Qing Yu made a face at Lu Yun upon receiving the information. His method was crude, one that simply broke apart combat arts with raw power. The power of hell made him almost omnipotent; he would even be able to deconstruct immortal dao there, to say nothing of piddling combat arts.

Unfortunately, the immortal dao in hell was only a projection and not the real thing, so this wasn’t a method Qing Yu could use. She needed to find another way to deconstruct combat arts.

Other than Yuying, who’d remained in Dusk City to keep things in order, all of the other envoys had returned to the underworld.

Qing Yu pushed Lu Yun away and engaged his envoys in rapidfire discussion. They wanted to create another method to deconstruct combat arts and study them. Lu Yun could already foresee how this method would revolutionize the world and immortal dao, should it come about.

It would be priceless for cultivators and immortals alike to be able to create their own combat arts. When Lu Yun had invented Vast Dragon Seaturner back in the Dusk tournament, the act had also benefited countless cultivators.

He got out of Qing Yu’s hair and continued studying Boundless Step. As a death art, and one of the greatest combat arts in the world of immortals, Lu Yun could only use brute force if he wanted to deconstruct it. The process would’ve been much easier with regular combat arts.

Although Qing Yu couldn’t access the direct strength of hell, she was the dao sovereign of the Dao Flower. Imbued with the immortal dao, her intelligence rivaled that of Lu Yun’s. With the aid of the seven envoys, she, too, had the support of all of hell in a way.

……

Time passed strangely in hell. It might’ve been a hundred years, or a thousand, or perhaps ten thousand years.

Lu Yun’s eyes suddenly fluttered open; he’d improved and perfected Boundless Step. 

The death art had previously been imprecise, the only parameter he could control being the approximate distance he travelled. There was no telling where he would end up. Now, though, he’d combined the structure of the Boundless Step and Spectral Eye to create a new combat art, one that could take him anywhere his Spectral Eye could see.

At the moment, his Spectral Eye could see all living and dead beings within five thousand kilometers of him. That meant he would be able to bridge the distance to any of those places at will with the Boundless Step.

He could no longer travel as far as five hundred thousand kilometers in one step, but it was much safer and more precise this way. 

Of course, Boundless Step remained a complete combat art existing in the Tome of Life and Death. Lu Yun could still use Spectral Eye and Boundless Step as they were, should he wish to.

“Since it’s no longer boundless, I’ll call the new combat art ‘Wandering Step’!” Lu Yun’s eyes flared with black radiance.

Spectral Eye had been a combat art that allowed him to see everything there was about life and death. With its new modifications, however, it could now take in everything within five thousand kilometers.

Both Spectral Eye and Wandering Step required the power of karmic fruit to activate, as neither were the death arts they had been, and they weren’t usable by cultivators either. Since they were derived from death arts, they could only be activated with the power of karma.

Meanwhile, experimentation by Qing Yu and the other envoys reached a fever pitch. Even Yuying entrusted Dusk City to Qing Ruyan and joined in the group. Formations, talismans, pill dao, treasure refining, shamanic and medicine dao… the envoys contributed their expertise in a joint testing and analysis experiment.

In response, Lu Yun noticed the projection of immortal dao in the skies of hell trembling as it absorbed the findings from Qing Yu and the envoys. It drank in all of their results and conclusions like a sponge.

“If they really figure out the method and the projected immortal dao in hell absorbs it, the projection will transform into the real deal—a complete, growing immortal dao!” Lu Yun observed the projection floating through the cosmic sea with the Spectral Eye.

This projection had followed Qing Han into hell the last time she’d entered and set down roots in the netherworld, which Lu Yun hadn’t stopped. Its presence was necessary for the living souls in hell to cultivate like those in the outside world. Otherwise, hell would be nothing but an empty world deprived of any vitality.

The power of hell was suited for Lu Yun, but not for the Infernum and living souls who’d reincarnated in hell through the Hell Flowers.

Born from the flowers, these living souls were the first natives of hell. Without being nurtured by the immortal dao projection, they would’ve been born as ghosts or undead instead of living souls.

Since Qing Yu and the envoys were preoccupied with the formation of their method, Lu Yun left them to their work and exited hell by himself, returning to the ghost realm.

“Wandering Step?” His lips curved with the hint of a smile.

Swoosh!

With a single step, he vanished into thin air and accurately traversed five thousand kilometers to the relatively safe destination he’d sighted.

Another step, another five thousand kilometers!

The celestial master tomb was roughly two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers away from the barrier. Lu Yun leisurely picked his way there through the ghost realm with Wandering Step.

“Oh?” He suddenly stopped in his tracks. A giant, pitch-black mountain lay before him, radiating chilling ghostly energy.

“This is a trace left by the combat arts of the Silvermoon Wolfkings!”

Lu Yun squatted down at the foot of the mountain to take a closer look and frowned slightly when he discovered faint traces of moonlight. In addition, there were other traces of fighting and harrowing streaks of blood.

“This is from the Star Demon Sect’s combat arts!” Lu Yun’s frown deepened, identifying another set of tracks.

“As for the presence left on them… it’s Wanfeng’s junior sister! The traces left by a Silvermoon Wolfking… were left by the little nun. What’re they doing here?” Lu Yun rose to his feet and activated his New Spectral Eye, which allowed him to see not only the dead in five thousand kilometers, but also all flora and fauna.

“There!” He vanished into thin air.