Chapter 2044 – Whipped

Lu Yun reached out a hand and gently caressed the bronze doors in front of him. His expression turned a bit wooden.

“I’ve definitely seen these doors before,” the Disordered Empyrean Supreme whispered to him in a transmission.

“It’s not the same ones,” he shook his head ever so slightly. “Perhaps those doors are a copy of these doors. So who crafted these ones?” He looked at the empyrean supreme.

“How do I know? I was dead. Have you not sorted out the mess of things in your World of Immortals yet? I only saw them when I made the trip myself.” She rolled her eyes.

The World Gates of the world of immortals.

The bronze doors of the separation stone layout were the World Gates of the world of immortals! They were exactly the same, down to the tiniest detail.

Once the highest point of the thirty-three facets of the world of immortals, the World Gates were rendered useless after the tide of yin spirits was fully taken care of.

Treated more like a shrine in modern times, they were dedicated to the divines that’d died for the world after the war of immortals one hundred years ago, as well as the successive generations of celestial emperors that’d sacrificed themselves.

Lu Yun had been unwilling to revisit his place of heartbreak, so he hadn’t immediately realized where he’d seen the doors before. The Disordered Empyrean Supreme had because she’d wanted to understand Lu Yun’s past after her resurrection. When she visited the World of Immortals, she had the chance to closely observe the pair of gates that held profound meaning.

“I know a bit of feng shui, so I think that the layouts between the World Gates and the bronze doors in front of us are similar,” she continued. “The one who set up the gates and the one who set up the layout here should be the same person.”

Lu Yun felt a headache beginning to develop. Hadn’t he fully uncovered the truth behind the war of the immortals and why the world of immortals had become a massive tomb? The grand supreme from the land of darkness was behind everything.

Were things not as simple as that? Did the world of immortals have something to do with Ancestor’s tomb?

Now that he thought about it some more, the layout in the world of immortals did indeed resemble a separation stone. The World Gates had separated the main body of the world from its cosmos, forcing the unending hordes of yin spirits to pay an incredible price to crack the gates open.

The four fissures in the world of immortals that were sealed by ancient tombs beyond emperor level were also part of the separation stone. Being that he’d resided in the world of immortals then, Lu Yun hadn’t been able to fully see the layout from the inside.

He’d also been consumed with how to repair immortal dao, contend with the yin spirits, and consolidate the world of immortals. Discovering that the world of immortals was a tomb had shocked him out of his wits, which was why he’d overlooked that the layout meant to protect the tomb.

He realized it now after the Disordered Empyrean Supreme pointed it out to him.

“Is the Dao King behind this?” He somehow thought of the immensely talented Dao King who was completely devoted to Mo Yi.

The man had often appeared in the world of immortals and the great wilderness before it as a villain. He’d left many valuable treasures behind, such as the weapons of war that Lu Yun had heavily relied on in the past.

The Dao King also appeared during the war that broke the world of immortals. That was when the layout for turning the world into a tomb came into being. As the last bastion of defense for the world, the World Gates had also been fashioned then.

What did the world of immortals have to do with Ancestor’s tomb?

Once again, how had Lu Yun made his way to the Three Thousand?

He suddenly thought of something—he’d approached this realm from a patch of darkness that was almost nothing. He’d materialized on the outskirts of the Eastern Sacred Palace, where Ancestor’s tomb was.

But given his muddled mental state then, Lu Yun hadn’t known where he was. After running around in a confused fashion, he wandered into the Eastern Sacred Palace’s imperial domain before putting down roots at the intersection of the Western and Northern Sacred Palace territory.

For some reason, he now felt that he’d walked out of this tomb. Could this tomb bury nihil and not Ancestor?

Unbidden, he opened the Spectral Eye again and peered through the separation stone layout.

He still couldn’t see what was inside. The ghost king was long gone and he could see where the tomb owner was, but its sarcophagus prevented his vision from extending further.

“I can access the tomb if the Dao King’s behind the layout.” He took a deep breath and asked slowly, “Do you know the Dao King?”

The Disordered Empyrean Supreme blinked, then shook her head. “I’ve heard of him, but have never come across him. Actually, I—”

She snapped her mouth shut. Plainly, what she had to say was nothing good. If this layout really did belong to the Dao King, his displeasure would be swift and furious if she gossiped about him here.

Her resurrection was the work of Yun Yi and facilitation from the Dao King.

Lu Yun inhaled deeply again and gently rested his hand on the bronze doors. Hazy radiance floated out of it as the Dao King’s form landed in the young man’s mind.

“So it is you!” Lu Yun brightened.

“You’re such a blockhead.” Appearing in his usual form as a clean-cut young man, the Dao King jokingly cursed at Lu Yun. “You have to think carefully about your next steps. It might overturn everything you know if you open this door.”

“Know about what?” Lu Yun asked instead.

“About.. well, there might be answers that make you uncomfortable,” the Dao King replied merrily.

“The world that birthed and nurtured me is the product of a corpse. Is there anything else that tops that?” Lu Yun sighed.

“Fair enough,” the Dao King nodded. “Then proceed. However, I ask one thing of you.”

He was asking Lu Yun for a favor?

“Is it about Mo Yi?” Lu Yun didn’t even need to use half a brain cell to know what the man wanted.

“Please take care of her if I die one day,” the man said in a muffled voice.

“Don’t worry, you won’t die.” Lu Yun stretched out his hand and demonstrated a hint of the power of reincarnation over a fingertip.

The Dao King sighed and nodded with resignation. “Just promise me you will.”

“And how should I take care of her? Make her my dao partner?” Lu Yun smirked.

The Dao King paused, not knowing what to say to that.

“Oho, I know what the Disordered Empyrean Supreme was going to say just now,” Lu Yun guffawed.

“What?”

“Probably.. that you’re whipped?” Lu Yun stroked his chin. “You obviously care deeply for Mo Yi and she seems to return your feelings, but the two of you aren’t dao partners.. So tell me, what are you guys up to?

“I don’t think I’ll have a chance to take care of her if you die. She’ll follow you in death, so do your best to live well,” the young man concluded.