Chapter 537: Organ of the World (1/2)

A thin sheen of silver radiance was to be found under the fifth abyss instead of the same, weighty darkness.

When Lu Yun transformed back into human form, the Tome of Life and Death once again materialized to shield his body. He had to burn another karmic fruit to barely keep himself protected.

What came into view dumbfounded him.

A giant pair of lungs resembling a mountain thirty thousand meters tall hovered over a silver altar, respirating quietly. It was so big that it caused a great gale every time it breathed, drawing in gaseous nascent spirit dirt. It was then exhaled after being converted into pure qi.

“The Metal Altar!” Lu Yun shifted his attention from the giant lungs to the giant altar below, where the hazy silver glow came from.

He’d never seen it before, but he recognized it as the Metal Altar at first glance. Its presence was identical to the Water and Fire Altars he’d previously encountered.

“That’s the qilin nest, turtle nest, and kunpeng nest… There’s also another one...” Various sacrificial goods filled the altar beneath the great lungs—all precious items from different worlds that Lu Yun had only seen in the memories of some of his envoys. They were the greatest treasures between heaven and earth.

What drew his attention the most was the fourth nest.

“The fourth divine beast nest...” Lu Yun’s eyes were glued to the nest.

He’d never seen it before, and none of his envoys knew anything about it. Still, he felt an enormous sense of danger creeping upon him, and the source of the danger came from the mysterious nest.

Before each of the nests was a giant statue portraying the qilin, turtle, kunpeng, and an unknown creature, respectively. The last had the head of a dragon, body of a tiger, tail of a qilin, six pairs of bat wings on its back, and eight legs under its belly. Taken altogether, it was quite a macabre creature.

“What is it?” Lu Yun rummaged through the memories of all nine of his envoys, but still didn’t find any answers.

Other than the four nests, he also noticed that the other tribute goods placed on top of the altar were slowly being converted into a different kind of power for absorption by the giant lungs.

The lungs were still growing, albeit at a very gradual pace.

Lu Yun was certain that the lungs weren’t real organs, but the manifestation of a feng shui layout greater than even grand influences over the world. They were infinitely close to becoming a real organ.

“The Metal Altar… Lungs are of the metal attribute. Is this the true purpose of the altars of five elements? Sacrificial rites are held in the world of immortals for mysterious entities in exchange for great power, is this another such example?”

Lu Yun had once sacrificed the soul of Beigong Chonglou, the crown prince of the North Sea, in exchange for the power to refine the Black Emperor. Did the practice of sacrificial rites originate from the five altars?

Raising his head to look at the giant lungs, he impulsively took out his luopan and projected the minor world again with the Dragonsearch Invocation and Dragonshift Method. He didn’t try to copy the giant lungs into the embryonic world this time, but instead tapped into the power of the minor world to study his object of interest.

“It is indeed one single entity, and it’s slowly making progress!” Lu Yun couldn’t understand the giant lungs, but he could identify the feng shui layout exceeding the grand influence over the world. The qilin, tortoise, and kunpeng nests, along with the nest of the mysterious beast, were one with the giant lungs, forming an incomplete layout.

“It’s infinitely close to a real pair of lungs… Can this layout be a layout of creation?” Lu Yun shuddered.

Creation!

Those lungs were patently the organ of a living soul. No humans, nor the power of nature, could create something like this. A layout of creation, on the other hand, could create life, or at least perfect imitations thereof.

“It’s missing two nests! The lungs are currently incomplete. If another two nests are brought here to create a complete layout of six directions, the lungs will fully take shape, growing independent from the layout as they become a real organ.” Light flickered in Lu Yun’s eyes.

A layout of six directions was one of the ten structural feng shui layouts. It represented a relationship of the world, embodying the synergy of all things and the intersection of heaven and earth.

Once the layout took shape, all of the tributes on the altar would be devoured by the giant lungs, transforming them into a bonafide organ.

“If there’s a pair of giant lungs on the Metal Altar… What about the Water and Fire Altar?” Lu Yun mused. “Have the rites there not started, or have they ended and someone already took the organs?”

According to his speculations, there should be a pair of kidneys on the Water Altar and a heart on the Fire Altar.

“What should I do now? Should I destroy this place, or… take the lungs with me?”

A feng shui layout exceeding the grand influences over the world approaches the heights of creation… As a feng shui master and a tomb raider, Lu Yun couldn’t help but covet such a treasure. Even if the lungs were the handiwork of a great powerhouse, that didn’t stop him from wanting them.

“Mi… milord!” called out the statue before the kunpeng nest. Its stone eyes shifted with great difficulty. “Go… Go now!!”

“Beigong Yu?!” Lu Yun started.

Beigong Yu had been sucked into the heart of the celestial master tomb, his true spirit turned into a yin spirit. Not even Lu Yun could resurrect him. He also hadn’t expected Beigong Yu’s yin spirit would be trapped in a stone statue.

“There’s… a yin-yang beast guarding this place! You must go now, milord!” Beigong Yu’s voice grew clearer. Lu Yun could sense his anxiety and nervousness like they were his own.

“A yin-yang beast? Do you mean that creature?” Lu Yun paused and turned to look at the unidentified beast.

The statue began to tremble and crack, and from the cracks came a faint glow. A terrifying presence was unleashed in the next second. Even under the protection of the Tome of Life and Death, Lu Yun couldn’t help but back away, chilled to the bone.

Bam!

“Grrrr!!” The statue suddenly exploded, giving way to an exotic beast of black and white. It looked identical to the statue, with patterns of black and white criss-crossing across its body hinting at a pattern of the world. It lunged at Lu Yun with a flash of light as soon as it emerged.

Bam!