Lu Yun gasped, instantly retracting the hellfire he was about to unleash.
âThatâs right, this place has fused with only a corner of hell. It isnât the real thing!â Cold sweat beaded across his forehead.
Hell was defined by the presence of hellfire. A hell that contained hellfire would spawn an independent set of laws and generate natural energy all by itself. If Lu Yun used hellfire here, the unknown power might steal it for itself and create a new world with the flame.
Once that happened, he would no longer be able to fuse it back into the original hell at all. Even if he somehow subjugated this place later on, it would only be a second hell that was divorced from the first.
Moreover, this locale was under the dominion of that ghost king. The nourishment of this corner of hell had likely strengthened it to unimaginable levels.
Lu Yun didnât possess a complete hell, either. Technically speaking, he only had the most crucial fragment. That, combined with the Tome of Life and Death, was the reason itâd become the principal part.
In the era of human dao, hell had been immeasurably large. It had ruled over all life and death in the multiverse. As such, there were sure to be countless fragments strewn all over its past domain, some much larger than Lu Yunâs.
For example, he knew that the Ancient Tree of Life had taken root in one such fragment, but the treeâs vigor had dispersed any hellish presence that Xing Chen could have detected.
âŚâŚ
âQing Yu, take my compass and look after the brothers.â Lu Yun handed his luopan to Qing Yu once again. The girl nodded, then silently incanted the Dragonsearch Invocation and took over.
Lu Yun had taught her the Dragonsearch Invocation, Dragonshift Method, and Dragonspike Litany a while back inside hell; she was more than capable enough to wield the luopanâs might.
The young man took a deep breath. A tricolor flame appeared over his body, the combination of Emerald Mist, Lucent Void, and Daevic Sky. Though the three fires werenât quite hellfire, they burned with the utterly destructive essence of pure yang. Even the ghosts here would be burned to nothingness before they could approach.
Under the tricolor flameâs protection, Lu Yun slowly shuffled out of the luopanâs range.
His Spectral Eye saw ghosts everywhere around him. Those who dared edge toward him were turned to ash after coming just a bit closer.
âThere are both normal and immortal ghosts here. The souls of those who die in Exalted Majorâs Center Province are drawn here by this corner of hell.â Lu Yun frowned faintly.
The Gates of the Abyss divided the worlds of the living and the dead. The dead, drawn naturally by the path outside, would eventually make their way here.
But this corner of hell wasnât actually hell; there was no cycle of reincarnation to be had. The souls became immortal ghosts, only to be infected by the yin dragon vein underground and turned into vicious ghosts.
âWhat kind of lineal tomb is this? The manor outside is just another set of Gates of the Abyss, so entering the manor means reaching the underworld.â
The darkness of the void here was filled with the presence of death. Even the tricolor flame couldnât penetrate the gloom with illumination.
Lu Yun opened his Spectral Eye to cut through the haze. The roiling aura of death gradually became clear to him, and he could see Li Youcai.
The fatty was standing upon a boulder shortly ahead. He looked much thinner than before; instead of a mountain of meat, he was now something much more commonly presentable. His skin was a ghoulish shade of white and his eyes were pitch black, the whites of his eyes disappearing in favor of nightmarishly large pupils.
âYouâre the ghost king.â Lu Yun strode toward Li Youcai. âBut youâre not the master of this lineal tomb.â
Heâd gotten it all wrong. Heâd thought that the ghost king and the master of the tomb were one and the same⌠but a meeting with the former had finally overturned his mistake. This corner of hell didnât belong to the ghost king. At most, he was an Exalted Divine whoâd been buried hereâthere was something far more frightening behind him.
The young man inhaled sharply and drew the axe of dao with one hand, preparing the hand seal of the Yi Wood Cleansing Thunder method with the other.
âKakakaâ" The sound of grinding wood came from Li Youcaiâs mouth. âThose who disturb the princessâ rest⌠must die,â he declared coldly.
Boom.
An incredible amount of ghostly energy formed into a stark white hand, which bore down upon Lu Yun.
Crack!
Yi Wood Cleansing Thunder was channeled through Lu Yunâs Thunder Palmstrike, and black lightning rose up to resist the hand.
At the same time, Lu Yun quickly backed off. The dao weapon in his right hand glowed with azure light. He disappeared on the spot, only to reappear over Li Youcaiâs head a moment later.
Boomâ
The blade of the axe slammed down upon Li Youcaiâs cranium.
Clang!
Lu Yunâs right hand went numb, and a sudden flashback to his childhood visited him. Heâd once swung a blunt axe into a block of granite, resulting in very similar sensations to his hand. Blood welled up in his mouth. He spat out a glob of crimson, even as he was sent flying back.
âSuch strength!â He applied a healing talisman to himself to address his numerous internal injuries.
A large gash was visible upon Li Youcaiâs head as gray matter and blackish blood poured out from the wound. The axe had torn open his consciousness and dispersed his spirit; Li Youcaiâs true self had been killed in a single blow!
However, the fatty was still belly laughing with amusement.
âHumans are cruel as ever. Murdering their own with such readiness⌠KakakaâŚâ
Thump!
The ghost kingâs departure returned Li Youcai to his original form, and he collapsed to the ground as a fleshy mountain.
Wiping away the blood from the corner of his mouth, Lu Yun offhandedly used Resurrection on Li Youcaiâs body. The rift in his skull and his broken spirit rapidly began to heal, and the fattyâs breathing miraculously resumed.
âHow can this be?!â The ghost king hidden in the void jumped out once more. A dead person had come back to life in front of its eyes! Such a thing was outside of its comprehension, even as a king of ghosts.
âWhy, why is he alive again?!â the ghost king shrieked with surprise while a spark of hope entered its hollow eyes.