Chapter 2156.1: Heavenly Dao As Master

“Have you really decided?” Motong asked solemnly.

Lu Yun nodded—he had no other choice. Even though he’d built a new world and even if he killed the will of nothing, that would still not fully resolve everything.

Only when he became the heavenly dao could he safeguard the world of immortals!

He didn’t know how the heavenly dao in that world of immortal dao civilization had been murdered, but he knew that he didn’t fight alone. When he returned as the heavenly dao, Qing Yu, the little fox, Pangu, Hongjun, Daoist Yuyu, Fuxi, and the others would all come to him to protect him.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The heavenly dao needed heirs as well.

However, he would lose everything before fully awakening as he underwent the baptism of three thousand reincarnations.

“This is the way left by the mistress,” Motong took a deep breath. It was thanks to everything left by Mo Yi that she was able to break through the will of nothing during this time on the Origin Continent and find herself again.

“Thanks to certain powers that you command through the Tome of Life and Death, the heavenly dao might pass its legacy onto you through other means. But no matter what, you must hold on. Make sure you do not break through ahead of time and find yourself again, no matter the cost!”

Otherwise, the heavenly dao would see the various karmic ties on Lu Yun and treat him as a threat to that world. It would swiftly kill him without second thought!

Lu Yun nodded. “Can I ask… how does Ouyang Du end up?”

That was the only person he cared about in this world. Perhaps his ending had long been written, but Lu Yun still couldn’t help but ask.

Motong sighed heavily. “Ouyang Du… is the Darkness city lord.”

Lu Yun paused, then silently nodded with a smile.

“Then, I shall follow in the mistress’ footsteps. I hope… that you can protect my home.” Tears flowed from Motong’s eyes as the black power of reincarnation blossomed out of her body. She turned into reincarnation and scattered upon the wind, erased from existence. There was only an innocent and kind little girl left in the world—Xiangliu Yunge—one who held endless hopes and dreams for the future.

The power of reincarnation swallowed Lu Yun and turned him into different people again and again. He endured life after life until his core essence was sealed by the three thousand iterations of reincarnation. It sank into a deep sleep and awaited a far off awakening.

When he left, the original Yushi Moli began to recover. The power of reincarnation resurrected him, and he lived out his life as he would’ve before.

……

Waves of incredible pain assaulted Lu Yun’s nerves like the tides. He looked dumbly at the ceiling and didn’t move.

“Where am I? Why does it seem so familiar…” He stared off into space, feeling that something extraordinarily important to him was slipping through his fingers. Deep sorrow bloomed in his heart, but it was quickly swept away by something that couldn’t be explained.

“Ah! You’re awake, young master! I’ll tell milord!” A surprised voice that was mostly filled with disappointment echoed in his ears, followed by a pitter-patter of hurried footsteps.

“Was that Lan’er? Mm, yes, that was my maid Lan’er!” Lu Yun’s mind began to clear up. “So it was all a dream! It was all an absolutely ridiculous dream!”

He shook his head and propped himself up, wanting to shift to a seated position. Pain drummed into his head as he did so and he flopped back onto the bed.

“Oh yeah, I fought Ouyang Shenghe yesterday and he beat me up before I had a chance to hit him…” Still a bit out of sorts, Lu Yun raised his arm with effort and gently patted his head, trying to pat his memories back into order.

BOOM.

The exquisite, yet fragile door to Lu Yun’s meditation chamber split open, raining down as a pile of shards as a tall and muscular figure appeared in front of him. Towering at a little over two meters with broad shoulders and a sculpted back, the figure carried itself with an authoritative bearing. He looked forty years old, but there was an indescribable look in his eyes, one that spoke of witnessing many years.

He was the strongest powerhouse in Darklake Cultivation Empire and Lu Yun’s grandfather—Lu Tianling.

“Ah!!” Lu Yun first paused blankly when his grandfather arrived, then howled with indignity. “Grandfather!! My door was made of rosewood and it cost me ten upper rank spirit stones! Ten upper rank spirit stones!!”

He bounced upright with a surge of strength from somewhere and shook with outrage as he stared at Lu Tianling.

The man froze sheepishly. Although he was the strongest in the empire, he doted on his grandson without limits. Nothing was too much for Lu Yun and the sky was the limit.

But he suddenly recalled something the next second and glared, “Are, are you trying to send me to an early grave?! You only possess seven levels of qi refinement, but you fought Ouyang Shenghe! Have you had too much of life?!”

“Hehe, grandpa, aren’t I just fine?” Lu Yun reached out a shaky hand and rubbed his face with a grin.

“Just fine?!” Lu Tianling snorted explosively. “Do you know that you’ve been in a coma for three months?!”

Lu Yun blinked when he heard “three months” and quieted down. Light sparkled in his eyes as he thought over something.

“Your meridians have been shattered and your dantian broken. You’re not much better than your second uncle now. His Majesty pities you for being the only heir to the Lu Clan and sent us a Nineturns Profound Life Pill. You will recover from all of your wounds if you take it,” Lu Tianling sighed and took out a jade bottle, tossing it onto the bed before he left.

……

Lu Yun stared motionlessly at the jade bottle on his bed.

Lu Tianling was the strongest heavyweight within Darklake Cultivation Empire; he was their battle god. His cultivation was latter nascent spirit and he dominated the lands, intimidating neighboring countries so much that they didn’t dare attack.

Lu Yun was the family's only male heir. At sixteen years old, his potential was stunning and he possessed a constitution perfect for cultivation. Unfortunately, he was by nature lazy, negligent, and good-for-nothing. Instead of focusing on cultivation, he was much more fascinated by affairs in the bedroom and idled on the streets all day to bully others.

In other words, he was a bonafide hooligan, thug, and scoundrel.

Lu Yun’s parents passed away when he was young and he was Lu Tianling’s only grandson. The old master spoiled his grandson to the extreme. While he immensely disliked Lu Yun’s typical behavior, he very rarely reined it in. He chose to overlook what he could and only occasionally lectured a few words.

That served to encourage Lu Yun’s indolence and troublemaking, until he grew into a young man completely out of control.

Three months ago, he ran into the Ouyang young master on the streets of the capital. The Ouyangs were one of the seven greatest families of the capital and Ouyang Shenghe beat Lu Yun within an inch of his life after a verbal altercation. If it wasn’t for the Lu experts arriving in the nick of time, Lu Yun would’ve died in that fight.

As it were, Lu Tianling had to exhaust the family wealth to save a grandson whose meridians were broken and dantian crippled. Even so, Lu Yun spent three months in a coma until he awoke today.

“I’ve been out for three months?” Lu Yun raised his eyes to look at a fearful maid off to the side.

“Yes, yes. Young master’s been unconscious for three months. Today is the last day of the third month…” Lan’er squeaked back.

“Good, good, very good!” Lu Yun nodded with a smile. Lan’er wished she could faint dead away.

“My cultivation has been crippled, my meridians are severed, and my dantian has been shattered, correct?”

“Yes… that is what imperial physician Yuan from the palace said…” Lan’er was almost in tears. This charmingly handsome gentleman who seemed he should be cultured and considerate was anything but with how he treated people. Lan’er was fifteen this year and had served Lu Yun for three years. After three years of being cursed at and hit, she had a bone deep fear of the young master.

“Good, very good, fantastic!” Lu Yun nodded and his smile deepened. “Take this Nineturns Profound Life Pill and give it to your father.”

He picked up the jade bottle and threw it at Lan’er. She froze on the spot after catching it, not knowing what to do.

Has Ouyang Shenghe beaten the young master into an idiot..? Wild thoughts ran through her mind. Her father He Wuhen was once the grand steward of the Lu complex. His cultivation was latter golden core. Someone had shattered his golden core three years ago when he protected Lu Yun and he was crippled forevermore.

The Nineturns Profound Life Pill was divine medicine for wounds. All injuries were immediately healed with it and a crippled cultivation would recover in a short period of time. It was priceless and without a market in Darklake.

“I told you, take it,” Lu Yun said lazily, but Lan’er heard a bizarre note of barely suppressed… joy? in her master’s voice.

Dazed by the turn of events, she left the room clutching the bottle with her hands.

……

“Is it all true?” Lu Yun sank into deep thought.

In the three months that he’d been unconscious, he’d dreamed an enormous dream. In that dream, he experienced three thousand reincarnations and journeyed three thousand worlds. He fully underwent all of the love, hate, joy, and grief to be found in those worlds, as well as a variety of successes and failures.

After three thousand worlds, he came to a strange place and saw a person in white—one who called himself heavenly dao!

Experiencing three thousand reincarnations and traveling through three thousand worlds had all been his work. In that strange place, Lu Yun hailed the heavenly dao as his master and became his disciple!

Lu Yun had believed everything without question when in the dream. Who else would have the ability to send him through three thousand reincarnations in three months, but still ensure that he retained his sense of self if not the mythical and transcendent heavenly dao?

He’d thought it all just a dream when he first awoke, but when he heard the timeframe of three months and his crippled cultivation, he truly believed that everything in the dream was real.

The heavenly dao had reminded him when he left that, “Thou hast slept for three months and thy cultivation ended. When thou awakes, cultivate the ‘Nine Chapters of Dao’. Remember to abstain from any healing pills or medicines, remember that most urgently!”

Lu Yun then returned to reality with a flash of golden light, but he somehow thought that he’d experienced more than three thousand lifetimes. There’d been another, a critical three thousand and one!

But as soon as the thought of a three thousand and one reincarnation rose in his mind, an agitation deep within his heart brewed and suppressed the notion, expunging it.

Lu Yun was still Lu Yun, the sole grandson of the battle god of the Darklake Cultivation Empire.

He wasn’t the Lu Yun from the future, here in this world with a mission.

“The Nine Chapters of Dao? The cultivation method that the heavenly dao practices?” A trace of anticipation rose in his heart. The previous Lu Yun had hated cultivation. He meditated a few times a year only because his grandfather forced him to.

Seventh level qi refinement at sixteen years old was just run of the mill. If it wasn’t for his astounding potential, he would only be third level. Darklake was an empire of cultivators, even the regular people knew how to refine qi. Seven levels of qi refinement was nothing to write home about.

But now, Lu Yun had journeyed three thousand worlds and experienced three thousand lives. Though his core essence didn’t change, his heart and mind were greatly tempered. He was no longer the lackadaisical son of a rich family that he once was, he knew the importance of cultivation.

Thus, he remained curled up in bed and slowly closed his eyes.

Golden light sparkled in and out of sight in his sea of consciousness. Although his cultivation was crippled, his consciousness as a cultivator was still present. When his consciousness touched the golden light, a mental explosion of sound echoed through his mind.