“Moreover!” shouted another immortal of the ‘Lu Yun Killers’, “I could tell that the Lu Yun we saw earlier was his true self. That he’s made it out in one piece means he’s an ally of the fiends that’ve severed the immortal dao. They simply put on a show for us!

“We must slay the demon to right the wrongs of the world!” The speaker was a monster spirit whose true form was that of a silver sea snake. Blue fog puffed out of its mouth whenever it spoke, a clear sign of potent poison.

“Have the monster spirits of the South Sea joined that shitty alliance as well?” Lu Yun narrowed his eyes.

These immortals had just escaped thanks to his Path of Ingress, but he hadn’t received any goodwill from this particular group. Moreover, they’d gone after his treasure immediately after making it out, and not only had they not retreated once Lu Yun re-emerged, but instead attempted to overwhelm and kill their benefactor.

They were more than ungrateful for what Lu Yun had done for them; they were going so far as to bite the hand that fed them! This truly roused his ire.

The silver sea snake was plainly a member of the South Sea court. Although the South Sea emperor hadn’t announced an alliance with Dusk Province, the two were allies in everything but name. Lu Yun had even once sent a large shipment of treasures to the South Sea.

But the sea snake clan of the South Sea had started a ‘Lu Yun Killers’ alliance with other factions! That ignited his rage, and to add further insult to injury, he could tell that the big snake was carrying around numerous talismans and pills produced in Dusk.

“Lu Yun, head of the Star Demon Sect, you’re a monstrous fiend yourself! You not only helped the demon god escape from Mount Exalted, you’re also working with the demons of the Dao Tree to destroy the world of immortals. 

“Everyone should kill you as a matter of principle! Today, we shall strike down this demon on behalf of the heavenly dao!” snarled the silver sea snake. “We kill!”

“Kill!” The hundred-odd immortals struck out in unison, banding together behind their collective hostility against Lu Yun. Immortal swords converged into a stream of sword light and slashed powerfully at him.

“Oh fuck off!” he commanded coolly. He lifted his hand and sent Violetgrave’s sharp radiance surging through the sky, forming a great sword curtain that cut into the stream of swords.

Wham!

Combat arts poured in behind the swords—flawless primordial methods, one and all. Some had been passed down from great immortals of the Primordial Era, others were flawless combat arts that Lu Yun and Qing Yu had deduced and disseminated through the world.

Though Lu Yun rebuffed the stream of swords with a single move, the combat arts ripped with a momentum that could sweep over heaven and earth and shattered his sword barrier. He staggered back with a pained grunt.

“Lu Yun!” Venom glittered in the great sea snake’s eyes. “If you brats hadn’t so recklessly restored the path of cultivation and recovered the void realm, we elders wouldn’t have been forced to sever our cultivation and start anew!”

The snake had once been an arcane dao immortal, supreme and unchallenged in the world of immortals. However, the void realm had threatened to knock it off its throne and render it obsolete with the times, forcing it to restart the arduous journey to immortality if it didn’t want to be eliminated by the world. It had thus severed its cultivation to travel through the void realm, and by now had reclaimed its immortal heights.

Incorporating a formation of heaven and earth was an option, but that would forego the phenomenon of ascension, forever placing it a peg lower than void-ascended immortals. Most importantly, the formations that Lu Yun distributed couldn’t be applied to dao immortals.

For dao immortals with sufficient mental fortitude to begin anew, they obtained their cultivation methods from Dusk Province. The basic void realm method might be weaker than those acquired from the Dao Flower, but it was flexible with innumerable possibilities and worked for every immortal in the world.

……

“Do you regret it?” a voice suddenly demanded in Lu Yun’s mind. “These immortals are trying to kill you with your own cultivation methods, your combat arts, and even weapons you’ve refined… Do you regret your actions??

“Do you?

“Do you regret it now?

“Don’t you regret it?!

“Don’t you regret giving these ungrateful backstabbers all those precious cultivation methods, combat arts, and great treasures? When you die, you’ll have died at the hands of your own creations!”

“Get out of my head!!” a greater voice boomed in Lu Yun’s mind, shattering the intrusive thoughts. “How dare a measly inner demon try to sway my sanity?! Regret? I feel no regret!

“So what if they’ve learned my combat arts and acquired my treasures? If I grew complacent because I’d monopolized those things, I would just as soon fall from my pedestal and be destroyed even if I were the greatest sovereign of the world.

“So they’ve bullied, humiliated, and attempted to kill me with my own creations and products. So what? Those are trials that will only serve to make me stronger! They’ll push me to keep moving forward and aim for the stars!

“If my enemies grow strong, then I’ll grow stronger still! What they’ve learned belongs to me, so their accomplishments belong to me! I’ll always be one step ahead of them! I can only reach greater heights if the entire world does so as well.

“Therefore, I don’t regret anything.”

“Hahaha… How very... optimistic of you...” the insidious voice commented again before bursting like a bubble.

Something seemed to wash over his mind and polish it, making the world appear clearer to his perception. His cultivation had somehow taken a leap forward as well.

The six paths of his nascent spirit circulated madly in the netherworld, casting six-colored radiance over the entire realm. The paths that’d toed the line between illusion and reality tipped over a little more to reality.

……

Lu Yun wiped off the corners of his mouth and looked at the hundred and some immortals arrayed in front of him. They’d isolated the area and were coming at him with stormy power. Each immortal unleashing a combat art, they launched yet another concerted attack.

Whoosh!

More than a hundred combat arts converged into an enormous light barrier and slammed down over Lu Yun, followed by a hundred slashes of sword energy. Given that he was pinned down, it would be difficult for him to evade the swords even if he blocked the combat arts.

“Open!” Lu Yun growled, summoning his nascent spirit replica out of the void to project the twenty-four facets, turning illusion into reality and creating a world in front of him.

Wham!

Boom!

The combat arts and immortal swords slammed into the twenty-four manifested facets, shattering the image. Together, the void-ascended true immortals were more powerful than Wu Tulong, Mo Qitian, and Zi Chen combined.

“Kill!” Lu Yun leapt into the air and manifested his nascent spirit again, projecting a great mountain and slamming it down onto the immortals from above.

Mount Exalted!

Lu Yun had manifested Mount Exalted with his nascent spirit. Although it wasn’t as vast as the twenty-four facets of the world, it was much more dense and powerful. Although lesser than the true mountain, it still embodied the mountain’s aura and presence as it smashed down heavily on the immortals below.

“What is this?? How is he doing this?!” The immortals panicked. They’d never seen such a nascent spirit method before and were thus helpless before it. Their collective killing intent was instantly crushed under the pressure of the great mountain.