Chapter 254: You Dare Use My Tower? (1/2)
Within hell, the floating peak that was the resurrection layout released a wave of vitality that ensconced the new territory. Some life still remained in the soil there.
After the Blood Sea had come into being, the mortal towns nearby evacuated nearly instantly. Cultivators and immortal sects didn’t dare linger much longer, either; all of them retreated more than five thousand kilometers away. Only common birds, beasts, insects, and such remained.
However, the flora and fauna were part of the system created by the earth vein. Lu Yun wanted to leave the ecosystem intact, if he could, and hell wasn't suitable for these creatures. Aside from his envoys and himself, any living being who entered hell would become a ghost. While Wushen Ruyi now possessed the Divine Spymirror, her true form was a divine obsession, not a living being.
The resurrection layout was the only place in the netherworld with any sort of vitality. The extremity of death was to revert to life, and the pole of life was enough to protect this relatively small patch of land.
……
A great fleet of ships soared toward Life Province’s transportation formation. Many cultivators glimpsed the fleet on its way there, including the particularly obnoxious lead vessel at the head of the procession.
“Lu Yun’s back!”
“Wasn’t he dismissed as the Dusk governor after failing to attend His Majesty’s coronation last year? Since he’s been stripped of his position, what’s he doing here now?”
“Where did this fleet come from? Why… does it look so familiar?”
“I think it’s the Chen-Lu coalition fleet that headed toward the Blood Sea a few days ago.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. It was much bigger before, right? Less than a third is left now.”
“The Blood Sea is truly a scary place. It’s not a place that’s fit for the living, that’s for sure.”
Lu Yun had encountered little resistance along the way. Jin Shikong and the others had fled long ago. News should’ve made it back to the capital by now, but there’d been no attempts to intercept him. At this point, he was free game for any hostile dao immortal.
The entire way, he’d been poised to use the corpse puppet’s last seal at any moment. However, everything remained quiet. It was almost too quiet.
During the journey, Lu Qingshuang and the others related what’d happened to the Chen and Lu Clans.
“The Lu Clan’s Mauve Peace Paradise belongs to the Jin Clan now?” Lu Yun frowned.
“Yes. They laid claim to the inheritance tower you left behind, too, senior brother,” Lu Qingshuang replied with clear suffering. “A lot of the clan’s cultivators and immortals were cultivating inside at the time and were all driven out. Many of the brightest geniuses were inside the tower and killed on the spot. The Jin Clan lied to the world about that, of course, and said that it was because of a backlash from the tower.”
The occupation of Mauve Peace Paradise naturally included taking over the inheritance tower. This couldn't be concealed from the world, but the Jin Clan had announced that the tower would be opened to the outside world after a hundred years. That was enough to calm everyone down; a hundred years passed in the blink of an eye for immortals.
“They dare use my tower?” Lu Yun sneered with derision. He could feel the inheritance tower through the Sugato Sword, as well as all twenty-thousand-odd Jin cultivators and immortals inside.
At the top of the tower was a strong dao immortal that exuded an aura as vast and magnificent as the seas, the same exact way Qing Ruyan did. Evidently, this was the Jin ancestor: an arcane dao immortal who’d picked his first dao fruit.
“The Jin ancestor was the most shameless of all. He gravely injured the patriarch with his superior strength…” Lu Qingshuang continued, sounding sadder still. “The Panorama Pavilion’s Fairy Ruyan saved the patriarch’s life, but his nascent spirit has shattered and he’s now an ordinary person.”
If Qing Ruyan hadn’t arrived on the scene, the rest of the Lu geniuses probably would’ve been massacred too.
Lu Yun fell silent. The Lu ancestor’s absence was most conspicuous in this story. He’d most likely been mired by opponents of the same level, no doubt. Every clan had an ancestor, and in a war between clans, people of similar strength were instantly pitted against one another. Lu Daoling had preserved the clan after the calamity a hundred years ago, but the clan hadn’t experienced a true renaissance and recovery of strength.
“Brother Shenhou, where is he? Why haven’t I seen him?” Nearby, Lu Qingshuang had made a frightening observation and turned deathly pale.
Lu Yun was quiet for a very long while, before finally mustering, “Shenhou… has given his life in pursuit of the dao.”
His spirits were quenched by the mention of his lost friend. He handed over the treasures Lu Shenhou left behind, including the three uses of arcane dao, to a pallid Lu Qingshuang.