Chapter 1794: Temporary Reprieve

Lu Yun was starting to relax his guard about Jiang Chen. The young man had refined the twentieth-level-sequence zombie anew after obtaining it, implementing multiple traps and failsafes. He wanted to use it against the corpse demon, but now he could use it to keep Jiang Chen in line.

Hongjun and Yin Jiuying quickly recovered from most of their injuries and stepped forward, putting Lu Yun behind them. They weren’t planning on helping any of the four battling parties.

“Well well well, aren’t they a wonderful family,” Lu Yun tutted with amazement as he watched the fight. “It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to take out the god of Mount Tai today, or the corpse demon for that matter.”

Hongjun nodded, he was in an extremely foul mood. No one would be happy to find that their closest friend had lied to them, thus resulting in their descendants and disciples being trapped in a foreign land for eternity.

“So you broke free of my control long ago!” the mountain god shouted and furiously beckoned Hadal Bonefire to come forth, briefly separating the combatants from the others.

“You’re not a complete idiot, hmm?” the corpse demon—corpse god giggled. “Would that fool Yin Jiuying be able to see through your plot, if not for me?”

Yin Jiuying’s expression turned ugly. It was true, he would still be in the dark if not for what he’d calculated from the corpse god. He would ultimately be set against Jiang Chen for the mountain god’s benefit.

Gently shaking his head, Shenyu retreated to Lu Yun’s side so he could protect the young man alongside Yin Jiuying and Hongjun. Mo Yi wouldn’t die if Lu Yun remained alive. Shenyu didn’t care about anything else other than that—not corpse dao nor hell dao.

Things were taking a surreal turn for Lu Yun. The scheming didn’t faze him, but rather that Shenyu—one titled as the Runaway King by the Hongmeng Tower—was protecting him! This was someone who always first thought of how to escape, not how to resolve a problem!

His title of the Runaway King was a bit of a joke to begin with. The Hongmeng Tower bestowed titles onto the kings of the third realm and it was Mo Yi’s personal treasure. No matter how Lu Yun looked at it, he felt that the title was something that Mo Yi had personally chosen for Shenyu.

Shenyu’s strength had exceeded sequence long ago. But in the Hongmeng and fourth realm, he, Mo Yi, and the Dao King never violated order to display strength beyond this land.

Not even when Mo Yi died for Lu Yun and the Dao King died for her.

Jiang Chen landed on the ground, his chest heaving for breath. He took a look at the corpse god and then the god of Mount Tai. “The Land of Reincarnation will be fully open in a hundred years. I’ll have you answer for this then!”

A skeletal figure rushed out of the zombie and vanished without a trace. Shenyu’s arrival thoroughly upset the balance of power in the cavern. Not only did he represent himself, but so did he represent the mysterious and powerful Dao King.

The mountain god and corpse god didn’t feel like fighting after Jiang Chen departed. There was no point in continuing the struggle. The corpse god smiled at Lu Yun and melted into the darkness. The god of Mount Tai bestowed a withering look upon Hongjun and Yin Jiuying before he left as well.

In the blink of an eye, there was no other sound echoing in the silent cavern.

“Jiang Chen’s not a complete fool, he didn’t take the zombie with him.” Lu Yun quietly retrieved the zombie that’d been left behind. Someone like Jiang Chen brimmed with plots to the very tips of his eyelashes. It’d take more than Lu Yun’s level of scheming to take him out. He’d chosen to cooperate with Lu Yun when danger stared him in the face because it was self protection. He wouldn’t be able to leave safely otherwise.

“They’ve all left.. so this void should be destroyed as well,” Yin Jiuying said haltingly. He was mulling over the corpse god’s words, that he wouldn’t have seen through the mountain god’s plans if not for the corpse god. Yin Jiuying had been highly pleased with himself before this and thought of himself as a master strategist. The exchange was making him doubt his ability.

“You’re very smart. Anyone else might not have determined the mountain god’s plot even with the corpse god’s body.” Hongjun patted Yin Jiuying on the shoulder. “Muscle-head Pangu would probably still not understand everything even after the corpse god clearly described his plans and laid it all out in a diagram.”

“Yeah.. that’s right!” Yin Jiuying regained some confidence.

“The void here doesn’t need to be destroyed, I can have my hell battleship devour it,” Lu Yun said. “If I’m seeing things correctly, this cavern world is where the god of Mount Tai coalesced his six hells and the locale where he refined the core essence of the one hell. My six hells have reached great perfection and require the final step. Once I refine this void, I’ll be able to combine all six into one hell.”

“Do you dare use something he’s left behind?” Shenyu frowned. “He’s a mammoth trap that will trick anyone he can get his hands on. It may look like that the corpse god has successfully schemed against him, but that’s only because she had no other choice. What creature would prefer to be half themselves and half whatever that was, rather than being fully alive?

“He probably left it here on purpose so you would refine it. He’ll somehow use it to seize your hell dao in the future.”

Lu Yun shook his head. “Not even I fully understand myself, so there shouldn’t be anyone in existence who does. That includes the god of Mount Tai. He doesn’t know what I am, so he can’t take my hell dao.

“The Dao King is one who can possibly kill me, but he can’t take hell dao.”

“You mean the strand of soul force you left with the mistress?” Shenyu grew irate. “She has only one life! My master won’t be able to save her if she sacrifices herself to resurrect you!”

“No,” Lu Yun shook his head again. “That strand of soul force ceased to be that a long time ago. It’s just the power of hell dao now. Mo Yi won’t be able to bring me back to life if I die. She can only use the soul force to retrieve my hell dao and nascent spirit!”

He finally connected everything together through their conversation. Mo Yi was the mountain god’s ultimate goal. He wanted to kill her and take something from her. She’d created Ruina with a wave of her hand in the chief worlds, making Lin Mo its master. There must be an even stronger hell dao on Mo Yi.

The god of Mount Tai hadn’t mentioned Mo Yi from beginning to end. He’d stayed focused on Lu Yun so he could conceal his true motives..

As for why the demon of immortal dao wanted to kill her, he said that was because she was here to end the reincarnation cycles. In actuality, not even Mo Yi knew what she was here for.

Maybe the mountain god’s original goal truly was hell dao. He sought to kill Lu Yun and take the young man’s great dao. However, Lu Yun’s hell dao contained only the six hells. He didn’t have time to refine the Ruina branch and the Firmament Prison.

Perhaps the mountain god would be able to refine both of them once he obtained something from Mo Yi. Lu Yun was his primary goal in this lifetime, but he always made sure to keep Mo Yi in his sights.

Lu Yun even suspected that if the mountain god seized only the six paths, but not Mo Yi’s ability to create Ruina, then the loops would continue. Lu Yun wanted to cut through all those possibilities. As opposed to letting Mo Yi die for him, why not help her reach her goal and cultivate hell dao? Once she mastered it, perhaps she’d be able to resurrect Lu Yun if he died.

The hell battleship erupted with activity and swallowed the void. The Major Cycle Worlds turned into a patch of unending darkness—not the land of darkness, but pure nothing. Three hundred and sixty-five Diexi’s appeared to form the major cycle formation and hold up the gloom.

etvolare's Thoughts

Did Lu Yun really just say the xianxia equivalent of 4D chess lol. "He can't possibly do that because I don't know what I'm doing myself!"