Necropolis Immortal

“I see,” Lu Yun nodded. The Celestial Realm Battlefront was incomparably mysterious. Even a world of immortals in its prime wouldn’t have been able to craft such a vast and uncanny world.

No matter who entered, their cultivation was suppressed to initial nascent soul. Lu Yun didn’t think of asking his senior brother as, given Sky’s character, the only thing he would say was “you will find out when the time is right”. Lu Yun really couldn’t be bothered.

Dark City was much more deserted these days. There were thirty percent fewer foundation establishment and golden core cultivators compared to before Lu Yun’s departure. It was common knowledge in Darklake Empire that there was a location in the west of Profound Wing Empire with a newly formed treasure geyser. Countless cultivators formed a massive army that marched off in search of its fortune.

None of it had to do with Lu Yun as he’d already collected the greatest benefits.

Night, the Lu residence.

Lan’er’s faint snoring could be heard from her room.

The sword pagoda hovered silently in Lu Yun’s dantian. Though he’d refined it, he couldn’t use it. It was absolutely on par with the Seal of the Multitude.

“The Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons… Aha, here it is.” Lu Yun sent his consciousness into the treasure and tried to touch the terrifying ray of sword qi. Unexpectedly, he received an overwhelming amount of sword techniques instead. He could use none of them at the moment, not even if he mustered his full strength for one.

“I have indeed found it… Vast Dragon Seaturner, Peng of Kun, Starstream Stroke…”

Compared to the other techniques, the Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons was the only one that Lu Yun could deploy as it was the weakest.

“The Mindful Immortal Potentate used the Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons to dominate the world of immortals in his time. Then it seems that even he was unable to practice the other techniques,” Lu Yun sighed.

Whoever had invented these techniques was a veritable genius—the Vast Dragon Seaturner, in particular, was the improved version of the Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons. It was the foundational move for all sword dao.

Bizarrely, Lu Yun somehow felt that he was complimenting himself.

Regardless, the Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons were so immensely powerful that it took him seven days to learn its initial moves. A current of dragon-shaped sword qi collected in his dantian when he succeeded.

“So I see. The techniques within the sword pagoda aren’t that of regular dao or combat art. They’re different from the techniques of sword immortals. One can deploy them when one communicates with the sword qi in one’s dantian.” Lu Yun keenly sensed that the dragon-shaped current in his dantian seemed to be a replica of the ray of sword qi within the sword pagoda.

But since Sky had said that this was something from his past self, Lu Yun wasn’t much worried. Yong Heyu had so easily employed the Eighteen Cerulean Sword Dragons likely because he’d formed a current of sword qi in his dantian.

Lu Yun slowly opened his eyes after he collected one current.

“It’s time to form my core…” He’d reached peak foundation establishment and was only half a step away from golden core. His spirit root had been tempered to an extreme through the aid of connate fire origin—it couldn’t absorb one iota more energy.

Although Lu Yun had consumed all of the goodwill stored in the Seal of the Multitude, he didn’t need that at the moment. While goodwill could offset the incredible amounts of spirit qi required by the Nine Chapters of Dao, the shackles of breakthrough were up to Lu Yun himself.

He held a milky paramount spirit stone in one hand and directed all of the Hongmeng qi in his body to the bottleneck.

Rumble!

The spirit stone crumbled to pieces and vast Hongmeng qi surged through his meridians like the floodwaters, gathering in his dantian. Aureate brilliance shone from the hazy dao character and boundless Hongmeng qi swiftly coalesced around it, ensconcing it until it became a hazy egg.

The golden core of great dao.

The golden core formed by the Nine Chapters of Dao was more than an ordinary golden core, it was one of great dao.

Lu Yun sensed the rhythm of heavenly dao as soon as his golden core formed and further understood the emotions and goodwill of the masses. His fingers flicked through hand seals, a steady stream of paramount rank spirit stones passing through his hands to crumble into dust.

His golden core was fully formed and consolidated after he exhausted one hundred paramount stones. He was in the second turn of the Seeing Dao chapter, initial golden core.

Another rumble exploded through his mind when his golden core settled. An imperceptible beam of light quickly descended from the sky and arrived in front of Lu Yun, splitting into two and entering his eyes.

Combat art of the heavenly dao—Eye of Nullification!

Lu Yun’s jaw dropped at the name. He… must have had a similar combat art in the past, one with a different name!

……

The days passed one by one as all remained calm in Darklake. It’d been one year since Lu Yun claimed the sword pagoda. Emperor Situ Wenxian of Darklake Empire was a decisive man. He immediately relinquished his claim over the Profound Wing Empire when he received word of the situation that’d developed. Profound Wing was an enormous vortex these days, sucking in ever-increasing numbers of immortals.

Although no one could map what was precisely in the crater, it could be certain that there was the legacy of an ancient immortal at the bottom. The three ninth rank empires were up in arms and had sent countless combination, tribulation, awakened, and even wandering cultivators to it.

The former Iron Pagoda Mountain had been renamed to Immortal Burial Valley.

It earned its new name after the ninth rank empires sent three wandering cultivators to explore it. None of the three returned.

The valley wasn’t a quiet locale. It erupted twelve times a year in the middle of each month. Under the illumination of a bright moon, all sorts of treasures, pills, medicines, or ingredients shot out from the crater. Most of them were low level, but there were always a few gems within that caused the combination or tribulation powerhouses to go mad with greed.

Immortal Burial Valley became well known throughout the entire world.

……

The breeze was brisk on a clear autumn morning. Terra Demon rushed into Lu Yun’s yard. The young man was partaking in breakfast through Lan’er’s service.

“What is it, Terra Demon?” Lu Yun put down the fried dough stick and soybean milk in his hands.

“Young master, I know what the treasures and pills found in Immortal Burial are.” Terra Demon’s expression was unspeakably odd.

“Oh?” Lu Yun shoved another dough stick in his mouth and began chewing slowly. This food item didn’t exist in the world of cultivation, but was something that he subconsciously remembered that he liked.

It didn’t exist in any of his three thousand reincarnations.

Two golden fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk from spirit beans were his unshakeable habit. His eating preferences had spread to the rest of the family—even Lu Tianling and Lu Xiaochi liked these two options.

“They’re all… immortal weapons, immortal pills, immortal medicines, and immortal ingredients!” Terra Demon garbled out. Lan’er was used to this kind of discourse and took out another set of bowl and chopsticks, serving the young man a bowl of soy milk and two dough sticks.

Terra Demon didn’t stand on ceremony. He grabbed the food and started munching his way through them. When in the world of immortals, the High Lord of the Northern Sky had been well known for being down to earth. He often ate at the same table with his men, which was one of the reasons whey they were so loyal to him.

“Some strange existence has consumed their core essence, which is why their ranks have declined.” Terra Demon swallowed a mouthful of soy milk. “Since their essence has been damaged, they cannot be repaired.” His tone was full of regret.

“Then let them be.” Lu Yun didn’t really care as he couldn’t use an immortal treasure even if it appeared in front of him right now. It would only bring trouble to the family. The tens of thousands of items he’d brought back from the valley were stored in the vaults.

“It’s likely that these items were all once from the world of immortals,” Terra Demon sighed, summoning an emerald ring to his hand. It was a lower spirit rank weapon.

“Isn’t this the Spiritlock Ring that you refined?” Lu Yun recognized it as one of Terra Demon’s most vaunted creations. It was a ninth rank immortal weapon that would immobilize even an ordinary immortal potentate. He’d bequeathed it to one of most accomplished disciples, but it’d returned to him after all these eons.

Lu Yun hadn’t paid a return visit to Immortal Burial Valley, but Terra Demon had gone a few times. The mid dao rank weapon that he’d given Yong Heyu had come from the crater, so it seemed likely that his old weapon had been recovered there as well.