Necropolis Immortal

White Robes—an immortal from the Origin Sect—imperceptibly curled his lip. Contempt lingered in the corner of his eyes.

“But milord, someone who can refine an immortal pill should be an immortal themselves. Immortals are in Darklake Empire…” Wang Tianba fretted after his initial rush of excitement.

“Don’t worry, my Origin Sect will take care of the immortal. They’re at most an august immortal,” White Robes smiled.

Lu Youya had been sent to Darklake merely to probe Lu Tianling’s capabilities. It’d turned out to be a difficult undertaking to fend off a true immortal, so Lu Tianling’s trump cards couldn’t be anywhere near impressive. As for refining an immortal pill… sometimes low level immortals could also create high level pills.

“That is most wonderful!” Wang Tianba gushed. “Although Darklake Empire gained its independence thanks to that trash Sui Ge, we still have a secret pawn in place there!"

……

Countless residents of Dark City raised their heads and gawked at the tribulation clouds covering the city.

“Is, is a senior undergoing their tribulation in the city?” Some nascent soul cultivators from well-known families swallowed hard. Experiencing a tribulation was the stuff of legends to cultivators of third rank empires! They weren’t superstitious as to believe that this was heavenly punishment for a wrong that Darklake had committed. The arrival of heavenly thunder was most likely attributed to a heavenly tribulation.

“Master, this is your precious grandson again, isn’t it?” Situ Wenxian smiled ruefully at the equally shocked Lu Tianling.

A cultivator undergoing a tribulation? Lu Tianling himself hadn't met with such terrifying tribulation clouds when it was his turn to be tested!

BOOM!

Tribulation clouds roiled in the sky and lightning as thick as a person’s wrist descended from above. It crashed into the city with overwhelming momentum. No one doubted that if it were to fully connect with its target, more than thirty percent of the capital would be destroyed!

Cultivators clutched their heads and scattered in all directions, immensely fearful of incoming disaster.

Humm!

A multicolored curtain of light appeared over the skies of Dark City, stopping the lightning in its tracks. Energy rippled through the curtain after halting the first bolt.

“A defensive formation?” Outside Dark City, immortals and cultivators alerted by the pill tribulation stared open-mouthed at the shifting radiance over the capital. No one anticipated that a mere third rank cultivation empire would have a formation safeguarding its capital! The curtain of light seemed to be a solid whole, indicating that it was one singular formation as opposed to a joint array.

“It’s not a formation, but a boundary!” Immortals whose knowledge ran a greater breadth swallowed hard. Boundaries differed from formations in that boundaries needed reinforcement from heaven and earth. A harmonious relationship between all things enabled it to bring more strength than formations to bear.

Formations needed to be overseen in order to manifest its greatest power, but boundaries didn’t. Once they were successfully set up, they could automatically defend against attacks!

But a complex procedure was required to lay down a boundary and a vast sum of qi was needed to support it. Neither ordinary energy of the world nor immortal qi was sufficient—multiple formidable immortal treasures were needed to be its foundation.

On the other hand, a variety of permutations were available to formations. Boundaries, however, were limited to simply offense and defense.

In this era, not even the cities of Great Xia would waste resources to set up boundaries. They would instead utilize several formations to set up a joint array for their cities. When it came to boundaries… there weren’t many in the dynasty who could craft one.

Yet in Jade Ruins Realm, a mere third rank cultivation empire possessed a boundary? Could it be that this realm that ranked last among the three thousand worlds of cultivation deserved far more of a reputation than what it had?

The heavenly tribulation cared not about what other immortals or cultivators thought. Bolts of heavenly tribulation rained down from the skies, ceasing only after thirty-six harrowing pillars of lightning struck the curtain of light.

……

“Three Shennong Life Restoring Pills, each with twelve instances of a pill tribulation…” Lu Yun waved three jade-green pills into his hand. A strong fragrance filled the seed storage formation.

He wiped off sweat on his forehead with a slightly shaking hand—he was very weak at the moment. Not only was his Hongmeng qi near depletion, but so was his heart and mind severely exhausted. Waves of dizziness assaulted his brain.

The young man glanced at the ardent gray jiao off to the side and smiled. A jade-green Shennong Life Restoring Pill landed in its mouth with a flick of his fingers.

Crooning with elegance, it sank into the pond.

“Thank goodness I made sufficient preparations before this. The pills would’ve been destroyed by the tribulation otherwise,” Lu Yun heaved an inward sigh of relief. As for whether or not the disturbance would catch the eyes of others… that was struck from his list of considerations long ago.

Refining an immortal pill would draw attention no matter where he was, so he might as well do it openly. He’d prepared enough surprises for them, anyhow. The boundary protecting Dark City was made from the countless treasures that he’d collected from Immortal Burial Valley.

While those treasures hadn’t been of high level, their core essence was genuine immortal treasure from ancient times. It was just that their core essences were incomplete and had become unusually weak. Ten thousand tattered treasures had formed one complete ninth rank immortal treasure. With Terra Demon’s help, that treasure became the foundation for the boundary around Dark City.

The treasures that were stripped of their core essence rested quietly in the Lu family vaults.

When Dark City underwent a thorough cleansing, Lu Yun utilized an enormous array of formations as the medium to bring the boundary into existence.

When the young man got to his feet, he wavered before managing to stop the waves of disorientation. He slowly padded out of the seed storage formation.

“Swallow this pill and refine it as quickly as possible to recover your strength.” Lu Yun handed one of the pills to Terra Demon after summoning the man and returned to his house. He was asleep before his head hit the bed.

Refining an immortal pill took too much of a toll. The resource depletion was so great that even he couldn’t endure it in his current state.

Terra Demon sucked in a sharp breath after receiving the Shennong Life Restoring Pill. A greater bloom of faith rose from his body and surged into the Seal of the Multitude. He had utmost faith in Lu Yun to begin with, and that faith deepened when he saw his lord refine an immortal pill with the body of a cultivator and mortal rank ingredients.

He practically worshiped the ground that the young man walked on.

The High Lord of the Northern Sky was capable of everything! Even if he’d lost his cultivation and was just a nascent soul cultivator, he could still accomplish what other immortal emperors could not do!

……

Lu Yun slept for ten days straight, waking slowly on the eleventh day. Dizziness still swept through his mind.

“Damn it, I should refrain from refining such high level immortal pills before I ascend to immortality.” He shook his head to clear it.

Time was exceedingly precious to a cultivator. Each minute spent in cultivation meant that one was that much stronger. The path of cultivation was one against the current. A lack of progress meant being set back, so no cultivator would dare let up on oneself.

Even the two great prodigals of Dark City put aside their lackadaisical attitudes after Lu Yun gave them certain items and bent their mind to training. That was why they were able to form golden cores within a year.

Lu Yun didn’t have this area of concern since the Nine Chapters of Dao operated even when he was asleep, constantly raising his cultivation level. Sensing the rich stores of Hongmeng qi within his body, the young man heaved a long sigh of relief. He calmed his mind and sat down cross-legged, directing the energy’s circulation with his entire being.

Hummm!

The barrier in front of peak nascent soul was pierced through like a finger through paper.

Whoosh!

Hongmeng qi circulated at a much faster rate and thundered into his dantian like coursing rivers. The nascent soul sitting over the dao character suddenly opened its eyes and shot forth two rays of hazy gray light.

Soul projection! The nascent soul could leave the body and journey the lands!

Humm!

Lu Yun shook as a powerful will descended from the skies and entered his mind. A heavenly dao combat art—Teleportation!

He could shift to any place within three hundred meters, but it consumed Hongmeng qi to do so. It wasn’t as ludicrous as the Petrification art.

“Teleportation? This is interesting. Compared to the Boundless Step… Eh? What’s the Boundless Step?” Lu Yun blinked and forcefully chased the thought out of his mind. So he’d known a similar combat art before!

Teleportation was absolutely a heaven-defying combat art, an unparalleled method to get away from danger!

……

Lu Yun nodded with satisfaction after carefully sensing his body’s condition.

“Soul projection huh… I can commence some of my cultivation plans. As strong as Terra Demon and some of the others are, my own strength is the most important.” He stood up into a hearty stretch. The breakthrough swept the cobwebs out of his mind and he was in prime condition.

BOOM!

A gigantic explosion ripped through the air and the massive boundary enveloping Dark City shook violently.

“Has it come?” Lu Yun bounded into the air and rose on the back of his sword.

“You’ve awakened, Yun’er!” Dressed in a set of scarlet armor, Lu Tianling presented a dashing sight on the northern city walls. He was delighted to see his grandson appear.