“You brought this trouble down on us, so you deal with it.” Lu Yun shrugged with resignation and scattered his Gonggong manifestation.

Brows knitted in deep thought, Ashu cast his eyes at the great kun drifting aimlessly in the ocean and didn’t immediately return to the fortress ship.

……

“Living people! There are living people up there!” Xuanyuan Xiaoyue had shot to the aerospace of the fortress ship and celebrated her find when she saw Lu Yun, like a child finding candy within her reach.

“She’s fast!” She’d teleported here as soon as Lu Yun scattered his projection from the nascent spirit observation method.

Before he could react, she snatched forward with her hand and a giant skeletal hand emerged in the air, grabbing at Lu Yun’s fortress ship.

“The whole world within her reach and the universe in her sleeve!” screamed the demon sovereign. “How great is her cultivation?!”

At the wave of his hand, ghostly pale Hadal Bonefire burst forth and ignited a blazing trail snaking toward the giant hand.

“So cold...” Xuanyuan Xiaoyue cried out in shock. The giant hand of hers jerked away from the fortress ship like it’d been electrocuted.

Swoosh!

Hadal Bonefire blazed and enveloped the ship. Hovering in the air, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue’s eyes reflected a sickly white and her body was encased in a thick layer of frost. A horrifying coldness radiated from her being, almost freezing the connate yin water beneath her feet.

A grimace stretched across her face, one that could be crying or smiling. She let out a continuous howl, seemingly summoning something.

In response, tall waves rose thousands of kilometers above the ocean and giant kun rushed out from underwater, slamming into Lu Yun’s fortress ship with mad abandon.

“It’s her! She killed all the previous priests of flame!” The high priest called out in shock when she got a good look at Xuanyuan Xiaoyue.

Among the five high priests of the five elemental altars, she was the only one who was yet to be corrupted, and therefore was able to enter the yin tomb. The previous priests of flame had died one after another from having their hearts dug out of their chests, their heart blood devoured.

The current priest of flame was still young. Although she’d once visited here, she’d never dared venture too deep, hence why she’d survived to this day. However, she knew of how her predecessors had died from their shared heritage, so couldn’t help but scream when she saw their murderer.

The kun in the ocean hurtled about wildly and slammed into the fortress ship again and again. Fortunately, the formations on the ship were running at full strength, keeping the kun at bay for the moment.

Nevertheless, the demon sovereign’s heart still pounded from fear. The ice goddess of a young woman in the air was too terrifying! He could tell that his Hadal Bonefire hadn’t even left a scratch on her. She was staying away only because the cold fire annoyed her.

“Where is your Divine Glory?” the demon sovereign asked in a trembling voice. He’d once experienced the might of that ship for himself. It was a hundred times more powerful than the fortress ship they were riding at the moment and would make quick work out of their attackers.

“It’s in Witherdew Major,” Lu Yun said with a frown. “Dusk Province is too small and too impoverished, I have to take a major under my control.”

The demon sovereign fell silent.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The crystal cannons on the ship roared and fired white beams of light at the kun fish, ripping them to pieces.

“Let’s go! Ashu has found the exit out of the Embittered Ocean!” Lu Yun stood at the bow of the lord-grade fortress ship as it charged forward at full throttle. The way out of the ocean was on the island transformed from the kun body of Great Emperor Kunpeng.

With the ship’s power engaged to its limit and weapons of war roaring in a constant barrage, the kun fish couldn’t stop it from advancing. Moreover, the demon sovereign had fully unleashed his Hadal Bonefire to cover the fortress ship in a protective layer of cold fire.

Thick frost crept over Xuanyuan Xiaoyue and she flew closely after the ship.

“Cold… So cold...” She kept shivering. Suddenly, her gaze zeroed in on the ship and the frost around her shattered. Seemingly having made up her mind, she reached out and struck the ship with her palm.

Boom!

The moving fortress ship exploded into pieces and the Hadal Bonefire protecting it scattered as sparks.

“Living people! Heat!” Overjoyed, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue rushed at Lu Yun. Before she could reach him, a wave of scorching heat descended from above and crashed into her.

With a final scream, she was vaporized without leaving a trace behind.

The ocean boiled over as tremendous yin and yang energy intertwined and clashed, offsetting each other. Sol Truefire and connate yin water rammed each other as well.

Gone was its peaceful facade and calm surface. A small bloom of fire suddenly emerged, swallowing the star core descending from above and taking root in the air, devouring the yin energy and yin water.

“I see now. For the Emperor Sunflower to fully mature, it needs not only pure yang energy, but also force of extreme yin… The mix of yin and yang, water and fire, was the ‘emperor’ dao within the flower.“ Qing Yu’s voice came from within the flower. Then, she emerged from the pistil of the flower while wearing a crimson dress.

With a wave of her hand, the Emperor Sunflower turned into a hair pin and wove into her hair for safekeeping. She turned to Lu Yun with a brilliant smile, a smile that seemed to brighten the very world and inject everything here with vibrancy and vitality.

This was a replica that Qing Yu had created with the Emperor Sunflower.

The priest of flame stared dumbly at the sudden appearance, somehow feeling far inferior before her.

“I know how we can collect the ocean and the volcano on the other side!” Qing Yu floated down to Lu Yun and wrapped her arm around his before he could say anything. “According to my calculations, the tomb realm is tethered to the world created by the moat snake and the door refined from the torch dragons. The volcano and the ocean are merely defenses for the door and won’t affect the tomb realm’s existence.”

“Wonderful!” Lu Yun perked up. “Once the Emperor Flower refines the two peerless treasures, it’ll reach full maturity, won’t it?

“Wait, Emperor Sunflower… Emperor!” Realization struck him. “The word ‘emperor’ has been a bad omen since Emperors Fall, the flower is the key to turning things around!”

Qing Yu nodded. “That hunch came to me as soon as I acquired the flower. To turn it into a sun that warms the many realms and worlds, though, it has to devour all of the other connate spirit roots as well!”

Lu Yun smirked. “Then we’ll find them all and feed them to the flower!”

Within the kingdom of the netherworld, an approving smile tugged at Ge Long’s lips.

“I’ll collect the two peerless treasures while you go find the world’s spleen!” Qing Yu’s tone took a serious turn. “You must be careful, though. The other four high priests have sacrificed all living souls in the yang tomb and returned to the yin tomb through the might of some mysterious existence.”