Though the Spectral Eye could perceive life and death and spy on heaven and earth, it was still a combat art at the heart of things. All combat arts had their weaknesses, and Lu Yun had almost fallen for the trap in a moment of carelessness. His luopan was now pointing him to the real tomb.
Under the guidance of the feng shui compass, he and his companions slowly dove down the cliff at the end of the tunnel. Space was in disarray here; the path seemed to come to a dead end, but every further inch led them into a wider clearing. It seemed as though everything they were seeing was an illusion. At the same time, however, the sea waters grew colder, and the chill stabbed bone deep.
“It’s freezing!” Qing Han bundled his clothes tightly around himself. The talisman he wore allowed him to move freely through the water, and his cultivation level should’ve kept him warm. However, he trembled uncontrollably when surrounded by the piercing cold.
“Holy—so many corpses!” the Deaf Prince screamed suddenly, gaping at the waters below.
By now, the unrelenting darkness had faded slightly. Though there was still no visible light source, there was some strange illumination that afforded them a clearer look beneath the water.
Countless corpses floated within the expanse of water below them—humanoid, fish, and other strange creatures. All of the bodies were bloated and leached of color after prolonged submersion in sea water, but they were relatively intact overall. Traces of yin energy circled around them, dying the water black.
The bodies were the source of the petrifying cold.
“Why are there so many corpses here?!” Qing Han yelped. “The undead hags we saw earlier must’ve come from them.”
“Thousands of years ago, Levitating Island fell from the sky and smashed into the North Sea. It must’ve landed on a settlement of living souls. That’s why there are so many corpses and undead hags he—wait!” Lu Yun’s expression tightened in realization. “Thousands of years ago, Levitating Island fell from the sky!”
“Myriad Formation Summit also fell from the sky!” Qing Han said without missing a beat.
“Does this tomb have something to do with the mountain?” the little fox echoed their shock.
Myriad Formation Summit had been a trap for the divine race. What was essentially a burial pit yawned at the bottom of the summit, and the mountain had prevented those buried there from escaping.
Meanwhile, Levitating Island had fallen from the sky… and brought with it an ancient tomb! There were too many similarities between the two.
“When did Levitating Island land?” Lu Yun transmitted to the Deaf Prince. Immortals from the nine majors and ten lands didn’t know the island very well; they knew only that the island had appeared a few thousand years ago, but not an exact date. Lu Yun’s envoys didn’t have an answer, either.
“Five thousand years ago!” the Deaf Prince answered with great confidence. “Five thousand years ago, something seemed to shatter in the sky, and the shards scattered all over the world of immortals.
“Levitating Island of the North Sea and Myriad Formation Summit of Dusk Province both emerged after that!”
The xianglius were the imperial clan of the East Sea. Since the four seas were connected and were themselves the connective tissues of the nine majors, ten lands, and four immortal seas, the numerous monster spirits residing within the various bodies of water were an extensive intelligence network.
While the other facets might be oblivious to the truth, the overlords of the East, West, South, and North Seas never would be. Lu Yun and Qing Han exchanged a look.
“Myriad Formation’s burial mound dates back to eighty thousand years ago, while this tomb is a bona fide structure from the ancient times!” Lu Yun looked up at where the sky should be. “Is there another world above the world of immortals?”
“There is!” Qing Han said with great certainty. “The central world! The mythical central world is superior to the nine majors and ten lands. Many know of it, but no one’s ever been there and very few have even seen it with their own eyes!
“Eighty thousand years ago, when the divines enslaved all beings in the world of immortals, the central world remained unsullied. Not even the divines could make their way up to that mysterious realm!”
There were twenty-four facets in the world of immortals—nine majors, ten lands, four immortal seas, and the central world. Such were the fragments of the world that’d been left in the wake of the ancient world’s destruction. The central world had always been a place everyone knew of, but none had set foot in.
Although the divine race had appointed a divine king to rule over each of the twenty-four facets, they never ended up locating the central world, so that respective divine king resided within the divine court instead.
It was even rumored that when the ten thousand races in the world of immortals fought back and destroyed their captors, it’d been spearheaded and coordinated by leaders from the central world.
“Did the shards that fell from the sky five thousand years ago come from the central world?” Lu Yun couldn’t help but postulate a connection between the two.
The burial mound had been present eighty thousand years ago, before the fall of the divine race, while the tomb of the poison doctor had been around since the ancient times. There didn’t seem much of a relationship between the two.
However, both Myriad Formation Summit and Levitating Island had plummeted from the sky five thousand years ago.
“I... didn’t see the central world in the Dao Flower,” Qing Han interjected. “When the Dao Flower restored the path of cultivation, it extended to all worlds… except the central world! I can sense its existence, but something there is blocking the Dao Flower!
“There’s only two possibilities in play here,” continued the disguised girl. “First is that there are no cultivators, path of cultivation, or immortal dao there. That’s why the Dao Flower and the path couldn’t enter the central world.”
“Second,” Lu Yun said after a deep breath, “the path of cultivation… and the immortal dao as a whole, are complete in the central world.”
“Right, that must be it! The central world preserved everything from the ancient world of immortals. Their immortal dao is complete, so there are no cultivators there!” the little fox agreed enthusiastically. “Levitating Island used to be part of the sacred land of the monster spirits, and the residence of the ancient monster spirit ancestor. Since it’s fallen into the North Sea, the sacred land must have been in the central world!”
Levitating Island was a piece of the sacred land—and in fact, the heart of the sacred land, since the entire territory had fractured.
The Deaf Prince didn’t know what the two men and the fox were talking about and stared at them in befuddlement. This was a situation very familiar to him. Perhaps… he’d always known that he was different from others, but just hadn’t wanted to admit it.
“We’ll know once we visit the central world!” Lu Yun nodded slowly. “However, I’m still interested in the tombs of yin and yang. Let’s go check out what’s so special about Su Xiaoxiao, the ancient poison doctor!”
With that, he pushed all the unanswered questions aside. No matter where Levitating Island had fallen from, or who’d been involved in the incident, this was a tomb, and all tombs fell under Lu Yun’s expertise.
Hum.
A sudden buzz unfurled underwater, creating an imperceptibly faint ripple. Corpses who’d died prematurely turned around in unison, staring at Lu Yun with their rotten eyes.
“Dang it, we’ve entered the real tomb.” Goosebumps popped up on Lu Yun’s arms as he looked at the bodies around him. “I, er, accidentally broke a rule.”
“What rule?” Qing Han had noticed the reaction of the bodies, but he’d gotten used to such sights after experiencing through the Avici Cell layout in the Dao Flower’s tomb and drifting on the Blood Sea for three months.
“The name of the tomb owner mustn’t be invoked in their resting place, or evil will come knocking,” Lu Yun said slowly. He hadn’t realized that they’d entered the real tomb; all of these bodies were buried for the poison doctor!
Gurgle!
Inky black yin energy sprayed out from the bodies, dying the local vicinity black. The group’s newly restored vision darkened again.
“Hehehe...” Chilling, bleak laughter rang in their ears.
“Daggone it, who blew into my ear?!” the Deaf Prince yelled and jumped. “Was it you, little fox?!”
“Don’t move!” Lu Yun said in a trembling voice. “It’s an immortal ghost!”
Yueshen was an immortal ghost raised with the Ninefilia Specter Fostering Method. Their kind was terrifying.
Lu Yun had managed to tame Yueshen with the help of hell and the Tome of Life and Death, but yin energy ran too densely here. The various grudges, yin energy, and the vicious energy of countless dead had created a standalone ecosystem in this tomb.
And since his cultivation was too low, he couldn’t tap into the full power of the Tome of Life and Death and channel strength from hell itself. Hence, he couldn’t tame this immortal ghost.
Within the Ninefilia Specter Fostering formation of the burial mound, Yueshen could kill ten Qing Quans without difficulty. The Qing dao immortal had seriously injured Yueshen in their previous battle and almost scattered her only because that fight had taken place in the daytime, and the environment had weakened her greatly.
However, Lu Yun couldn’t release Yueshen here in someone else’s tomb. If ghosts born of two different tombs came face to face, they might summon an even worse terror. Unless, of course, there was a man of Li Youcai’s special constitution that could be possessed by Yueshen.
A stark white face came close to the Deaf Prince and whispered unintelligibly in his ear.
“An immortal ghost?” the Deaf Prince asked in confusion. “Why would it blow into my ear?”
He turned and saw the sickly face, which flashed him an unearthly smile. “I… will… eat… you...”
Scalp tingling, Qing Han and the little fox nervously turned to Lu Yun; he didn’t move a muscle.
“What did you say?” The Deaf Prince blinked.
“I… will… eat… you...” its voice grew unsteady as it continued. “Pureblood xiangliu!”
“Are you mocking me?!” The Deaf Prince glared furiously. “Out with it!”
The immortal ghost paused.
A vicious ghost could manifest their true form and hurt people with their innate energy, but an immortal ghost was different. It had to fool their prey’s senses and tap into their greatest fear to influence them.
When Yueshen had controlled Li Youcai, she’d blocked his five senses and created illusions to make him fight for her. When she wanted to join the battle herself, she had to use the nine bloodcorpses to do so.
However, the Deaf Prince couldn’t hear anything, and the immortal ghost couldn’t transmit messages to him since it didn’t have a spirit.
“Aren’t you afraid of death, pureblood xiangliu?!” the ghost’s tone descended into new depths of chill and terror. Every syllable was formed with biting frost.
“You’re insulting me, immortal ghost!” the Deaf Prince said gravely. “Don’t make mouth shapes at me!”
Incomprehension flashed through the ghost’s pale eyes. It helplessly turned to Lu Yun and Qing Han, who pretended not to see it.
“The last person who dared insult me almost got crushed by my crystal. You wanna try as well?!” A wolfish grin split the prince’s face as his body suddenly turned gold.