Whoosh!

The stark-white bone arrow whistled through the air when the elder loosed his bow, arriving in front of Lu Yun’s throat almost instantaneously.

So fast! The thought had just arisen in his mind when a bitter almond taste welled up in his throat.

“It’s poisoned!” It suddenly connected that he knew this poison. He’d encountered it before when tasting all of those herbs and it’d almost killed him. It was a deadly poison similar to the Poison Arrow Trees of ancient China, and he’d written down in the Myriad Herbs Classic that it was exceedingly dangerous. [1]

To think that the Dongyi would already be making use of this poison!

Thankfully, his own reflexes were extremely fast. He shifted to the side a split second before the poison arrow sank into his throat and evaded the terrifying attack by the skin of his teeth. But before he could twitch another muscle, the Dongyi elder leapt into the air and grabbed Lu Yun by the throat.

So fast!

Though the elder’s cultivation was less than Shennong’s, he could kill Shennong ten times over without breaking a sweat!

“Lie Shan!” Two beams of green light flared from the elder’s eyes as he glared at Lu Yun, whose eyelids twitched when he saw those eyes.

“You’re not a Dongyi member, you’re, you’re…” Though he struggled, the elder’s strength was too overwhelming. A terrifying power flooded Lu Yun’s body and restrained every fiber of his being.

“That’s right, it’s me!” forced out the Dongyi elder through clenched teeth. “I’ve finally got you, Lie Shan! So you come from the future! Should I snap your neck now while you’re weak and fragile?”

Lu Yun goggled with stupefaction. This elder was the demon god’s master, Luo Houluo!

When the ancient ruin exploded, Lu Yun and the little fox weren’t the only ones affected. If they could travel through spacetime and land in this era, then so could Luo Houluo.

Though Fuxi was the mastermind behind everything, there were many details that he couldn’t control.

The little fox was likewise restrained, but Luo Houluo seemed to bear some reservations and didn’t dare touch her, so she quietly remained in Lu Yun’s embrace.

“It’d be as easy as snapping a finger if you wanted to kill me. Since you haven’t, that means I still hold some value for you,” Lu Yun responded calmly.

“Damned human and your strong will.” Luo Houluo lightly knocked his knuckles on the youth’s head, but didn’t reveal his true form.

When he returned to this era, he’d taken possession of a Dongyi priest. However, as strong as he was, so was the priest’s will. Even though someone else had stolen his body, the priest forced his aggressor to stay and protect the Dongyi humans.

Luo Houluo wasn’t at liberty to go about his business, and if it wasn’t for him recognizing Lu Yun at this time, he’d probably still be on watch here, preventing the river god in the Yellow River from threatening the Dongyi Tribe.

One thing Lu Yun recalled from when he first met the demon god was that Luo Houluo had immediately recognized him and flew into a berserk rage. Could it be that Lu Yun had something to do with the Luo Houluo of this present day and age?

For some reason, the Constellation Willow came to mind.

“Take me to Taiyi’s tomb!” Luo Houluo threw Lu Yun to the ground and stabbed his hand into his chest, digging his heart out from his body. “Take me to Taiyi’s tomb!”

Thump!

The Dongyi elder toppled over to the ground with no signs of life. His heart remained floating in the air and slowly wriggled into a bloody humanoid form.

A blood demon! One like the blood dragon and blood phoenix, but since this one was manifested by a heart, it wouldn’t sustain itself for long. However, it was the most Luo Houluo could attempt at the moment. Otherwise, the Dongyi elder’s will would continue to influence him and make it impossible for him to leave.

“Alright!” Lu Yun didn’t ask further and didn’t refuse.

The blood demon jerked slightly and turned into a bloody pearl that rested on the human youth.

“Taiyi’s tomb is at the center of Suncrows Plain, it’s tangled up with the tomb of Yi and those nine suncrows.” Luo Houluo’s voice sounded by Lu Yun’s ear. As a blood demon, he was in full possession of his greatest abilities.

“I thought that tomb looked a bit weird, so it turns out Taiyi is buried there too,” grumbled Lu Yun. “But why did he come back and bury himself in there?”

“Taiyi didn’t make it out alive to begin with,” said the blood demon. “He entered Yi’s tomb to find Yi’s bow, but died in the attempt. What emerged was just his obsession.”

He snuck a careful look at the little fox in Lu Yun’s arms as he spoke, a stiff expression on his face. “Female troublemaker!”

“Eh?” Sensing the blood demon’s gaze, the little fox looked askance at the speaker. This time, the demon stayed silent.

When Lu Yun reached the center of the river, he glimpsed a mammoth shadow lurking in its depths.

“What is that? The river god?” He couldn’t make out its true form as it seemed to be nothing, but also most assuredly existed at the same time.

“It’s a divine spirit formed out of the resentment of all living beings that died here, a so-called evil god,” the blood demon’s tone softened slightly. “Ignore it, with all of the chaos in Suncrows Plain, it won’t dare come out for the time being.

“We need to go!” his tone grew anxious.

The disturbance in Suncrows Plain gave them the perfect cover to enter the tomb. Though the blood demon was stronger than Lu Yun, he didn’t understand the dao of burial or feng shui. Only Fuxi’s cherished disciple, Lie Shan, could safely traverse the tomb.

Without another word, Lu Yun deployed the Wandering Step and crossed the river.

The Wandering Step was modified from a death art, which meant that though he couldn’t utilize the death arts at the moment because he didn’t have access to hellfire and the Tome of Life and Death, his own modified arts were fine. [2]

Upon arriving in this era, Lu Yun finally understood that he owed everything to the Tome of Life and Death. If it wasn’t for this treasure, his strength would decrease by at least ninety percent. Therefore, he had to start again from the beginning and wean himself off of relying on the book.

……

The great river split the Suncrows Plain into two. To its left was land suitable for life, but past the river was an enormous ocean of fire.

1. In the ancient times, the Li people smeared the latex from Poison Arrow Trees onto arrowheads for use in hunting and warfare.

2. His use of Spectral Eye before was also a modified death art.