Lu Yun’s mood took a downward turn after he learned the truth behind Emperors Fall and what akasha ghosts were comprised of. It wasn’t a sinking sense of fear or dread, but of sympathy.

“Senior Zhi Guangji is right, this path of immortal dao is drenched with blood.”

Ge Long was silent for a very long time. “But… we had no choice…”

…….

Each of the four immortal seas held a great secret. The North Sea possessed the dragon tomb, the underworld could be found in the East Sea, and the far reaches of the West Sea met with the Black Sea.

The Black Sea was as its name, filled with waters the color of pure ink. However, it wasn’t a dead sea. Life brimmed in its depths and the shade of their home didn’t seem to affect them. A strange primordial ruin could be found at its end, which was where the fur seals resided.

Yuchi Tianhuang had stumbled upon it a long time ago and traveled back a hundred and fifty thousand years, where he met Xuan Yu and relayed the condition of modern times to the immortals of the Primordial Era.

Lu Yun had visited the West Sea once, but only for a short duration as his primary purpose was to disrupt Dongfang Hao’s tribulation. He hadn’t had time to probe the ends of the West Sea.

……

“Why did you have to bring me?!” Perched on Lu Yun’s shoulder, the little fox grumbled unhappily, “The Black Sea is too strange! We didn’t like coming here even in the Primordial Era!”

She swung her head furiously in great denial, calling forth crisp chimes from the golden bell around her neck as she did so.

“So you finally remember who you are?” Lu Yun glared at the fox. “Out with it, where did you send the Deaf Prince and the others?”

“They’re in the celestial master tomb. They’ll come back when they fully refine Vastspace Mountain and the Timelight Tower.” The little fox looked a bit guiltily at Lu Yun with her baby blue eyes.

“Hello? Did you forget that I’m a holy king of the underworld??” Lu Yun’s glare sharpened with intensity. “Someone took away those two treasures a long time ago!”

Miao shrank in on herself and didn’t dare say another word.

“And Yu Hengluo! Where did you take Yu Hengluo?!” Frustration bubbled in Lu Yun’s heart. He’d found the girl after she vanished from the celestial master tomb and placed her beneath Mount Xuanhuang. Intending to use the power of the immortal dao to heal her, he’d been blindsided to find that she’d vanished a second time!

Lu Yun still didn’t know why there were two versions of her, but had keenly picked up a trace of the little fox’s presence where the second one had vanished. So Miao was behind Yu Hengluo’s disappearance as well!

The little fox stretched out two fat paws and slapped them over her eyes, playing an admirable imitation of being deaf and dumb.

Lu Yun grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and peered viciously into her face. Miao hung her head and went limp in his hand, the very picture of not responding to anything he would do to her.

Fox in hand, Lu Yun headed for the far reaches of the Black Sea. The zombie tree was located where it ended, where the nest of fur seals lay.

The demon god had already conquered the fur seals and allied with Dongfang Hao to exert complete control over the West Sea. The West Sea court was no longer, and countless monster immortals had fled their home to be absorbed by the other three marine factions.

It was a ghost town in the West Sea these days; there was no one present apart from the fur seals and some mundane beings that couldn’t leave. The merchant alliance had established many branches in the West Sea as well, but they’d all been pulled up by the roots, their wealth and resources claimed by the fur seals.

There wasn’t anything the merchant alliance could do in retaliation since the demon god backed the fur seals—they could only withdraw from the West Sea. As things stood now, the West Sea was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world.

“What happened here?” Lu Yun passed by countless islands along the way, but they were all deserted. Most of them were drenched with blood and littered with corpses. An ugly expression descended upon him as he read their information with the Spectral Eye.

Fur seals had slaughtered them all. Their souls were gone, leaving behind empty husks of bodies. A faint air of resentment floated over the West Sea, but it gave birth to no vicious ghosts or malicious spirits.

“What do those fur seals want to do?” Lu Yun lifted his head to look at the ends of the Black Sea, where a great tree shadowed half of its waters. A demonic air wreathed forebodingly around it, making it more terrifying than the zombie tree he’d once seen.

It’d reached peak human king realm and would become a great emperor upon taking one small step forward!

Lu Yun’s brow furrowed tight.

“Let’s go, the zombie tree is no longer something I can handle,” he sighed and turned to leave.

His replica could’ve defeated even a demon tree on the verge of becoming a great emperor, but they were at the far reaches of the West Sea… If two personages such as they had a great battle here, then all four great oceans would suffer from the fallout. [1]

Apart from a few special locations in the current world of immortals, there was no other place that could endure a clash between great emperors. Once the four great oceans were impacted, the twenty-three facets would lose their bindings and immediately disassemble, becoming twenty-three independent worlds. They’d also become instant fodder for the yin ghosts outside of the World Gates.

The demon god knew about Lu Yun’s replica, so he very smartly didn’t conceal himself in the primordial ruins. Instead, he rooted the demonic tree at the far reaches of the West Sea to await Lu Yun’s arrival.

Once the immortal dao was repaired and connected heaven and earth, he’d become the first great emperor beneath it. Lu Yun already knew how to fix things, it was just a matter of whether or not he was willing to discard the current dao immortals.

“Since the headmaster has visited from afar, why leave in such a hurry?” A clear voice sounded in the air as the demon god walked out wearing black robes.

Lu Yun halted and looked at the speaker. This was the demon god’s human form, the body that’d become a void-ascended immortal. It was a replica, and because it cultivated the immortal dao, that enabled the demon god’s primary body to become one beneath the immortal dao.

“What am I supposed to do instead? Have a few drinks with you?” Lu Yun snorted with laughter.

“I happen to have some fine wine here, so it would be just as well if we had a few drinks.” The demon god swept his arm out in an inviting gesture.

Lu Yun nodded slightly and followed his enemy further into the ends of the West Sea. Both sky and earth were black beneath the demonic tree, and everything wafted a faint demonic air.

Wine the color of blood flowed into a cup; Lu Yun lifted it with decorum and drained it in one go.

“This is fine wine.” He smacked his lips appreciatively. The wine was blood-red and very strong, but there wasn’t any tang of blood to it.

The demon god drained his cup as well.

“I didn’t kill the creatures of the West Sea. The fur seals have turned traitor and taken the Ichor Bog with them, heavily injuring Sword Divine Dongfang Hao as well. Almost all of his men are dead,” the demon god raised after savoring the taste of his wine. “My ideal future is to take root in the core of the multiverse and assimilate my demonic dao into the immortal dao, thereby becoming the sovereign of all life under demonic dao.

“Thus, I wouldn’t kill the immortals here like this.”

1. The great oceans are different from the four immortal seas. Great oceans are the glue of the world and are the Untroubled, Unsullied, Unmeant, and Unselfish Seas. The naming is a bit off as the author uses the same ‘sea’ character for them as he does for the cardinal seas. I could change it, yay/nay?