Chapter 1843: One Hundred Million

“That’s more like it!” Lu Yun barked with laughter and accepted ten million enigma stones. He clapped the man’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about anymore. I got your back.”

Fear rose from the hearts of the assembly and slowly permeated the atmosphere. What if the devious brute targeted them on the next stop of his protection racket? While twenty-ninth level, thirtieth level sequence cultivators could afford ten million enigma stones, it was an astronomical figure nonetheless!

Apart from a general air of apprehension, malicious impulse also brewed in many hearts. That oaf would die as soon as the spatial tide passed!

They were fish on the chopping block at the moment because none of them dared to use their great dao. But once the spatial tide was over and they could call upon their full strength, everyone would take him to task for his brazenness!

Of course, no one was fool enough to blurt out an actual threat. That would just be courting death—there were no idiots here.

Lu Yun naturally noticed the malevolence rising from the crowd, but he didn’t care at all. Enigma stones were wonderful items and the quality of the ones in the chief worlds was superior to the ones in the fourth realm. Since the worlds of the fourth realm were flawed, production from the enigma stone veins there were flawed to a certain degree as well. Thus, they were less than their counterparts in the chief worlds.

Enigma stones from the chief worlds were extremely popular in the fourth realm. One standard piece of stone from the outside realm could be traded for two or three standard pieces of fourth realm stones.

Enigma stones were formed out of the power of heaven and earth, and thus affected by the presence of order. Whether in the fourth realm or chief worlds, each enigma stone manifested with the same size and same potency of energy.

The only difference was that the ones of the fourth realm reflected the flaws of their worlds.

At the same time, energy within the enigma stones constantly repaired the worlds in the Land of Reincarnation and moved the latter down the path of becoming whole again. Once the worlds were fixed, so would the enigma stones be flawless. It was a complementary relationship, but the process was too slow.

The orders of the fourth realm were supported and made whole by the world of immortal dao sequence, but the worlds themselves required a much more ponderous process. One way to speed it up would be to meld the seed of nothing into the worlds, but it was also still developing.

Lu Yun had tried to plant enigma stone veins into the world of the Tome of Life and Death, but the world’s power destroyed a vein as soon as it entered and expelled it as dust.

Mystified, Lu Yun asked Leize why that’d happened. The dragon who’d once entered the inner world of the treasure responded that the world was too sophisticated and the energy within the stones too inferior. The world had viewed the enigma stones as trash and expunged them accordingly.

Lu Yun had sat in a stunned daze for a long time after that.

“I wouldn’t need to go to all this trouble if bloody Lu Feng was willing to give me enigma stones. He just needs to donate half of his personal wealth to make the worlds whole again,” Lu Yun grumbled as he robbed—accepted protection fees from the cultivators present. There were so many people here, but the spatial tide lasted long enough for him to go about his business.

He showed them no mercy. In the vast seas of great daos, everyone was a dao thief. Only when one fought and took would one find their place on the path of dao.

Reality was harsh, so he didn’t mind letting others witness how cruel he could be.

It took less than half a year for Lu Yun’s pockets to be flush with a few hundred billion enigma stones. He hit up at least thirty thousand people during this time and also noticed something strange developing.

Some greed had appeared amid the miasma of malice and bloodlust.

A few hundred billion enigma stones was enough to make any cultivator go mad. Even some of the poorer supremes would be willing to take action for that sum.

“Only a few hundred billion? Not enough! More, more!” Lu Yun picked up the pace when he sensed the spatial tide weakening.

After another three months, he counted one hundred thousand people among his victims. He’d reaped more than one trillion enigma stones and inspired quite a few copycats along the way. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t measure up to the sinister brute.

Since Lu Yun cultivated hell dao, hell itself was his support and his body had been forged in the fires of hell. Bolstered by the Karmic Tree, he was second to none beneath supreme. Even Xie Tianxun, the Spacetime King, Ao Qin, and the like were hard pressed to match the robustness of his body.

“Hahahaha, thank you all for your protection fees, I go now! Farewell, let’s never meet again!” Lu Yun threw his head back with laughter after collecting so many enigma stones and pushed off his feet, firing himself forward like a cannonball and propelling himself out of here.

Bam!

He smashed headfirst into an invisible wall and bounced back, almost crashing into a spatial tear.

“What??” His jaw dropped.

“Idiot,” Liang Ruyue curled her lip. “Do you think we came here ahead of time to admire the view?”

The surroundings were sealed off once the spatial tide started and turned into a domain of absolute space that allowed neither entrance nor egress. It was a domain that not even supremes could break.

That was why Lu Yun had seen so many people in such a hurry on his way to the Firmament Prison. They wanted to arrive before the spatial tide began so they could occupy an advantageous spot.

While he’d made his investigations before arriving, he’d overlooked this detail. All he knew was that spatial tides existed, but he didn’t look into them in great detail as it wasn’t time for one to take place.

The unexpected occurrence of a tide ahead of time meant there was less than half of the usual number assembled. This spatial tide had simply occurred too suddenly.

....

“Err, folks. Is it too late for me to return the stones to you?” Lu Yun asked dumbly.

No one answered him; cultivators sat down in their chosen spot. No one so much as looked at him while they waited for the spatial tide to recede. They hadn’t spoken before because they were afraid of provoking the oaf into a massive slaughter. Now that the tide was beginning to die down, they continued to remain quiet so their emotions could brew. Their fury would explode the second the tide was over!

One trillion enigma stones was enough to compel action from everyone, even those who hadn’t been extorted.

When the last black ripple vanished, a massive buildup of emotion exploded like a volcano.

“How dare you solicit a protection fee from your daddy?! DIE!!” came an immediate roar as someone threw themselves at Lu Yun.