The lines were so faint that as to be nearly invisible, but they were indeed present on the Sacred Origin Runes of the hanging coffin, compromising the solid integrity of the runes.

That was enough for Lu Yun.

“The patterns the runes form are most likely an unknown formation, one that isn’t even recorded in the Formation Orb… Well, maybe it is, but neither Feinie nor I can access it due to our lacking cultivation.”

Lu Yun stopped damaging the reflection of the Sacred Origin Runes and carefully peeled them off the reflected coffin. The real runes shifted slightly before settling down.

“If Lu Shenhou had attacked with a thousand slashes in a split second, he would’ve killed me through killing my reflection.” Lu Yun touched the center of his forehead, where there was an imperceptible wound left by Lu Shenhou’s attack. Shockingly, Lu Yun had failed to heal the strange wound after many attempts. 

Such was the unique power of the Sword of Chaos.

“My level of cultivation right now is too low, too damn low… if I reach the heights of the emperor in the era of human dao, the twin layout and its reflective properties will allow me to replace reality with illusions and kill people without even touching them!” Lu Yun smacked his lips together, his thoughts straying from the incomplete Mirage layout.

Ever since visiting the tombs of yin and yang on Levitating Island, he’d practiced these kinds of twin layouts by projecting feng shui layouts from one place to another with the same technique.

The pair he’d set up here was a prototype. To perfect it, he would have to improve his mastery over formations and feng shui. It wasn’t only a feng shui layout, but also a formation, a perfect amalgamation of the two sides of the same coin.

That was a height Lu Yun had yet to reach, but the layout was good enough to deal with imperfect Sacred Origin Runes.

Despite the runes that’d been set up by the Exalted Celestial Emperor being inferior to those of the true divine emperor, they were still formations Lu Yun didn’t know, thus they would greatly enrich his knowledge in the field.

He’d been unable to see the complete picture and all of the secrets behind the runes, but the small opening left the runes imperfect, allowing Lu Yun glimpses into the runes’ secrets. 

His eyes turned pitch black as two balls of faint flames burst out. As he entered a trance, his hands fluttered and twisted like butterflies, breaking apart the reflection of the runes.

Splash!

After an imperceptible amount of time, the reflection abruptly fell apart. The real runes on the hanging coffin trembled in response. Seemingly oblivious to the changes, Lu Yun closed his eyes and took out an immortal crystal to replicate the runes again.

Once, twice, thrice!

Lu Yun created a reflection of the runes again and again, each time compromising the perfect reflections and disassembling them. Every time he broke apart the reflection, the real runes on the hanging coffin shook until the coffin itself began to tremble.

After copying the runes over for the eighteenth time, he broke the reflection apart immediately rather than damaging it first. However, it took him ten times longer to do so this time. He breathed out heavily, taking a pill out of his storage ring and making to plop it into his mouth.

“Don’t!” Qi Hai stopped him hurriedly. “You can’t eat, drink, or replenish energy for the moment, or the thing on your back will eat you.”

“What?” Lu Yun gave him a flabbergasted look.

“An old friend of mine once ignored it like you are doing now, planning to take it slow and steady to find a way to deal with the thing. Then...” Qi Hai paused. “The thing devoured him when he was eating.”

Sullenly, Lu Yun put the pill back and caught his breath. Again, he picked up the immortal crystal and copied the runes over. This time, the runes he created were far stronger, and the entire process took him much less time.

Qi Hai had become numb to the proceedings. He stared blankly ahead as Lu Yun recreated and disassembled the runes again and again, the original runes on the scarlet coffin growing increasingly dimmer.

The tomb owner in the coffin had struggled to break the seal over the coffin at the start of things, but now it’d quieted down so as to not disturb Lu Yun.

“He really has deciphered the Sacred Origin Runes of the divine emperor.” Qi Hai had lost the ability to be surprised by the time the real runes disappeared.

That Exalted Divine fool is nothing. This kid is the heir to hell! Its past overlord could kill a hundred Exalted Divine emperors with a single punch. Qi Hai had now become fully accustomed to Lu Yun’s other identity.

“Although the Exalted Celestial Emperor isn’t particularly skilled, the Sacred Origin Runes he etched are something else. While that Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons of mine can be incorporated into the body and help cultivators and immortals draw out the power of the world, it's flawed and may sometimes fail to take shape.

“If I can integrate these runes into the formation, it will become much greater and reach the heights of true perfection.” Lu Yun’s eyes shone with glee. He walked up to the hanging coffin and lightly knocked on its lid. “This junior has removed the runes, senior. Please feel free to come out.”

Whoever it was had died, but to both tomb raiders and tomb owners, a tomb was a world that belonged to the dead, which effectively made the tomb owner alive on their premises.

Qi Hai stared fixedly at the hanging coffin. He, too, wanted to know who would dare set up their own tomb at the center of the resting place for the human emperor.

“You must not open the coffin,” boomed a low voice out of thin air. A pair of enormous eyes manifested in the air and looked down coldly on Lu Yun and Qi Hai.

“Human Demon.” Qi Hai lifted his head to meet the eyes.

This was the real human demon.

As a heavyweight from the age of human dao, it was no surprise that he knew what the human demon was—the guardian of the resting place of the human emperor.

This had become a sacred land of some sorts for humans due to the blood of the human emperor shed here, and the human demon was its guardian. Qi Hai hadn’t recalled this memory until now, due to all the various recollections he’d accumulated when his soul reincarnated.

The resting place had been compromised and the human demon slain, transforming into a zombie residing in the tomb to protect the site in another way. The blood of the human emperor had made the resting place the foundation of the human race and the hope for humans to rise again.

The human demon shifted his gaze to Qi Hai.

“Leave now,” he suddenly said. “Or you will be trapped here forever.”

Qi Hai started.

“The extinction layout has been activated,” Lu Yun spoke up before Qi Hai could. “In no time at all, the ancient tomb will fall apart and the power against cultivators in the dark will spread through Dusk Province!”

“The extinction layout exists to destroy that thing,” the human demon responded remotely. It was obvious that he knew feng shui and understood the purpose of the extinction layout. “Go now. Leave the coffin. Else, everything Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi set up will all be for nothing.”

Once the coffin was opened and the tomb owner emerged, the extinction layout would be destroyed. However, Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi had set up the layout here to destroy the true form of the power that could kill cultivators.

That thing couldn’t be destroyed, to Qi Hai’s knowledge, but Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi had somehow merged it with the ancient tomb. They’d also sent the Exalted Celestial Emperor here to etch the Sacred Origin Runes to entrap the tomb’s owner.

Although Lu Yun had removed the runes on the surface, there existed another layer of runes within the coffin that kept the tomb owner under control.

“You’ll die, too,” said Lu Yun.

“I died a long time ago.” The human demon’s eyes flickered in and out of existence. Something was constraining him, preventing him from manifesting for long. “Take Mo Yi and leave.” The eyes disappeared.

“I will stay here,” Qi Hai declared solemnly. “The extinction layout will end up killing the human demon as well. This place needs a new guardian!”

What had been guarding the land wasn’t the human demon or the ancient tomb, but the restriction against immortals. Even after the tomb and the human demon were destroyed, the restriction and its power against golden immortals and above would remain. The human demon was merely the power’s carrier.

Once activated, the restriction exerted its power through the human demon. After his destruction, it would need another carrier.

Qi Hai had reincarnated thousands of times. Heaven had failed to destroy him, and the earth had failed to keep him buried. A mere extinction layout wouldn’t be enough to destroy him, either. Moreover, the human demon had just warned that Qi Hai would be trapped here forever, rather than be killed by the extinction layout.

“Milord... Hic! This old servant is back, milord!” Ge Long’s voice rang from the deepest darkness. It sounded like he’d stuffed himself full. “That big trouble… hic! is now in my stomach! This old servant… is going to sleep.”