Agonizing pain pierced straight through Lu Yun’s body, assaulting his mind in waves. All of his tendons and bones felt like they’d been ground to paste and were being barely held together by the poor sac of his battered skin.

Suddenly, he felt something wet and warm touch his cheek. He struggled to open his eyes and saw the little fox lying prone next to his ear, unconsciously licking the blood on his face. She looked as broken as Lu Yun.

“This is my primary body. What’s going on? My primary body was in the kingdom of hell. How did I get here and in this state?” Dazed, Lu Yun took stock of his condition. His blood vessels, flesh, meridians, and bones were all blended together like dumpling filling. He couldn’t sense the six paths of his nascent spirit, the kingdom of hell, or Xing Chen. Even the Tome of Life and Death was nowhere to be seen.

What little immortal force remained in him was the only thing keeping him alive. Once it expired, his primary body would, too. And since he couldn’t sense his nascent spirit, the death of his body would mean the actual death of him.

“What’s going on? What the heck happened?” This was the worst injury he’d ever suffered since setting foot on the path of cultivation, and he’d never been this close to death before.

Waves of intense pain returned with redoubled fury and muddled his mind. Right before he fell unconscious, he heard a back and forth of some unknown language.

Then, there was only darkness.

……

“Ancestors’ spirits bless us.”

“Ancestors’ spirits bless us.”

“May the men of Ning Village return safely with a bountiful harvest.”

“May the men of Ning Village return safely with a bountiful harvest.”

……

Piercing yodels cut through the serenity of dawn. Ten men donning heavy leather armor with bows on their backs and sharp weapons in their hands marched into the dense forest before them, their steps unified and heads held high. They were in fine fettle and their collective presence imposing.

Half a year ago, a hunting group had brought Lu Yun and the little fox out of this very forest. After six months of arduous effort, the Ning people managed to bring them back from the brink of death, but only just.

It’d taken all this time for Lu Yun to recover, and he was currently no different from a fragile, ordinary mortal. His cultivation and immortal force were lost, and his constitution was in the same state as when he’d first arrived in the world of immortals.

A connate dormant bloodline with no capability to cultivate.

The little fox was in no better state. She’d also lost all of her cultivation and eight of her puffy tails. She’d even lost the ability to speak.

Without Lu Yun, she would die a quick death. The bell hanging around her neck was still there, however. Lu Yun had checked it thoroughly, but it seemed to be an ordinary item with nothing unusual about it.

The real issue at hand was that Lu Yun had no idea where he was. The explosion of the ruin had been too dreadful and he’d been blasted unconscious as soon as it went off. Even a great emperor with a world’s body couldn’t withstand its might.

Over the past few days since he’d awoken, he’d observed the constellations in the sky and discovered that they were no different from those in the world of immortals, save for some minor differences. He must be somewhere in the world of immortals, in a corner that no one knew anything about.

The world of immortals was vast. No one, contemporary or from the Primordial Era, had ever explored every inch of the world. That left many pockets of unknown territories. He must have been thrown here by the explosion—an undeveloped utopia of tranquility far removed from the struggles of the world of immortals.

I should focus on recovery for now. As long as I live, the Yama Kings of the Ten Halls and my Infernum will be safe and sound. Qing Yu won’t be worried either.

He slowly closed his eyes and observed the many realms of the world with his nascent spirit observation method and deployed the breathing method of the five elements at the same time. In his weakened state and losing his spirit root, he couldn’t employ the Method of Life and Death, but could practice the three cultivation methods he’d created: the breathing method, nascent spirit method, and body tempering method.

I’ve lost my connection to the Tome of Life and Death and in turn, my connection to the kingdom of hell where all my treasures are. Lu Yun chuckled wryly to himself.

He would immediately set foot on the path of cultivation again if he could get his hands on a single Aurum Openia Pill. After he recovered the Tome of Life and Death, all problems would be easily resolved. However, he’d have to ascend to immortality if he wanted to locate his replica.

The clock was ticking on his ninety-nine years.

If he failed to ascend to immortality again in ninety-nine years, the World Gates would be breached, and Violetgrave would become something even worse than the endless yin spirits. However, given his weak constitution, he had to take baby steps. He had to start with the basics of his breathing and observation method.

The mountains and woods here are rich in resources and energy. It’s likely to have grown the ingredients I need for refining an Aurum Openia Pill. Fortunately, the ingredients required are pretty commonplace. What makes the pill rare is the difficulty of its refinement.

Lu Yun went over some mental plans. He would enter the mountain to search for the ingredients after he’d recovered enough. Even if he couldn’t refine the pill, he could at least create medicine with the same properties. He wasn’t too pessimistic about things, and his primary goal was to return to the path of cultivation and recover the Tome of Life and Death.

“Brother Lieshan, Brother Lieshan!” a lilting voice called out. A girl roughly thirteen years old came up to him with a spring in her steps.

The past six months had proven time enough for him to learn the language here. Lieshan was the name he’d given himself. He didn’t dare use his real name in a place he didn’t know. What if it was part of a territory ruled by some peak factions?

If he was exposed, he’d be killed by the peak factions before the Dao Academy could find him. He couldn’t risk it, and picked the name Lieshan out of his nostalgia for Earth.

“Ah Bao.” Lu Yun opened his eyes to smile at a fair-skinned girl with clear, big eyes. It was thanks to her care that his injuries had recovered. She was the village chief’s granddaughter. Young, but quick on the uptake and clever with her hands.

“Brother Lieshan, the little fox has grown fat enough to be a meal!” She yanked the little fox from Lu Yun’s arms and gave her a good onceover. The little fox struggled in desperate fear, sending Lu Yun pitiful looks.

Ah Bao had talked about eating the little fox more than once over the past six months, but Lu Yun had always opposed the idea, saying the fox was too thin. Now that the little fox had gained enough weight to fill her frame, the girl was highly excited about the prospect of a good meal.

“That’s just as well!” Lu Yun nodded. “I want to get a taste of this fox as well.”

The little fox was ready to burst out into tears.