Chapter 771: Sword, River, Fire, Tree

“Only one of the four great treasures remains free from contamination... and it’s the sword I saw just now?” Lu Yun asked reflexively.

“That’s right!” Ashu nodded. “If my guess is right, the corpsefire we saw earlier should belong to the great one buried in the ancient tomb of Crimson Province. It’s on the same level as the Dusk River, but it’s turned into corpsefire after its corruption.”

Lu Yun shuddered and heaved a mental sigh of relief.

The corpsefire outside the Heaven Locus Marsh wasn’t the main body of the corpsefire—it was just a bit of energy that’d leaked out. Though Lu Yun’s hellfire could counter dead things, he wasn’t strong enough to fight off the main entity of fire given his current strength.

More importantly, someone else was controlling the fire.

“The sword beneath us is being corrupted by the extreme yin in the Dusk River. Once it’s fully tainted, we’ll be dead without a doubt!” Large beads of cold sweat dotted Ashu’s forehead and he looked a little pale.

“How do you know all this?” suddenly asked the Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign. “You were a holy lord of the underworld, yes, but you weren’t a holy king. At your age, you shouldn’t know these secrets.”

Ashu swept a glance at the demon sovereign and continued in a whisper, “What I know has to do with the secrets of the underworld, but since Lu Yun’s replica is the fourth holy king, he has the right to know these things.

“Holy King Atrophy wanted to bring me back because he was also afraid that I would tell others about these secrets…”

“Wait, this has to do with your underworld. I’m willing to follow Lu Yun, but I don’t want to become one of the underworld’s!” The demon sovereign quickly sealed off his senses and consciousness when he saw that Ashu was about to spill the beans.

Though Lu Yun’s replica was a holy king of the underworld, Lu Yun himself was the headmaster of the Dao Academy. These were two entirely different concepts! The demon sovereign was willing to follow Lu Yun, but he sure as heck wasn’t willing to follow Holy King Xing Chen!

Ashu shrugged and continued, “There’s a large mountain in the underworld that’s been our holy mountain since time immemorial. Anyone who stands upon it can peer into the river of time and see what’s happened in the past.”

Lu Yun blinked. “Interesting… Can you see what happened in the world of immortals a hundred thousand years ago?”

“Yes.” Ashu nodded. “There was once a holy lord who almost became a holy king. He stood on the mountain and observed the events of a hundred thousand years ago. He was taken away by akasha ghosts not long after that.”

“Then did he see the truth of what happened?” Lu Yun pressed.

“I don’t know.” Ashu shook his head. “He became reticent and refused to say a word after his experience, and then the akasha ghosts took him away in front of everyone.”

“Did the holy kings not do anything about that?”

“No. Many of them died in the great war a hundred thousand years ago, leaving only three to protect the underworld. Therefore, the great war became a taboo topic for them.” Ashu seemed to see through Lu Yun’s thoughts. “The holy kings have never set foot on the holy mountain, neither have they looked into the river of time from it. Only bored holy lords like us will stand there and look into the past to kill some time.”

He seemed to be just chit chatting randomly, but it was a clear message to Lu Yun that no holy king had ever climbed the mountain. It was restricted grounds for them.

Lu Yun didn’t respond until he suddenly shouted, “Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign, use the Skyturning Seal to destroy that vortex!”

He brought out the Sugato Sword at the same time and summoned curtains of blue light to protect his body. When Xuanxi saw this, she quickly put away her divine decree and landed beside her master.

The demon sovereign was still in an insensate state, but Lu Yun used the power of the Tome of Life and Death to punch through his seals. Upon hearing the instruction, he swiftly threw the seal at the enormous vortex.

Booooooom!

The vortex disintegrated in a mighty cascade of water and a patch was cleared out of the Dusk River as well. A short, pitch-black blade emerged from the center of the waters, stuck firmly into the air over the center of the river.

Crescents of sword qi whistled around the blade, forming whirling tops of death around the treasure. They spun into the Dusk River, churning the monsters there into pieces and reducing them to yin energy. The energy then traveled up the gyrating sword qi to be swallowed by the blade that sparkled with black light and was as thin as gossamer wings.

The black light deepened further the more the shortsword swallowed from the river.

“When the black light fully shrouds the shortsword and turns it into light as well… that’s when it’ll have been completely corrupted,” murmured Ashu as he looked upon the scene. “Yin energy transforming a sword that was refined from the essence of metal… It’ll be turned into light, a conversion of matter itself, like when Lu Yun used rocks and grass to form pills.”

“Using yin energy to transform a sword made from the essence of metal?” About to destroy the layout in front of them, Lu Yun cut himself off mid gesture. “I happen to lack a handy sword. Violetgrave is suppressing the World Gates, so she’s preoccupied. The Sugato Sword eats an ocean’s worth of immortal crystals every time I use it… This hiltless sword in the river is perfect!

“Ge Long.” Lu Yun suddenly sent his thoughts into hell as a projection and manifested in front of the old servant.

“Sir!” Ge Long hastily scrambled to his feet.

“Can I pick up the sword?”

“Yes!” came the strong affirmative and blind faith in Lu Yun. “The kingdom of hell has taken shape and you are its master. As the wielder of the Tome of Life and Death, there is nothing in the world that you cannot pick up!”

Lu Yun cracked an awkward smile. “I mean… will I attract any karmic repercussions if I pick it up?”

“Oh, no.” Ge Long shook his head. “Its owner is dead and scattered to the four winds. This sword is just being used by someone else at the moment. You can pick up the sword, sir. No one will dare make any trouble for you with this old servant around!”

He had even greater faith in himself.

“This old servant will now etch a sword formation in your consciousness. With this formation, sir, you will be able to subdue that sword.” Ge Long took a deep breath and sent a tremor through the four coffins far away in another part of hell. The four sword souls came rushing out and approached the two of them.

“Hold on,” Lu Yun interrupted the old servant’s actions. “The great treasure of the Dusk tomb owner is the Dusk River, corpsefire belongs to the Crimson tomb owner. If the sword is the possession of the Argent tomb owner… then what about the Azure tomb owner? What was their treasure?”

He’d once visited that tomb and sealed it with his own hands. There was a river flowing from it into the East Sea that was very similar to the Dusk River, but it wasn’t the same. That one had just been a river of pure corpsewater.

Ashu had spoken of three great treasures just now, but hadn’t mentioned the one for the Azure tomb.

“You’ve already seen that treasure, sir, in the Skandha Range,” Ge Long replied after thinking for a moment.

“The Skandha Range? The desolate willow? No, not that, but… the zombie tree?!” That was the only thing that came to mind when he thought about ultimate treasures.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Qing Yu’s fifth brother Qing Hongchen had died to that tree, which Lu Yun and Qing Yu had later destroyed with the three immortal fires when they actually blundered into it. Beneath the tree lay the Sal Tree of Life and Death, a divine tree that’d once supported hell, and an Azure Dragon King that’d intertwined with the Sal Tree.

“I… destroyed the treasure??” Lu Yun blinked.

“No, that tree is exceedingly strong and even greater after being corrupted. It is strong to the extreme due to this taint. Even the Ancient Tree of Life and the Fusang Purewood of the ten great spirit roots are far inferior to it.”

Ge Long shook his head. “The three immortal flames destroyed the zombie tree because the Sal Tree of Life and Death had taken its core essence and weakened it beyond measure. With the departure of the Sal Tree, the treasure should’ve already rebuilt the tomb realm and slowly recovered its previous strength.

“As for the tree’s spirit… it entered the underworld during an ancient age and became a mausoleum keeper.”