“What exactly are akasha ghosts?” Lu Yun asked urgently. Black hellfire burst out of his body to conceal his life signs from the terrors within the smoke.

A terrible presence of death pulsed from the heart of the manor; the demon fetus would soon be upon the world.

“As their name suggests, they are ghosts,” Qi Hai explained after a poignant pause, sitting in the courtyard at the center of the dragon palace. “Ghosts were people, immortal ghosts were immortals, and akasha ghosts were akasha, or the sky.”

“The... sky?” Lu Yun paused in befuddlement. What was the sky referring to in this case? Can the sky... die?

There was a tangled mess of thoughts in his head. However, now wasn’t the time for them. He decisively pushed the confounding knot away and dispersed his projection in hell.

Someone was still alive in here; he could feel it.

The manor was now a barren land of death, and the servants who’d been waiting on Qing Ruyan had transformed into walking corpses as soon as the demonic energy surged. However, Lu Yun was now sensing more than a few survivors. Someone had protected them with a powerful combat art.

Without thinking, he shifted direction and made his way toward the concentration of life. Given the frightening density of the demonic energy here, he even had to use hellfire to move about. Those survivors couldn’t be regular people! Perhaps they’d know a way to deal with the demon fetus.

He waded through the black energy with the kunpeng method, trying to evade the good number of terrible monsters that had been born. Although they couldn’t sense Lu Yun’s vital signs, the disturbance from his movement prompted them to rush at him, regardless.

“Time to eat, Ge Long.” There were too many monsters here, and they were fearless. Lu Yun was quickly bogged down by their attacks, leaving him no choice but to summon Ge Long.

“Understood!” Ge Long had been hovering outside for a long time and charged into the manor with delight as soon as Lu Yun gave the order.

Yuying and the other envoys shared a resigned look.

The concentration of demonic energy in the manor had reached its peak. Even they would be corrupted into monsters if they entered. Ge Long, however, was an exception. He was at home in this kind of energy, and he devoured the countless terrors like he was at a buffet.

With the immediate danger resolved, Lu Yun flashed away with the kunpeng method.

Kunpengs were among the greatest divine beasts in the world. They could travel forty-five thousand kilometers with a flap of their wings, and their agility was second to none. Naturally, he’d gotten a complete copy of the method from Beigong Yu.

“Mm… should I go in as well?” asked Canghai Chengkong. Seeing Ge Long chowing down to his heart’s content in the sea of demonic energy made him eager for a piece of the action. Like Ge Long, his name was written in the Tome of Life and Death; there was nothing the old servant could do that he couldn’t!

“Would you survive having your head cut off?” Yuying responded indifferently, throwing a glance at him.

“Um… my head cut off?” Canghai Chengkong shuddered. ...that’s right, this was the difference between him and Ge Long. That old freak could use his head as a weapon!

……

With Ge Long devouring the monsters in the black fog, Lu Yun was finally able to catch his breath. It took only a few heartbeats for him to break through the fog and make his way to where the ripples of life were concentrated.

He found a roughly three-hundred-meter-wide garden. Hundreds of servants were huddled together, staring at the demonic energy outside with abject terror. At the center of the garden stood a handsome man clad in white, silver locks flowing down his shoulders.

Miao!

This was the form the little fox had taken the first time Lu Yun had met her—an unusually beautiful man who could topple a country.

“You’re the monster spirit ancestor!” Lu Yun narrowed his eyes at the Miao in front of him.

Xing Mou stood quietly on the other side of the garden with the little fox sleeping in her arms. Starlight flickered all over her body; her hair had turned silver the way Qing Han’s did when he used his starstones—a sign of her cosmic constitution.

The little fox was fast asleep, so this Miao couldn’t be her manifestation.

Lu Yun was abruptly reminded of the time when the monster spirit ancestor had appeared on Levitating Island to quell the great waves created in the battle between five powerful beings, saving countless lives with a simple move.

The starlight emitting from the one in front of him seemed reminiscent of something.

“You’re the last corporal soul part the little fox lost!” Lu Yun suddenly exclaimed. “The ethereal and corporal parts she first lost reincarnated as Xing Mou, while the corporal part she later lost became you!”

Miao finally turned to face Lu Yun, nodding slightly to confirm his guesses.

Shock quaked Lu Yun’s heart. The ancient monster spirit ancestor had split herself into three individuals!

With Su Xiaoxiao’s and Cangyin’s memories, he knew what the monster spirit ancestor represented. She’d been the overlord of all monster spirits, and even the immortal emperors back in the day had to show her deference. This was a being on par with Empress Myrtlestar.

“How do I deal with the demon fetus?” Lu Yun hurriedly asked, noting how the demonic energy was thickening.

“The demon fetus is but a symptom,” said Miao. “Scarlet Ape is the real problem here.”

She looked like a man, but her voice was that of a woman’s. Ethereal and light, it calmed Lu Yun’s agitation like a melody from the heavens.

“Promise me that you’ll kill Scarlet Ape,” Miao said slowly, casting her silver eyes at Lu Yun.

“Can you deal with the fetus? Wait, you aren’t going to....” Lu Yun would find a way to kill Scarlet Ape even if Miao hadn’t asked. That lunatic would stop at nothing to achieve its goals, consequences be damned.

Miao beamed when she saw Lu Yun’s reaction. “Do you want your future disciple to be a boy or girl?”

Lu Yun grinned wryly. Just as he’d thought.

Hum.

Silver starlight burst forth from Miao’s body and enveloped the manor, evaporating the thick demonic energy. An akasha ghost emerged in the silver starlight, whining as it attempted to flee, but the starlight stubbornly latched onto it and slowly gnawed away at it.

In no time, the akasha ghost that had stumped Lu Yun was destroyed.

Lu Yun seemed to catch Miao dimpling at him before she turned into a silver star, shooting into the lifeless Qing Ruyan’s womb. A beam of silver light then shot into the sky and the sunlight paled in comparison as a dense sea of stars appeared in the firmament.

Stars appearing in broad daylight!

……

“How can this be?!” The old freaks on guard outside Dusk Province were flabbergasted.

“Stars appearing in the day. A great monster spirit is being born! The demon fetus has turned into a monster spirit fetus. We must stop it from entering the world!” screeched the origin dao crone.

A demon fetus would be short-lived. After destroying Dusk Province, it would slowly fade out of existence. But something had plainly dealt with it, and the stars in the sky were a sign that a great monster spirit was going to be born!

As she spoke, the other four elders had already blurred into motion. From their position outside the province, they attacked Dusk City with the power of origin dao immortals. They would destroy the unborn baby and raze Dusk City to the ground!