Chapter 2228.1: Return

The seven empyrean immortals were from Great Xia rather than bumpkins from worlds of cultivation. Their combined strength was sufficient to end worlds and shatter the heavens.

The void rumbled as seven rays of multicolored sword light shot toward Lu Yun from seven different directions. They pierced him through and shredded him to pieces.

He reappears in another direction and hacked one of the immortals into two.

“Kill!”

“Kill!” Two figures shot out of the formation array—one the color of blood and the other stark white. They screamed with overpowering killing intent as they rushed the remaining six empyrean immortals.

When they heard their young master’s roar, Bloodbath and Gui Xie extracted themselves with the fastest speed possible and joined the fray. Two rays of light replete with towering killing intent blasted into the two nearest immortals.

The Cosmic Flag had evolved into a paramount dao rank weapon in Gui Xie’s hands. Endless starlight gathered to him and condensed into something nearly tangible, corralling an empyrean immortal in front of him.

BAM!!

Gui Xie punched through the immortal and crushed his opponent’s immortal soul to pieces, leaving a trail of stark-white light in his wake. Everyone was caught off guard by how quickly he killed a Great Xia empyrean immortal!

A massive flag appeared in Bloodbath’s hands as well. It flared with a bloody light and cracked threateningly in the wind—it was a third rank immortal weapon. Bloody light surged and roiled, catching an empyrean immortal off guard and slicing him to pieces.

Immortals Forbidden burst with radiance and swiftly cut down another two empyrean immortals. Lu Yun’s strength had more than doubled after he refined the world of true water. He was also newly ascended to latter soul separation. Although the empyrean immortals were from Great Xia, they were just ordinary immortals at the end of the day. He didn’t need to expend much effort to kill them.

After Bloodbath and Gui Xie swiftly took out their first opponent, they attacked a third together. Another burst of radiance from Lu Yun’s sword took out a fourth.

The trio obliterated all seven empyrean immortals within the blink of an eye. Ponderous goodwill brewed in the void and surged into the Seal of the Multitude from all directions. There was gratitude to Lu Yun and also veneration for how a cultivator had killed empyrean immortals. All sorts of goodwill streamed to him.

“You go too far!” One of the empyrean immortals sitting at the entrance to the array opened their eyes. The one yelling at him was a female immortal that Lu Yun remembered. She was the one who’d warned him before he entered the array.

“Too far?” He regarded her with a cold look. “Do these immortals not go too far in using their cultivation as a club to bully and loot from cultivators?”

“The weak are food for the strong. Dying is only reasonable,” said a middle-aged man next to the female immortal.

“Then why have I gone too far?” Lu Yun sneered.

“Ah…” She had no response to that.

“Cultivators are as if ants, how can they compare to immortals?!” continued the man.

“Very well!” Lu Yun threw his head back with laughter. “So cultivators are as if ants and cannot compare to immortals! I’d like to see for myself today just who is an ant! You are the ants in my eyes.”

He raised Immortals Forbidden to the sky and commanded a burst of magnificent sword light three thousand meters tall.

“Any foreign immortal present within five hundred kilometers of the array after twenty minutes will be given no quarter! Any who can be found within Jade Ruins Realm after a day will be shown no mercy! Do you hear that, Terra Demon?”

“Understood!” came a ruthless answer in the void.

“That includes the three of you.” A cold light glinted in Lu Yun’s eyes as he looked at the three empyrean immortals.

“We three protect the formation array by the orders of the Human Emperor,” said the last of the three—a young man.

“The Human Emperor’s orders are not needed in Jade Ruins Realm,” Lu Yun snorted.

“Are you… do you want to rebel?!” glared the female immortal.

“You are not the judges of that,” Lu Yun curled his lip. “Gui Xie, escort the cultivators at the entrance out of the array. Forget about the others inside. It’s their destiny if they die there and their fate if they make it out.”

“Understood.” Gui Xie was finally witnessing his young master’s temper. The young man didn’t think about the consequences at all when he lost his temper!

“You…” The young empyrean immortal’s expression twisted, but he shuddered when he thought of the answering shout from the void earlier. That had been at least a golden immortal!

“Piss off,” Lu Yun commanded from the air.

Goodwill reared like waves and crashed upon him. He wielded Immortals Forbidden while the wind tugged at his hair and white robes. Three empyrean immortals standing at the head of two hundred of their kind stood in front of him.

Facing off two hundred empyrean immortals with the strength of one… The scene indelibly etched itself into countless cultivators’ minds.

“We will die before violating His Majesty’s command!” The female immortal set her jaw.

Instead of responding, Lu Yun waved a brazier into existence next to him. Half of an incense stick burned slowly in it, green smoke curling around the object.

The cultivators who’d been forced back into the formation array gaped when Gui Xie led them out. Another overwhelming burst of goodwill broke through the air and smashed into the Seal of Multitude.

Lu Yun didn’t care about this; he wasn’t undertaking these actions for goodwill this time. Someone needed to speak up on behalf of Jade Ruins Realm.

The Human Emperor of Great Xia? He’d never respected that man.

“Who is this young man? When did such a young powerhouse appear in our world??”

“What a pity that he hasn’t given enough thought to the consequences. He won’t live much longer after defying the Human Emperor…”

“It’s definitely a pity. Maybe he reached these heights because of certain opportunities he found inside.”

“But if it was me, I would never stand up to these immortals for the sake of these cultivators…”

Some found their footing and relaxed enough to carry conversations on the ground. Opinions varied about Lu Yun, but the young man hardly cared about what they thought.

I, Lu Yun, repay all my favors and enact vengeance for all slights! I follow my heart and do whatever I want, kill whoever I want! Would I truly be me if I was preoccupied by too many concerns?

All Lu Yun needed to do was to be himself. He was the heavenly dao.

When mind and heart were one, Lu Yun felt his cultivation take another step forward to combination stage. There was one final piece of paper left between he broke through.

Time passed until the stick of incense burned nearly all the way down. All of the immortals were still present, fixing glares of death on the young man. If they were scared off by a native in a world of cultivation, it would become an eternal internal demon and their cultivation would never take another step forward.

The humiliation would remain even if they eventually killed the young man with their bare hands.

“There’s one of him and two hundred of us. Let’s kill him together!” One of the empyrean immortals could no longer bear the atmosphere and unsheathed his weapon against Lu Yun. The brazier was the first casualty and shattered to pieces. The almost extinguished stick of incense also flew apart into dust.

His actions were a catalyst that caused all of the other immortals to bring out their treasures as well. They blasted Lu Yun with their strongest strength.

No one noticed a small ripple appear over the formation array. The three empyrean immortals here by the Human Emperor’s order vanished soundlessly into the ripple.

“Kill!” Undaunted, Lu Yun remained unmoving in the void. Gui Xie and Bloodbath respectively waved the Cosmic Flag and Asura Flag by his side. Fully unfurled, the two flags summoned bloody light and starlight to fill the void.

It was at this moment that the air abruptly froze. The two hundred immortals and even some true immortals hidden among them were as if flies caught in amber. Their attacks screeched to a halt and petered out.

A massive hand probed out of the void and pressed down on all of their heads.

Horrified and panic-stricken, some struggled and wanted to run. Others wanted to shriek with fear, but couldn’t find the words to. They could only watch the hand descend upon them.

That part of the void vanished along with the immortals, leaving a mass of trembling cultivators on the ground below. They stared blankly at the air, at where two hundred domineering immortals had just died without a trace. There weren’t even bone shards left of them.

“Young master, what do we do with these things?” Terra Demon appeared in the air with two hundred storage rings.

Lu Yun flicked a glance at them and chose five, then emptied out the rest.

“You guys can have them,” he sighed as he looked at the cultivators below. Most of them had made it out of the place of burial, but the immortals had robbed them of their findings.

Quite a few had been unwilling to accept this outcome and wanted to reenter the formation array after the immortals left. However, the current situation inside was that of teeming masses of vicious spirits. They would more than likely die if they tried again.

Lu Yun decided to distribute the contents of these rings among them partially because he didn’t think much of the treasures, pills, and spirit crystals inside. The storage rings he claimed contained immortal swords of fire, water, and wood attributes. Immortal swords were the best tool for him to deploy the Reincarnation of the Five Elements, but low level swords were destroyed as soon as they were used.

Thus, Lu Yun needed to prepare multiple low level immortal swords for future battle.

No one touched the largesse at first. But after a few intrepid cultivators took the first couple of items, the crowd no longer hesitated.