The attack was so fast that Lu Yun had no chance to respond. Even Mo Yi and the human demon were too slow to do anything other than watch the young man’s head be pierced straight through.

“Eh?!” a confused yelp sounded out.

“I’ve been waiting for you!” Ge Long cackled on the other side of the Mirage. He yanked his head off and flung it into the darkness as hard as he could. A flurry of commotion and a chaotic din of shrieks and yells ensued.

“What is this?!” sounded an angry roar from the unknown. Whoever it was was rather upset at having been thrown for a loop.

“Idiot, I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.” Lu Yun put a hand on his forehead; there was no wound there at all. “When I said the effect was double-sided, I can’t believe you were fool enough to actually believe me. Do you not have a brain to use?”

He’d known someone was watching in the darkness from the very start, and had intentionally mislabelled everything as divine obsessions and slain one example to lower its guard. The mention of the dual layout’s reciprocal effects had been the perfect bait.

Ge Long had been waiting on the sidelines, and a feigned moment of absentmindedness was all it took to land the culprit hook, line, and sinker.

Killing a projected image meant the death of the real person as well? A feng shui layout that could do that was impossible to the point of sheer fantasy.

Ge Long’s body followed his head, barrelling into the darkness and fighting tooth and nail against whatever was there. Lu Yun couldn’t see into the depths, but the proceedings had Mo Yi and the human demon’s full attention.

Thump!

A figure was thrown out into the light to land in a heap at Lu Yun’s feet. He wore a blue-black robe and a cloudy current of air covered his face, obscuring his features. A sword was upon his back—the Sword of Chaos.

...Sword Divine! He was the one who’d been watching Lu Yun from the darkness!

A battered and bruised Ge Long walked back out into the light with his head between his fingers. He had quite a few bruises and holes all over his body, but otherwise seemed none the worse for wear.

“Heheheh. I’ve managed to carry out your orders, milord! I’ve got him!” The old servant sounded very proud of himself.

“So he was the one who ambushed you just now? And… you wanted to draw him out. Is that why you did all that?” asked a highly surprised Mo Yi.

“Not entirely.” Lu Yun let out a small sigh of relief. “I really did feel threatened by whoever it was, but I didn’t expect it to be Sword Divine. If I’d known it was him, I would’ve gone much further than that.”

The sight of the person at his feet felt a bit surreal. Someone who’d become his foremost enemy at some point in time was oddly easy pickings. Ge Long had done who knew what to restrict Sword Divine’s body. Entirely immobile, this longtime foe was forced to lie still upon the ground.

“Let’s see who you really are.” Lu Yun swatted aside the cloudy haze over Sword Divine’s face.

……

“Y-you… why is it you…” Lu Yun’s face immediately paled at the revelation that the revealed face imparted and he stumbled backward in trembling fear. “How… how can you be the heir to the Sword of Chaos? Why…”

“And why can’t it be me?” Sword Divine snickered. He narrowed his sharp eyes and gazed coldly at Lu Yun.

“No, this is all wrong… the Sword of Chaos hadn’t been completed yet when you died… It can’t be you!” Lu Yun muttered feverishly, trying to convince himself. 

Sword Divine’s identity defied sensibility and reality. He was Lu Shenhou!

In Lu Yun’s analysis of everyone he’d seen and met in the world of immortals, Lu Shenhou was the only one he had completely ruled out. But here he was, as Sword Divine!

This was a man who’d died and refused to believe his own death. A man who bore the strongest of convictions to lead Lu Yun and the others back to the ancient tomb to repair the path of cultivation and release the Dao Flower. That very same man was also the heir of the Sword of Chaos: Sword Divine!

The current Lu Shenhou possessed the body of a divine and was the same man as the one Lu Yun had seen during the Sovereign Ranking.

Indeed, Lu Yun was absolutely certain that his identification was correct. Any personal apprehensions aside, this was a revived and transformed Lu Shenhou for sure. In the same vein, the sword on his back was the Sword of Chaos, the one Lu Yun had seen in the Sword Barrow—no other sword could have its characteristics.

Lu Shenhou’s eyes only grew icier as time passed, and he didn’t dignify Lu Yun’s amazement with a response. Suddenly, a black light burst forth from the sword on his back, which gradually spread to his entire body.

“No!” Lu Yun blanched once again. He took out the Tome of Life and Death without hesitation, slamming it down upon Lu Shenhou as fast as he could. This was the first time he’d ever shown the book to any outsiders.

It seemed that no one knew such a book existed in the first place. Even Qi Hai, whose spirit had undergone countless reincarnations, hadn’t heard of the artifact before.

To Lu Yun, the Tome of Life and Death was his strongest treasure and greatest reliance. If the Sword of Chaos was acting up, the only thing that could quash it was the Tome of Life and Death.

Boom!

An absurd amount of force blasted from the tome. It transcended time, transcended space, transcended illusion and reality. Aside from the infinitely proximate Lu Shenhou, no one else in the room could feel it.

This was the power of the dead.

“Break!” Lu Shenhou roared with primal ferocity. His divine body spontaneously disintegrated and his true spirit was subsumed into the Sword of Chaos.

Clang!

The ringing sword violently cut a hole through nearby space. In the next instant, it was gone into the aether.      

“A true spirit! Lu Shenhou is only a cultivator. How can he have a true spirit?” Lu Yun gasped.

The soul and true spirit were both essential parts of an immortal’s existence. In theory, only plucking a dao fruit would bring the latter into being.

However, Lu Shenhou was no immortal!

“That Sword Divine is a peculiar existence,” Mo Yi remarked coolly. “After you shattered his cloudy mask, I wasn’t able to see him anymore.”

The human demon nodded wordlessly in agreement.

“That’s too bad. I was so close… At least now that I know who he is, it’ll be a lot easier to deal with him from now on. Still… why does it have to be him?” A part of Lu Yun still couldn’t accept what he’d just learned and he stared off blankly into space for a long while.