Chapter 2226.2: Vermilion Bird
Lu Yun dearly hoped that the cataclysm that beset the world of immortals was different from the one of his subconscious. Although his memories were sealed, he retained his instincts and a sliver of subconscious.
He knew many things, such as the ghost zombies, vicious spirits, and… and the root of the world’s destruction. He also knew why he was here. The only thing he couldn’t recall was who he was and where he was from.
“Ai… I hope you can find where the world of immortals is now. It is vital to many things, and the three worlds and six paths cannot be without it.” Vermilion Bird blinked its beady black eyes and opened its mouth, sending a drop of golden blood essence through the void to Lu Yun. “You have an interesting little fellow with you. This drop of blood essence is a gift for it.” Tenderness filled its tone.
Lu Yun knew that the divine beast meant the Hadal Bird. Legend had it that the first bloom of Hadal Fire to ever exist originated from a drop of Vermilion Bird blood. When it landed in the Hadal Land, it absorbed hadal qi and became a flame. Thus, the fire spirit of the Hadal Flame possessed the Vermilion Bird bloodline.
This drop of blood essence was sufficient to enable the Hadal Bird to fully take form and break free of the shackles of its flame. It would become a real living being and the Hadal Flame would evolve into a heavenly fire.
Lu Yun carefully put the drop of blood essence away. Meanwhile, the Vermilion Bird’s aura faltered even more and its eyes like black pearls closed slightly. It no longer talked.
The young man fell silent before summoning a golden fruit and a tea leaf the size of a nail with a flip of his hand.
“The Hongmeng Fruit and Dao Enlightenment Tea!” The divine beast’s eyes opened again, this time with surprise. A flash of scarlet light brought both items to it.
“I owe you a favor.” The bird fell into deep slumber after swallowing both items.
“You are too polite, senior.” Lu Yun inclined his head and left, refraining from disturbing the divine beast further. So this place was the ruins of the combined five heavenly palaces of the world of immortals. No wonder there were so many treasures here.
Lu Yun sighed softly after learning of the truth. “This should be the territory around the southern palace… Let me go take a look at the northern palace.”
He briefly opened the Heavenly Eye to set a course and flew in the appropriate direction.
Sword light three hundred meters long broke through the air with unstoppable momentum, drawing piercing shrieks from vicious spirits when they saw it. Sword seals flashed through Lu Yun’s hands and split into rays of crimson splendor, swiftly cutting all of them down.
He sensed a familiar presence on the third day… the presence of the northern palace. It’d been nearly reduced to a vacant lot—there weren’t even ruins left. It’d suffered a more thorough level of destruction than the southern palace.
The disappearance of its emperor left it rudderless and unable to bring its full power to bear. Thus, it suffered the greatest damage.
“I always thought that the disappearance of the world of immortals had something to do with those vicious spirits. It seems like I was wrong,” Lu Yun took a deep breath.
The attrition wrought upon the five heavenly palaces plainly came from the barrage of an overwhelming treasure. The five palaces shared the same origins and were some of the strongest connate treasures born of the world of immortals. They’d clearly become one, but something had still blown them to pieces.
That source of trouble should be man made.
“But who…” Lu Yun was suddenly reminded of the severed body of the ten-winged chaos scaled-dragon falling from the sky. “Forget it, let’s not think too much about it.”
He brought his sword light down. There were the fewest cultivators here as the northern palace had suffered the most damage. Just a few hopefuls wandered through the area. “I hope it’s still here.”
Lu Yun opened the Heavenly Eye to scan the northern palace’s domain. There was less than four hundred kilometers of territory left after its destruction, so the Heavenly Eye easily took everything into view.
“There!” He brightened and sped in a certain direction. He’d left a treasure in the palace, meant to be used after he ascended beyond chaos immortal. Who would’ve thought that he’d never have the chance to refine it?
Only he and his empress knew of the treasure’s existence.
“Oh, it’s definitely still there!”
A ramshackle herb garden came into view. It should’ve nurtured countless immortal herbs and numerous specimens of the thirty-six earthly treasures. Sadly, it was in almost complete disrepair and its qi nearly completely dispersed.
However, Lu Yun knew that there was a modest seed storage space beneath the herb garden and that his treasure was quietly resting within.
Given that this was an herb garden, there were still plenty of immortal herb remnants within. Several cultivators scavenged through the meager pickings; an occasional shout of surprise sounded when someone discovered one or two herbs teetering on the edge of life.
Lu Yun knew that it was due to the treasure beneath the herb garden that there was anything to be found. Otherwise, the entire garden would be long dead.
“Hey, kid! Get over here!” a coarse voice blasted into Lu Yun’s ear. “Come here and dig nine meters down to see what kind of treasures are down there. There will be a reward for you if you do your job well!”
The speaker was a tribulation stage cultivator with a thick beard. His flabby cheeks shook as he gave loud commands to the young man.
“Eh?” Lu Yun looked at the cultivator with surprise. Dragons were found alongside snakes in Immortal Burial Valley and those from the worlds of cultivation had long witnessed for themselves the might of Great Xia cultivators. This man was obviously from a world of cultivation. Where did he get the courage to strut around like this?
“Acting tough, are you? Get digging!” A latter combination cultivator next to the man shouted at Lu Yun.
“Boss, we have news! There’s treasure nine hundred meters down!” A slim and small man with clunky features on his face scurried to their side with a shifty expression. He held a gray spirit beast in his arms.
“A Treasurehunter Rat?” Lu Yun blinked to see the spirit beast. Treasurehunter Rats were just first rank spirit beasts, but they were uncommonly sensitive to qi. They caught any ripple within fifty kilometers.
“Well? Hurry up and dig nine hundred meters down!” snapped the tribulation cultivator.
There were two dozen other cultivators here and they all looked at Lu Yun with pity. A soul separation cultivator was already doing very well to survive to this point without protection from a powerhouse. Unfortunately for the young man, he’d run into this streak of misfortune.
The tribulation cultivator was the strongest of them, so the other cultivators gave him a wide berth. Most of them were combination stage with a few soul separation cultivators forming teams with other combination cultivators.
A little fellow like Lu Yun showing up here? Who else would the tribulation cultivator pick on?
The Great Xia cultivators? They had all been transported elsewhere a day ago; not a single one remained in the place of burial. The remaining cultivators naturally respected whoever was the strongest.
Without the pressure of Great Xia cultivators, the heavyweights of the worlds of cultivation gleefully threw their weight around.
“Nine hundred meters below ground?” Purple light flashed through Lu Yun’s eyes as he looked at the relevant spot. “Oho, it’s an Origin Ginseng.”
Origin Ginseng was ranked number six on the list of earthly treasures and was the most likely one to become sentient and evolve into a monster spirit. A dao immortal ginseng that’d taken human form had been the caretaker of Lu Yun’s herb garden back in the day.
That one had likely perished and the one sleeping nine hundred meters below was one of its roots.
“Hurry up and get digging!!” roared the tribulation cultivator when the young man stood unmoving on the spot.
Lu Yun cocked his head and grasped in the direction of the earth, retrieving a plump baby that was fifty centimeters tall. Naked and bearing a jade-green sapling on its head, a dense fragrance spread in all directions. It was sucking on its thumb and its chest rose at an even pace as it slumbered.
“Squeak squeak!” The Treasurehunter Rat twisted with agitation when it saw the baby in Lu Yun’s hand.
“Definitely a good treasure alright… Hand it over, kid!” The tribulation cultivator was nearly drooling.
Sadness appeared in Lu Yun’s eyes when he saw that the baby ginseng in his hand resembled the garden’s old caretaker. He waved it into the sword pagoda.
“You! Court death!” The tribulation cultivator flew into a rage when he saw Lu Yun completely ignore him. Fingers splayed wide, he grabbed at Lu Yun’s collar.
Bam!
Lu Yun stomped on his face and sent him flying with cries of anguish.
“Did your parents not tell you that Immortal Burial Valley is very dangerous, that you should exercise caution in everything you do?” Lu Yun snorted and walked toward the tribulation cultivator’s clique.
“Are… you a Great Xia cultivator? No, they were all transported out of here a day ago. What are you still doing here?” The clique was made of ten people and the other tribulation cultivator within it shuddered when he looked at Lu Yun’s expression.
“This young master will spare your lives if you hand over everything you own.” Lu Yun probed the air with his right hand and summoned back the man he’d just kicked. He casually relieved the man of his storage rings, then threw him aside like a bag of trash.
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