Hummmm.

An enormous flash of sword light streaked through the void and cut down a yin spirit ferreting out of the black hole. Strength at peak empyrean realm deployed perfectly in this moment, shaking the celestial bodies in space.

The gravity from the black hole was so tremendous that even light couldn’t escape from it, but that was nothing for an expert on Xing Chen’s level.

“The things in the black hole are yin spirits alright.” Xing Chen’s eyes darted around and widened in realization. “Ah, yes. During my second visit to Yi’s tomb, Yinglong told me that the cosmos is filled with yin spirits. It looks like I collected all of them the first time around and shoved them into this black hole.

“Then that means I didn’t catch her eye the first time I entered the tomb, and she doesn’t know what’s recently taken place in space.”

Lu Yun had been worrying that something bad might happen as a result of him recalling his replica, but now it seemed that his worries were extraneous.

“I’m guessing that my primary body was severely injured at the time and unable to hold off the yin spirits. That’s why I had Xing Chen keep things under control here so that I could retreat with ease.”

Picking up on what clues remained in the area, Lu Yun deduced what had happened on his first visit.

“I’m not the only one who came by, Changxi paid a visit as well. …and the goddess who lives in the sun! That’s strange, both of them are connate great gods and chaos realm powerhouses. Why did they need rescuing, how was I the one who pulled it off, and why did I reveal my primary body just like that?”

Lu Yun rubbed the back of his head and reached out with both hands. Beams of iridescent starlight burst forth from his body and blasted into the black hole. Devastating ripples traveled back out while the yin spirits inside were churned to pieces.

He then looked back at where his primary body was situated in space and vanished on the spot.

Three breaths after Lu Yun vanished, the black hole shuddered slightly, like it was an enormous face coming to life. Crimson eyes opened to look in the direction where Lu Yun had gone.

……

“You’re back!” The little fox flashed back to her original form upon seeing Xing Chen and darted into his arms.

Lu Yun stowed his primary body in another dimension inside his replica and rubbed his forehead. “You know, you can obviously walk on your own in human form. Why do you like presenting as a fox and tucking yourself into my robes?” He smiled wryly.

“I’m that troublemaker of a woman, No-Good, Bad News Tushan. The greatest femme fatale of the great wilderness!” the little fox declared proudly. “I’m worried that you won’t be able to withstand temptation and cheat on Little Yu if you saw me in human form!”

Lu Yun curled his lip. It’d been ten years since he’d seen Qing Yu, and he really did miss her very much.

“We’ll be able to go back after another ninety years!” A warm smile curved his lips when he thought of his beloved. “Come on, let’s go find White Emperor and see what he’s been up to!”

He vanished upon taking a great stride forward.

……

At the center of the cosmos.

A boundless sea of flames reigned dominant as dreadful connate fire threatened to set the very void aflame.

Countless dead spirits struggled and wailed in the conflagration. Some occasionally broke free, but would be quickly hunted down by the great masters standing guard next to the inferno.

There was an enormous corpse in the middle of the fiery ocean—an enormous three-legged suncrow. It was several times bigger than Xing Chen, and the conflagration originated from the flames on its body.

The corpse was already starting to transform and change into an incandescent sun. Nine slightly smaller three-legged suncrows revolved around it, and they too showed signs of converting into sun stars.

“Kid of the Jin Clan!” A muscular man wearing golden battle armor looked at Bai Zhaoju. “His Majesty and the great god Rushou have an agreement that if the great god’s descendant came, he would be allowed to retrieve His Majesty’s true feather. But you are too weak, far too weak!” [1]

The man was in human form as well and eighteen meters tall. His four limbs were stocky and his voice especially loud.

“Just look at you, you’re as skinny as one of those duck-billed beasts. And you’re only a celestial divine! The dead spirits on the outskirts of these flames will skin you alive and swallow you whole, to say nothing of the realm monsters inside the flames proper!”

“Don’t worry, general, this junior wishes to make use of the dead spirits inside to temper my sword dao,” Bai Zhaoju replied expressionlessly.

“Sword dao? You’ve found your way onto the path of sword dao, kid?” The golden-armored man widened his eyes ferociously. “Then absolutely not! Rushou probably doesn’t know of your potential since he sent you here. You’re a solid pillar of the great wilderness after setting foot onto the great dao, and you’ll reach His Majesty’s level sooner or later…

“No, absolutely not! I can’t do anything about Rushou treating you like cannon fodder, but I can and will prevent a precious genius like you from going to your death!” The stocky man shook his head rapidly and shoved Bai Zhaoju aside. “If you want to train, go to the netherdark beneath Mount Buzhou. There are plenty of ghosts and uncanny creatures there, and you won’t die with Fuxi keeping watch. You won’t be going inside this ocean no matter what, because you’re sure to lose your life here!”

The general wrapped up his emphatic speech with another resolute glare. “If you die now, that will be a tremendous loss for the great wilderness! You will reach at least His Majesty’s heights in the future!”

Bai Zhaoju didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why did this armored general think so highly of himself? Taiyi’s heights?

Well, he’d reach empyrean realm within a hundred years if he truly set foot into sword dao, but chaos realm was beyond imagination, to say nothing of becoming an ultimate expert like Taiyi.

“You you you you you—” The general’s eyes suddenly shot wide open and he trembled like a leaf as he looked behind Bai Zhaoju, unable to form a single sentence.

“I think you look a bit familiar… have I seen you before somewhere?” Lu Yun had arrived, but was arrested by the sight before him.

The celestial court of the great wilderness and its celestial emperor had fallen, but its army still camped up in space!

With Taiyi’s corpse as the center, at least a hundred million troops were densely stationed in a radius of a hundred million meters, completely sealing off the local space.

Realm monsters were kept outside of this local space by the bodies of Taiyi and the nine suncrows, but they too had troops in the form of endless dead spirits that could plague the cosmos and attack the great wilderness.

Thus the celestial army remained camped out here, intercepting the dead spirits. But their numbers were limited and they were unable to fully have a handle on everything, so many dead spirits managed to escape and wreak havoc in other places.

Currently, Lu Yun was frowning at the golden-armored general.

“I think I’ve seen you in a dream before!” The man’s lips trembled as he looked at Lu Yun. “In my dream, you used a soybean…”

1. In Chinese mythology, Gold God (Jin God) was often identified as the Autumn God and personified as Rushou.