Necropolis Immortal

I've reached the cusp of breaking through after a few monumental battles. I’m only a hair’s breadth from mid soul separation. Lu Yun quickly ran through various courses of action. What he needed most at the moment was a massive fight, one that preferably brought him pressure from someone evenly matched with him. This genteel and refined young man seemed to be a good opponent.

Battle was always the best path for growth. Those who survived the tempering of blood and fire became powerhouses.

BOOM!

A massive explosion sounded in the air as a golden immortal residence three hundred meters tall stood over Xia Houwan’s head. It had fully materialized. His eyes snapped open and an overwhelming aura blossomed from his body. Cultivators attacking him dropped out of the sky like dumplings plopping into a pot.

“How dare you scheme against this young master?? Have you tired of living?!” Xia Houwan waved his hand and spun the residence like a mountain. It bore down on the cultivators with domineering pressure.

“Run!” yelled the cultivators. They didn’t think that Xia Houwan would refine the residence so quickly! The power that he was bringing to bear through it could only be described as limitless.

PFFT!

As fast as they ran, many were still smashed to meat pies beneath the enormous structure.

“Hahahaha!!” Xia Houwan threw his head back with laughter to see cultivators who could kill him with one hand flee for their lives.

“Eh, fellow daoist, so we’re agreed. I’ll treat you to a tea tasting next time we meet!” Yu Mo spun on his heel without hesitation and left.

“As you say!” Lu Yun agreed, refraining from chasing Yu Mo since Xia Houwan had finished refining the immortal residence.

“Thank the heavens you blocked that guy, Brother Lu. Xia Houwan would be hard pressed to avoid disaster otherwise.” Yu Hen had also discovered Yu Mo’s might and inwardly rejoiced that they had Lu Yun with them. If not, Xia Houwan would be severely injured even if he managed to obtain the immortal residence.

“Was that guy really strong?” Xia Houwan blinked uncertainly.

“Strong enough to slap you to death with one palm strike!” Yu Hen laughed.

“C’mon, this place is about to collapse.” Lu Yun looked around their surroundings.

The Nine Radiance Residence had been preserved and evaded being devoured by the entity in the seed storage world because it’d become one with Sagittarii Hall. It’d come under the palace’s protection. Now that it’d emerged from the palace, that was the equivalent of withdrawing the hall’s core essence. The structure wouldn’t stand for much longer.

……

The enormous palace collapsed into rubble a dozen breaths after Lu Yun and the others left.

What a shame… the last evidence of the southern immortal emperor ever existing has now become dust in the records of history, Lu Yun sighed to himself.

While Xia Houwan was a prodigal, he was a loyal person who treasured his friendships. He was good to whoever was good to him. Thus, a clear current flowed from him to Lu Yun. Due to receiving the recognition of the Nine Radiance Residence and fully refining it, Xia Houwan’s strength increased several times over. He was almost on par with Yun Shuige, so the goodwill he generated was uncommonly powerful.

A green whirlpool of goodwill slowly took shape within the Seal of the Multitude. Lu Yun smiled faintly—he’d finally collected an incense stick of goodwill!

……

“Brother Yu, Duke Xia.” Lu Yun raised cupped fist salutes at the two after they left Sagittarii Hall. “I have some other things to attend to, so I am afraid I cannot accompany you further. But if you are ever in the mood, please visit Dusk City. I will personally welcome you as honored guests.”

Yu Hen and Xia Houwan looked at each other, then nodded in unison.

“It’s all thanks to Brother Lu that I secured this heaven-defying opportunity. I will speak to my grandfather about Yan Guichi.” Xia Houwan nodded emphatically.

“Ah yes, the Dao Academy is about to recruit a new batch of disciples. You must make sure that you do not miss it, Brother Lu. With your potential, you will receive significant attention after entering the Dao Academy,” Yu Hen suddenly recalled.

“The Great Xia Dao Academy? I’ll be there!” Lu Yun nodded emphatically. He highly yearned to be part of the Dao Academy—not because of the attention and resources he’d receive as a disciple, but because the name touched upon the memories at the bottom of his heart.

Strangely enough, he didn’t instinctively shy away from the reaction. There was an extensive library at the Dao Academy—he’d find what he wanted there.

Such as what had happened to the world of immortals.

After he took his leave of Yu Hen and Xia Houwen, a meaningful smile appeared on Lu Yun’s face.

“Who would’ve thought that I’d be a saint… BAH! I’m not a saint!” He shook his head furiously, abnormally resistant to the term. “Ai, I still have to collect goodwill where I can. It’s easy enough to make friends so long as I don’t run into ungrateful people.”

Whether it was Ling Chu and the others, or Yu Hen and Xia Houwan, Lu Yun had helped them because he wanted to collect goodwill. While it appeared from the surface that they didn’t give him anything in return, Lu Yun obtained what he wanted most after seemingly giving endlessly of himself.

Goodwill.

Although his original intentions were not pure, he still truly saved the lives of those he helped. If the other happened to be someone worth befriending, then he was happy to make new friends as well. After three thousand reincarnations, he knew a little bit of the human heart.

Despite Xia Houwan being a spoiled young master, his thoughts and actions were a hundred times better than hypocrites who mouthed pretty words.

……

Lu Yun found a relatively secluded spot roughly fifty kilometers from the ruins of Sagittarii Hall and casually set up a formation before setting down cross-legged. His nascent spirit focused inward into the sword pagoda.

The Tai Sui Immortal King had succumbed to his fate and no longer struggled. Yan Beifei, however, was unusually agitated.

“So what if you were once an immortal emperor of the world of immortals! You’re just someone who died! That still makes you a failure!” he roared as soon as he saw Lu Yun, attempting to instill an internal demon in the young man.

“You’re a devious little bastard.” Lu Yun wasn’t surprised that Yan Beifei knew his identity. Tai Sui had plainly said something to him, but he was far from being able to create an internal demon in Lu Yun’s heart.

Lu Yun was the disciple of the heavenly dao and his three thousand lifetimes just to use the seal of reincarnation to obscure his original memories. To him, everything had just been a realistic dream.

As for death… he did indeed die in some of the worlds and taste the bitterness of defeat. But in the first world, he broke through the shackles of immortal emperor and crushed even the rules of the northern emperor at the last possible second. He pierced through the final veil to enter a new territory.

Of course, he’d yet to fully experience that territory before the heavenly dao grabbed him for his second reincarnation. It had nothing to do with death or failure.

Lu Yun couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to Yan Beifei. A hand of white probed out of the void and grabbed the man’s body, hauling him up to his captor.

“The Yans’ resentment toward the Lus probably eclipses what the Lus feel toward the Yans, doesn’t it?” Frostiness threaded through the sword qi collecting in Lu Yun’s eyes. “After all, you Yans were just our slaves…”

“You!!” Fury boiled in Yan Beifei. Slaves of the Lu Clan… this was an eternal thorn in the Yan Clan side! Although Yan Guichi was now the noble Origin King of Great Xia, he came from the origins of a slave and was one who’d betrayed his masters!

A ponderous intent descended from the void when Yan Beifei lost his mental footing and barrelled into the depths of his nascent soul.

“AHHHH!!!” The man screamed with the agony of being turned inside out. He twisted and turned, trying to struggle free of the iron grip. The hand in the held him so firmly that he didn’t shift one bit no matter how he tried.

“Soul refinement…” Tai Sui shuddered and identified in a shaking voice.

Soul refinement was one of the most vicious arts in the three realms and six paths. It refined a cultivator’s nascent soul and ripped their memories out of their mind. Those who suffered this treatment saw their souls scattered to the four corners and never found salvation.

At the same time, the one who deployed this art needed to possess an uncommonly strong mind and heart. Otherwise, they were easily assimilated by their victim’s memories and formed a split personality.

Lu Yun’s mind was so resolute that not even immortal emperors could match him. The memories of an awakened cultivator affected him not at all. He stripped each thread of Yan Beifei’s memories out of his nascent soul, displaying them in front of him.

“The Celestial Realm Battlefront!”

He found what he was looking for! Yan Beifei had found Origination Mountain in a hazardous area from that world.

“It looks like I really need to make time to visit that area,” Lu Yun murmured to himself. He flipped through the memories related to the Origin Sect and set aside the others, uninterested.

Yan Beifei’s soul had been blown apart and no further vitality emanated from his body. With his death, Origination Mountain lacked a master and returned to being a towering mountain in the sword pagoda.

“It’s Origination Mountain… No wonder you wanted to deploy soul refinement on him…” Tai Sui murmured as he gazed upon the mountain.

Lu Yun slowly opened his eyes in the place of burial and breathed out a mouthful of putrid air.

“No matter how hard and no matter how directionless I was, I have a clue now. I’ll follow it until I find the world of immortals.” Lu Yun lowered his head.

Dao followed its matter of course. All he needed to do in this world was to follow the course of nature and do everything he wanted.