Chapter 736: Immortal Emperor (1/2)
Lu Yun’s nascent spirit double reached the end of the passageway in only a few breaths, where it was met with a scintillating ray of brilliance that almost blinded him and all of his perception. There seemed to be a sun at the end of the tunnel… no, not seemed, there really was a bonafide sun!
Its terrifying heat and luminosity had melted everything around it, turning the environment into dense flows of leaping lava and currents of red air.
“Everyone who's come here is dead…” Lu Yun felt like his own double was also being melted by the dreadful waves of heat. The Tome of Life and Death resided within his primary body, offering no protection for his double. But the six path of his nascent spirit still circulated in hell, continuously ferrying enormous power that enabled him to maintain this projection.
A resplendent world as glorious as the cosmos unfolded in front of him. A wheel of a blazing sun hung in the center of this world, radiating grim light and waves of heat.
The sun… was a coffin. The main chamber of the immortal emperor's tomb held a fiery sun as a coffin that granted the great emperor of immortals his final rest!
The Immortal Subjugation Seal lay within the blazing coffin before him, and from it rose a pillar of light that stabbed into the skies. It broke through the barriers of this tomb with immeasurable momentum. However, what Lu Yun saw in this moment wasn't the legendary treasure, but… the coffin.
“You had me come here not to take the seal, nor the item that cannot be named, but this coffin of a blazing sun.” Lu Yun seemed to be murmuring to himself, but also seemed to be addressing someone as well.
“To be more precise, the Sol Truefire that blazes atop the coffin.” The ghost of the immortal emperor once again appeared quietly by Lu Yun’s side, as if he’d been here all along and hadn’t taken a single step away.
“The primeval human emperor used hellfire as the foundation to illuminate hell and establish the rule of human dao,” murmured the immortal emperor. “Fire is the origin of civilization, the symbolization of enlightenment, and the guide of living beings. Only fire can create an ultimate dao.
“The three founders of immortal dao collected the flames of the world and attempted to use the three great immortal fires—Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and Daevic Skyfire—as the foundation for a world that could encompass the immortal dao. But they failed.
“The three great fires are the fires of immortal dao. Though immensely strong, they did not possess the strength to illuminate a world. I inherited their dying wish to find a flame that could spark a world of immortal dao and I… succeeded.
“This Sol Truefire is one that will light up the heavenly palace and behold a world of immortal dao.”
The immortal emperor opened his arms wide and took in a deep breath. He didn't seem to be a ghost in this moment, but a real man of flesh and blood.
Lu Yun stared dumbly at the emperor in front of him. He was suddenly reminded of a particular scene—the resurrection of the Dao Flower!
In the Firmament Prison, where the tomb burying the Dao Flower was located, there’d been one last survivor from an incomparably ancient period. She’d used the civilization of an era to revive the Dao Flower.
Dao was the path of all living beings and of civilization, and fire the key to the doors of civilization.
Hell was currently based on hellfire, and if the heavenly palace wished to become a true world that wasn’t subordinate the world of immortals, it required the support of its own flame as well.
The immortal emperor had located that flame in the Primordial Era.
During the Primordial Era, the Central World had seceded from the world of immortals and become the basis of the immortal court. Back then, the immortal emperor had wanted to further redefine it as a separate world and the root of a race, much like the hell of human dao.
Sadly, the world had suffered a cataclysmic blow before he could fully realize his ambitions.
“Now, I entrust this flame to you!” A smile floated onto the immortal emperor’s face as he looked at Lu Yun. “This is the dying wish of the three founders, and it is my wish as well: Use the Sol Truefire to create a world that truly belongs to immortal dao and ensure that it prospers forevermore, that its light is never extinguished!”
“You’re going to become one with the flame?” Lu Yun immediately saw through the emperor’s intentions. The immortal emperor was dead, his soul scattered and true spirit extinguished. This ghost was just a manifestation of his obsession, one that carried the last of his will.