Chapter 2202.1: Life Marches on the Heavens, Faith Collapses

The purge of dissidents was complete when Lu Yun and the others returned to the capital. While the formation over the city was still active, Lu Yun was able to come and go at will since he was the one who’d secretly set it up.

Upon returning home, the gray jiao made for the seed storage zone within the secret vault while Terra Demon took time to adjust his condition. Although the battle had consumed a great deal of resources, they still gained much as both of them were able to fully refine the Hongmeng fruit and recover a bit more from their injuries.

Next time they met someone like Lu Youya, they wouldn’t need the aid of the Nineheavens Brahman Formation. Either Terra Demon or the gray jiao would easily kill such an immortal by themselves.

Lu Yun had broken through to latter nascent soul during the battle and saw his strength increase explosively once again. However, given what he was about to face next, mere latter nascent soul was just a tiny ripple in the vast sea—no matter how heaven-defying he was.

After the breakthrough, he found that something deep in his soul had been made whole again. This process was something that the past him had never experienced, whether in his three thousand lifetimes or the sealed memories. As such, such encounters were incredibly precious to him.

This was the rhythm that all living beings must endure throughout their development, as well as the trend of heavenly dao. It was something that he must understand.

……

“Young master, what should we do about the Ouyang Clan?” Terra Demon came to Lu Yun after a few days of rest and recovery.

“The Ouyang Clan…” Lu Yun mused for a while. “Leave them be for now, they’ll be useful when the time comes.”

Terra Demon nodded.

Ouyang Shengtian was now peak latter nascent soul. Although that wasn’t strong, he would be of vital importance at a critical time. His story about being a wandering immortal who’d possessed the former Ouyang genius? Lu Yun didn’t believe a word of it. He’d played along all this time and pretended to buy into what the Ouyang young master was spinning.

If a wandering immortal could possess another, why would he come to a lowly third rank world of cultivation?

It was far more likely that Ouyang Shengtian had devoured an unlucky wandering cultivator with the help of a powerhouse, thereby obtaining all of the wandering cultivator’s experience and memories. Ouyang Shengtian was still the same as he’d always been.

Lu Yun merely kept up the pretense and outwitted the would-be mastermind. The Ouyang Clan was likewise his tool. His core secrets had never been revealed to them—any that seemed like crucial details were just false intelligence.

He’d taken all of their spirit stones to cut them off at the knees. At the same time, he didn’t think that the Ouyang young master really had brought out all of his family’s spirit stones.

……

Another few days passed, leaving only ten days until the heavenly book’s power vanished from the realm. Lu Yun continued his preparations, reforging the Aureate Bird Cauldron into a lower dao rank treasure.

This was the highest level of treasure he could create at the moment. If word got out that a nascent soul cultivator could refine a lower draw rank treasure, even Great Xia would be up in arms about it.

Dao treasures were exceedingly hard to refine and a dao rank pill cauldron was rare even in Great Xia. If the nascent soul cultivator could manage the feat at his level of cultivation, then forging an immortal rank pill cauldron when he progressed wouldn’t be a difficult task!

Lu Yun threw the treasure to Terra Demon after raising its rank. The latter accepted it with a rueful smile. In the subsequent days, he trained Bloodbath, Lu Xiaochi, Gui Xie, and the others during the day while tirelessly refining pills and medicines at night.

His toils resulted in a successful refinement of a second Hongmeng Fruit within a short period of time. His immortal king nascent soul was further repaired and a hint of the profound meaning of immortal overlord appeared in his body.

Terra Demon was overjoyed, doubly overjoyed! Working for His Grace was always a matter of joy!

Lu Xuan, Wu Zhen, and the rest of the Vermilion Bird returned to the capital. This troop had been fully reformed, with Lu Xuan and Wu Zhen as its respective commander and vice commander. They were both latter nascent soul.

As Lu Xuan practiced the Sword of Slaughter Record, his cultivation had long exceeded the parameters of nascent soul. After a year of tempering, he could overcome even initial soul projection cultivators.

Meanwhile for Wu Zhen, although he was an ordinary latter nascent soul, he was sharp witted and thus served as the Vermilion Bird strategist. Many of his stratagems helped the troop defuse danger after danger.

The rest of the Vermilion Bird’s three hundred and sixty-five soldiers were all latter golden core. Dressed in red battle armor, they were covered in scars and injuries. Killing intent brimmed on their faces—a testament to their great experience.

……

The sparring grounds of the Lu residence.

“Only latter golden core?” Lu Yun frowned at the newly returned Vermilion Birds.

“Young master, there hasn’t been enough time. It is already an incredible feat that many brothers have progressed from foundation establishment to latter golden core.” Ever since Lu Xuan practiced the Sword of Slaughter Record, his aura strode toward perfection. Not only was there a lack of sinister killing intent around him, but his entire person was much more gentle than before.

Such was the highest level of slaughter—a blade hidden within a smile, killing without form.

“That’s not enough,” Lu Yun shook his head. “You cannot participate in what’s to come.”

The soldiers beneath didn’t say anything when they heard the young master’s announcement. Loyalty was deeply etched into their bones. No matter what Lu Yun said, they wouldn’t raise a word of protest. If it wasn’t for the young man, all of them would still be foundation establishment, or even mere qi refinement cultivators.

Apart from the city guards that initially made up the Vermilion Birds, the rest were impoverished citizens that Lu Yun had chosen out of the slums of the northern quadrant.

“Young master…” Lu Xuan was a personal follower since he’d always served Lu Yun. This time, however, he raised an objection. “Young master, the brothers have been training in Barren Mountain for more than a year so they can offer their services…”

“Offer their services?” Lu Yun shook his head. “In what’s to come, you lot don’t even have the right to be cannon fodder.”

That drew a reaction and the men lowered their heads.

“Any singular elite from grandpa’s Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise troops can defeat all of the Vermilion Birds.”

The Lu Yun of old hadn’t understood, but the Lu Yun now was very much aware that the core contingent of Lu Tianling’s three secret armies were all soul separation powerhouses.

Lu Tianling bore great secrets. He hailed from Great Xia and had resided in Darklake Empire for two hundred years. If it wasn’t for Terra Demon detecting something slightly out of the ordinary, even Lu Yun wouldn’t know his grandpa’s full strength.

It was no easy feat to evade the Origin Sect’s dedicated hunt and retreat to a world of cultivation.

“But in the battlefield to come, these three troops do not have the right to be cannon fodder either,” Lu Yun sighed. “Terra Demon and I jointly suppressed a true immortal at Tiger Suppression Pass a few days ago. True immortals are the cannon fodder.”

Lu Xuan, Wu Zhen, and everyone assembled reeled with shock. The young master once reviled as trash, one who looked completely harmless, had killed a true immortal?

Even a soul separation cultivator was a lofty, inviolable being in their eyes, to say nothing of a true immortal. What kind of concept was a true immortal?!

“I say this not to boast about my feats,” Lu Yun chuckled at those gathered below. “I value your potential, not your lives. Dying now means nothing to me. I must have a trump card if I am to reign over the worlds, and that card is you.

“Therefore, my lowest requirement of you is golden immortal!”

Hidden in the shadows, Lu Tianling’s heart shook at this declaration. Golden immortal?!

That was the stuff of legends! It was a level that enabled one to be a titled marquis in Great Xia! That was what Lu Yun expected of them? Golden immortal?

Sharp gasps rang throughout the crowd, but a ball of fire also rose in their hearts. Hadn’t golden core once been a lofty, inviolable being to them? But now, many of them were latter golden core and about to break through to nascent soul.

That unfathomable chasm was easily crossed! So was the distant goal of golden immortal truly so impossible? Their young master had ascended from qi refinement to latter nascent soul in a year!

A wisp of… faith in Lu Yun rose from the Vermilion Birds. As faint as it was, Lu Yun could clearly sense it transmute into endless goodwill that surged into the Seal of the Multitude.

The empty seal began to fill with a strong current of goodwill. It wasn’t much, but it was unending. It would never cease so long as faith did not extinguish. Lu Yun also found that if he was willing, he could lend some of his abilities to those who believed in him.

“I see…” he murmured as he looked at the fervent soldiers beneath him.