With a resounding boom, the kilometer-wide Skyturning Seal smashed into the ground and shook the earth. Intense shockwaves rippled out from the seal in all directions for hundreds of kilometers, forcing back the blazing sea of golden fire.

The fiery lion was annihilated, but it instantly reappeared in the next second. This time however, it didn’t come back with the flames.

……

“What’s going on here?!” The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign returned to his original size and withdrew the Skyturning Seal. He turned incredulously to Lu Yun—the nascent spirit observation method!

That lion enveloped by golden flames wasn’t a true living entity, but something similar to the projections of Lu Yun’s nascent spirit observation method.

“It’s the art of incantation!” Ashu quickly identified, “one of the great daos before Emperors Fall. With that great dao, even an ordinary mortal could utilize the art of Words [1] and direct the world’s energies. They could transform the energies of the world as they saw fit.”

The lion brimming with golden flames was an entity condensed out of the world’s energies, making it very similar in nature to what Lu Yun conjured with his nascent spirit observation method.

However, Lu Yun’s method used nascent spirit energy to shape the subjects of his thoughts. It was an act of combining conscious will with projecting what had been observed, utilizing the product as one would an arm or a leg.

Something created by the art of incantations was an external object—directed by the incantation and less nimble or agile. But according to Ashu’s words, even an ordinary mortal would be able to conform reality to their expectations if they grasped this art, making it terrifying beyond belief.

……

“Roar!”

“Roar!"

“Roar!"

Tremendous snarls rose and fell in the void as enormous beasts sparking with the light of fire converged from all sides. All of them were gathered from the energy of the heavens rather than being truly alive, but that didn’t make them any weaker than real beasts. They were each on par with a peak origin dao immortal!

“How dare trespassers disturb Xuan Yuan’s slumber! You will die for this unforgivable sin.” An enormous eagle voiced human language, its words a cue for the thousands of enormous beasts to pounce on the trio in a strange battle arrangement.

Lu Yun, Ashu, and the demon sovereign had returned to their regular sizes since there was no point in reducing their sizes for concealment. Though the Xuan Yuan Slaves didn’t cultivate, they possessed an exceedingly curious ability that enabled them to pinpoint where intruders were.

“Combat arts and treasures are useless against these things, so don’t waste your energy.” Lu Yun quickly stopped the demon sovereign when he saw the later was about to send out the Skyturning Seal again. “Nascent spirit observation method!”

Hummm.

Enormous exotic beasts crackling with purple-gold lightning popped into existence, following by bolts of purple-gold lightning careening wildly through the air.

Kui!

Just like the moat snake, the kui was the only one of its kind in the world. It had to die before a second one was born, but there was now a dense cluster of them in the skies!

A furious frenzy of thunder and lightning blasted out from ten thousand kui, shrouding ten thousand kilometers with stormy fury. Its onslaught was so overwhelming that the energy of the local land was broken up into disarray, and the bodies of the creatures formed by incantations began to break apart. However, the kui that Lu Yun projected with the nascent spirit remained untouched.

“Incantations itself are a fine enough art, but there’s too many limitations to them. It makes sense that they were left behind in history…” Lu Yun’s projections were just peerless immortals and theoretically less than an ant in front of these creatures, but the reality was that these inordinately strong incantation creatures were destroyed by simple projections.

Rumble.

Rumble—

RUMBLE!!

Ten thousand kui called upon their strength at the same time and sent thunder howling with abandon around them. Heavy, foreboding clouds gathered in the sky, forming an enormous cyclone of lightning and thoroughly bestirring the energy of the land in the area.

Any incantation beasts vanished utterly when they set foot in its wake.

“It’s them! They’ve come again! They’re the only ones who can instantly find the weaknesses of incantations! They’re here to destroy us like they did our forefathers!” wheezed a wizened elder so gaunt and aged that it boggled the mind and pointed a doddering finger at the herd of kui in the air.

“They’ve followed us into the tomb! Are they here for Master Xuan Yuan’s body? No wonder they keep heading south… After them, we can’t let them go to the yin side!” This elder was a bit different from the other Xuan Yuan Slaves. Instead of animal pelts, he wore a linen robe so old and tattered it looked more like rags.

A group of his brethren clustered around him, all so thin and weak that it seemed a strong gust of wind would blow them away. However, hundreds of giants at least five kilometers tall hovered protectively behind them.

“Go, notify those of the wood and water tribe to ignore the little moat snake. Go guard the south and don’t let the intruders near the yin side door no matter what!” the elder rasped with all his might. “Titans, receive your orders! Kill the three foreigners at all costs!”

“Understood!” Hundreds of titans waved their great axes and sprinted at the trio in a snarling charge.

The earth trembled like a giant earthquake was upon them as the wizened elder waved his dark staff, hopping and capering around while muttering certain incantations, looking like what mortals did when they summoned supernatural powers.

Hum.

A ray of orange light rose from the earth and melded into the realm, turning it into a swampy morass.

……

“This is an incantation too!” Ashu sensed the change in their surroundings. “Incantations are ever changing and highly versatile. Not only can they deploy the energy of the land and coalesce it into something real, they can call upon the elements of the world as well!”

“Incantations…” Lu Yun frowned. “They seem a bit similar to shamanic curses, but a little different as well. Demon Sovereign, hold off the titans. I’ll contend with the old man. Let’s see if his incantations or my combat arts are stronger!”

Incantations were something he’d never encountered before and one of the strongest great daos of the world. However, with the passage of time and the changes that had swept over and dao itself, the immortal dao was now the ruler of the world. The art of incantations was no longer recognized, so it could only be described as a secret mystic at most.

“Since you’re using earth-related incarnations to disturb the space, I’ll use the wood combat arts to break up your work!” Lu Yun extended a hand and grasped at the east.

Hum!

A ball of emerald green light appeared in his hand—Mastery of the Five Elements and connate wood energy!

As soon as it appeared, countless plants began to grow furiously over the land and devour the orange earth-affiliated strength.

1. Compelling the appropriate action based on whatever they said, this made an appearance in the early chapters of NECRO