Chapter 2202.2: Life Marches on the Heavens, Faith Collapses

In a previous lifetime, when he was the High Lord of the Northern Sky, Lu Yun likewise oversaw a large group of immortals who believed in him. However, that faith had been completely useless. It could at most build a line of communication and enable him to bestow combat arts unto his followers for cultivation.

Yet with the Seal of the Multitude as the medium, Lu Yun could lend part of his combat arts to the soldiers. Of course, they were so weak on the soldiers that they were essentially negligible—it made no difference if the men used one or not.

But once Lu Yun became an immortal, then the combat arts he could lend would be formidable indeed. The more pious his followers’ faith was, the stronger the combat arts would be.

Goodwill transformed from faith seemed to have more uses than just enhancing cultivation. Even the strength of combat arts was enhanced. That meant to say that combat arts deployed through goodwill were several times more powerful than they usually were.

After reaching latter nascent soul, some of the secrets within the Nine Chapters of Dao and the Seal of the Multitude revealed themselves to Lu Yun.

This was just one kind of usage for goodwill. For the moment, he primarily used it to consolidate his cultivation of latter nascent soul. A certain enlightenment dawned at this time. When living beings practiced immortal dao, they believed in the heavenly dao!

Did the heavenly dao need to collect faith and maintain itself through belief?

He suddenly had an answer to something that’d puzzled him for quite some time—how the heavenly dao had broken.

When life marched on the heavens, their faith collapsed and so the heavenly dao broke.

Four hours later, Wu Zhen and Lu Xuan left the capital with some pills and other supplies. They vanished amid the vast world of cultivation. Lu Yun didn’t care when they came back since they wouldn’t be of any help in the short term.

……

Lu Yun relaxed on a reclining chair in his yard and leisurely drank tea. He took in the afternoon sun and teased Lan’er, prompting giggles out of her.

Bam!

His front door exploded into a pile of shards as Kong Mengqian rushed in, dressed in a black men’s outfit.

“Master master! I’ve successfully refined the first restriction on the bamboo!” Her cheeks were flushed red with excitement as she ran up to Lu Yun like she was presenting a treasure.

Lu Yun looked wordlessly at his front door. Why was his disciple the same as his grandfather? Couldn’t these noble beings lower themselves to gently push the door open?

Lu Tianling had kicked in more doors than could be counted, and ever since Kong Mengqian moved in, the doors of Lu Yun’s house were essentially swapped out everyday.

“So you’ve refined the first restriction?” He rose from the chair and calmly regarded the excited girl.

“Yep yep, I did it I did it!” Kong Mengqian’s blush was so bright that Lan’er covered her mouth as she giggled. The two girls were of similar age, so they became quick friends after Kong Mengqian moved in.

Lu Yun had also taken time to help Lan’er reach latter foundation establishment; she was only one step away from forming her core. She was gentle by nature and disliked conflict, so Lu Yun didn’t drill her like he did the Vermilion Birds. Otherwise, she would’ve coalesced her core long ago.

“And what have you gained from it?” Lu Yun cracked the Eye of Nullification open to scan the girl, noting that her true origin had taken on a hint of emerald from the bamboo.

“Gained?” Kong Mengqian blinked. All she had in mind was how to cook spirit cuisine like Lu Yun and the Nine Forms of the Cloud Dragon. Hence, she’d charged over as soon as she’d succeeded with the first restriction.

Lu Yun shook his head. While his disciple was latter soul separation and immensely strong, she was only fifteen years old at the end of the day. She lacked some tempering of the heart and mind.

Kong Mengqian frowned slightly and composed herself. She closed her eyes and scanned her body. Her master watched silently without saying a word.

“The Azure Emperor Chapter of Inception?” Kong Mengqian opened her eyes with astonishment.

“Oho, this method, is it?” Lu Yun responded with a smile.

“Um, this, ah…” She couldn’t understand why a new cultivation method had appeared in her mind after she refined that exceedingly ordinary bamboo. She fully understood the method after reading over its outline, but such high level cultivation methods couldn’t be found even in her home.

“This will be what you practice in the future and you can teach it to family if you wish, but they must join the sect first.” Lu Yun winked at the girl.

He was correct as he was able to practice the Nine Chapters of Dao because the heavenly dao had planted a dao mark in his body. In the same vein, those who wished to practice the Azure Emperor Chapter of Inception needed to refine the stick of bamboo first.

However, since Sky had gifted the bamboo to Kong Mengqian, that meant only those who obtained the recognition of the heavenly dao would be able to refine it.

“No!” Kong Mengqian shook her head as fast as she could. “Those people looked down on me when I was at home, saying that I was derelict in duty and focused on irrelevant business, that I impeded my proper cultivation! Now that I have this method, I’m going to reach a certain proficiency first before I go back and slap their faces!”

Kong Mengqian waved her fists in front of Lu Yun.

“Besides… can I teach this to others even if I wanted to?” She looked at Lu Yun with a strange expression, having seen hints of something after refining the bamboo.

“You can’t, it can only be done with the sect’s approval,” he cackled in response. “So practice well! Your future is limitless after obtaining me as your master.”

“Master…” Kong Mengqian pouted. “You said that you’d teach me something if I refined one of the restrictions.”

“This is a jade slip for the Nine Forms of the Cloud Dragon. Go back and practice it.” Lu Yun took out a jade slip from his storage ring and tossed it to the girl. Delighted, she quickly caught it and scanned it with her consciousness.

“As for the method to cook spirit cuisine, that requires the accumulation of various experience. Focus on cultivation for now. When your level is high enough, I will teach you how to cook spirit cuisine such that you can draw multiple inferences from one fact,” Lu Yun chuckled.

“Okay!” Kong Mengqian nodded emphatically and left the yard, hugging the jade slip to herself. Only now did she feel that Lu Yun was her master. He was hardly an ordinary person if he could easily give away heaven-defying methods like the Azure Emperor Chapter of Inception! Additionally, she’d asked around regarding the Lu young master after settling in at the Lu residence.

He’d been a seventh level qi refinement prodigal one year ago, but was now latter nascent soul. It’d only been a year!

It would be an astonishing feat even where she was from, not to mention that this had taken place in a low level cultivation world with sparse qi. It was akin to a tale from mythology! To many, the worlds of cultivation were nothing more than discarded worlds.

Lu Yun sighed when Kong Mengqian left, then directed the servants to find a new door and repair his house’s front doors.

……

Time passed day by day; Terra Demon noticed the rules hovering over his head gradually lessening until they fully vanished. The second they did, he fully retracted the strength that he used to cut through the heavenly book’s power. It took only a few moments for his strength to rise by another thirty percent.

“Is it finally gone?” murmured Lu Yun as he looked at the sky.

“The Origin Sect must have noticed that I killed their true immortal, how will they respond?”

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The sect wouldn’t dare act too openly since Great Xia’s laws were still in place. A mere Marquis Origin was not the final authority in the immortal dynasty, nor would the chief law enforcer of Great Xia permit the sect to act as wantonly as it would in the worlds of cultivation.

Therefore, the sect would find an excuse to take action.

“Brother Lu, those from Dark Orchid are here.” Ouyang Shengtian rushed to the Lu residence as soon as the heavenly book’s power vanished.

“Oh?” Lu Yun raised an eyebrow.

Ouyang brothers Ouyang Shengmu and Ouyang Shenghe had reached initial nascent soul. Meanwhile, Ouyang Shengxiang had broken through the constraints of a connate fragrance constitution and advanced rapidly after establishing her foundation. She was now latter nascent soul.

A connate fragrance constitution was a rare and precious constitution even in Great Xia, but the holder’s cultivation speed prior to foundation establishment was much too slow. With Ouyang Shengtian claiming to be possessed by a wandering immortal, it didn’t appear out of the ordinary that the Ouyang siblings progressed so rapidly.

“Prince Sui’s grandson, Sui Ge, is here to welcome my younger sister to Dark Orchid. They will hold their wedding upon their return,” Ouyang Shengtian chuckled ruefully.

“Sui Ge?” Lu Yun blinked. “Isn’t Ouyang Shengxiang betrothed to the Dark Orchid crown prince? So why isn’t Crown Prince Wang Song here?”

“Um…?” Ouyang Shengtian hesitated. “It’s actually Sui Ge who will marry my sister, not Wang Song.”

“Huh?” Lu Yun started. “So… Prince Sui intends to mount a coup?”

“Um…” Ouyang Shengtian’s expression froze.