Lu Yun was talking to the immortal emperor! Was the man real?!

Empress Myrtlestar shot to her feet.

“Sit down, that wasn’t me.” Lu Yun’s timely warning rang in her mind. She opened her mouth, but decided against saying anything. “You should return to the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, senior. Your soul is incomplete, which makes you highly exploitable. You can’t maintain your composure when facing the temptations from akasha ghosts.”

Shaking his head, he went up to her and took the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals from her limp hands. With another faint sigh, Empress Myrtlestar vanished into the scroll in a flash of light and the treasure settled down in Lu Yun’s hand.

In the beginning, both Lu Yun and Empress Myrtlestar had fallen for Lu Shenhou’s tricks and summoned an akasha ghost, which had disguised itself among the illusions. Thankfully, it’d been driven away by the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals before further harm could occur. Only then did Lu Yun realize what was happening.

The immortal emperor created by the layout of absolute death turned and looked silently at Lu Yun, who returned the gesture.

“We lost.” To Lu Yun’s great surprise, the image suddenly spoke. The Spectral Eye was revealing... something unexpected. “The entire world of immortals lost.

“Before my death, I saw a giant invisible hand piece together our torn body parts and bury us in different parts of the world. My body is buried at the center of the world, alongside something that will determine the fate of the world of immortals!” His tone abruptly turned grave. “Find it and take it! You must take it before those people find it first!”

A tremendous aura surged from the immortal emperor, exceeding origin dao immortal realm and even the ingress, primordial, and principal realms. His strength had entered an entirely new realm!

It was jade pure realm, the realm after supreme pure realm!

“Return from whence you came!!” snarled the immortal emperor when he looked up. Punching out with supreme might, he shattered the layout of absolute death around an akasha ghost. The would-be assailant popped like a bubble, its departure marked with a final whimper.

“All of you failed as well! As failures, you should swallow your defeat and return to the void rather than rampage like this in broad daylight!”

Kaboom!

One after another, the immortal emperor blasted the akasha ghosts into nonexistence. They were never alive to begin with, which meant they were unkillable. He could at most send them back to wherever they’d come from. The akasha ghosts that had been ‘killed’ by the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals weren’t actually dead, either.

Something the immortal emperor said caught Lu Yun’s attention. Akasha ghosts were also failures!

What does that mean? Had the akasha ghosts been like the primordial immortal emperor before their deaths?

Lu Yun’s thoughts were a tangled mess. However, he did notice that the immortal emperor, just like the others, was still failing to see the real Lu Shenhou. The Lu Shenhou in Empress Myrtlestar’s eyes was an illusion created by the akasha ghosts with the layout of absolute death.

Lu Yun didn’t know what the immortal emperor was. He wasn’t a ghost, nor was he the lingering obsession of the emperor… He was something incomprehensible, but not even he could see Lu Shenhou!

“That’s right,” Lu Shenhou said with a faint sigh. “We’re all failures. But!” Violent waves of power surged from him, prompting even the immortal emperor to turn around in horror. However, he still couldn’t see anything at the origin of the energy.

“We won’t rest easy!

“Why should we sacrifice ourselves and our dao for the sake of others?!

“We refuse to accept that fate!”

Bam!

Suddenly, Lu Shenhou struck the immortal emperor with a palm strike. The immortal emperor reflexively lifted his arms to block the attack, but the palm instantly punched straight through his body and rendered him into ashes!

“It’s you...” the immortal emperor’s voice whispered about in the air. “They are the enemies… You must be careful.”

Then, even his voice scattered without a trace on the wind. When Lu Yun turned to Lu Shenhou, the latter’s expression had calmed.

“You’re a pig I’ve been raising as well, Lu Yun,” Lu Shenhou said leisurely. “You’re not strong enough yet, not mature enough for me to slaughter.

“As for that thing,” he looked at the hazy Tome of Life and Death, “it must have a weakness, just like everything else that exists. We’ll find a way to counter it.

“Qing Yu is merely one of our lesser pawns, one cast in a fit of boredom.” A conspiratory smile tugged at his lips. “Another piece is coming to fruition soon. I hope you’ll be able to save her then.”

Lu Shenhou slowly faded out of existence, like he’d never been here. A formation suddenly exploded in the crystal garden, and the forge of earth and sky popped into view.

Qing Yu sat cross-legged within the forge, surrounded by poisonous black smoke. A grey pillar of light shot out of her body and pierced the firmament, seemingly connected to something above. As Lu Yun made a series of hand seals, the gray light gradually faded into pure white.

……

“What’s going on? What are they doing?!” With the formation broken, some noticed what was going on in the garden. The formation had created a seed storage to conceal Lu Yun and Qing Yu; however, Lu Shenhou had shattered the subspace when he departed.

……

“Off you go. Little Yu is injured, I’m merely treating her injury.” Xing Chen soared into the sky and unleashed a tremendous aura.

The spectating immortals started, reminded of the moment the Ancient Tree of Life had descended upon Dusk Province. Even the demon god had been defeated, which was enough to discourage them from attacking Lu Yun in his own territory. They wouldn’t be able to do anything but watch even if he did establish his dao here.

……

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

Great rumbling noises echoed from Qing Yu’s body. The Key of Life, Fusang Purewood, pearls of the four spirits, and essence of the Four Guardians emerged from her body. She’d turned the silver of starlight as rays of cosmic radiance streamed down from the sky to wash over her, and she looked like a goddess stepping out from the light.

Hum.

Snow-white light flared from her body and shattered the gray light from earlier as the true Dao Flower slowly descended upon the scene.