……

Lu Yun remained wholly unmoved. Copies of Pangu and God wielding Worldcarver and Heavenfall streamed out of hellfire and entered the core essence of the Ascension Pool, where a giant ghostly face snarled and roared, defying everything that Lu Yun sent into it.

His projections deployed all of the combat arts that he knew, charging fearlessly at the terrifying face with a no-holds-barred momentum.

This face was different from the ghostly faces of the akasha ghosts. Those looked like they were both crying and laughing, as if a child had clumsily drawn on their features with a brush. The face in front of them, however, was black and leered with a malevolent grin. Its eyes and mouth were the color of blood and rays of bloody light emanated from it, cutting down all of the projections that Lu Yun sent.

“This isn’t working, Pangu and God are somehow not enough against it… What has it experienced for it to be so strong?” Lu Yun halted his attacks and sat cross-legged beneath the Karmic Tree, sinking into deep thought.

“Why do you project God and Pangu?” The little fox popped up from an indiscernible spot, munching neatly on a karmic fruit. “Why don’t you project yourself? Do you think you’re less than Pangu and God?”

“Eh?” Lu Yun started when he heard the question.

“Are you utilizing their true strength when you direct their bodies to deploy your combat arts? In the same vein, are your combat arts coming into play with their full power?” The little fox looked skeptically at Lu Yun.

“I actually used their combat arts just now… but it didn’t make a difference.” Lu Yun shook his head slightly.

His nascent spirit observation method had been perfected long ago and reached unfathomable peaks. If he projected God and Pangu, then he manifested their strength and combat arts as well. However, that hadn’t made a difference against that enormous ghost face.

“Project myself?” Lu Yun chuckled ruefully. “I can’t.”

“Huh?” A piece of karmic fruit fell out of the little fox’s mouth as she gaped at the youth. She also practiced Lu Yun’s nascent spirit observation method and knew how strong the method was. Thus, she’d never imagined that this would be the answer.

He can’t project himself?

“I don’t know who I am. Am I the Flame Emperor? Or Headmaster Lu Yun of the Dao Academy?” A lost look floated up in Lu Yun’s eyes. “They’re both me, but they’re two different identities that belong to two different eras. I… can’t observe myself with my own nascent spirit method.”

Frowning slightly, he sank into deep resignation.

“Interesting…” The little fox cocked her head and took human form, sitting down cross-legged as well and beginning to meditate.

Puff!

Puff!

Two crisp pops sounded above the little fox’s forehead.

“That really is the case! I can’t project you either!” Her impeccably groomed eyebrows knitted together from the incomprehensible.

“Ge Long and the others won’t hold out for long. There’s only one way to resolve this now—I’ll enter the Ascension Pool myself!” Lu Yun took a deep breath and refocused with determination. Both he and Qing Yu had calculated that he would face incredible danger if he entered the Ascension Pool. It was very possible that he’d die.

But he wouldn’t be able to break the curse if he didn’t go in.

“Don’t venture into the treasure. You won’t be able to dispel the curse even if you did.” Fuxi suddenly appeared beneath the Karmic Tree. He’d spent the past period of time recovering, and there were five others by his side upon his return.

Zither Saint, Art Saint, Gorb Demon, Wayfarer, and a woman Lu Yun had never seen before.

They were the five senses he’d left behind in the future that he’d recollected now to tackle the curse. Though they possessed individual personalities, minds, and thoughts after all this time, they couldn’t resist their body’s commands when face-to-face with Fuxi.

He could destroy them at any time.

“The five of you will enter the Ascension Pool and destroy the curse upon great emperors. In return, I will sever my connection to you and grant you true freedom. You will break free from the shackles of the five senses and become true life forms,” Fuxi said to them.

“Old fart, you were preparing for today when you split us out from you to begin with, weren’t you?” Art Saint grumbled with dissatisfaction.

Fuxi nodded slightly without protest.

During Lu Yun’s visit to Mount Buzhou, the fake Fuxi had instructed him to find the five senses if he wished to dispel the curse. This was the correct method, but the imposter hadn’t wanted to break the curse. He’d wanted to use Lu Yun to eliminate the five senses so that the curse could never be broken.

Lu Yun bowed at the five of them and summoned five karmic fruits with the wave of a hand, offering them as a greeting gift.

“Honorable seniors, though this junior cannot help much, I can ensure your survival,” he declared solemnly and took a strand of soul force from each of them. This way, they would be reborn in a Hell Flower even if they died on their mission.

“Ai! It would seem that I’m unable to escape destiny after all, despite keeping a low profile all these years in the mortal world,” the woman who was Fuxi’s sense of smell sighed mournfully. An immensely refreshing fragrance, lightly scented of flowers, wafted from her whenever she moved.

Lu Yun knew that their casualties would be great after entering the Ascension Pool. The best outcome for them was actually to die with their enemy and be reborn in a Hell Flower. They would be independent souls then, having completely nothing to do with Fuxi.

“If we delve into things, though, our primary body has sacrificed a great deal for plans that have culminated today. We are all derived from his soul-parts. If he can offer up his body for this realm, how can we prove to be any lesser?

“What joy is there in living? What sorrow is there in dying? We all return to the dust in the end.” Zither Saint laughed heartily and entered the Ascension Pool in one large stride.

Out of Fuxi’s five senses, the Zither Saint and Wayfarer were closest to his personality. Wayfarer had already entered the treasure without a word to anyone—nary a reaction or final farewell. The remaining three looked dolefully at each other, then suddenly grinned broadly.

“Kid, remember to prepare the finest food for my triumphant return! Roasted connate demon god would be best, I want to eat my fill!” Bringing up the rear, the Gorb Demon waved dashingly before disappearing from view.

Lu Yun took a glance at the sea of Hell Flowers—there were five new true souls sleeping in their flowers.

Fuxi’s senses had perished the moment they walked in, but the curse’s unearthly shrieks were also no more.