“They’re completely gone.” Lu Yun stopped after a prolonged chase.

Ghost Dragon and Ghost Phoenix’s presence had utterly vanished into the vast cosmos. Qing Yu called upon formula dao, but wasn’t able to determine where they were.

“They weren’t acting normally… something must’ve happened during the time they went missing,” she whispered beside Lu Yun.

They were far from the world of immortals and an unknown distance into the cosmos. Innumerable yin spirits crowded in around them. Apart from a few ghastly looking suns in this part of space, the yin spirits had left none of the other stars untouched.

Lu Yun and Qing Yu were wrapped in blazing hellfire that completely concealed their traces of life. To the senses of the teeming yin spirits, they were a patch of empty void. There was nothing there.

“Whatever’s happened, there’s hope as long as they’re still alive,” Lu Yun sighed as his expression darkened with gravity. “Where the heck do these yin spirits come from?! The strength we’ve accumulated in the world of immortals won’t be able to fight them off at all!”

Though the yin spirits here were also gray, black, scarlet, purple, and silver, they were many times stronger than the ones that Lu Yun was familiar with. Many of them were empyrean, chaos, and even creator realm!

If it wasn’t for something restricting their movements and preventing them from swallowing the world of immortals, they would likely devour the entire world!

“The heavyweights of the third realm don’t want to destroy the worlds, they just want to kill everything in them and claim the world of immortals!” Qing Yu almost felt that she’d returned to the chaos when she looked around her.

She didn’t know what else existed in the cosmos, but the strength and presence that she was able to see and sense here was on par with a sacred land in the chaos. There might even be sovereigns in this part of space!

Hongjun and Fuxi both rivaled sacred monarchs, but they only dared remain on guard at Mount Buzhou. They didn’t venture a foot into the space around the world of immortals!

A battle between sovereigns could easily destroy a newly matured world. The worlds in general were just a speck of dust in the chaos at the moment, yet to fully mature. They could only be categorized as developing as they hadn’t experienced a single chaos tribulation since their formation.

This was also why those of the sacred lands were entirely relaxed and leisurely set up all sorts of plans. They were far from striking out in desperation and sending everything they had to destroy their enemy.

It would take several tens of thousands of chaos tribulations for the worlds to expand to the point of swallowing the chaos.

However, the amount of yin spirits around the world of immortals was really rather frightening Even Lu Yun and Qing Yu felt a deep sense of helplessness when they scanned the scene.

There had to be sovereigns present here. With sovereign realm powerhouses around, there would never be an end to the yin spirits here—not unless the worlds expanded to the point in which they could endure collisions between sovereigns.

But by then, those of the nine sacred lands would surely attack with everything at their disposal. They possessed their own sovereigns now, as well as the creatures born of the nine creation seeds. If allowed enough time, they would reach the level of the sacred palaces.

……

Lu Yun and Qing Yu had entered space to search for the source of yin spirits and take care of the problem at the root. But they now discovered that with their current level of strength, it was impossible for them to attain this goal.

They would have to return empty-handed even if they found the source.

This wasn’t the fourth realm or the chaos, Lu Yun couldn’t deploy his strongest powers here. The Bridge of Forgetfulness was also unable to fully exert itself.

“Is there something special about this place for Ghost Dragon and Ghost Phoenix to have led us here?” Qing Yu suddenly mused and operated formula dao, contemplating this part of space.

Their presences had vanished here, a carefully calculated move that banked on Lu Yun stopping in this precise spot.

“There really is something a little strange about this place!”

Lu Yun took up a protective stance beside Qing Yu.

She abruptly shifted to the side and firmly planted herself over a certain spot, squeezing out an empyrean realm yin spirit that was already there. And then, she became completely still.

“What’s going on?” Lu Yun regarded her actions with a bit of alarm. He’d never seen her like this before.

“This is a spatial node that connects the chaos, world of immortals, and Earth!” Qing Yu explained solemnly. “We need to steady it with the immortal dao. If it’s broken through, then the world of immortals and Earth will be fully exposed to the chaos creatures. They’ll need only one blow to destroy us all!

“I… must stay here!” she said softly to Lu Yun. “I’m sorry, I can’t keep you company from now on.”

“…must it be you?” Lu Yun frowned fiercely. He was also operating formula dao, but the conclusion he reached was the same as what his beloved had said.

The immortal dao must be in residence here, and Qing Yu represented the immortal dao. A replica or projected image of her would be insufficient. It had to be her, personally, the dao sovereign who’d refined the Dao Flower as her dao fruit!

This was a trap to keep Qing Yu confined to this part of space. Though she knew it was a trap, she still had to jump in with both feet. Once Lu Yun left and she remained here alone, that was when true danger would descend.

Qing Yu nodded mutely.

“It’s the demon of the immortal dao behind Ghost Dragon and Ghost Phoenix, it’s controlling them. It should be the only one aware of this spatial node.” Drawing upon the immortal dao, Qing Yu fully derived the situation. “I must stay here. If the chaos creatures discover this place, they’ll use it to attack Earth!

“As the previous great wilderness, Earth is the source of our world. If it’s destroyed, then everything goes as well.”

The chaos creatures weren’t the heavyweights of the Hongmeng with their own schemes. All they wanted was to destroy the worlds so they could survive.

Qing Yu looked steadily at Lu Yun. “If our world is destroyed, everything is gone. Our efforts can’t go to waste.”

Lu Yun sighed gently and took out Violetgrave.

“You need to think carefully about this,” Violetgrave said seriously as she appeared in front of Lu Yun. “I can hold down the fort again for you this time, but when we meet next, we will be purely enemies.”

There was a frosty edge to her words.