“Do you mean… Ashu?! There is a character for tree in his name…” wondered Lu Yun when he heard Ge Long’s words.

Ge Long mused for a moment and continued uncertainly, “I’m not sure if it’s him either, but various signs indicate that the spirit of the tree has become a true life form.”

The four great treasures didn’t possess their own spirits and were only the weapons of the four great personages. That tree, however, had birthed a spirit after countless years and come alive. This point alone placed it far beyond the other three.

“If it really is him, then he likely doesn’t know who he is. As you are a holy king of the underworld, sir, you should know their rules. It’s almost impossible for a mausoleum keeper to leave, but that holy king allowed Ashu to walk out as he would. That makes it obvious that Ashu isn’t an ordinary person.”

Holy Kings Atrophy, Antiquity, and Desolation were the strongest holy kings of the underworld and controlled the entire realm. There had been hundreds, if not thousands, of holy kings over the years, but these three had always ranked as the top three. All of the others were dead now, leaving behind the three greatest as guardians of the realm.

However, Ge Long had never heard of a holy lord, who’d become a mausoleum keeper, of being able to leave the underworld. Ashu was the precedent and possibly the only one ever.

“So you mean that zombie tree is alive and fully recovered?” Lu Yun suddenly asked.

“The east tomb of the Skandha Extinction Tomb has been destroyed. Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible to repair my disciple’s soul. [1] This also means that the zombie tree has left the Skandha Extinction Tomb,” Ge Long responded after some thought. He’d already transformed the sword formation into runes and imprinted them onto Lu Yun’s consciousness.

“Sir, we can’t let word about Ashu’s identity get out. The zombie tree is also searching for its spirit. If it finds Ashu, it’ll turn into something even more dreadful than the demon god.”

Ashu had spoken of the other three treasures just now and avoided mention of the fourth. He, too, possessed an instinctive fear of something finding him and assimilating himself.

Ge Long put down his hand after he’d perfectly imprinted a formation on Lu Yun’s mind in the form of a rune. The process absolutely astounded Lu Yun. Ge Long’s skill in etching formation runes and drawing formation diagrams were greater than his to an nth degree! Compared to the old servant’s skill in talismans and formations, Lu Yun felt like he was a child just learning how to walk.

In this moment, he finally understood how there would always be someone better!

“Don’t mistakenly belittle yourself, sir.” Ge Long chuckled when he sensed Lu Yun’s mental turmoil. “The formations and talismans I learned have long declined and decayed, eliminated by the times. The methods I deployed just now are the ones that you and Miss Qing Yu theorized in the Dao Academy.”

He grinned diffidently at this point. “Well, I do have a very solid foundation and a far more thorough understanding of the heavenly dao. That’s why it appears that my skills are far greater.”

Lu Yun nodded mutely. It all boiled down to him being too weak and his cultivation being too shallow. The lower his realm, the less he understood the world. He still remembered the feeling of being pulled free from the muck when he used the corpse puppet and received the cultivation of a peak origin dao immortal. His heart and mind had been clear and seen through everything, and his understanding of the world had reached unfathomable heights.

What a pity that he wouldn’t feel that again until he reached that cultivation realm.

……

The yin spirits in the river were uncountable and endless, and continuously churned to pieces by the shortsword and devoured. The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign and Ashu looked nervously at the blade, not taking their eyes off of it for a second.

“Last time, the North Sea monster spirits attacked Dusk Province and tried to seize the river. However, the Dusk River erupted in a fury and killed all of them. Who was behind that?” Lu Yun suddenly asked.

“The yin energy in the river,” Ashu responded without even thinking about it. “The river doesn’t have its own thoughts, but once polluted by the yin energy, it falls under the energy’s control. As for where the energy comes from, that I don’t know.”

He was greatly on edge as he watched the sword repeatedly guzzle down yin essence. Malice and resentment took a deeper cast on it, and a strange black haze of light began to circle around it.

The sword was starting to convert to light, but the yin energy and countless vicious beasts in the waters hadn’t reduced by a single bit. The Dusk River waters seemed capable of instinctively giving birth to these terrible creatures.

Xuanxi had given up fighting for control of the river, so the waters slowly calmed down. However, the demon sovereign had sent out the Skyturning Seal to force out the true form of the shortsword at the center of the vortex.

……

After an indeterminate period of time, the shortsword suddenly buzzed softly. What had been a hazy, gray short blade as thin as gossamer wings transformed into a blade of light. However, it remained above the river, taking in the yin energy in its depths. Somehow, its rate of consumption increased by more than ten times after its conversion, and there seemed to be a terrible existence gestating within the weapon.

“It’s time!” Lu Yun sat down cross-legged and deployed the nascent spirit observation method, projecting the sword formation that Ge Long had etched into his thoughts.

Four enormous broadswords manifested and stabbed into the center of the river, surrounding the hazy blade of light. They shot forth four rays of sword energy undetectable by the naked eye, breaking apart the river waters and cutting off the blade’s connection to the Dusk River.

Vicious ghosts and undead creatures snarled and roared within the river, charging over to pummel the formation. However, sword energy fired out wildly from the array, slicing and dicing anything that dared approach. It even destroyed the yin energy residue left behind by the beings when they died.

A face composed of fog slowly rose from the blade of light, creating an enormous void over the center of the Dusk River. Furious bellows echoed over the waters as the entire river rose up to form a pitch-black giant in the air. It waved watery fists and brutally smashed into the sword formation, wanting to break it apart.

However, Ge Long’s formation was too strong. Though it was just a projection from Lu Yun, its every rune and ray of sword qi had been etched into Lu Yun’s thoughts.

In other words, while Lu Yun now possessed the strength to observe the multiverse and Mount Exalted, he didn’t have the ability to observe Ge Long’s formation!

Whoosh!!

Like four doors, the four broadswords flared with light and executed the giant made of water. They then turned on their axis and bore down on the sword of light.

1. Reminder: Fuying, previously known Empress Myrtlestar.