Chapter 1249: First Genius of the Hongmeng

“I’m out, I finally made it out!!” The young man shrieked with glee the second he was freed, then crashed to his knees and began bawling loudly, “Uwah… wahhhh WAHHHHHH!!”

Lu Yun: ……

The little fox: ……

“Do you know that I was trapped in that hellhole for a hundred thousand years?! A hundred thousand years!!” Snot and tears flowed freely as the young man lifted a stained face to Lu Yun. “I thought I was going to die in there! Thank goodness I met you, hiccup, wahhhhhh!”

“Ah, ahem!” Lu Yun coughed dryly and attempted to comfort the young man. “Don’t cry, fellow daoist, freedom is yours once again.” With a snap of his fingers, he collapsed the Magneticus Formation. The vein of premium purple crystal likewise disintegrated in sections and returned to the Hongmeng.

“I swore an oath!” The young man stood up and wiped his face clean, continuing with earnest sobriety. “That my life would belong to whoever saves me! Because the two of you pulled me out of that damned Earth Light Magneticus, my life is yours!

“I, Hua Fengwen, will not dare pee if you tell me to poop, I will only beat whoever you tell me to beat and not kill them!” declared the young man who called himself Hua Fengwen with utmost seriousness.

“Hua Fengwen?!” Both Lu Yun and the little fox shrieked at the same time. “You’re Hua Fengwen?!”

“Yes, I’m Hua Fengwen!” He nodded solemnly.

“Hua Fengwen disappeared a hundred thousand years ago… to think that he was trapped in an Earth Light Magneticus! Everyone thought that you’d died.” The little fox blinked curious eyes at the long vanished king.

Hua Fengwen blushed when he looked into the little fox’s limpid eyes. The Hongmeng didn’t lack for beauties, but ones as utterly stunning as the little fox were few and far in between.

Hua Fengwen had once been known throughout the Hongmeng as the number one genius in the realm! The foremost genius since time immemorial, his fame had eclipsed even the Purple King’s back in the day.

Whether it was the Purple or Redbud King, or Jin Naluo, they’d all started at first step king after becoming a titled king. Making their way up through the ranks, they’d eventually reached sixth step kinghood.

But Hua Fengwen had been a sixth step king as soon as he received his title! This was unprecedented in the Hongmeng!

Though he didn’t boast of any magnificent feats of conquest to his name, or rather, he hadn’t had time to accomplish anything in the battlefield before being trapped, that didn’t affect his heaven defying potential.

When Lu Yun and the little fox studied the various events of the Hongmeng, they’d come across Hua Fengwen’s name more than once. Multiple books and references listed him as the leading genius of the realm.

“Are you really Hua Fengwen?” The little fox bounced up to him and assessed him curiously.

“This humble one is indeed him!” Far from being proud, the young man smiled shyly.

“Then what’s your title?” she continued asking.

His face fell. “We don’t need to talk about that, it’s just a title. My real name is Hua Fengwen, so I am Hua Fengwen wherever I go!”

“I bet you his title sucks,” the little fox whispered next to Lu Yun’s ear.

Hua Fengwen’s expression remained dull and he grumbled something inaudible.

“Ahem, fellow daoist, we saved you as a matter of convenience. We don’t require any compensation, so please return to your life as before.” Lu Yun raised a cupped fist salute.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“No!” came the firm response. “Earlier, I swore a solemn oath upon the Hongmeng Tower that my life would belong to whoever saves me from the Earth Light Magneticus. May the tower crush me if I go back on my word!

“You arrived as soon as I finished my oath! …do you think I don’t want to leave either?” Hua Fengwen sniffled and looked ready to burst into tears again. “I don’t want to die, I really don’t want to die… I’m still young, I’m not a million years old yet! I don’t want to die in the prime of my life!”

Tears streaked down his face as he sobbed out the torment he’d suffered over the past hundred thousand years.

“Master, we’ve reached sixty thousand kilometers below ground—eh?” When the Meteorite and Skyfall Kings popped back out from underneath, the first thing they saw was a bawling Hua Fengwen pouring his heart out to their master.

“You’re Hua Fengwen, the first genius of the Hongmeng!” The Skyfall King recognized him with a quick glance.

“Skyfall King! It’s been a hundred thousand years, why are you still a second step king?” Hua Fengwen quickly wiped his tears dry and addressed his peer with surprise.

The Skyfall King scowled. He’d met Hua Fengwen before the young man became a titled king and he himself had been a second step king then. Plainly, he hadn’t advanced since.

For beings of the third realm, a hundred thousand years wasn’t a long period of time. A quick nap sometimes consisted of several million years.

But for Hua Fengwen, the past hundred thousand years had been far from ordinary. Suffering all this time in the Earth Light Magneticus, he’d constantly threaded a thin line between life and death. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a sixth step king, there wouldn’t even be bone dust left of him now.

“So these two are your servants… No wonder you could save me from that forsaken place! You’re no ordinary person, fellow daoist!” he mumbled to himself before the Skyfall King could respond.

“Fellow daoist, do you want to head below ground for the Terra Grass? That was what I wanted to do before, which was how I ended up trapped. I’d thought that I could find the grass by following the light, but it was just a dead end.” Neither did Hua Fengwen care that Lu Yun hadn’t responded to him yet. He happily carried on in his own vein and babbled incessantly.

“We need to be patient, he hasn’t talked to anyone in a hundred thousand years,” Lu Yun whispered and tugged on the little fox’s sleeve.

Repressing giggles, she nodded gently.

“Alright, fellow daoist. Since you want to stay with me, then come with me beneath the earth,” Lu Yun interrupted. “We are indeed here for the grass. The light is just that—light with magnetic properties. It’s not a passageway.”

“Uh huh uh huh.” Hua Fengwen bobbed his head.

“But there’s something we need to get out of the way first, and that is you must follow all of my commands when we’re below. We might be trapped in the Terra Light Magneticus otherwise, and it’s a hundred times more dreadful than the Earth Light!” Lu Yun warned gravely.

“All will be as you command!” Hua Fengwen nodded again. “Ah, yes, what’s your name, fellow daoist?”

“Lu Yun, and this is my dao partner Tushan Miao.” Lu Yun introduced himself and pointed at the little fox as well.

The tips of her ears flushed bright red when she heard the title. Lu Yun’s past self had indeed been dao partners with her replica in the far off Era of Myth, and he hadn’t planned on abandoning her after she’d recovered her past self. As for Qing Yu, she’d tacitly agreed to the relationship.

“Greetings to my fellow daoists!” Hua Fengwen finally brought himself to order and shook off the dirt on his figure to reveal his true appearance. He bowed respectfully to Lu Yun and the little fox.

“Alright, let’s head inside.” Lu Yun and the little fox led the group into the tunnel sixty thousand kilometers long.