A strong wave of malicious resentment surged from the origin divine before it charged at the human. At the same time, the Wood Altar beneath Lu Yun’s feet suddenly turned completely black; inky tentacles reached out from it to entangle his feet.

Frowning slightly, Lu Yun stomped down and broke the tentacles apart.

“Ah, I see! The mother altar is the mother altar, how would it develop the five elemental altars? It’s you, you’re the one who stole the opportunity that belonged to the Exalted divine spirits and derived the five altars from the mother altar. You want to refine the divine spirits!”

He understood everything now.

The five elements formed the core essence of the mother altar, so the first divine spirit to be born from it should've been the Exalted divine spirit. But now, their fortuitous opportunity had been wrested from their hands and the origin divine had expelled the five elements out of the mother altar. It’d injected its own power of earth, air, fire, and water into the mother altar and was attempting to refine it!

“How could I possibly let you succeed?” Lu Yun snorted and sent hellfire billowing out of him, clearing away the miasma of negativity. He took one step forward and traveled to the mother altar, punching out at the origin divine without another moment of hesitation.

“Wah! Wahh! Wahhhh!!” The origin divine cried like a baby when it noted Lu Yun’s arrival, but there was more murderous intent and violence in its tones than there would in a baby.

Boom.

Earth, air, water, and fire energies churned on the mother altar and transformed into four keen blades of sword energy, slashing at Lu Yun.

“Swords of earth, air, water, and fire? Look at you showing off a cheap imitation of sword dao in front of a master!” Lu Yun snickered.

The black sun over his head flared with inky-black energy and smashed the four rays of sword energy apart. Hot on the heels of this opening move, his punch arrived painfully on the origin divine’s head.

Puff!

One of the origin divine’s heads exploded into pieces.

Lu Yun jabbed out three more times in swift succession and blasted the origin divine’s three other heads to bits. Its headless body sprang up, deep-seated fear emanating from its form.

“Trying to get away, are you?” Lu Yun leered and took one step to the side, kicking firmly at the air with his right foot.

Booooom.

Pangu’s tomb shuddered violently and Mount Buzhou shook three times, a slight quaking felt throughout all of the great wilderness. Wahuang jumped up in fright and hurriedly activated the great formation protecting the human sacred land. She looked nervously at the foot of the mountain.

Many demon gods likewise looked her way. Mount Buzhou was the foremost divine mountain in the great wilderness; it stood there since the beginning of time, never wavering. But today, it’d shuddered noticeably!

This wasn't a good omen!

Within Pangu’s tomb under Mount Buzhou, Lu Yun—source of all the alarm—couldn’t be bothered with any of the repercussions. In the air twisted five enormous dragons that he’d summoned from beneath the ground.

These were five heavenly veins, ones superior to dragon and ancestral veins!

Almost at the realm of great perfection, the Dragonshift Method had swiftly summoned the five heavenly veins when deployed. They were arranged according to the five elements and possessed elemental power due to influence from the mother altar.

The veins transformed into draconic shadows and pounced on the origin divine with savage snarls. Screeching in horror, the origin divine split itself into four rays of flight that scrambled in four different directions.

“You’ve got quite a few lifesaving measures, huh!” Lu Yun’s face was a bit pale. Since his method had yet to truly reach the realm of great perfection, brashly calling upon heavenly veins would result in backlash from the world.

Lu Yun had no extraneous effort to spare for hunting down the origin divine anymore. He had to utilize his body of the world to furiously absorb the power of the five elements around him and strengthen his organs to withstand the momentous heavenly wrath bearing down on him.

The situation was much like when he defended the torch dragon against its tribulation, but this time, the heavens were looking to smite him!

……

“How fierce… he beat the growing trouble to pieces!” The Yin Prince surreptitiously poked out a head from the carriage; what emerged was a stunning sixteen year old girl dressed in a downy-yellow shirt.

When the black-clad man saw his mistress peek out, he hastily stuffed her back into the litter.

“You mustn’t show your true form, Your Majesty! The unscrupulous sorts in the great wilderness might set their eyes on you!” he explained patiently. “You know just as well, Your Majesty, the types of trouble and ruckus that the greatest beauty Tushan raised when she first emerged. That disturbance was indescribable and many connate demon gods waged war against each other just to get closer to the one they liked!

“If it wasn't for Tushan having a bit of strength, she might have fallen into their lascivious grasps a long time ago!”

“So Tushan is strong, but I’m not?” Narrowing her almond-shaped eyes dangerously, the Yin Prince grumbled with dissatisfaction at her retainer.

“Your Majesty Houtu naturally possesses unparalleled skill and ability, you have nothing to fear when it comes to connate demon gods. But that Flame Emperor looks the very picture of a lecherous good-for-nothing, and he’s ruthless and vicious in his ways. He’s destroyed even the origin divine, so we should exercise caution, Your Majesty!” the man quickly changed his tune. [1]

“That’s more like it.” With another glare, the Yin Prince returned to her seat. She rested her chin in both hands and looked at the human youth fighting the heavens in mid air.

“Though humans are descended from the great god Pangu, they've inherited only his form and not his strength. If it wasn’t for Leize safeguarding the race, the demon gods likely would've rounded them up a long time ago to distill Pangu’s bloodline out of them,” the Yin Prince murmured. “But to think that someone like the Flame Emperor would be born to them! He's directly changed the heavenly dao and raised the human race as the legitimate successors of the world.

“Your Majesty is entirely correct, but this Flame Emperor is merciless and cruel. He's slain countless numbers of preeminent demon gods without a second thought. Violence and bloodlust fill his being, he’s destined not to live for long,” the man quickly added. “When he dies here, this subordinate will personally refine him into a bearer and have him carry your litter!”

“You seem to quite dislike him, Yulei.” The Yin Prince looked sideways at her servant. [2]

“Flame Emperor was disrespectful to Your Majesty, so this subordinate naturally dislikes him!” Yulei declared righteously. “If this subordinate possessed Shentu’s strength, I would kill him with my own hands!

“But I have already notified Shentu of the happenings here. Even if the Flame Emperor is lucky enough not to die in Pangu’s tomb, Shentu will not suffer him to live!”

Brow slightly furrowed, his mistress seemed to disagree with what Yulei had done.

1. Houtu is the deity of deep earth and soil in Chinese religion and mythology, otherwise called Mother Earth or Earth Queen Lady.

2. Shentu is one of the two door gods in Chinese mythology, responsible for supervising all spirits, protecting people from disasters and good fortune, and dispelling evil influences. The oldest reference to the gods can be found in Classic Liji 禮記 "Book of Rites”.

During the Qing Dynasty, there was doubt of two door gods. Chinese scholar Yu Zhengxie believed there was only one god name Yulei (郁壘) or Tulei (荼壘).