Hellfire!

The tiny flame that burned with the color of blood was a blossom of hellfire, the same that Lu Yun controlled. Since his projected body was made of hellfire, it was evident at first glance what he was facing.

However, the flame in front of him was extremely weak. It clung to life through that tiny oil lamp and the oil inside, flickering in its throes to avoid full extinguishment.

When Lu Yun walked toward the lamp, the scarlet hellfire within jumped gently, as if sensing the arrival of its own kind.

“This is… corpse oil.” Lu Yun regarded the lamp with widened eyes. This wasn’t just regular corpse oil, but oil from an unfathomably strong existence. Their body had been destroyed and refined into corpse oil after its death, sacrificing everything to preserve this tiny bit of fire.

He looked up to see an enormous crimson outer-coffin floating quietly in the air—a hanging coffin. Strange rays of bloody light flared around the coffin, dying it the same eerie shade of red.

Lu Yun attempted to deploy the Spectral Eye, but found that the layers of light blocked his Spectral Eye. He wouldn’t be able to see through them unless he was here in the flesh, blazing with hellfire, and deploying the strength of a king of the fourth realm.

The flickering hellfire in the oil lamp pushed any inclination to do so out of his mind.

He… really didn’t dare go inside with his primary body.

Lu Yun had yet to reach the highest mentality of the principal realm, a level at which he would be without emotion or desire. He was still an ordinary being with the emotions of a regular life form. His projected image took a deep breath and carefully observed the surroundings.

Apart from the hanging coffin and the tiny oil lamp in front of him, there was nothing else unusual about this place. This was a primitive layout of burial without any burial goods or others buried with the tomb owner. Everything about this tomb followed the most primal rhythm—born of nature and returning to nature.

Lu Yun thought for a bit, then stepped up to the hanging coffin. A layer of bloody light circled around it, but he could see that the coffin itself was also bright scarlet.

“Is the corpse of the mountain god inside? Or the master of this Sanguine Hell? Whose corpse oil is inside the lamp?” he murmured to himself, having no basis with which to deduce anything.

The other was too strong for him to calculate. Only when he was filled with hellfire and become a king of the fourth realm would he have the right to look upon such a personage.

Lu Yun thought for a moment, then returned to the oil lamp that was smaller than a palm and tried picking it up. A hazy red light emanated from it, dying the tiny lamp the same color.

He smoothly grasped the lamp and the blood-colored flame inside danced gently, exuding an extremely joyous air. It seemed to be happy to see one of its kind.

“Are you the hellfire of this Sanguine Hell?” Lu Yun carefully asked the flame that was the size of a pea.

It continued dancing around, seeming to want to jump out of the lamp. But once it did so, it would immediately disperse and leave nothing behind.

“You’re finally here, replica of the Hadal Fire.” A very weak thought emerged out of nowhere and sank into Lu Yun’s mind.

He remained listening quietly without response.

“This tiny ember of Sanguine Flame is the last hope of the Sanguine Hell… If it goes out, then the Sanguine Hell is truly ruined, just like the Nihil Hell. It will become an unholy nest for yin spirits…”

Lu Yun frowned slightly. “Is the Nihil Hell the world beneath Mount Tai?”

The thought spoke no more, having dispersed fully into nothingness.

“Damn, this corpse oil has been refined with unusual thoroughness. I can’t resurrect it through the power of reincarnation,” Lu Yun sighed and carefully put the lamp away.

Though the thought had faded away without answering his question, he could still make an educated guess. The Nihil Hell had been corrupted into an unholy nest for evil spirits and was the source of the festering spirits beneath Mount Tai.

That was likely due to the Nihil Flame going out, so if the Sanguine Flame went out as well, that would be the fate of the Sanguine Hell.

Countless numbers of living beings had died in this hell, and a boundless number of them had melded into the Sanguine Hell upon their death, never to be reborn or freed from suffering. If the Sanguine Flame was extinguished and the Sanguine Hell truly destroyed, then these fallen souls would struggle free of their torment.

As long as its fire burned on, the Sanguine Hell would never be fully shattered.

Lu Yun completely dismissed the idea of entering the Nihil Hell. To do so would be nothing short of seeking death. His projected image suddenly scattered apart and vanished into the void.

Outside the fissure, his primary body slowly opened its eyes and two streaks of black fire flashed through them. He seemed to meet something’s gaze.

“Idiot, did you think I would send the oil lamp through the Gates of the Abyss? The fastest speed in the world isn’t light, combat arts, or cultivation methods, it’s thought!” Lu Yun’s lips curved upwards with a hint of derision.

A projected body was a replica formed by thought and outside force. It was in essence, pure thought. When the strand of hellfire attached to his thought dispersed, the thought brought everything attached to it back to the primary body.

The nascent spirit observation method was a truly heaven-defying method. It was the fundamental reason why the current immortal dao could fully surpass the past and even exceed the world of immortals in the mythological realm.

It wasn’t because the Hadal Hell supported the modern world of immortals. It wasn’t that the Dao Flower bloomed on Mount Xuanhuang and had become Qing Yu’s dao fruit. It wasn’t because of the body tempering methods or the various setups by Fuxi and the others.

It was due to the nascent spirit observation method.

This was why Fuxi said that it wasn’t they who’d chosen Lu Yun, but Lu Yun who’d chosen them.

Though Lu Yun’s past self had traveled to the mythological realm, his past self couldn’t do anything that would create any karmic repercussions with the past. Thus, his past self hadn’t taught the nascent spirit observation method. Even Qing Han had learned it only after she arrived back at the modern Lu Yun’s side.

Within the Sanguine Hell, where his projected body had just been, a ghostly face slowly materialized. It seemed to be both laughing and crying, as if a child had clumsily drawn out a face with a brush.

The face of an akasha ghost.