Chapter 2176.1: The Malice That Opposes the Heavenly Dao

The black blade raised a remarkable commotion when it crashed into Lu Yun’s fiery whirlwind, but a staggering consequence resulted instead. Curly Mustache’s fine rank weapon turned into a puddle of metallic water within a few breaths.

The man paled to see his treasure ruined.

“You have the balls to set a mid fine rank weapon against Aureate Bird Truefire?” Lu Yun curled his lip dismissively.

The fiery whirlwind was deployed from the fire of the Aureate Bird Cauldron. Also known as Sol Truefire, it was incredibly domineering and completely overpowered a regular fine rank treasure when reinforced by the Hongmeng true qi in Lu Yun’s body.

“Do you submit?” Lu Yun dismissed the whirlwind, leaving only him and Curly Mustache in the air. The others had been swept to the ground—while they were sorely injured, their lives were in no danger.

Right now, Lu Yun lacked people and his own secret forces. Though he vaguely felt that there was no point to him doing so, he still instinctively wanted to protect the Lu Clan. As useless as these bandits were, even trash could be used in Lu Yun’s eyes.

“The gentleman is undeniably strong. Wu Zhen submits.” Curly Mustache didn’t dare do anything else after seeing that his weapon had been destroyed and his men were unable to muster any resistance.

“Talk about your background. What’s a lofty nascent soul powerhouse doing as a bandit in Tiger Suppression Pass?” Lu Yun looked on with interest.

Wu Zhen glanced at the young man, then sighed.

“I was once the patriarch of the Wu Clan in the Skymoon Empire—vassal to the Tainlong Empire. After Tianlong lost to Darklake twenty years ago, rumors somehow circulated that my family colluded with Darklake and sold them intelligence regarding Tianlong, leading to my nation’s loss.

“My clan was exterminated for it and I managed to escape due to my latter golden core cultivation. Since arriving at the pass, I’ve stayed busy accumulating my strength in hopes of obtaining revenge.” Pain filled Wu Zhen’s face when he recounted his past.

The Wu Clan was once the greatest family in the Skymoon Empire, second to only the royal family. Being peak latter golden core, Wu Zhen stood a high chance of breaking through to nascent soul. He would be immensely valued in Tianlong Empire and his family’s standing greatly increased as a result.

Yet now, he’d been reduced to struggling for survival in Tiger Suppression Pass. Though he’d ascended to a nascent soul cultivator like he’d hoped for, he was a bandit.

“In that case, why don’t you throw yourself under Darklake’s banner and borrow them to enact vengeance? Isn’t that better?” Lu Yun asked with a half smile. Although peace reigned in the world, Darklake and Tianlong were irreconcilable rivals who continued to clash in their hinterlands.

“If… I throw myself under Darklake’s banner… I can join the army and have my revenge, but it doesn’t seem likely that Darklake is able to destroy Tianlong.” Dense killing intent suffused Wu Zhen’s eyes.

“You want to destroy Tianlong?” Lu Yun hadn’t thought that a mere nascent soul cultivator would harbor the ambition of destroying a third rank cultivation nation. “That’d be a bit difficult, and Tianlong’s superior nation would never permit you to do so.”

“How do you know if you don’t try?” Wu Zhen looked at Lu Yun and suddenly knelt in the void. “I know the gentleman comes from uncommon origins. If you help me obtain revenge, I will tell you the greatest secret of Tiger Suppression Pass!”

“The secret of Tiger Suppression Pass?” Lu Yun brightened, he was very interested in the local terrain. Not only was there no resentment despite two million souls dying here, but these two hundred bandits had the ability to suddenly appear in the sky.

“Your men are fine, you should help them first.” He waved Wu Zhen off, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

On tenterhooks, Wu Zhen quickly landed and helped his men up. Lu Yun had shown them mercy—if he’d erupted with the full force of Aureate Truefire, all two hundred of them would be dead.

However, the young man was also aware that these bandits were wandering cultivators, versed in only unorthodox tricks and incomplete methods. Their battle strength was weak; he’d have a much harder time if they were geniuses from the various sects or clans.

Wu Zhen tended to all of his men after an hour and gave them pills and medicines to recover. Tiger Suppression Pass was sparse in ambient qi and once a battlefield—few passed through the area. Having made this area their home, the bandits normally operated on the fringes of Profound Wing Empire. They very rarely trespassed into Darklake Empire. Given Lu Yun’s blatant passage through their territory, the bandits naturally wouldn’t let him go free.

After Wu Zhen settled his men, he presented himself to Lu Yun again.

“Out with it, what secrets does Tiger Suppression Pass harbor?” Lu Yun sat lazily on the ground and leaned against a tree.

“So you’ve agreed?” Wu Zhen brightened.

“Tianlong Empire is enemies with my Darklake to begin with. It would be good for Darklake if you can become the emperor,” Lu Yun nodded.

“So you’re from Darklake…” The bottom fell out of Wu Zhen’s stomach when he heard Lu Yun’s response.

“So what if I am?” Lu Yun smiled.

Wu Zhen trembled, thinking back to the young man’s earlier prowess. Lu Yun took out a jade slip from his storage ring and tossed it to the man.

“Imprint your nascent soul in this jade slip and become one of mine. I will take revenge for you then and help you become the Tianlong emperor.”

“A nascent soul jade slip!” Wu Zhen shuddered. Those were only found in high rank cultivation empires. Some factions used them to curtail newly recruited subordinates or enslave people for the mines. Once his nascent soul was branded into the jade slip, it would take a simple thought from his master for him to fly apart into dust.

The jade slip was only applicable to those above nascent soul. Golden core and below didn’t possess such a part of them.

“Ah…” Wu Zhen hesitated.

“What, are you not willing?” Lu Yun sneered. “Either you imprint your nascent soul into the slip, or you die. I have a hundred ways to extract what I want from your memories.”

Wu Zhen wanted to cry, why had he run into such an unreasonable fellow? He had no other choice but to channel his mind into the jade slip.

“Master.” His expression became much more docile after the brand was made.

“Tell me about the secrets here.” Lu Yun put the jade slip back into his storage ring.

Wu Zhen chuckled ruefully. He’d wanted to lure Lu Yun there and use its strength to kill the young man. Who would’ve thought a nascent soul jade talisman would appear to completely knock his plans awry?

On the other hand, how would a wily old fox of three thousand reincarnations fail to see through Wu Zhen’s true intent? Lu Yun wouldn’t have brought out the jade slip had the man truly bent the knee.

“There’s an enormous seed storage at the bottom of Tiger Suppression Pass. Us Thundercloud Bandits live in that seed storage. I found its seed stone by accident when I first arrived at the pass. It’s the key to entering and owning the seed storage.” Wu Zhen was someone who appeared coarse on the outside, but was very shrewd at heart. However, with the nascent soul jade talisman in Lu Yun’s hands, he didn’t dare bring any of his schemes to play. He took out a crystalline structure the size of a fist and gave it to the young man.

“This is the seed stone that you speak of?” Lu Yun blinked at the object.

A seed stone was the heart of a seed storage—to possess it meant owning the entire storage. One had complete flexibility in movement—no wonder Wu Zhen was unwilling to swear fealty to Darklake and preferred to secretly expand his forces here.

“Correct, that is the seed stone. But for some reason, I’ve been unable to refine it no matter how I tried.” Wu Zhen smiled ruefully. If he had full control over the seed stone, he would’ve darted back into the seed storage instead of bowing his head to Lu Yun.

“This isn’t a seed stone,” Lu Yun shook his head. “Not even immortals would be able to refine this, to say nothing of you.”

“What…” Wu Zhen gaped.

“This is the key to a cross ark.” Lu Yun toyed with the crystalline stone, immensely surprised. “The cross ark is a wondroud weapon of Great Xia. What’s it doing here? Or is it…”

“The cross ark?” Wu Zhen asked blankly.

“The cross ark is a weapon of a cultivation dynasty. It’s not a treasure, but something greater,” Lu Yun explained patiently. “There’s an enormous section inside that can contain tens of thousands of cultivators. This crystal is the key to entering it.”

The cross ark itself wasn’t a treasure. The key was one with the ark, which meant that it naturally couldn’t be refined. And… Lu Yun’s eye twitched. There seemed to be something like the cross ark in his sealed memories, but he couldn’t remember exactly what.

He was a bit lost as he didn’t know what was in the sealed memories, only that he wasn’t willing to remember them. He instinctively suppressed them by force of habit, but certain things in this world constantly tugged at him, making him remember despite himself.

Of one thing he was certain, and that was the memories were not of this world or possibly even of this space and time. The dao character in his dantian shook, calming his mind and stilling the stirring memories.

Lu Yun suddenly understood many things.

He’d wanted to seal the memories and the heavenly dao was helping him, but something tirelessly tried to call them back. That thing was full of malice toward Lu Yun.

“No wonder this seed storage looks so strange and is filled with formations. So it’s not a seed storage at all,” Wu Zhen smiled ruefully.

“You wanted to borrow the restrictions and formations inside the cross ark to kill me, didn’t you?” Lu Yun smirked.