Though Hongjun had never admitted that the little fox was his disciple, the little fox had always viewed him as her master.

“Do you know what my master used to enlighten me so that I could become the first of the latter-day beings to set foot in the chaos realm?” the little fox asked solemnly.

“What?” Lu Yun blinked, a crazy thought forming in his mind.

“A creation seed!” the little fox proclaimed. “I wasn’t sure before, but then I used formula dao to confirm something I suspected. There’s a thing inside of me that’s been sealed away—that creation seed!

“If there’s already one inside my body, the second one will fly to me once it matures. There’s no difficulty for me in obtaining it,” the little fox said mournfully, “but once I get that one, the one inside me will be revealed too. I’ll be deader than dead then.”

“So this is why…” Lu Yun chuckled ruefully. The little fox would’ve agreed even if Qiu Luoyu hadn’t raised any conditions.

The implications of a creation seed were too great—they’d given rise to the nine sacred lands within the chaos. Now that she knew what her great secret was, the little fox wished to run back to their world straight away.

“So I might as well do someone else a favor without going to any trouble myself.” The little fox reared back proudly on her hind legs.

“Why are you in fox form again?” Lu Yun raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m worried that he might have other thoughts when he looks at me. After all, there’s not that many people who are immune to my heaven toppling beauty.” The little fox stroked her face with great appreciation and narcissism.

Lu Yun stopped talking.

……

The situation in this particular chaos current was growing ever more disorderly. A place that’d been rather lacking and sparsely inhabited now brimmed with hustle and bustle, witnessing all sorts of clashes develop at every moment.

The outlines of various sacred land factions were beginning to take shape, but the sacred clan from the sacred palaces were nowhere to be found. Even Qiu Luoyu had dropped out of contact.

Though there was no concept or sense of time within chaos, ten years had already passed in the world of immortals. Lu Yun had only twenty years left to him, but there was still no word from Qiu Luoyu or the three-eyed man.

His thirty-six golden armored warriors had successfully infiltrated a variety of factions. Though they also practiced the Dragonquake Scripture and took chaos dragon form, their core essence was the Tome of Life and Death. Thus, they were more adept at hiding themselves than Lu Yun.

Most importantly was that there seemed to be an invisible hand at work in the chaos, helping the thirty-six warriors swiftly integrate themselves into their chosen faction and earn the favor of the experts in charge. They slowly became valuable core members of their new home.

Lu Yun thought of the owner of the netherfire.

He still didn’t know who that person was, and he didn’t seem to be known through the chaos.

Now that the thirty-six warriors had established identities in the chaos, Lu Yun could switch places with them at any time and flawlessly assume their role.

However, he still lacked the ability to conceal his presence of the realms or of the chaos dragons, so he only dared stir up some trouble on the outskirts and didn’t dare truly set foot in their world.

……

“Young lord, someone has caused a great deal of trouble in the sacred land and taken our dao palace.” A man wearing crimson battle armor bowed respectfully to a young man in a large tree.

“Oh? That uh… that Lu Yun is here already?” The young man was also dressed in crimson armor, but his armor was as if crystalline fire. The fire energy within it had exceeded connate li fire and was progressing to an unknown realm.

He was the young lord of the fire sacred land of the four origins—Huo Shentong—and the next leader of the fire origin sacred land.

“But that doesn’t make sense, he’s not that strong. He dares challenge us for the dao palace before even reaching chaos realm?” he murmured to himself.

The fire origin land had made many plans in the realms and also possessed a dao palace; they were naturally aware of Lu Yun’s existence. Using the palaces to lure Lu Yun into the chaos had indeed been an origin sacred land plot.

Who would’ve thought that their target would come knocking so quickly, however?

“In response to the young lord, it’s not a life form from the realms, but Qiu Luoyu,” the messenger quickly clarified.

“Qiu Luoyu? The otherkind old fart who’s only half a step away from being a sovereign?!” Wariness appeared on Huo Shentong’s face. While Qiu Luoyu wasn’t a sovereign yet, he was very close to being one.

The fire origin land possessed no sovereigns. When their previous leaders had broken through to that realm, those of the six sacred palaces had immediately shown up to take them away.

Sovereign realm was the final cultivation realm in the chaos. One at that level comprehended the true meaning of the chaos and saw clearly into its core essence. The only stage after that was to surpass the chaos entirely as a paramount existence.

No matter what life form reached sovereign realm, they were all taken away by the sacred palaces. Qiu Luoyu had the qualification to ascend, but he kept himself strictly in check because he wanted to create a better future for his fellow otherkind.

……

“If creatures from the realms have come to the chaos, those otherkind will surely search them out. Since he’s taken the dao palace, that Lu Yun must be here already.” Huo Shentong snapped to attention. “Their immortal dao requires refining treasures for their dao fruits. The laws of the highest orders within the six dao palaces are the best choice for Lu Yun’s dao fruit.

“If he refines them as his dao fruit, then our four sacred lands can immediately use the palaces to possess his body. We’ll use him to enter the realms and finally destroy that blasted place!”

“Young lord…” the man was hesitant.

“There’s no need to spare any attention for him!” Huo Shentong smiled. “Let him be, we’ll just wait to bring our nets in.”

The main proponents of destroying the realms were the four origin sacred lands. Whether it was the origin divine or the ghost ancestor—they were all subordinates of these four. Their plans in the realms were to obstruct the great dao from developing naturally and prevent those life forms from developing. It was plain to see that their plans had worked and borne fruit.

Though the immortal dao now traversed heaven and earth and those in the world of immortals were improving by leaps and bounds, the four origin sacred lands were so far ahead that they no longer cared about that.

Taking possession of the one to refine the six dao palaces and flooding the realms with the laws of the chaos, using their highest order to destroy the worlds—that was their ultimate goal.