Sword intent as weighty as heaven and earth radiated from Dongfang Hao.

Lu Yun had the suffocating feeling that he faced not the man nor his sword, but the entire world. Expression grave, he held the axe and the spear and stared coldly at Dongfang Hao.

There seemed to be a barrier wrapped tight around him, isolating him from the outside world. Lu Yun’s attacks weren’t able to even touch him.

Hum!

After an indiscernible period of time, a giant sword slowly materialized from the air: the Sword of Chaos in its true form.

“Die!!” Dongfang Hao took flight again. With a powerful battle cry, he swung the heavy sword at Lu Yun from above, as if he wielded the very world.

Giant sword looming in his sights, Lu Yun felt as small as an ant, helpless as heaven and earth rushed up to crush him.

“So you’ve got a world, do you?” He took a deep breath and somehow, time seemed to slow around him.

Swoosh!

The spear in his hand flared with a strange color as time slowed down in a nine meter radius around him. The world sought to crush Lu Yun, but the protective vacuum around him knocked it back.

This was a defense of Time Reincarnation.

The axe in Lu Yun’s other hand exploded in power as well, and he suddenly vanished. When he next appeared, he’d teleported above Dongfang Hao’s head.

“Cut!” Lu Yun boomed like a thunder clap, bolts of silver lightning running wild around him.

Dongfang Hao’s face turned beet red. He reached out and grabbed the falling axe and spear, allowing the lightning to tear into him.

“Hahahaha!” he burst into hearty laughter. “I underestimated you this time, Lu Yun. I didn’t expect you to possess such strange lightning. The next time we meet, I will kill you!”

True killing intent had only now arisen in his heart. Before Lu Yun could respond, Dongfang Hao’s body disintegrated into ashes and scattered on the wind. He hadn’t come here in his true form, after all.

Rumble.

As Dongfang Hao’s body fell, so did the minor world collapse into faint spots of light before fading away.

Lu Yun fell to the ground, panting heavily as the silver lightning around him dissipated completely.

Qing Yu walked out of the barrier of the three immortal fires. She wasn’t feeling too well, either. The minor world created by the shard of immortal dao had been deployed to deal with her, and it’d successfully taken a great toll. Fortunately, the Embittered Bamboo was within her body, which she could deploy as a replica at any time.

With a wave of her hand, a soul seed appeared in her palm. Dongfang Hao had somehow planted one in the midst of that battle. With her replica, however, she was now able to discern anything unusual about her condition. Thus, she hadn’t been distracted by the events happening in the minor world and had fished out the foreign intruder before it could take root.

……

“That sword...” Qing Yu came up to Lu Yun and replenished his inner energy with hers. “Is it really a sword of the divine race?”

Lu Yun gave her a curious look. “What did you notice?”

“I read the immortal dao within the sword. It... shouldn’t be a weapon of the divine race, but of immortal dao,” she said with a frown. “It won’t revitalize the divines, just incorporate them into the immortal dao itself.”

Lu Yun stared in blank confusion.

“Dongfang Hao first brought Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen to heel, turning them into his sword divines. Then he keeps going after you...” Lu Yun mused. “Even if it’s a sword of the immortal dao, Dongfang Hao must be planning to rule over the immortal dao as its new master.”

Qing Yu nodded quietly.

Moonlight shone upon a peaceful world, as if nothing had taken place at all; the epic clash had attracted no attention. The minor world Dongfang Hao had brought with him imitated the properties of a seed storage. It blended into the world like air, invisible and untraceable.

“The divine race may not return to wreak havoc in the world,” Qing Yu murmured, “but I know that Dongfang Hao is certainly up to no good.”

“Hmm?” Surprise gripped Lu Yun once again. To the world of immortals, the divine race was the common enemy of all beings. They’d ruled over and enslaved the entire world, treating all living beings as livestock for their butcher block.

It wasn’t until eighty thousand years ago that the immortals of the world had banded together to topple their rule and exiled the divines. Even today, the divine race searched for an opportunity to strike back, eager to claim the world as theirs again and regain their throne as master of all.

“I once perused an incomplete text that wasn’t a jade slip created with the nascent spirit, but a record kept on the skin of a dao immortal divine.” Qing Yu dug through the cobwebs of her memories. “Eighty thousand years ago, the divines did indeed rule over the world of immortals, but according to that record, they didn’t enslave all beings. Instead, they were protecting the world from something else...”

“Do you mean...” Lu Yun’s heart sank, a frighteningly dire possibility coming to him.

“That’s right—I suspect that all living souls of that time had their memories tampered with!” Qing Yu postulated gravely. “If the divines really did rule over the world and enslave everyone, slaughtering all geniuses of other races that appeared, however did the immortals of the world fight back? Why are there no records left of the resistance in any of the ancient factions from the twenty-four facets?”

“Recountings of the great war against the divine race were passed down via oral history, or written by later generations. Those from eighty thousand years ago left no jade slips regarding the fight... I’ll ask the desolate willow in the Skandha Range when I go back,” Lu Yun said with a slow nod.

The Skandha Range had something to do with the four evil coffins, and the desolate willow was no regular being, either. If there had been a mass memory reset eighty thousand years ago, the willow shouldn’t have been affected.

If even its memory had been tampered with, the ramifications would be downright terrifying.

“Then, what you’ve done to the Exalted Divines...” Qing Yu brought up worriedly.

“The Exalted Divines and four cardinal tribes didn’t exist eighty thousand years ago.” Lu Yun shook his head. “The Exalted Divines are after you. I don’t know what will happen if they’re allowed to rise to power.”

The shorter Death Spike should shatter the Exalted Immortal Sect’s fortunes, but the strange tribulation that’d ensued might’ve planted a seed of unexpected consequences. Lu Yun had no idea precisely what would happen.

Since the Exalted Immortal Sect was Zhao Zhicheng’s home, Lu Yun had promised to pull his punches here.

The sect’s fortunes were no more. Without it, the Exalted Divines would have trouble amounting to anything major even if the heavenly court fully came into its power. Lu Yun didn’t have to worry about what Zhao Wushuang might do in the future.

However, he didn’t think Dongfang Hao had told him the truth about the prince’s identity. Lu Yun had seen two pureblood Exalted Divines before, but both had been refined into corpse coffins. A singular pureblood Exalted Divine wasn’t enough to change the course of the world of immortals.

……

The Exalted celestial emperor didn’t send his delegates until the afternoon of the next day. Lu Yun knew that the celestial emperor didn’t want him to see how they’d set up the location where Zhao Wushuang was to undergo his tribulation. After all, it pertained to the secrets of the heavenly court.

The attempt was to take place in an area called the Divine Sea, a vast lake the size of a province. Legend spoke of primordial divine survivors that lingered in its waters, but no one had ever seen any with their own eyes.

“The Divine Sea forms a standalone space.” Lu Yun looked around and scanned the area upon entry, muttering with a frown, “There are indeed divines in the Divine Sea… They’re the sea divines of the Primordial Era, and look to be the secret weapons of the Exalted court. I wonder how many of them survived the great battle a hundred thousand years ago.”

Qing Yu, the Lin brothers, the little fox, and Li Youcai hadn’t come with him. A cruel battle would break out during Zhao Wushuang’s tribulation, which meant his companions might be in danger if they’d followed him.

“Hehehe… Lu Yun.” A pungent smell washed over him as Ge Yanxia sashayed toward him in a tight black dress.

Lu Yun pinched his nose and moved away after throwing her a sideways glance.

“You’ve used up the strange lightning stored in you, haven’t you?” she said in a loud voice, attracting the attention of Qi Hai and Donglin Taihuang.

“I have.” Lu Yun nodded forthrightly.

Thud!

With a wave of his hand, a black cannon landed with a loud boom, aimed at Ge Yanxia with brewing white light.

“That’s why I brought a crystal cannon with me. Don’t worry, I’ll pull my weight.”

Boom!

A beam of white light shot out of the cannon mouth straight at Ge Yanxia.