In the eyes of all living beings in the great wilderness, Pangu and God were dead. Completely dead.

Thus, the sudden reappearance of their aura on Mount Buzhou scared the wits out of Qiang Liang. These two were the mightiest masters of the great wilderness—they were two creators!

Though Pangu and God had revealed themselves before, that instance had to do with the immortal dao and so everything about it had been obscured. None of the demon gods in the chaos had known what was happening, but neither had they been particularly interested at that time.

Pangu and God’s abrupt materialization stunned Qiang Liang senseless; he didn’t doubt for a single second that these two creators really did exist among the living. As a celestial king of Taiyi’s court, he’d seen them before and knew these familiar presences to be genuine. When he broke out of his shock, tremors of fear quickly descended instead.

The two creators vanished just as swiftly as they’d appeared, but cold sweat beaded the demon god’s forehead after that brief interlude.

“Remember our words. Now get out of here and get out of our sight,” harrumphed the little fox as she swept a dismissive glance over Qiang Liang.

“No, no, I agree now!” he hastily protested. “I agree on behalf of the three thousand demon gods in the chaos. We will join the Dao Academy and become the deans of three thousand great daos!”

Lu Yun and Qing Yu looked at each other, then shook their heads in unison.

“That offer was made only once. It is no longer available once you’ve passed it by,” responded Lu Yun. “Go back and don’t ever think of returning to the realm. That will never happen unless… unless the immortal dao is broken, the world of immortals is destroyed, and we are all dead. You can do whatever you’d like then.”

“The academy doesn’t need three thousand new deans, that was just something to keep you in check,” continued Qing Yu. “Since you declined the proposal once, you’ll refuse the authority of the immortal dao if you truly did join the Dao Academy. In that case, just stay in the chaos and don’t think of returning home anymore.”

Flabbergasted, Qiang Liang turned around to look at Fuxi and Hongjun.

“Ai,” sighed Hongjun. “Qiang Liang, you remember what the Flame Emperor’s style was like back in the great wilderness.”

His words were the final death knell of devastation. Qiang Liang had idea how he managed to rise or return to the chaos. A dim emptiness of complete despair was the only thing that remained in his eyes.

“Are you really not planning on accepting those demon gods?” Fuxi frowned slightly. He may not be a connate demon god, but he was the son of one. Although he’d wanted to kill them all in the age of the great wilderness, his burning desire for vengeance had long since been quenched.

“Why would he accept them?” the little fox answered him. “It’s just a misunderstanding that they think the chaos creatures have come. They won’t really die if they stay in the chaos.”

Fuxi chuckled wryly, understanding Lu Yun’s intentions.

“Besides, they’ll be a good warning bell if they stay in the chaos. When they beg and plead to come home no matter what, that’s probably when the chaos creatures have truly come. We’ll be able to make preparations beforehand and avoid being caught off guard.” Lu Yun continued frowning. Qiang Liang’s visit gave rise to many unpleasant possibilities in his mind.

They’d previously encountered the three-eyed man in the form of Fuxi—he could enter the realm as he would. So, too, could the ghost ancestor, and now three thousand connate demon gods had reappeared on the scene.

Chaos creatures were unable to enter the world, but connate demon gods weren’t similarly restricted. Who knew how many contingencies they’d left behind in the world of immortals and lower realms?

Lu Yun hadn’t planned on accepting them to begin with. Even if Qiang Liang had agreed just now, Lu Yun would’ve found an excuse to think better of the proposal or raise even more stringent conditions.

He couldn’t be sure of how many spies there were among the three thousand. Since it was a matter of everyone’s survival, he dared not be less than cautious when making this decision. Not to mention, these demon gods had survived to the present only because he’d once shown them mercy. Though this now appeared to be the correct decision, they still posed too great a threat to the realm’s current level of strength.

Lu Yun wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Everyone had the right to make their own decisions and the connate demon gods had made theirs. At the same time, Lu Yun exercised his right to choose. These connate demon gods were weaker than Pangu and God, so they could only sit quietly in the chaos and be his advance troops.

……

“Are you headed into the chaos?” Hongjun smiled at Qing Yu. Though his three disciples had founded the immortal dao, its true founder was Hongjun. He knew that in order for Qing Yu to continue her cultivation progress, she had to enter the chaos and take in its energy.

Now that the immortal dao was Qing Yu’s, she wouldn’t be able to achieve any further improvement by constantly spinning in place.

“Mmhmm.” Qing Yu nodded.

“You should indeed take a look out there, it’s so much bigger than our realm. Perhaps you’ll have some different thoughts of your own when you return,” Hongjun replied out of the blue.

Startled, Lu Yun, Qing Yu, and the little fox looked quizzically at him, but he didn’t clarify his words.

“Many different perspectives exist among the chaos creatures as well, they’re not blindly bent on our destruction. Some of them vhave also been working toward coexisting with the realms all along,” Fuxi mentioned.

“Eh?” Lu Yun started, then nodded.

“Alright, go on then. Remember, though there’s no sense of time in the chaos, it exists for you,” Fuxi said solemnly. “The thirty-three layers of the world of immortals will settle into place in the ninetieth year of the Xuanhuang calendar. You must return before then or you’ll miss these festivities.”

“We will, we understand.” Lu Yun affirmed with a solemn nod. It wasn’t until now that he suddenly realized that entering the chaos didn’t seem as simple as he’d previously thought.

It was currently the fifty-ninth year of the Xuanhuang calendar. They needed to complete everything they needed to do within thirty years, such as greatly improving Qing Yu’s cultivation and locating Lu Yun’s sixth dao palace. As for the little fox… she was just along for the ride.

……

Within the chaos.

They were still within the boundaries of a realm, where the energy of a realm radiated into the chaos. Lu Yun wasn’t in a rush to depart as they still had certain things to discuss.

“We need to turn into them if we want to enter their territory,” he whispered.

He’d set up a formation here to completely isolate themselves from the outside world. Since they were so close to the edges of the realm, connate demon gods wouldn’t normally approach this zone.

“Your Shapeshifting Talisman?” asked Qing Yu.

“We can’t, the basis of that talisman is a combat art, which means there will be flaws. The cultivation methods of the chaos creatures are more advanced than ours, so the talisman might not pull the wool over their eyes,” answered Lu Yun. “If we want to deceive them, we need to actually become them.”

Qing Yu and the little fox waited to see what Lu Yun had in mind.

“I’ll teach you my strongest cultivation method, the Dragonquake Scripture!”