Chapter 939: Your Ten Years Are Really Too Darned Long (1/2)
A rainbow bridge extended gracefully from the peak of Mount Buzhou to Lu Yun’s feet. All was the same as his first visit with Shennong.
Instead of immediately setting foot on the bridge, he called out, “The sacred land of immortal dao in the world of immortals and Headmaster of the Dao Academy, Lu Yun, has arrived with dao partner Qing Yu to pay our respects to Holy Emperor Fuxi—”
His voice rang out resonantly and traveled through the entire mountain.
“Greetings to the Flame Emperor!”
“Greetings to the Flame Emperor!”
“Greetings to the Flame Emperor!”
……
The mountain began to tremble as waves of responses rose and fell from it.
Streams of goodwill gathered from all directions, flooding into the Karmic Tree in Lu Yun’s hell. Delicate and beautiful, eighteen thousand karmic fruits sparkled radiantly on its branches like the stars themselves, illuminating all of the netherworld.
Ge Long sat beneath the tree and looked at the outside world.
“I hadn’t thought that Mount Buzhou would still exist… so what did that primitive fellow use to refine the Skyturning Seal?” He stared off momentarily into space. “Well, that’s right. If he’d used the mountain for the seal, would he have died in such a macabre way?”
He looked at the sea of Hell Flowers to where the fragmented soul of his second senior brother, Daoist Purity—also known as the Jade Pure One—slept silently in one of the buds.
“I’m alive, but you’re dead~ Tsk tsk tsk, I win I win~” Ge Long threw an ankle onto the other knee and hummed an unknown ditty.
Carmine Eternal straddled one of the Karmic Tree’s branches without a care for her image and plucked one of its fruits. She shoved it into her mouth for a large bite.
“This Flame Emperor sure is generous, he doesn’t even fence off this treasure more precious than the connate spirit roots. We can pluck its fruits whenever we feel like it,” Carmine Eternal tutted proudly at herself as she ate. “Such a job well done that I sensed what was coming and found Lu Yun before he became the Flame Emperor. Though I haven’t recovered to my peak yet, I’m not that far off.”
Lu Yun had been only Lu Yun before he traveled to the great wilderness, not the Flame Emperor. He’d become that legendary personage after traveling back in time, meeting Fuxi on Mount Buzhou, and being decreed the first great emperor of the human race.
Prior to that, even the faithful Ge Long, renowned Daoist Ingress who was one of the founders of immortal dao, had no idea that Lu Yun was the Flame Emperor.
“I’d always thought that though Lu Yun had received the greatest blessings of heaven to obtain a treasure that controls reincarnation, he lacked the morality and conduct to really possess it. That though he’d founded the sacred land and repaired the immortal dao, his foundations were too shallow for it. Utter annihilation from a cataclysm seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
“Who would’ve thought that he’d be my dear martial uncle, the Flame Emperor of the human race! Destroying the fortunes of the connate demon gods, creating the glorious age of human dao, pioneering cultivation methods beneath the great dao… He has bestowed countless bounties and served all of life. Such virtuous merit, such deep foundations…” Ge Long shook his head with a sigh.
“Is that why you stayed here and tamed Asura’s four coffins? Was it all to protect Lu Yun in the event of a disaster?” Carmine Eternal also felt very kindly toward the Flame Emperor. He’d protected her when she was just an egg without sentience. The emperor had brought her and her young sister to their respective hatching grounds so they would have a safe and smooth birth and grow back into their strength.
Ge Long nodded silently. “But now, he holds his destiny in his own hands and doesn’t need me for anything anymore.”
“Then do you know where your master Hongjun’s gone to?” whispering softly, Carmine Eternal bounced herself down from the tree and clung onto Ge Long.
“Why do you think I became the Flame Emperor’s martial nephew?” Ge Long chuckled.
Carmine Eternal’s diminutive form stiffened and she fell off of Ge Long’s body. Her head slowly turned in a certain direction.
“He’s your master?”
She was looking in the direction of Earth.
……
Grasping Qing Yu’s hand, Lu Yun set foot onto the rainbow bridge. The little fox took human form as well and followed beside the two as the stunning Troublemaker Tushan.
“It’s been a long while, Flame Emperor.” Fuxi sat cross-legged in front of a stick of bamboo—the Embittered Bamboo. It shared the same source as the one Lu Yun had refined; they’d both stemmed from the main spirit root.
“Fuxi greets the Dao Sovereign of the Immortal Dao.” He raised cupped hands at Qing Yu.
As the Dao Sovereign, Qing Yu’s status rivaled Fuxi’s, though her cultivation level wasn’t high.
“…to me, it’s only been ten years since our parting.” Lu Yun stopped, a sense of loss creeping into his voice.
It’d been his ninetieth year in the great wilderness when war broke out to conquer the heavens. He’d retreated from the public eye to visit places in secret or observe the world before his final conversation with Hongjun and return to his era.
Ten years wasn’t long, but in the eyes of Fuxi and the others, the Flame Emperor had disappeared forever. He’d vanished completely from the realm, not to return until many, many eons later.