Chapter 52: To Be One With Dao (1/2)

“Don’t,” Lu Yun blurted out as Yuying trapped Formation Thirteenth with the Panorama of Clarity. “I’ll kill him myself!”

Yuying nodded and unfurled the painting. Formation Thirteenth fell to the ground, his energy constrained. The fear on his face was replaced by surprise when he heard Lu Yun’s words.

“You’re going to kill me yourself?” He cocked his head derisively, despite the lingering fear in his heart. A qi realm cultivator wanting to kill an immortal? Hah!

Lu Yun ignored him and drew out a purple sword that glowed with an indistinct hue.

“Violetgrave!!” Formation Thirteenth cried out, stunned. Various situations up until now had made it plain that this sword was no ordinary ninth-rank weapon.

Swish.

Lu Yun slashed the man’s body and soul apart, and the soul that’d taken over Formation Thirteenth was devoured by the Gates of the Abyss. With another wave of the Dusk governor’s hand, a young man in his twenties, clad in green robes, reemerged to kneel before Lu Yun.

“Infernum Zhao Dianliang greets milord!” He was an unusually handsome and graceful man, manifesting utter nobility with every movement. His expression, however, held nothing but humility.

“How do I extract the immortal fires from the three paintings?” Lu Yun cut right to the chase. He’d opted to make the man a nether soldier so that the third envoy spot remained open for Qing Han. This was his final option, in case all other attempts failed.

Moreover, Lu Yun couldn’t write Zhao Dianliang down in the Tome of Life and Death without his actual corpse. Given that, Lu Yun couldn’t access his new soldier’s memories and knowledge, so he had to settle for good old fashioned questioning instead.

“Draw the fires out with a more powerful flame!” Zhao Dianliang answered immediately. He was merely an august immortal, but he held a special position in the Exalted Immortal Sect. Thus, highly-regarded, he knew of even the top secrets in the sect.

“A more powerful flame?” Lu Yun frowned.

“There’s an extremely powerful fire in your dantian, sir!” Yuying said.

Lu Yun was reminded of the strange black flame. “That’s right!”

The black fire in his dantian came from the Tome of Life and Death, so it couldn’t be anything but powerful. When he used his death arts, he wasn’t tapping into his own energies, but the black flame instead.

The nine shadowy dragons surrounding the book had disappeared. They’d been crushed by the Tiger Prince earlier, and the pieces left behind were devoured by the black fire. That had fueled Lu Yun’s qi and allowed him to break through in one fell swoop.

His mind made up, Lu Yun entered the Gates of the Abyss with Yuying and Zhao Dianliang. He needed the power of the netherworld to release the fire in his body.

Whoosh!

Black flames were suddenly burning furiously in Lu Yun’s hands. Yuying and Zhao Dianliang stumbled backward, too fearful to look at the fire head-on.

The three paintings that exceeded ninth-rank hovered in front of the young man and unfolded in their entirety. The Panorama of Clarity was a traditional ink painting of natural landscapes, the Portrait of Emptiness sketched different walks of life, and the Profile of Harmony depicted a vast blue sky.

Setting his black fire near the three paintings, Lu Yun could sense the three immortal fires within. Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and Daevic Skyfire! They seemed to be sentient and clung to the paintings when they sensed the black flame, refusing to emerge.

“I wouldn’t be able to do anything to you if I was outside, even if I exhausted all of my qi. Here on my home turf, however, my wishes are your command. Come forth!” he growled. Two black flames blazed in his eyes as ripples undulated throughout the netherworld.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Palm-sized flames of green, blue, and yellow burrowed out from the paintings and hovered in the air. Lu Yun exhaled lightly. “How long did that take?” he asked with a half-turn.

Yuying made some quick calculations. “Seven days.”

Good thing we’re within the Gates of the Abyss. Seven days had passed by in such a quick moment! With a push of his hand, he sent the three fires to Yuying. “You can have them.”

“Thank you for your generosity, sir!” Yuying said, her eyes glowing.

Emerald Mistfire was why the Panorama of Clarity could be used to refine pills. What mattered to Yuying was the fire, not the painting. There were a great number of treasures in this world that could store living beings and inanimate objects, as well as create an isolated space, but flames were far more rare. She gladly transferred the three fires into herself.

Without the immortal fires sealing the three paintings, they began merging. Mysterious, glorious light radiated from them, illuminating the dark world within the Gates of the Abyss. They overlapped, their images superimposing and blending together.

After an indeterminate period of time, the light dissipated and an empty scroll fell into Lu Yun’s hands. There was nothing but a blank canvas, and the scroll itself looked quite ordinary.

“This is what the three paintings turned into?” Lu Yun stared at it in confusion.

Yuying and Zhao Dianliang were at a loss as well, and neither of them could tell what the newly formed treasure was. Another quick time calculation showed that another month had passed.

Thankfully, five weeks within the gates were still a mere moment outside.

“Screw it,” Lu Yun pressed his lips, “what have we got to lose?” Upon exiting the gates, they immediately ran back to where they came from.

“Shit!” Lu Yun cursed when they approached the clearing. As Miao had predicted, the titanic undead hag was back. She’d completely lost it and repeatedly slammed into the floating summit, desire flooding her eyes.