Chapter 57: Fighting with Immortals (1/2)
“Who did it?!” Lu Yun could barely contain his anger.
Mo Yi shook her head. “A number of my servants were killed, but they kidnapped your maid instead of killing her. It’s obvious that you’re the target.”
It was six days until the Dusk River Sacrament, and various factions within Dusk Province had been flooding into the city to prepare for the event. This year, there was to be a new governor appointed. There were a myriad of conflicting interests at play, attracting a good many parties that all shared the same target—Lu Yun.
“Could it be Lu Yuanhou?” His expression darkened. That would be very much less than ideal, if true. He’d given the young man a good beating with the Enneawyrm Provenance Formation and killed four of Lu Yuanhou’s followers, turning them into Infernum. The Lu scion must bear a bone-deep hatred for him.
“Lu Yuanhou?” Mo Yi frowned. “From the Lu Clan in Nephrite Major? A great disaster weakened the clan, and it wasn’t until a few centuries ago that they recovered, why would they get involved in this?”
“What are you referring to?” Lu Yun tensed, he just knew there must be something more to the situation.
Yes, the Dusk governor was a member of Nephrite Major with great status and power, but Dusk Province itself was dirt poor, and there was a terrible restriction scaring off almost all immortals.
Lu Yun hadn’t suspected anything when he’d only possessed Yuying’s memories, but with the addition of Feinie’s, he’d realized something was afoot.
Dusk Province was a far cry from what it’d been five thousand years ago. At that time, even the city lords were golden immortals, and the governor had been an arcane immortal. If there were to be a change in the governorship, powerful cultivators from all over Nephrite Major would flock to the province. Even if unique Dusk requirements mandated that only locals could be candidates, many would be eager to befriend the new governor.
Now, however, it barely had two spirit stones to its name, and there was a mighty restriction that killed any golden immortals who entered. Over the past thousand years, no governor had lived longer than a hundred years, and the people couldn’t care less about who occupied the position. Who cared about it now?
But this time, the celestial emperor had suddenly decreed that Lu Yun must become a cultivator in half a year. After he went into closed door cultivation, the crown prince further amended that there was to be a tournament to select the new governor.
No matter what, even if Lu Yun remained in his seat half a year later, he would have to entertain challenges from other cultivators. Nothing made any sense; even a fool could see there was something amiss.
“It’s simple enough.” Mo Yi noted that Lu Yun’s expression had calmed down. “The sudden interest in this forgotten province is because of a treasure that will soon appear.”
“Treasure?” Lu Yun paused. “The Formation Orb? Those paintings?”
“None of them.” Mo Yi shook her head. “It’s called the Sword Pagoda. It used to be widely known, a hundred thousand years ago.”
“Is it more powerful than the Formation Orb?” This was a rather surprising tidbit for Lu Yun. Many had figured out that the Formation Orb lay somewhere within Myriad Formation Summit, but it still hadn’t attracted much attention.
“You’d better keep the Formation Orb a secret, or I can guarantee that you’ll meet with a terrible death.” Mo Yi had guessed his new acquisition from the burial mound. Lu Yun trembled and kept his mouth shut.
“The Formation Orb is a connate-grade treasure. Of course it’s more powerful than the Sword Pagoda. However, the mountain’s protections prevented anyone from getting their hands on the orb—even dao immortals couldn’t find it. The Sword Pagoda is a different story, as the Dusk governor can easily command it to come forth by channeling the power of the land with his seal.”
Lu Yun frowned slightly.
“The Sword Pagoda is more than an ancient treasure,” Qing Han interjected, still resting on a nearby recliner. “According to an old text excavated from an ancient tomb, it was a lord’s signature treasure in the ancient times. After his death, he sealed his lifelong heritage into the tower.
“You have to keep in mind that the path of cultivation itself was broken a hundred thousand years ago. There’s a large gap in the knowledge and heritage of our world. The immortal dao was only restored because of artifacts that were discovered in ancient tombs. Most of what people have uncovered, however, are mere fragments.