“‘Waughhhh!!” The purples lunged at him along with an overwhelming wave of scarlet bale spirits. They recognized him and the strange connate treasure in his hands!

“Hmph!” Lu Yun sneered and threw out a handful of golden soybeans. They exploded in midair and transformed into thirty-six golden armored warriors that were all peak peerless immortal realm like him.

“ROAR!!” they bellowed in challenge the moment they appeared. Roars that were mightier than even Lu Yun’s sword dragon howls swept the void, filled with boundless energy of the world as a dreadful sound combat art.

Inspiration had struck Lu Yun when he employed a sword dragon’s howl to exterminate a world full of dead spirits in the Quiet Realm. He’d sent this combat art back to the Dao Academy through his nascent spirit, where it’d been further perfected by the academy disciples specializing in formula dao.

These golden warriors were a result of his bean soldiers death art, which meant he could instantly share this combat art with them. As for where these warriors hailed from… they were once the celestial soldiers under Taiyi’s banner, the first celestial army beneath the heavens!

They were all dead now and transformed into yin gods, adrift in an unknown patch of space and still stalwartly defending their posts. Thirty-six celestial soldiers bellowed in unison, overlaying thirty-six roars and enhancing the sound combat art by thirty-six times over!

Hum—

At the same time, Quietus revolved around Lu Yun as a watery ripple to protect his body. In the next instant, the explosion of a world breaking apart ripped through the void.

Thirty-six golden warriors scattered into nothing, but so did ten million scarlet bale spirits and seven purples fly apart as well.

The sound combat art had been customized for the dead spirits. The golden warriors had deployed it with their life as a catalyst to enhance it thirty-six times over, demolishing the ten million bale spirits in one sweep. Even the purple bale spirits had been no exception.

In the absence of the scarlets, the glittering golden dao palace appeared in front of Lu Yun without obstruction. It was the same as the one he’d seen before, the same layout, structure, and ripples of a star from the chaos.

“So this is another trap, huh, just waiting for me to jump into it.” A cold sneer played upon his lips. He’d discovered that the ever-present soul force had burrowed into his nascent spirit with the lingering violence of the bale spirits. It was attempting to assimilate him and turn him into another bale spirit.

Unfortunately for the soul force, his nascent spirit was in hell and reinforced by the power of reincarnation and kingdom of hell. Hellfire had also pooled into a sea of hellfire within the kingdom, and it blazed ferociously the moment the malice entered his nascent spirit. It instantaneously purified the negativity, leaving behind only pure soul force that bolstered Lu Yun’s nascent spirit to unfathomable heights.

It was plain to see that the creatures of the chaos didn’t know Lu Chen as Lu Yun, or they’d never attempt such a method to turn him into a bale spirit. What they wanted was just the sword in his hands, that sword which could easily destroy their dao palaces with the surging energy of chaos it contained.

……

“Didn’t you guys want me to come? Here I am.” Lu Yun stood in front of the palace with sword in hand.

All of the bale and yin spirits within the cosmos and main world deserted their original targets and pounced furiously on Lu Yun. That sword in the human’s hands was far too great a threat to them.

Named after the characters for ending heaven, Quietus brought the stillness of final rest to anything it touched.

……

“What’s going on??” Locked in desperate battle with the dead spirits, the immortal suddenly found their opponents withdrawing from the battlefield. At a loss, they looked at the sky above.

“It’s senior brother Lu Chen of the Dao Academy!” someone called out. Zhao Lu and the others of the Exalted Immortal Sect were still alive and completely stunned to see the familiar figure in the high reaches.

“Lu Chen of the Dao Academy? Someone from the Lu Clan?” Many academy disciples frowned slightly, having never heard of this person. Even some of the Lu descendants present on the main world looked lost. Someone who could hack his way into the cosmos while bombarded by dead spirits was undoubtedly a stunning genius, one superior to the three great disciples of the academy—Liu Qingmiao, Zou Longxiu, and Silverblaze.

But no one of the Lu Clan had ever heard of this young sword immortal either.

There were many called Lu Chen in the clan, and one of them was even on the battlefield—but he was a pale imitation of the one in the cosmos over the main world.

“The weapon in his hand is a connate treasure!” someone murmured. “No wonder he can fight his way into space and stand in front of that strange palace. He has a connate divine sword protecting him!”

A strange light flashed through the eyes of many. Connate treasures were still very rare in the current world of immortals. The ultimate treasure of the various celestial courts and once peak factions were connate treasures. Now that they saw one in the hands of a mere peerless immortal, many thoughts occurred to a great deal of people.

Lu Yun ignored the tangled mess of distracting thoughts below and smirked at yet another endless wave of dead spirits lunging for him. “Here I am, but you insist on cowering in your shell. It looks like you’re not much to write home about, either!”

ROAR!!

Emitting another loud bellow, Lu Yun pulverized the wave into dust. At the same time, eighty-one sword dragons flew out from his hands and shook the realm with reverberating howls.

Changing his stance, Lu Yun stabbed the rippling Quietus straight at the dao palace. He didn’t intend to hack it to pieces this time, but wanted to pierce straight into its heart and see what secrets lay within!

……

“Let’s go!” The immortals on the world below followed Lu Yun when they saw him streak toward the bizarre palace.

After the eighty-one sword dragons rampaged through the yin spirits, it was the easiest exercise possible for ten million immortals to charge into space and scatter the tide of enemies. Lu Yun’s combat art had already taken out the boundless scarlet bale spirits, what few remained were insufficient to direct the army of dead spirits. Confusion and disarray engulfed the great army.

“Go back, we protect the denizens of the main world.” Yuchi Hanxing took a deep look at the dao palace before turning her back on it. She hadn’t forgotten her mission, that they were here to safeguard the last sanctuary of this realm.

The Dusk Phalanx came to a halt and disassembled the Black Tortoise formation. They then returned to the boundary and stood in combat readiness. Though the tide of yin spirits in the stars had dispersed, that didn’t mean the rest of the yin spirits on land wouldn’t suddenly continue their offensive.

……

The dao palace was enormous, like a star. It felt that he’d set foot into a real world when Lu Yun entered it. Crystal-clear waters flowed through beautiful mountains, birds chirped from a fragrance of flowers. He saw a group of children chasing each other next to a small village where men worked the fields and women tended to the home. Numerous footpaths crisscrossed each other as chickens crowed and dogs barked.

Peace and tranquillity reigned, and it all looked very real.

However, Lu Yun knew that this was a massive illusion, one which even he couldn’t make out.

“Do you see? This is our world, where we live.” A melodious female voice traveled into his ears like a gentle creek.

“Is there such a place in the chaos?” Lu Yun blinked and asked subconsciously.

“The chaos you see is the chaotic power that occurs when the energy of a realm refines the true chaos. When you depart from the boundaries of a realm, you’ll discover places like these all throughout the chaos.

“Your world is a cancerous tumor within the chaos. It constantly eats away at the chaos and seeks to swallow our home. We dislike slaughter and destruction, but we will die if we don’t eradicate this poison.”

“But… this is my home,” Lu Yun responded, lost. “All of this exists in my home too.”

“We… don’t want to destroy you either, we just want to live…”

Lu Yun and the unseen creature of the chaos both fell silent.

Who was right and who was wrong? They both just wanted to survive. Such was the harsh reality of life. They had to destroy each other if they wanted to live on.