Chapter 367: Bane (1/2)
Donglin E and some of the immortals were originally planning to kill Lu Yun on the spot after the youth broke the terrible formation of death in the tomb. Lu Yun’s weapons of war were powerful, but not powerful enough to fell peak arcane dao immortals. They would be able to stop him if a few of them worked together.
But now, he’d created a formation that could simulate heaven and earth, and the fact that the formation contained the energies of the world hadn’t escaped the attention of those who’d lived for thousands of years.
The power of the land remained in the formation, but if it could be incorporated into an immortal’s body.... Even immortals who hadn’t journeyed through the void realm would be able to become one with the world.
“This… this is ludicrously generous of him. If I had something like this, I would only share it with my confidantes and clan so that we could use it to conquer the world....” Tuoba Jie gaped at Lu Yun, stunned. With Tuoba Jie’s values and perception of the world, Lu Yun’s thoughts seemed absolutely incomprehensible to the celestial emperor.
“If Lu Yun completes the formation integrating heaven and earth, he’ll... become a saint of the world of immortals, won’t he?” murmured Donglin E. He wanted nothing more than to decapitate the boy where he stood. If he were to become a saint, House Donglin would suffer an incredible blow because they were his enemies.
And yet… he couldn’t kill the brat now.
Even Donglin E himself wanted that formation, so that he could incorporate it into his body and gain the heights of the void realm.
……
The hundred and eight peak peerless immortals had come together to study the Great Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons. It wasn’t actually a formation, but a feng shui layout. But since the immortals of this world didn’t yet understand feng shui layouts, Lu Yun called it a formation.
Two days!
It took the immortals two full days to deduce the will of the world in the formation. On the third day, Lu Yun made his way to the intersection of the dragon and phoenix nests with his full complement of peerless immortals. The water ghosts and the dragonling immortal ghosts scattered throughout the tomb had all been recalled back to their place of origin, so the only danger they faced was the two-headed zombie.
Situ Zong followed closely behind Lu Yun with an auxiliary cannon on his shoulder, warily scanning his surroundings.
“Young, er, Sect Head!” he worriedly transmitted to Lu Yun. “Is it wise to just share the knowledge about the great formation like this?”
“If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be able to leave this place alive. Even if I did, Qing Han would only come under attack instead.” Lu Yun shook his head. “So far, we’ve been mostly focused on the good that comes from restoring the path of cultivation.
“But as we’ve seen from various reactions, repairing the void realm brought about the side effect of eliminating the influence and power of existing immortals. This means a significant dosage of bad karma accompanies the virtuous merit of Qing Han’s actions, and it’s probably only the blessings of the Dao Flower that’ve been protecting him from retribution. This means that once the flower fades out of existence... a tribulation will descend upon him!”
Negative karma and retribution were a result of malice and resentment held by living souls during their lives. If an immortal was killed by a void realm immortal, most of the resulting retribution would concentrate on Qing Han, Wu Tulong, Zi Chen, and Mo Qitian.
Qing Han, especially, would garner most of it, since he was the dao sovereign who’d restored the overall structure of the void realm.
There was no inherent right or wrong in either good or bad karma; all that mattered was one’s perspective and position.
To countless living souls, Qing Han and the youth sovereigns had done them a great service by restoring the path of cultivation, but rendering countless immortals obsolete with the times was also a stunning negative consequence.
That was what Lu Yun wanted to defuse with the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons. That had always been part of his plan, so he’d never given up on completing it.
He’d shown it now for two reasons: first, the formation could counter the layout of water and fire and the two-headed zombie. Second, Lu Yun and Qing Han wouldn’t be able to leave the tomb alive if they didn’t demonstrate their worth.
Donglin E and the Ling powerhouse would absolutely aim to kill Lu Yun. And as for North Sea Emperor Beigong Xuan—who the hell knew where he’d disappeared to? The only guarantee was that he’d make a move against Lu Yun as well.
The Dusk lord didn’t want to use his trump card here, so he decided to play the formation as his next move.
Lu Yun and Feinie had studied this great formation for a long time, but made no real progress. It was better to announce its existence to the world and invite formation grandmasters from all over to contribute. Perhaps the collective would be able to postulate how to incorporate the formation into one’s body where the two had failed.
Situ Zong fell silent in understanding.
“Stop!” Lu Yun suddenly commanded. The peerless immortals walking ahead came to a halt as well.
“Turn back!” Black light flashed through his eyes.
“Since you’ve come here, Lu Yun,” said a chilling voice from the darkness, “Why don’t you stay a while?”
Something enormous slithered out of the darkness and filled the tunnel in the dragon nest to the brim. It was a snake of immeasurable size. The tunnel at the heart of the dragon nest was a couple kilometers wide, yet there was only a slight gap left between the snake’s head and the top of the tunnel.
“This is the true form of a blackwater snake! Is it Beigong Xuan?!” Ling Zhen, the peerless immortal from the Ling Clan, recognized the snake with a single glance.
“Beigong Xuan?” Lu Yun scowled, then paled. He hadn’t expected the missing North Sea emperor to show up here and block their way. “...wait! Who discovered the Ghost Tree first?”