Ge Long was short and scrawny, his back slightly hunched over, but at this moment, he looked incredibly imposing. Faint black flames even circled around him—not hellfire, but another fire with great destructive power.

His attack threw the white being back into the void deep within hell, never to be heard from again. Everything seemed to settle down.

……

“You...” Xing Chen stared dumbly at Ge Long. He didn’t expect the old servant to explode with such prodigious battle strength.

“Who the hell are you?!” Lu Yun demanded after a deep breath. This Ge Long was definitely not the once-grand steward of House Ge, the one who wanted to kill Lu Yun to avenge his granddaughter!

Lu Yun had never put much thought into when the old man had appeared in Yuying’s tomb out of the blue. He’d always thought that Ge Long’s continued existence and strength originated from the Tome of Life and Death.

How very wrong he’d been!

Ge Long showing up in Yuying’s tomb marked the defining moment in which he was something else entirely. Something Lu Yun didn’t know about. His was a power that the current Tome of Life and Death couldn’t grant.

“Hehehe.” Ge Long bowed and smiled his usual servile and overly fawning smile. “This old man is your servant, sir.”

Xing Chen stared dumbly at Ge Long, at a loss for words. The Sal Tree of Life and Death wasn’t in Xing Chen’s body, but he could tell through his connection to Lu Yun that the attitude Ge Long projected was completely genuine.

“You need not lose confidence in yourself, milord. If your heart and lungs hadn’t been in conflict with each other, your sword dao would’ve been able to kill that thing.” Ge Long continued merrily, “Once you incorporate the remaining three organs into your replica, there will be very few in the world who can rival you.”

Xing Chen felt an urge to smack his face. He was lucky enough already to have acquired the two organs, all five were out of the question!

Even if the other three organs had already been created, they must be in the possession of personages he couldn’t afford to earn the enmity of. For example, the heart had been in Ashu’s possession. The holy lord was a mighty figure in the underworld, and there was no telling how great his strength would be if completely unleashed.

The liver, kidneys, and spleen must be in the hands of great powerhouses like him as well.

Noting Xing Chen’s expression, Ge Long said knowingly, “This old servant doesn’t know where the kidneys and the spleen are, but the liver will be yours if milord can acquire the Ancient Tree of Life.”

Xing Chen started.

“The liver is in the tree!” Ge Long declared with great certainty.

“How do you know?” Xing Chen frowned.

“Because the Key of Life was born from the liver,” responded the old servant who wasn’t who he appeared to be.

Xing Chen didn’t intend to follow up on that line of inquiry. Although Ge Long wasn’t lying, he was very adept at skirting the real issues at hand. Further questioning wouldn’t result in any real answers.

“The dangers to Dusk Province haven’t been resolved yet,” Xing Chen changed tack. “Go help.”

“This servant… this servant would have to seal my core like Ashu if I am to leave hell, or trouble will follow.” Ge Long hurriedly shook his head. “Besides,” he pointed with resignation at the unknown abyss of the netherworld, “that thing has broken out of its restraints. This old servant has to stay here and keep watch, or it’ll destroy hell during this early stage of its recovery.”

“Alright then.” Xing Chen shook his head and turned to leave. Another battle had started outside, one that he had to intervene in.

After his departure, a pair of fearful, stark-white eyes slowly materialized.

“You, it’s you...” The white being from earlier was left with only a pair of eyes, ones that looked out with a shocked and fearful gaze. “You, you’ve become someone else’s servant...”

Ge Long shot it a glare and didn’t pay it any more attention. He dropped down to the ground, picking up the shattered shards of the coffins.

The three coffins had been destroyed by the white being’s world-creating punches. Strangely enough, the Blood Sea and remains that should’ve been found within them were nowhere to be seen. It was as if the three coffins in hell had always been empty.

Black fire surged in Ge Long’s hands again, enveloping the three coffins. They emerged anew, whole and complete, landing at the boundary of light and darkness in hell and setting down as a line of defense.

“They’re your coffins!” The pale eyes widened. “You’re dead, this isn’t the real you. You’re just a fragment of lingering obsession...”

Sheer relief washed over its gaze, dispersing some of its fear and shock.

Ge Long looked up and summoned a flash of starlight from the Cosmic Sea overhead with a wave of his hand, sending it barrelling into the darkness with a roar.

The eyes vanished with a final cry.

Gone was the humble and servile look Ge Long wore when facing Lu Yun; in its place was a particularly aloof expression.

“Neither copper, iron, nor steel; under Mount Sumeru it lies hidden. Refined not with reversed yin and yang; no edge sharpened by water and fire...” he chanted softly.

Hum!

Three swords of different colors shot into the three coffins within the endless darkness.

……

Impending doom still loomed over Dusk Province.

The Blood Sea in the sky grew thicker and more viscous as it slowly descended to the earth. Mysterious giant monsters howled and brandished their claws within the scarlet depths, itching to charge out. They had one common goal: destroy the damaged, but slowly recovering projection of the Dao Flower.

The Enneawyrm Coffinbearers had gone silent after entering the sea of blood, but everyone could sense a great battle occurring between two enormous beings deep within the sea. Immortals of different clans fled from Dusk Province to the North Sea.

“Blood Sea… It really is the Blood Sea!” someone screamed in terror. “Forty thousand kilometers of a sea of blood is hovering over the province!”

Many saw a red cauldron turned upside down over Dusk Province, pouring out a scarlet sea that enveloped the land. Monsters rained down from the waters like beans spilling out of a bag, charging at Lu Yun with mad abandon.

They were strange looking, some resembling monster spirits and others resembling humans. But most were crippled; there were a few left with only a head or an arm. Lu Yun was their only target. To all the other living souls in Dusk, the monsters were only harmless illusions.

This was Lu Yun’s tribulation for establishing his dao, the truest test set forth for him.

Wielding the great water jar and the Sugato Sword over his head, Lu Yun waded through blood as he fought the terrible monsters.

No one could help him. Not even the human demon, the restriction of Dusk Province, could touch the monsters. Very soon, Lu Yun drowned in the endless swarm of Blood Sea monsters.

“I’ll help you!” Qing Yu screamed, charging into the Blood Sea with the Cosmic Skycarver and the blazing Scroll of Shepherding Immortals. However, the Blood Sea was an intangible illusion, a mere dream to her. She almost went out of her mind when she flailed around and hit nothing at all.

Hum.

At this moment, a violet sword slash cut through the void and threw the monsters back, slicing them in half.

Xing Chen emerged from hell with a hundred and eight thousand flying swords, hacking away at all the monsters around him.

He’d ascended to immortality from the void realm. Although he hadn’t undergone a tribulation, nor had he manifested any phenomenon when ascending, he was more powerful than the void-ascended immortals. The heart and lungs within him possessed power far greater than any heavenly forces.