“The Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates?” Lu Yun looked at the grand diagram with shock.

It was grander than he could have ever imagined! Palaces clustered within the diagram, each palace representing a standalone world. There were at least three thousand of them!

It was a formation of three thousand worlds?!

The Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates wasn’t only used to seal away the mother altar in the Xuan Yuan Tomb, but was also employed to protect the ancestral planet of the human race—namely, the planet of the great wilderness.

Fuxi had once served as Taiyi’s celestial master and naturally passed on many of his tricks to the celestial emperor, including his knowledge of formations. That had played an important role in establishing the celestial court, and facilitating Taiyi to become the ruler of the great wilderness, making countless connate demon gods his to command.

“Yes, the Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates!” Taiyi declared proudly. “Fuxi created and set up many of the formations of the celestial court. Only this great formation is this sole emperor’s invention. It is the most wondrous formation of them all since the world’s creation!”

Eyes bright with curiosity, Lu Yun took a close look at the formation’s internal workings.

“...are you sure you want to seal off this area with this particular formation?” he asked with a frown. “My own formations may not be as powerful, but they’ll give you a chance to survive. This formation, on the other hand, will ensure your demise!”

“And you think this emperor fears that?” Taiyi smiled.

“There is already a way to break through this great formation in the future...” Lu Yun offered hesitantly.

“The future is the future. At this current point in time… there is no other formation more suitable for this purpose.” Taiyi shook his head. He’d made up his mind and his figure was fading fast. Before he vanished completely, he asked in an indistinct voice, “After all this time, do you still refuse to forgive me, Tushan?”

“I forgave you a long time ago.” The little fox popped up and shook her head. “It was you who couldn’t forgive yourself.”

“Hahahaha! I see, that was indeed the case. So I’ve been agonizing myself into a corner all this while.”

……

With the final disappearance of the celestial emperor, the last remains of his spirit and soul entered the diagram of the Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates.

Lu Yun cast out the diagram with a wave of his hand, turning it into a real formation and overshadowing the sea of fire.

Rumble!

Stars trembled and broke out in a unified dirge as melancholy permeated the cosmos.

Soldiers stationed around the ocean of fire cried out in shock and mourning. Residing within the sea of fire all this time, their emperor had truly passed away this time, disappearing from the world without leaving a trace behind.

Under Lu Yun’s guidance and accompanied by general sorrow, the great formation transformed into levels and layers of palaces around the sea of fire. They then converged and shrank in on themselves onto the sun of Taiyi’s body.

In no time, the corpse lost its suncrow form and turned into a real sun star, revolving gently at the center of the great formation.

Rumble!

A giant hand of frost probed out from the void and slammed into the sun, attempting mutual destruction and wanting to take the formation down with them.

The great formation hadn’t stabilized yet, and the sun hadn’t been fully incorporated. Hence, it was the perfect moment for the realm monster to attack. At the same time, an endless swarm of yin spirits emerged and scattered in all directions.

“Don’t even think of touching the formation with me here!” snarled Lu Yun as he riposted in defense.

His sword dao surged, cutting through space as a stream of stars and connecting with the giant palm. Meanwhile, the army stationed by the sea brought their grief under control and charged at the yin spirits.

Without the sea of fire restraining them, the yin spirits grew exponentially more powerful. Even the weakest among them was a true divinity, and some had even reached the chaos realm!

Fortunately, Xing Chen was from the future and equipped with combat arts and tactics much greater than those available to contemporaries. Despite being only at peak empyrean realm, he rivaled a chaos realm expert in real battles!

His sword dao pierced through the sky with a tail of scintillating stars, each of which contained his powerful will. That made for three thousand streams of stars arcing through the cosmos!

Lu Yun’s sword dao was on full display; it’d grown out of Violetgrave’s shadow and fully come into its own.

……

“This, this is Lie Shan’s sword dao!” Bai Zhaoju watched in awe as Lu Yun cut down dead spirit after dead spirit beside the Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates. The human’s sword dao far exceeded that of current times. In fact, it was among the most powerful even by the standards of the immortal dao that would exist in the future.

An indescribable glint flashed through Bai Zhaoju’s eyes as he digested Lu Yun’s dao through observation, extracting valuable knowledge and combining them to form his sword dao. His battle strength immediately grew stronger, his cultivation making considerable leaps from initial divine king realm to peak initial realm, then intermediate divine king realm!

The speed at which he progressed was incredible. More importantly, his foundations remained as solid as ever.

……

The realm monster had shown its true form; it appeared to be a giant jellyfish made out of ice and frost. Countless yin spirits swam in and out of its body, and those who ventured out charged at the stars.

Numerous tentacles waved beneath the lower half of the realm monster’s body, each of which was attached to a giant palm. Deploying unfamiliar and strange attacks, they grabbed at Lu Yun.

Snarling, he fully manifested his body of the world. His sword dao splintered into three thousand rivers of sword energy, cutting through the incoming tentacles.

The realm monster was too powerful. Although he couldn’t determine its cultivation, its battle strength had absolutely reached peak chaos realm. Lu Yun wasn’t its match at all. Fortunately, the realm monster’s full attention was on the Great Formation of the Nineheavens Gates and the sun star, or the human youth would have had no choice but to flee.

“I can’t allow it to destroy the formation!” Concern weighed heavily on him; he hadn’t expected the realm monster to be this powerful! Without the sea of fire keeping it in check, it could very well destroy everything here.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Three explosions rang out as three imposing figures appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the realm monster. They were the three connate gods stationed in this area… Bai Ze, Xiang Liu, and Dusk Snake!

Their combined efforts knocked back the terrifying enemy off the great formation, but a giant eye suddenly popped into existence above them. Its lightless pupil glared down on the human and gods below like it was a black hole.