Chapter 1971 – Humans

The tree was a trap, a gigantic net. There was another trap inside—the hole around the fruit. If it wasn’t for Lu Yun observing the death information left behind by grand supremes who’d died in the hole, he wouldn’t identify anything wrong with it either.

The giants were hardly as simple as they seemed.

It was eerily quiet here. Nothing out of the ordinary had taken place apart from the hole swallowing ten grand supremes. Even so, Lu Yun didn’t dare relax his guard. Shapeshifting and Size Manipulation operated at full strength and he kept a firm grip on his emotions. He wouldn’t pluck that fruit, no matter how things appeared.

His eyes told him that the fruit was a vibrant green, but it was actually one of black and white. Being named as it was, the Tome of Life and Death possessed the power of life and death and was the foundation of reincarnation.

It was a similar relationship to the one between order, sequence, and the worlds. The worlds were the final form of order, something that exceeded sequence.

At the same time, the same applied to the Land of Reincarnation. It transcended life and death and was no longer constrained by it. The first formation of power in the Tome of Life and Death was that of life and death. As long as one possessed that power, one could continuously nurture reincarnation.

The fruit in front of him was very useful to him. Apart from activating the withered wood so that it could revive the peak grand supreme, it might also tap into other marvelous uses of the book.

Lu Yun was willing to hand over the withered wood because this tree was its origin point. He could facilitate a complete order of life appear in the chief worlds again. But that fruit? It had his name on it.

This was an instinctive desire from the bottom of his heart. He wanted that fruit of life and death!

Reason held firm in his mind as he knew that if he rushed over, he would end up the same as the grand supremes who’d died in the hole.

Since the Tome of Life and Death had become one with him and he controlled its instinctive functions, Lu Yun excavated its abilities like tapping into his own potential. Being able to control himself meant being able to control the treasure.

He continued to wait, waiting for a change in the situation. Based on his calculations, things would not be quiet here for much longer and there were other people hiding in the shadows, waiting for someone else to make a move.

“Come on out,” boomed a resonant voice. An elder giant dressed in animal hides, grasping a bone staff in his hand, walked out of the void.

He was only two hundred and fifty kilometers tall, making him much smaller than any giant Lu Yun had seen thus far. Even some cultivators who specialized in tempering the tbody could reach two hundred and fifty kilometers tall.

However, Lu Yun could still identify that he was a giant. Not because of his outfit, but because of the strange power suppressing order that constantly revolved around him. The level of power on this giant was stronger than any of the giants that he’d seen thus far. It exceeded even that of the one who’d killed the Fire Qilin Grand Supreme.

What stunned Lu Yun was that the elder walked on air!

None of the cultivators inside the tomb could fly, not even grand supremes. But this elder could walk through air? Were there cultivators among the giants too?

Lu Yun calmed himself down completely and became a true speck of dust. No life or any other presence exuded from him. In his arms, Chu Xun was likewise turned into the same state.

He knew that the elder hadn’t discovered him, that those words weren’t meant for him. There were others in the surroundings—whether from the chief worlds or other places.

“Despicable, abominable, reprehensible, and abhorrent. Cultivators are only fit to be food!” denounced his enemy in ringing tones as he strode through the air. “All of you schemed against humanity all those eons ago and sealed us in this burial mound that never sees the light of day. It is time that humanity emerged and ruled over the worlds again!”

Thunk!

The elder stuck his staff in the void. There wasn’t too much sorrow or anger in his voice, but what he spoke of sent pinpricks of horror down Lu Yun’s back.

Humanity.

Humanity?!

This elder giant called himself a human?!

Lu Yun’s heart quailed. Indeed, he hadn’t misheard.

If beings didn’t cultivate, they couldn’t ascend beyond their original form and take human form. Most of the cultivators that Lu Yun had seen in the chief worlds—whether one just starting on the path of cultivation or all the way up to grand supreme—weren’t humans. They were other races that’d take human form throughout the course of their cultivation. Race, however, was a very ambiguous concept in the chief worlds in modern times, unless one was a beast that could not change its shape.

Unique creatures such as the mighty divine beasts—the dragons, phoenixes, qilins, and tortoises—also came in for special mention.

To be exact, the concept of race had gotten hazy after Lu Yun set foot in the fourth realm. Thus, the elder who specifically called himself human made his heart shake.

He’d yet to meet any humans thus far in the chief worlds. While most of them took human form, they weren’t humans. Even Chu Xun was human-shaped only because she was a connate dao entity.

These giants might be the only humans that Lu Yun would meet in the chief worlds. It gave rise to a strange feeling in his heart. Humanity was sealed in the tomb of the empyrean supreme?

Was this a conspiracy? Or something else?

The four evil coffins were also buried here, suppressing an unknown terror carved into different sections. In Lu Yun’s eyes, this place seemed more like a seal or a terrifying curse like the one that the primordial heavenly emperor had participated in.

Why had Yun Yi opened the tomb? What was her true goal? Just to release a Disordered Empyrean Supreme or to create another peak grand supreme for the chief worlds?

It suddenly felt that her goals weren’t as simple as they appeared on the surface.

....

All was quiet on the premises, no one answered.

“Not coming out, are you?” The elder yanked his staff up and jabbed it at a certain corner of the void.

Bam!

The void collapsed into a pitch black hole as a giant figure screamed with anguish. It fell out and resolved itself into a ponderous beast. The elder didn’t bother looking at it. He waved his staff around, sending a dead grand supreme dropping out of the air each time he did so.

“You should come out now, no? So many have died already.” He suddenly turned around and faced a certain direction.

“So I couldn’t hide from your eyes,” a soft sigh echoed in the air. “You haven’t changed at all after all these years. You’re still the same.”

A figure walked out of the air.

“Still the same?” sneered the elder. “I was the foremost genius of humanity back in the day. Thousands of girls screamed my name when I waved my club and flocked to me. Now they are all pretty skeletons and I have aged into a wretched old man. This is thanks to all of you.”