Chapter 1363.1: Pacification

“Aouuuu!” A piercing dragon croon emitted from the great dragon’s will as rays of purple magnificence flared from its wavering mind. A snarling purple-golden dragon flew out—the great dragon’s true spirit!

A marvelous strength converged from the four corners of the land and wrapped around the dragon spirit.

The dragon shifted, obliterating all of the ghosts that hadn’t made it out yet and crushing every tomb that had been built around it.

The spot that Lu Yun had chosen happened to be the lifepoint of the underground area; it anchored the dragon’s fortunes and the dragon’s strength wouldn’t reach this locale.

The great dragon churned continuously through the subsurface world, dispelling the ghostly qi that’d invaded it as streams of smoke. When it was pristine again, it soared into the sky like a real dragon and coldly regarded the cultivators beneath it, as if it was the sovereign of the land.

“What’s going on??” The high level kings battling each other regarded the change with alarm.

“How has the great dragon recovered?? And it’s broken free of the shackles of the crystal vein, it’s evolving into a real dragon! What’s happening?!” The Moon King didn’t know what to do. Only now did she truly understand the timing of the final battle.

The great dragon now rivaled a ninth step king—one that nurtured boundless strength.

“Roar!!” howled the dragon as it trembled and dived at the ghosts beneath it. The Moon King and another ninth step ghost king were in its range of attack.

……

The dragon didn’t employ combat arts since it didn’t know any, but its movement and method of attack followed a most primitive and perfect trajectory of its existence.

Every blow conformed to dao and logic.

It instantly crushed hundreds of ghost kings and gravely injured the Moon King and other ninth step ghost king.

“Retreat!” Jinse could tell that Lu Yun had succeeded. She slew the eighth step ghost king in front of her with one explosive move and turned to leave. The great dragon would now commence a purge of Starspace Region and attack indiscriminately. Whether it was cultivators or ghosts, everything would die to its rage.

The Acclaim King and Hua Fengwen understood the situation as soon as she left, then the sixth step kings of the Immortal Pagoda ran off the battlefield as well. Once those from the Immortal Pagoda were gone, the kings of Haotian Tower naturally wouldn’t linger any longer and swiftly withdrew.

The sudden final battle lasted less than fifty breaths before it was over. It ended with the eruption of the great dragon from Starspace Region’s central crystal vein and a furious slaughter of all ghosts in the region.

The other ninth step ghost king burst into ghostly gore when the dragon clenched its claws around it. The Moon King barely managed to escape Starspace Region through deploying her silver moon and promptly disappeared without a trace.

“Who dared ruin my plans!!” The Moon King’s enraged voice echoed through the region.

……

“Ghosts are dead, after all, and far removed from the realm of the living. They’re not very smart.” Lu Yun curled his lip when he heard the Moon King shrieking and raging.

He wouldn’t dare be this brazen or expose himself like this if he was facing cultivators or arcane beasts, but ghosts? What he feared least were ghosts.

Though the five hellfires had given rise to the flame of order, they still existed in the Tome of Life and Death. If he sent out all five of them, he would’ve eliminated the scourge of ghosts in Starspace Region within the blink of an eye.

He just hadn’t wanted to do so.

Once hellfire blazed, so would his identity be exposed. Not the identity of the Immortal King, but the one as headmaster of the Dao Academy in the world of immortals. At that point, he’d face the entire Hongmeng.

……

The great dragon swept through Starspace Region for three full days and nights. Everything, whether cultivator or ghost, was crushed by its violent and undiscerning attacks.

Lu Yun, Qing Ting, and Li Zhen remained within the safe pocket of space and cultivated during this time. There’d been an explosion of Hongmeng qi in the area that was tens of thousands of times more concentrated than the outside world.

Consolidating and further advancing their cultivation here saw them make progress at a tremendous pace. They were able to fully digest the gains they’d made since setting foot in Starspace Region.

The great dragon returned after three days.

It couldn’t speak, but there was a deep sense of goodwill in its thoughts. It opened its mouth and regurgitated nine thousand premium crystal veins, scattering them at the trio’s feet.

“This…” Qing Ting and Li Zhen swallowed hard. They wanted to accept the crystal veins, but didn’t dare to. If they left with these veins, they’d instantly become shining beacons in the dark. If someone set their sights on them, they wouldn’t even make it out of Starspace alive. The aura of purple crystal veins wasn’t something that anyone below kinghood could conceal.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“I’ll accept these for them.” Lu Yun didn’t share their reservations as he was already a king—a supplemental king. He put away the mountain of crystal veins with a wave of his hand. “I’ll give these back to you guys when we get to Cloudexit City. Li Zhen, yours should stay with me for now. Your clan won’t think any better of you if you take the crystal veins back to them.”

When they’d run into Li Quan earlier, they’d clearly heard him say that Li Zhen was the son of a traitor and would be trouble sooner or later. This was most likely the reason behind the Li Clan’s attitude toward Li Zhen.

“Alright.” Li Zhen nodded gently.

As curious as Qing Ting and Li Zhen were about how Lu Yun had purged ghostly qi from the great dragon, they didn’t seek to satisfy their curiosity.

Let’s just pretend he’s the Immortal King’s son.

Happiness drifted through the dragon’s murky purple eyes when it saw Lu Yun accept the crystal veins. It then lowered its body and spat out a purple pearl.

Its dragon pearl.

“You need to think this through, great dragon. This is your life pearl and the equivalent of an ultimate treasure of the Hongmeng. If you keep it, you’ll keep growing and ultimately break free of the shackles of an earthen vein to become a real living being,” Lu Yun enunciated carefully as he looked deep into the dragon’s eyes. “But if you give it to me to repay your karmic debt, your new dragon body will slowly revert to a dead thing without ever having the chance to live again.”

Hesitation flashed through the dragon’s eyes.

“I know why you’re in a rush to sever the karmic relationship with me. But if you don’t speak or teach others that thing, no one will know what it is.” Lu Yun was naturally speaking of the Dragonquake Scripture.

It was taboo. Lu Yun had saved the great dragon and Starspace Region with a taboo. The great dragon knew this, too, so it wanted to use its dragon pearl to pay off the debt. It would also forever seal away the Dragonquake Scripture and put it out of reach.

“It’s also not necessarily a bad thing to have a karmic tie with me. Don’t I stand before you, well and healthy?” Lu Yun chuckled.

Qing Ting and Li Zhen had listened with complete bafflement at first, but as Lu Yun spoke further, Qing Ting quickly sealed off her senses and knocked Li Zhen out with a punch.

Some things were not for the likes of them.

“It’s not that the great dragon wants to sever the karmic tie, but that this debt is too great for it not to repay you,” came the Starspace King’s voice.

“Do you think I saved the great dragon just to put it in my debt?” Lu Yun shook his head. “Once the ghost tomb was complete, several hundred regions in the vicinity would’ve turned into ghost regions and life would dwell in utter misery. I’m no saint, but I don’t want to see that happen either.

“Zhuo Bufan is my friend and I know Dusksnow Morningstar. I would’ve saved the dragon if only to avenge what happened to them. I cannot accept this dragon pearl.” Lu Yun pushed it back. “If you want to repay this karmic debt, go find the Redbud King and Dragon Butterfly in Redbud Region. Tell them that I, the Immortal King, sent you. They’ll accept you then.”