Chapter 51: Soon To Die (1/2)

Li Youcai’s soft awe made the others react as well.

“What happened just now? Who was that girl?” Yuying asked as she stared blankly at the gaping hole in the cavern wall. It marked the direction of where the goddess had blasted the undead hag.

“No matter what happened, we must depart without delay!” a fretful Miao interjected. “The undead hag is an undying monster. She’s only been shot through the wall, she’ll be back soon.”

“Right, we need to leave at once!” Lu Yun put all thoughts about the girl out of his mind and crawled up from the ground. The kick from 'Formation Thirteenth' had been hastily delivered and caused him no tangible damage.

“Are you alright?” He reached Qing Han’s side and helped the young man up. After a glance at the Dusk governor, the imperial envoy gently closed his eyes without replying.

“What’s… what’s the matter with you?” Lu Yun jolted in shock when he touched the inside of the young man’s wrist. As a member of a tomb raiding sect with deep roots in ancient Chinese history, he was naturally proficient in traditional medicine.

The imperial envoy’s pulse was so faint that it was a real worry his heart might stop at any second. Each breath seemed to bring him one step closer to his grave. Lu Yun’s heart clenched painfully as a foreboding feeling struck him.

Did I push him too hard earlier and end up hurting him? Or did something invisible infiltrate his body to steal his life force? He swung Qing Han onto his back. “In any case, let’s get out of here first!”

“Leave him here, he isn’t long for this world. He’ll be nothing but a burden if we take him with us,” Miao sighed as he floated to Lu Yun’s side.

“We came together, so we leave together.” Lu Yun shook his head.

Qing Han had saved him twice during their exploration, and it was due to one of those occasions that the imperial envoy was in his current predicament. For Lu Yun, abandoning him simply wasn’t an option. Qing Han was a comrade-in-arms, a friend until death. His very first friend in the immortal world, as a matter of fact.

“I fear he won’t live long at this rate. He probably won’t persist until the exit—” Miao warned again.

“Shut up!” Lu Yun roared like a wounded beast.

“Do you really want to save him?” Miao asked after a moment’s hesitation, gentle in the face of the Dusk governor’s anger.

“Do you know a way?” Lu Yun asked immediately.

“I do, but the cost may be too much for you to bear,” the fox whispered. He looked at the big hole in trepidation, afraid the giant hag would suddenly reappear.

She wouldn’t have been able to harm Miao inside his dream world, but he was no match for the monster after waking up. The only possible outcome was to end up as food in the monster’s stomach.

“Tell me,” Lu Yun urged.

“The Panorama of Clarity, the Portrait of Emptiness, and the Profile of Harmony were all drawn by the same grandmaster a long time ago. The Panorama of Clarity encompasses all of nature’s children, the Portrait of Emptiness represents life in its endless facets, and the Profile of Harmony symbolizes the laws of the world. A complete world can be formed by combining the three of them,” Miao explained in a soft and unhurried voice.

“If you can create this world and let the ugly eyesore refine it, you’ll be able to save his life.” He rubbed his face lightly, somewhat puzzled. “Strange, why does he risk his life for such an ugly creature, but yell at a wondrous being of beauty like me? Humans are truly peculiar creatures. Well, the girl who appeared earlier was really pretty. Aiyaya, she’s still somewhat lacking compared to me though.”

The incessant gabbing made Lu Yun itch to stomp on the fox’s face. “How do I combine them?”

The Profile was in his possession, the Portrait was on Qing Han, and the Panorama was Yuying’s greatest treasure.

Well, correction, Yuying had silently placed the Panorama in his hand. As his envoy, she fully understood the place that Qing Han occupied in her master’s heart.

“The three immortal fires stored within! Everyone believes the Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and the Daevic Skyfire are sealed within their respective scrolls, when in fact it’s the opposite,” explained Miao. “The fires entered the paintings in order to seal them. You need to extract the immortal fires before you can combine the paintings.

“But... there isn’t enough time at the moment. His life will either run its course before you can complete the process, or the hag will return and eat us all. That being said, how do we take out the fires?” The fox sank deep into thought.

…...

Manifesting the realms of yin and yang, Lu Yun and Yuying entered the Gates of the Abyss together.

Time flowed differently beyond the gates. Ten thousand years could pass inside, while only the time it takes for a mere snap of a finger would pass outside. Unfortunately, the ruined world wasn’t a suitable place for the living to cultivate, or Lu Yun would’ve waited until he reached immortality before exiting.

The only ones currently inside were his envoy, Feinie, and the Skyriver city lord, who was still squashed under the bronze outer-coffin.

“How do we separate the fires from the paintings?” Lu Yun asked Yuying and Feinie.

“Extract the fires?” Feinie blinked in surprise, then shook her head. “The Exalted Immortal Sect might know. They fought with me for centuries in order to seize the Portrait of Emptiness, so it stands to reason that they would know the secret of the three paintings.”

“People from the Exalted Immortal Sect…” Lu Yun frowned.

“Sir, there’s one of them inside the burial mound,” reminded Yuying. She’d picked up on someone else having taken over Formation Thirteen’s body.

“But Qing Han probably doesn’t have that long,” Lu Yun replied helplessly. With his particular interest in traditional medicine, he could tell that Qing Han would soon breathe his last. There was no time to waste, which was why he’d rushed into his realm to make further plans.

Yuying apprised Feinie of the situation.

“I see. There’s a formation in the Formation Orb called ‘Nature’s Subsistence’. It can freeze the bodily functions of one who is fated to die for seven days. But if nothing can be done after those seven days, then even the Divine Exalted Immortal himself would be powerless to change the doomed one’s fate,” explained Feinie. She added after a moment, “There is... also the possibility of writing his name in the Tome of Life and Death, milord.”

“The Tome…” Lu Yun smiled ruefully. “Wouldn’t that turn him into my subordinate? Would we still be friends then? But I guess if he really dies, I’ll make him an Envoy of Samsara.”

He was now allowed one additional envoy after reaching the qi transformation realm, but this was an option of last resort that would forever sever the ties of fellowship between them. Even if Lu Yun were to still consider him a friend, Qing Han would see Lu Yun as his master and nothing else.

“There is another way,” Yuying suddenly offered. “Send out the floating peak and use its resurrection layout to prolong Sir Qing Han’s life.”