Necropolis Immortal

The pillar of black light lasted for less than ten thousandth of a breath, but it molded eternity in that singular moment.

All was quiet between heaven and earth. When the pillar of light passed through, it ripped the enormous black cloud to pieces. Yan Guichi was a tattered remnant of his former self—his golden armor barely clung to his body in bits and pieces. At least twenty thousand of his immortal troops had been reduced to dust while the remaining eighty thousand were injured to varying degrees.

“Lu. Tian. Ling!!” Yan Guichi’s noncommittal expression finally vanished, replaced by deep-rooted fury.

A dragon desired to step on an ant, but in turn suffered some damage from the ant’s final stand! THough he was an arcane immortal, his dao heart wavered from the indignation and he went berserk.

Hummm!

The black cannon at the tip of the cross ark lit up again before Yan Guichi could respond. Another pillar of light one hundred meters across cut through the sky and blasted the army of immortals.

“Split—”

Boom!

Yan Guichi and the eighty thousand behind him were swallowed by the pillar of black before he could finish speaking.

As Great Xia’s premier battle weapon, the cross cannon was so fast and powerful that not even the initial arcane immortal Yan Guichi could adequately react to it.

The Origin Sect lost another twenty thousand immortals to this blast, leaving less than sixty behind. They were all very much worse for the wear with their clothes and armors in shredded pieces. Many of them were stark naked.

The closer to the front they were—such as the golden immortals—the worse their injuries. Standing at the very front, Yan Guichi’s remarkably opulent armor was thoroughly crushed. However, he wore a dark-green immortal rank robe that protected the newly promoted Origin King from running naked through the streets.

It took only two blasts to kill more than forty percent of the Origin Sect’s representatives. Not only that, but it also erased their morale.

“I’m going to kill you, Lu Tianling!” roared Yan Guichi. Purple light sparkled over his body as a deep purple blade formed in his hand. He vanished from the spot and reappeared over the cross ark.

BAM!

Purple light flared balefully and swallowed the enormous vessel.

Humm!

The shadow of a large seal appeared over the cross ark and stood in front of the purple light.

Kaboom!

The purple blade of light crashed into the seal and shoved the cross ark belowground with its force of impact. How great was Yan Guichi’s strength being an arcane immortal!

But as the cross ark fell, its cannon lit up again and fired another pillar of black light. It was the ark’s third firing! Yan Guichi wanted to lose his mind!

Without his protection and reeling from the first two impacts, thirty thousand immortals were swallowed by the blast this time. Some of the more quick-witted ones, however, dispersed when Yan Guichi brought down the cross ark. Those who died in this salvo were those who couldn’t think on their feet.

“Attack the city and raze it to the ground!” screamed an enraged Yan Guichi.

Up on the city walls, cultivators goggled with disbelief. Lu Tianling and the others faced real immortals, and not just one or two of them, but a full hundred thousand! Only three cannon blasts were needed to reduce them to less than thirty thousand. What kind of a terrifying battle record was this?!

Lu Yun’s lips quirked upward.

Cannon? Strictly speaking, these were weapons of war. But ah, that couldn’t be their name at this time. They had to be cross cannons, or a corner might be lifted on his sealed memories and the entire seal blown.

The surviving twenty thousand immortals finally came to their senses and swiftly took out healing medicines and pills. Brilliant splendor burst from their bodies as they took a few moments to recover and then shot toward Dark City.

Panic reigned in the capital. The warship that’d killed thousands upon thousands of immortals had been blasted into the ground by the immortal emanating purple light. As powerful as the city’s boundary was, it would not hold off the incoming horde.

“A cross ark… why is there a cross ark??” Yan Guichi looked at the vessel in the ground with a trace of horror. Cross arks were important weapons in Great Xia, while cross cannons were forbidden objects. They were exceedingly difficult to make and only the royal family possessed the method. More importantly was that Great Xia royalty only owned ten cross cannons!

It was said that a stunning genius of legend had invented the cross arks and cannons. The one in front of him seemed even more terrifying than the ones of Yan Guichi’s memories. It seemed to have been… modified somewhat.

“Thankfully they don’t have Dao Rune Pills to power the cannon with…” Yan Guichi shuddered. If his opponent possessed sufficient numbers of Dao Rune Pills to bring the full power of the cross cannon to bear, then he would’ve been blasted to bits long ago. “I must get my hands on that ark and cannon…”

Boom!

The void shook just as Yan Guichi was about to make a move.

“That is enough, everyone stand down.” An ethereal voice traveled out of the air. The immortals about to attack Dark City were flung back to their starting positions.

“Who is it?!” Purple lightning flashed through Yan Guichi’s eyes as he took out a healing pill from his storage ring.

“Origin King, this matter ends here. Go back from whence you came,” sounded the ethereal voice again. It echoed in everyone’s ear, but no one—including Yan Guichi—could catch a glimpse of the figure.

“So it’s you,” Yan Guichi frowned. “Does the Fengxian King wish to interfere in Origin Sect matters?”

“Lu Tianling once saved Little Wu’s life, so the Fengxian King owes him a favor,” the voice responded calmly.

“I can accept that,” Yan Guichi nodded. “But the Origin King Estate has suffered heavy losses, so I require compensation.”

Having been made the Origin King, the Origin Sect’s name was thereby changed as well.

“What a shameless mangy cur!” A figure flew out of the cross ark. “Compensation?! I’ll give you compensation!!” Lu Yun paid no heed to his image and jabbed a finger at Yan Guichi’s nose. “You’re an old fart without a trace of self dignity, a traitorous slave who isn’t worth the air he breathes! How dare you want compensation?! How about I drag out eighteen generations of your ancestors as compensation!”

Dragging out eighteen generations of the Origin King’s ancestors… Lu Yun really had possessed that ability once upon a time. He particularly wanted to dig up Yan Guichi’s ancestral grave—tomb raiding?

For reasons unknown, his heart itched when he thought of tomb raiding. Had he been a tomb raider in his sealed memories? In any case, he was completely incensed.

If he hadn’t consumed all of the goodwill in the Seal of the Multitude and called upon its strength to protect the cross ark, it would’ve been destroyed in that blow. Apart from Terra Demon and Mu Ge, no one else inside the ark would’ve survived.

Lu Yun’s temper rose at the notion that he could’ve died.

“You court death!” Yan Guichi had lost the balance of his dao heart long ago and flew into a rage when he heard Lu Yun’s cursing. Brilliant purple splendor sped through the air at the young man.

Humm!

A curtain of white light drifted down from the sky and stopped the purple radiance in its tracks.

“Do you wish to defy the Fengxian King?” The voice remained otherworldly, but was tinged with anger.

“I wouldn’t dare!” Yan Guichi took a deep breath. The Fengxian King was Great Xia’s greatest king, a half step away from the Human Emperor and the second greatest in the dynasty. A newly promoted king such as he didn’t dare antagonize this personage.

“Since you dare not, you may leave,” the voice softened.

Yan Guichi took a deep look at Lu Yun and clenched his fists before walking away.

“We go!”

Everyone from the Origin King Estate vanished without a trace, leaving behind charred earth.

“Lu Tianling, the favor that the Fengxian King owes you has been repaid in kind. Look well after yourself.”

……

“Hoo…” Lu Yun heaved a long sigh of relief after Yan Guichi and the others disappeared. He raised cupped fists to the sky and slowly drifted to the ground.

The Hadal Fire Spirit withered within the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth, once more reduced to a flame state and flickering silently inside. In that split moment, Lu Yun had used it to ignite the four lower rank spirit veins and thousands of immortal corpses to draw upon the power of connate yi wood. That had powered the cross cannon.

Otherwise, the cannon wouldn’t have been able to erupt with such power—not even with the fire spirit. Everything had been under his control—apart from the fact that Yan Guichi was an arcane immortal.

There was only one step between arcane and golden immortal, but the difference was heaven and earth. Lu Yun was confident that he could blast a peak golden immortal to death with one shot, but he could only deliver slight damage to an arcane immortal.

Thankfully, the Fengxian King’s men had interfered at the last possible second or they would be in true danger this time. While he still had some trump cards up his sleeve, he would no longer know any peace once he used them. He would be able to eliminate Yan Guichi, but also open himself up to more unsavory characters.