were.

“Kui is about to die!”

“Why is it so angry… can it be?!”

“The corpse! Hurry, we must get Kui’s corpse!” Many immortals hurtled recklessly in search of the source.

……

“There was someone there after all! What remarkable skill. How did he manage to hide from me?” The silver ape’s lustrous face contorted in a cruel grin. “Let’s see what that insect truly is.”

The scarlet apes traded a look before flying toward the end of the tomb.

……

Kerthunk!

After its final cry, the Kui planted its skull into the ground. It had finally died.

“Shit, I’m screwed!” Lu Yun gasped in shock and horror. The thunder god’s death cry would surely summon back its killers.

“Open!” He had no time to think and immediately used the realms of yin and yang to send the Kui’s humongous carcass into hell.

“Lu Yun! So it was you!!” A raucous screech came from down the corridor. The scarlet apes had arrived in only a few breaths, and the golden one sounded pleasantly surprised.

“How good of you to come. Now, die!” It smashed its staff down upon Lu Yun’s head.

Shoom!

The young man disappeared on the spot, having fled into hell.

……

Cold sweat beaded Lu Yun’s head. His clothes were drenched in it, too. The golden scarlet ape’s staff had been mere milliseconds from crushing his skull. If the staff landed, he’d be erased from existence!

“Shit, shit, shit on a stick. I’m going right back to where and when I was the next time I leave hell! How am I supposed to avoid that staff?” Lu Yun was flabbergasted. The scarlet apes had come back a bit too fast, hadn’t they?

“Dammit! That silver ape could have killed Kui on the spot, but she left it a dying breath… it was a trap for me all along!”