The world of immortals was still skeptical of soul planting. The Chen and Lu Clans, especially, didn’t even believe Lu Yun. After all, having a foreign soul planted didn’t really result in noticeable changes.

Their disbelief was echoed by the rest of the world. Although the Mo and Zi Clans, along with the Immortal Martial School, had all come out and confirmed Lu Yun’s words, no one believed them, either.

Moreover, based on current events, it wasn’t possible for Sword Divine to tamper with the immortals and cultivators of every faction in the world, further diluting those who could prove the existence of soul planting. Other than the Mo Clan, Zi Clan, and the Immortal Martial School, he’d been focusing mainly on the Chen and Lu Clans.

His intentions were clear: gaining ownership of the factions that the dao sovereigns belonged to.

Lu Yun had been struggling to come up with a way to deal with the tampered individuals in Dusk. He couldn’t just kill them, but he also couldn’t release them. Thankfully, the cultivators invading Dusk City had just resolved the issue for him.

……

“I should’ve connected Sword Divine to the shamanic divines a long time ago!” Lu Yun scowled at the sight of Lu and Chen immortals being slaughtered beneath him.

“Soul planting was invented by the shamanic divines. The shamans could refine soul shrouds, so there was no need for them to create flawed soul seeds!” Lu Yun looked at Zi Chen, then cast his gaze upon Mo Qitian and Wu Tulong outside the city.

They’d each had a flawless soul seed planted in them. Once they matured, the seeds would turn the host’s soul into a soul shroud and conceal the foreign soul. Such was what had happened to Lu Shenhou.

“Is the heir of the Sword of Chaos a shamanic divine, or has a member of that tribe gotten close to the heir?”

Countless immortals and cultivators tore into each other within Dusk City, inciting bedlam in every part of the city. Lu Yun’s mind was an equally tangled mess.

Rumble!

A sudden tremor passed through the land outside Dusk City as skeletons emerged from underground, disassembling and reassembling into giant skeletal beasts in the air.

“Lu Yun!!” Atop a beast three hundred meters in height was a faint figure enveloped in a pall of corpse energy. Unaffected by the energy, his gaze pierced through the air and settled on Lu Yun on the inheritance tower.

“Dare you come out of the city and fight me?!” The void realm Corpse Refiner brimmed with confidence. Although he hadn’t participated in the Sovereign Meet, he’d reached the returned void realm all the same.

The Corpse Refiners possessed a great secret, which was why they hadn’t even considered the Fangyang Nobles from the Primordial Era a threat. The projected self assurance from the genius Corpse Refiner indicated that their disciples didn’t need the Sovereign Meet to become top cultivators of the world!

“My name is Jiangchen Xie. Jiangchen Wushang, who you murdered, was my clansman! However, he was merely the future host selected by our ancestor, so he would’ve died sooner or later. You killing him has nothing to do with me. I’m just here to prove that I, Jiangchen Xie, is no lesser than anyone, despite not attending the Sovereign Meet.”

With a wave of his hand, another hundred-odd skeletal beasts emerged from earth.

……

“Jiangchen Xie! That freak finally showed his face!” Ankle deep in a killing spree in Dusk City, the Fangyang youth blanched and stared at the Corpse Refiner in fear. “It’s said that Jiangchen Xie reached peak spirit realm thirty thousand years ago, but refused to ascend to immortality, claiming the existence of another realm past the spirit realm! Thus, he sealed himself and went into slumber...”

“He sensed the existence of the void realm when he was at peak spirit realm?!” the Thunder Lord asked in shock.

“That’s right!” the human youth nodded next to him. He hadn’t sensed anything either, when he himself was a peak spirit realm cultivator. “He wasn’t the only one at that. There were geniuses like him in the Primordial Era, outside the world of immortals!

“They refused to ascend to immortality and sealed themselves away when they reached peak spirit realm, consigning themselves to drift about the endless cosmos in a deep sleep.”

Since the void realm had been revealed to the world, the information recorded in the texts of the Fangyang Nobles was no longer secret and could be openly discussed.

“Back in the Primordial Era, immortals ascending from the other worlds were much weaker than the natives of the world of immortals. The world of immortals was considered the higher plane and the center of the universe, which many believed was the reason why native immortals were especially powerful… Now it seems...”

The Thunder Lord fell silent, and the Fangyang youth’s words had also reached the others by now.

Some great geniuses of the Primordial Era had sensed the incompleteness of the path of cultivation. They’d thus sealed and exiled themselves to float among the cosmos, awaiting the chance to soar to new heights.

Here was a living example in front of them—someone who had sealed himself away thirty thousand years ago!

There also seemed to be bad blood between the Fangyang Nobles and Corpse Refiners, a feud stemming from countless years in the past. Hence, their factions knew a thing or two about each other.

……

“How unexpected!” Battle intent lit up in Lu Yun’s eyes, but was extinguished as quickly as it came. “You aren’t as great a genius as those who came before you.”

Facing the charging horde of skeletal beasts, he manifested the Sugato Sword and unleashed an ocean of sword energy.

“Oh?” Jiangchen Xie put on a thin smile. “How so?”

Hands twisting, he commanded the beasts to form great combat arts and tangle with Lu Yun. Both sides deployed bitterly harsh techniques and put their lives on the line with every move. 

“Because you’re still alive,” Lu Yun said, too composed for someone engaged in a fierce battle. “When I guarded the Dao Flower, I set foot on that misty white path. The blood splashed there belonged to the geniuses who came before us. They’d attempted to restore the path in the past!”

Jiangchen Xie shook and balled up his fists, lunging at Lu Yun. “So? They failed, and they died trying. They were nothing but failures!”

Countless skeletal beasts howled and abruptly disassembled, then reassembled themselves as a wild current of white bones that slammed into Lu Yun.

Lu Yun used the Sugato Sword as an anchor and made several slashes, countering the terrifying current.

“There’s no pursuit of dao in your heart, you’re just a pathetic worm waiting for handouts from others! The seniors who came before us may have died, but their spirits live on. One day, they’ll return to the world of immortals and take their place as great people!

“You live, yet you lack devotion to dao. You didn’t dare set foot on the path of cultivation. You are the truest failure!” Lu Yun put his hands together and transformed into a giant sword, stabbing at Jiangchen Xie’s chest. “By the way, you have a detail wrong. Jiangchen Wushang was killed by a water ghost in the dragon tomb. I’m not responsible for his death.”

Bam!

Lu Yun’s attack landed smack on Jiangchen Xie’s chest, hurling him back like a cannonball.