Xuanxi wasn’t a river god born out of the rituals held for the Dusk River. She’d been a genius of the shark spirit clan and Aoxue’s maid, becoming the Dusk river god only after acquiring its divine decree.

She shouldn’t have been able to claim the Dusk River with just her own power. But now that Lu Yun was an immortal and the ten Yama Kings of the Ten Halls assumed their rightful places, the Tome of Life and Death had granted Xuanxi, one of the ten Yamas, an exponential boost to her talents and strength.

As the Dusk river god, she exercised full control over the river and could take it as her own. Lu Yun had kept his hands off the river up until now because he believed it to be someone else’s property. Since he didn’t want to make an enemy out of this owner, he’d let the river be even after it ran dry.

Now, though, the river was right before his eyes, slowly becoming part of the area and fostering a terrible being with its yin and vicious energy. He wasn’t going to hesitate anymore.

If the “owner” of Dusk River came looking, he would have Ge Long deal with them.

Although Ge Long was currently left with only a damaged soul and was recovering in the kingdom of hell, his identity and status should be enough for him to rebuff any challengers.

Strangely enough, the old servant had been sitting cross-legged under the Karmic Tree ever since they arrived at Heaven Locus Land, sparing no attention for whatever was happening outside.

Meanwhile, Carmine Eternal, the divine beast that’d put on a powerful show in the Central World and kept the beings of the Blood Sea in line, had recovered some of her energy. She took the form as a girl in a red chiffon dress and hung out with the residents of the netherworld with great excitement.

……

Xuanxi stood above the Dusk River with her arms extended, her long marine-blue hair dancing in the air like blue streams. A strange glyph lit up between her brows—the divine decree of the Dusk river god.

The river roiled and tall waves rose until they threatened the sky. Black water agitated and converged toward the glyph on her forehead. Suddenly, her expression turned grave as her eyes shot open, and she cast a disbelieving look at the heart of the river.

A giant vortex had emerged out of nowhere, suctioning back the river that was headed to Xuanxi.

Countless zombies and dead spirits snarled and shrieked underwater as a strange power shot out of the vortex. Forming invisible blades, it slaughtered the myriad of monsters in the waters. Even the undead hags, whose physique made them almost invincible, shattered into inky yin spirits after a single blow and were devoured by the vortex.

“The river is indeed here to nurture something terrible!” Lu Yun’s expression darkened. He could sense an immense and terrifying power growing greater and greater beneath the giant vortex at the center of the river.

That thing had created the vortex.

However, Lu Yun didn’t sense any ripple of life from it, nor did he see anything dead. There wasn’t even a spirit there.

“What is it? A treasure? No, powerful treasures would have their own treasure spirits. Even if whatever’s underwater is a treasure, I should be able to see its spirit!” Confusion flashed through his gaze.

Above the vortex, Xuanxi did all she could to tap into the power of her divine decree, fighting for control of the Dusk River.

“Why don’t we get down there and take a look?” The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign had put away all his concerns upon arriving here and was eager for some action.

“Don’t!” Lu Yun shook his head. “That thing cut undead hags into pieces. If we go down there, we’ll immediately be cut apart and devoured.”

He flicked out a soybean, which flew into the vortex in a flash of gold. A warrior in golden armor emerged out of nowhere and was swept underwater. Lu Yun hurriedly activated Spectral Eye and connected his thoughts to the bean soldier’s.

Splash!

He died and was sent back to the outer realm before he could even draw breath for a scream.

“I got a clear look.” Lu Yun frowned. “It’s a sword, a sword without a hilt! It appears to be alive, but it isn’t. It isn’t a living being, but it doesn’t have a spirit, either. So what is it?”

That information didn’t give Lu Yun an answer.

“Can it be a connate-grade treasure? One that’s just taken shape,” Ashu spoke up. “There are different levels of connate-grade treasures. There are regular connate-grade treasures, connate-grade spirit treasures, and connate-grade peerless treasures!

“Perhaps the sword you can’t understand is a connate-grade peerless treasure in its infancy! It’s similar to the likes of Qing Yu’s Cosmic Eyes and Cosmic Skycarver, as well as your Cosmic Sea!”

The ultimate treasure of the peak factions in the world were all regular connate-grade treasures, while the Cosmic Sea, Cosmic Eyes, and Cosmic Skycarver found in the dragon tomb were connate-grade peerless treasures, the greatest among connate-grade treasures.

Unfortunately, neither Lu Yun nor Qing Han could tap into their full power.

Feinie’s Formation Orb had started out as a regular connate-grade treasure, then became a connate-grade spirit treasure after the Yin and Yang Formation Orbs merged. Apart from that, the connate-grade treasures Lu Yun had taken from the North Sea Palace were all regular ones as well.

“That’s not the case.” Lu Yun shook his head. “The sword isn’t naturally born, but man-made. The yin energy in the Dusk River isn’t so much nurturing it as contaminating it…” He shuddered. “That’s right! Someone’s trying to turn the sword into a yin sword!”

“A yin sword?” Ashu’s lips thinned. “That’s what happened to the Dusk River… It wasn’t like this before—it was polluted and transformed into a yin river!”

“Is whatever infected the Dusk River here? Is it polluting the sword with the river even now? Do you know who owned the Dusk River?” Lu Yun asked.

“The first owner of the river is buried under Dao City, within the ancient tomb exceeding emperor grade—this term doesn’t refer to the immortal emperor, but to the realm above the great emperors of the Primeval Era!

“The great personage has died, though, in an eon long ago. They and their three peers were each buried in four great tombs.

“The Dusk River was claimed by someone else after the ancient being’s death… It wasn’t until the end of the primeval human rule and establishment of the immortal dao that the Dusk River emerged again, as a yin river in the ancient tomb.

“I think... I’ve figured out what that thing under the river is...” Ashu said slowly. “Among the four great treasures of the four tomb owners, only one remains pure from pollution... It’s the sword!” Realization of the situation at hand struck him. “It mustn’t be contaminated! You have to get it out of the river!”