Chapter 858: The True Feather

“In your dream, I used a soybean to summon you to my side and place you under my command, is that it?” Lu Yun asked carefully when he saw the golden-armored man. He could clearly identify the man’s cultivation and strength—divine king!

Amid the hundred million celestial soldiers, their weakest was at the divine king realm. The man in front of him was already peak divine king realm and one step away from entering the empyrean realm.

“Correct!” The golden-armored man nodded heavily. “I am a divine king and stand guard at the center of the cosmos, so I have no need for sleep, nor can I indulge in it. However, I really do dream sometimes.”

While the conversation was going on, Bai Zhaoju looked blankly at Lie Shan. He could distinctly feel that the boy’s energy was now at peak empyrean realm! The human youth was only half a step away from the chaos realm!

How could a little cultivator stymied by a flock of Bi Fang suddenly turn into a master expert of combat arts like this??

“What was your dream like?” Lu Yun took in a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the golden-armored man. He didn’t have attention to spare for Bai Zhaoju.

“We were all dead… dead from battle here and became yin gods of heaven and earth. We either drifted mindlessly through the cosmos, or entered a place called the Green Firmament. As for you… you could awaken our minds with a soybean and bring us to you.”

The muscular man’s gaze at Lu Yun sharpened with urgency. “Is that the future?! Was this domain of space overrun?! Did all life in the great wilderness and stars perish?”

“Yes.” Lu Yun nodded. “In the future, you are all dead. But at the same time, the realm monsters are also no more. They don’t exist in the future.”

A simple grin floated onto the man’s face. “That’s good, that’s very good. As long as there aren’t any realm monsters anymore!”

Lu Yun didn’t find it odd that the golden-armored man could dream of the future. This was someone chosen by the Tome of Life and Death to be a bean soldier. The book seemed to be a divine object that was ever present and could ignore the confines of time.

Bai Zhaoju walked up to them with a dazed expression. “Lie Shan… so you really are from the future… Does this mean Fuxi succeeded?! He successfully went to the future and brought you back??”

Before he received an answer, he slapped his hands over his mouth in horror and promptly destroyed his recollection of the past couple moments. The golden-armored general did so as well.

The implications of this were far too important. The future was something inexplicable and unfathomable for current lifeforms, but Lie Shan was from the future. Everything he knew was incontrovertible and couldn’t be changed. He knew how everything would play out.

Lu Yun was also aware of this and had used a combat art to isolate the vicinity while they were conversing. No one, not even chaos realm powerhouses, would be able to eavesdrop on what was going on here.

Xing Chen was a body of heaven and earth that incorporated the five organs of the world and another three ultimate connate treasures. Though he was just at the empyrean realm, his true battle strength could very likely destroy some of the weaker connate demon gods.

“A great master of combat arts has come. I shall report this to the commander!” Though the golden-armored man had destroyed a strand of his memory, Lu Yun’s identity was apparent. Of that there could be no doubt or modification.

“No need, White Emperor and I will head into the sea of flames.” Lu Yun waved a hand.

“White Emperor?” The soldier looked blankly at Bai Zhaoju.

“In the future!” Bai Zhaoju claimed the title without skipping a beat or change in expression.

“Since a peak empyrean realm master stands by your side, then I will not bar your way any longer. Please proceed!” The golden-armored man took a few steps back.

“Let’s go!” Lu Yun grabbed Bai Zhaoju’s shoulder and sank into the flames.

The fiery ocean consisted of the most terrifying flame in the world—connate li fire. Though Lu Yun didn’t possess any connate fire essence, Xing Chen boasted of the heart of the world. Having been nurtured on the Fire Altar, the energy from the altar wasn’t any bit less than connate fire essence.

Lu Yun called upon the strength of the heart and released a blazing inferno from his body, beating back the li fire around them.

“You traveled to the stars to come back for your strength, didn’t you?” Completely safe by Lu Yun’s side, Bai Zhaoju tsk’ed with amazement.

“Mmhmm.” Lu Yun nodded. “My strength was lost among the cosmos and I successfully found it again after we came here.”

“You’ve regained your power, now I go to obtain mine!” Determination flashed through Bai Zhaoju’s eyes. “Connate li fire burns in this ocean. If I can break free of this elemental bane, then I’ll be able to grasp my own sword dao and break through to the divine king realm!”

“Go on.” Lu Yun waved a hand and dismissed part of the energy from the heart of the world. Bai Zhaoju flashed into the flames as a streak of light.

Lu Yun wasn’t worried about the future White Emperor; he knew that this legendary figure in the making would succeed. Certain things were predestined, though they still required the individual to put in the effort.

Bai Zhaoju’s primary goal was to obtain Taiyi’s true feather, then to temper himself. Retrieving this feather was the mission that Patriarch Rushou of the Jin Clan had set for him.

Lu Yun also made his way to Taiyi’s corpse. He wanted to see what was going on there and just what a real realm monster was. Xuanyuan Xiaoyue, who he’d met before, had been called a realm monster, but she was that in body only. Her spirit remained hers, and she perfectly controlled the realm monster thanks to her steady resolve.

In Lu Yun’s eyes, Xuanyuan Xiaoyue wasn’t a true realm monster, but he had the vague feeling that many things found in the future, such as the akasha ghosts and various oddities about the immortal dao, all had to do with the realm monsters.

Certain things, even in death, continued to have a great impact on the world. For instance, he’d just destroyed a great batch of yin spirits in a black hole, which somehow made the ones in this fiery ocean deeply fearful of him. They scattered whenever he approached, not daring to be near him at all.

He saw Bai Zhaoju pick up a golden-red feather from Taiyi’s body and carefully stow it away into his robes. It’d all happened smoothly without a hitch.

“How dare you take something I’ve set my eyes on!” a furious protest sounded above Taiyi’s body. A pair of hands covered in frost broke through the flames and grabbed at Bai Zhaoju.

“Something you’ve set your eyes on? What the fuck do you think you are?” A furious inferno blazed over Bai Zhaoju and his body was starting to melt from the heat around him, but it was as if he felt nothing at all. The sword in his hand burst forth with a radiant streak of light and fully enveloped him; he then leapt into the air and slashed down on the hand.