Chapter 1870: One Stick of Incense

The Bloodscorch Lion abruptly shifted to wakefulness and rampaged through the vicinity. It was a true supreme and a cultivator with intelligence. All nearby sequence cultivators were nothing but ants waiting to be trampled under its feet.

Mayhem immediately engulfed the area.

Cultivators streamed out of their hiding spots and frantically ran for their lives. They didn’t get too far since they weren’t supremes. Thus, a bloody slaughter commenced.

……

“Whoever it was, they failed,” Moran Linlang breathed out as she watched the situation develop. She crouched even lower, seeking to avoid the lion’s gaze. She wasn’t certain if Lu Yun’s formation and their chaos dirt could continue to avoid the supreme’s line of sight.

“No, he succeeded,” Lu Yun squinted. A line of death information flashed clearly through his Spectral Eye—it belonged to the true Bloodscorch Lion.

“Most of those here are waiting for both of them to be heavily injured,” he said softly. “That’s when they’ll move in to take the lion’s body, so the one possessing the lion is striking first and clearing the area!

“He’s very weak right now and his nascent spirit close to collapse. He’s going to kill everyone he can and scare off those he can’t. If my guess is right, he’ll enter a period of weakness after a while and fall into a deep sleep. That will be our best chance!”

Lu Yun was very confident in his formation. There were plenty of outsiders in the fourth realm these days and he’d used them as his guinea pigs over and over again.

Just as he said, the Bloodscorch Lion returned to its previous position after a round of slaughter and crouched down, looking the same as it had before. No one dared approach it anymore; there wasn’t anyone left in the vicinity. This was a supreme that possessed a dao palace, after all!

It’d completely terrified everyone, so no one dared try their luck despite knowing that he was heavily injured and close to breaking down.

“Get down here, the three of you!” a furious roar exploded by the trio’s heads.

Lu Yun paled and a trickle of blood dribbled out of his mouoth.

“Has he discovered us?” Moran Linglong’s lips trembled.

“Don’t move.” Lu Yun quickly grabbed Moran Linglong’s shoulder and pressed her into the ground. “A simple supreme can’t detect my formation,” he sneered. “Trying to bluff me out? Don’t even think about it. This is a type of mental intimidation meant to attack the deepest parts of our soul. Look over there.”

He pointed at shaking stragglers rising from their hiding spots. The cultivators docilely approached the lion and was, one after another, smacked to death.

The Bloodscorch Lion’s voice reverberated in their minds, repeating the same words. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun pressing down on Moran Linlang and Moran Linglong, the sisters would’ve already died to the lion. Out of ideal options, he helped them shake off the demonic note by sending two Tranquility Talismans into their bodies.

“You… you…” Moran Linlang gaped at the young man. “What kind of talisman was that? It only has the power of sequence, but it can withstand the mental attack from a supreme!”

“Why do you think I cultivate immortal dao?” Lu Yun smiled mysteriously.

“This is the power of immortal dao?” Moran Linglong looked blankly at Lu Yun.

He shook his head, his smile deepening. “Immortal dao isn’t much in the eyes of many powerhouses. What drew my master’s gaze is the formula dao within it. I used a method in formula dao just now to pull you out of the entrancement.”

Formula dao was the medium for all supplemental daos and all supplemental daos fell under formula dao. Supplemental dao was originally a general term, a catch-all for the various categories beneath it. It was boundless and infinite, but when formula dao appeared, they were summed up and unified. Supplemental dao was henceforth a true great dao and the strength it wielded was far greater than before.

Training in one school of formula dao meant cultivating all of the supplemental daos. Cultivators could choose which path they wished to specialize in or stay with formula dao in general.

“You almost make me want to cultivate immortal dao just so I can specialize in formula dao,” Moran Linlang frowned. “I still have the chance to switch to immortal dao before I become a supreme and forge my dao palace. Once I exceed sequence, I won’t be able to switch to another dao.”

“Do you really want to train in immortal dao?” Lu Yun brightened.

“That’ll have to wait until I visit the Land of Reincarnation first and take stock of this immortal dao. I need to see if formula dao is as magical as you say.” Moran Linlang nodded.

The Morans didn’t forbid its members from cultivating the great daos of other factions. For a strong faction, incorporating everything beneath the sun and being all-inclusive was the hallmark of true strength.

Most of them cultivated dark dao because the clan possessed a world of dark dao sequence. Thus, they were stronger when accessing that sequence as opposed to a sequence of rules. Dao sequence and rule sequence were fundamentally the same, but dao sequence was created by living beings and thus more suited for cultivation.

For the dragons and Morans, the appearance of immortal dao sequence meant another viable option. However, they didn’t take it upon themselves to try the new great dao as it was confined to only the Land of Reincarnation for the moment. Even if there were some shoots of immortal dao in the chief worlds, those were just minor starts and inklings—they could be destroyed at any time.

……

The Bloodscorch Lion’s mental coercion lasted for an indeterminate period of time before it slowly quieted down. Several hundred piles of flesh and gore lined the ground in front of it; more hidden cultivators soundlessly retreated from the surroundings.

“Is it our turn now?” Moran Linlang looked at Lu Yun. He called the shots now.

“Not yet.” He materialized a stick of incense with a flip of his hand and lit it. “We take action when this incense burns down.”

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The order of time existed in the World of Soul Dominion, but there was nothing to measure it by. Hence, cultivators in the world couldn’t determine how much time had passed. To that end, Lu Yun brought out the most common method of recording time in ancient China on Earth—incense!

One stick of incense was roughly half an hour. After repeated calculations, Lu Yun confirmed that the rate at which it burned was the same at which it burned on Earth. Thus, sticks of incense could be used to measure time in this world.

As he previously mentioned, the lion suddenly rose when half of the stick was consumed and snarled wildly before quieting down again.

The rest of the stick burned out without incident.