Yu Rang deployed such marvelous sword dao that even the dead Xuanyuan Sword had transformed into a sword soul in his hands. The sword was the greatest manmade treasure in the world, and one of the strongest as well.

Lu Yun inclined his head at the human descendant. “It is the honor of the human race to have such a warrior as you.” He put away the spear and axe, dismissed the Size Manipulation death art, and raised cupped fists at Yu Rang—greatly startling the yin soul.

Though he was battling Lu Yun, Lu Yun’s identity was the Flame Emperor and a most venerable senior of the human race. Yu Rang felt completely unworthy of the courtesy, even though he’d just smashed one of the Flame Emperor’s attacks to pieces.

“But!!” Twin black flames burned in Lu Yun’s eyes when he jerked his head back up. “How dare you run around with this akasha ghost?!”

Swoosh!

He vanished where he stood to reemerge in front of Yu Rang, slapping the yin soul with everything he had. Lu Yun put so much force behind the slap that he punched through Yu Rang’s body of qi, shattering half of the yin soul’s face and revealing his true form beneath.

“Do you know that this akasha ghost latched onto the great Pangu’s body like a parasite and blasphemed against his true form?! Pangu is the father god of the human race and our ancestor! How dare you conspire with the akasha ghost that desecrated the great god!!”

SMACK!

Lu Yun slapped Yu Rang’s other cheek and pulverized the yin soul’s head this time.

“Do you know that when humanity conquered the heavens, it was this akasha ghost who backed the celestial court and killed countless members of our kin?!”

Boom!

Lu Yun slapped Yu Rang a third time and crushed his body of qi to pieces, dragging the yin soul out with his bare hands.

Lu Yun burned with hatred!

Humans had conquered the heavens in the ninetieth year of his arrival in the great wilderness, but he hadn’t been able to contribute to their efforts after breaking apart the formation that the celestial court had set up around Mount Buzhou. At the time, he couldn’t afford to fight again in the great wilderness.

Despite that, he kept abreast of many developments.

When the human race and celestial court met in their final clash, the court hadn’t been able to put up any semblance of a fight. Haotian’s confidence and valor, as well as that of numerous other connate demon gods, had deserted them after Lu Yun’s heaven-defying punch.

But against all odds, the celestial court still made the human race pay a heavy price and many great gods fighting for humanity even died. All of that could be traced to the akasha ghost supporting the celestial court.

After the court lost and Haotian surrendered in defeat, the akasha ghost continued to plot and scheme from the shadows. Lu Yun learned from Wanfeng that peace and tranquillity hadn’t descended after his departure, that a great deal had still happened.

Ah Bao and Shaodian all became chaos realm experts, but somehow died to the akasha souls. No one knew how Leize and Huaxu died, but in Lu Yun’s eyes, there was none that could threaten them apart from this akasha ghost.

The destruction of human dao hadn’t been a side effect of establishing immortal dao or betrayal of all life either, but because this akasha ghost and its tribe had attacked it!

If the human dao had been whole and able to resist the akasha ghost and whatever was turning dead worlds into realm monsters, would Hongjun and Daoist Yuyu have needed to slaughter innocents and establish an immortal dao drenched with blood?

And now, someone who claimed he wanted to take revenge for human dao and revitalize it shared the same path as the real enemy of the human race!

Hellfire danced in Lu Yun’s hand as he delivered a crazed barrage of face slaps to Yu Rang’s form.

Dazed, the yin soul’s mind spun from the abuse. He’d congratulated himself just moments ago for being stronger than the Flame Emperor, but now that he’d gotten a clearer look, he realized that this ancestor was infinitely close to the creator realm.

Yu Rang was nothing but a baby in Lu Yun’s hands.

“And you, Xuanyuan Sword!” Eyes on fire, Lu Yun bared his teeth at the sword. “Why have you betrayed the human race?!”

Betrayed the human race!!

The accusation stabbed into Yu Rang’s heart. He’d always thought that he was working on behalf of the human dao and for humanity at large. But now this forefather of human dao, the Flame Emperor who’d single handedly built the foundations for human dao, passed judgment on him as a traitor of the human race!

Yu Rang’s soul wanted to cry—how cruel an interrogation was this to drive an incorporeal being to tears!

The Xuanyuan Sword vibrated softly, pouring its heart out.

Lu Yun’s expression darkened. He was certain that these great masters who wanted to enact revenge for the human race had been corrupted by something and become a tool in another’s hand.

To set humans against humans.

The Xuanyuan Sword was Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan’s sword, the first manmade treasure ever to be refined by his master. It’d absorbed some of Lu Yun’s sword dao when the Yellow Emperor trained in the sword formation, so it immediately capitulated when faced with Lu Yun.

“Ling Weiyang, I’m sending him to you!” Lu Yun waved a hand and flung Yu Rang to the Dao Academy.

“Azure Emperor Ling Weiyang!” Yu Rang’s heart quailed again. He might’ve somehow overlooked the Flame Emperor being here, but his last hope for self-redemption shattered when even the Azure Emperor appeared.

Lu Yun looked around the premises at other humans who’d shown up. They were yin souls like Yu Rang, but their eyes glinted coldly without the slightest hint of respect toward the Flame Emperor. Their hearts held only revenge.

Destroy the immortal dao and take revenge for the human dao!

……

“No wonder, no wonder the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak sent me drifting through the wheel of reincarnation.” Qi Hai trembled like a leaf.

Before he met Lu Yun, he’d spent every minute and second obsessing over how to topple the immortal dao and rebuild human dao. He’d even cursed and sealed away all of the divines—the cardinal tribes—that’d betrayed humanity.

Spontaneous enlightenment struck him when he heard Lu Yun’s words, and he saw clearly through the circle of life and death.

“So I… I was the first to be chosen among the Flame Emperor’s three hundred-sixty five, the first of the star divinities and city lord of humanity’s first major city!” Memories from his past life surfaced as he awoke from the endless cycle of reincarnation.

It hadn’t been only him to continuously undergo reincarnation, the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak had bestowed the same power to all three hundred-sixty five geniuses and sent them through life after life.

All succeeding three hundred-sixty five city lords had been the first generation original!

But after countless catastrophes, all of the others had truly died or lost themselves within one of their lives, leaving only Qi Hai and the lord of Destiny City out of their cohort. Out of the three hundred-sixty five cities, only Destiny City was left.

“The great emperor knew a long time ago that the enemy would infiltrate the human race. That’s why he chose us and used endless reincarnation to help us keep our core essence,” sighed the Destiny city lord as he, too, perused newly returned memories. He’d also broken out of the endlessly repeating cycle with Lu Yun’s words. “Ah, but, senior brother was lord of the first city. So… they set up plots within schemes within plans on you so that you would continuously lose your sense of self.”

Qi Hai smiled ruefully. “That I did… to the point where I plotted against the Flame Emperor and almost killed him myself.”

He thought back to the Blood Formation of Ten Thousand Spirits and rotten flesh of many lives.