Chapter 2048: The Truth

Lu Yun thought of Diexi’s origins—the goddess of the moon in the great wilderness, Changxi. The Taiyin Star and the sun were the two most important stars of the great wilderness. They could be viewed as the source of everything in that era.

Forebear had borrowed the Taiyin Star’s strength to manifest a replica, but she seemed to have completely lost herself since. It only made sense given that Ancestor was dead—she wouldn’t be any better off.

Several things that’d puzzled Lu Yun throughout this time were readily explained at this moment—such as how Jiang Chen had obtained the empyrean crystal coffin. The zombie protected Ancestor’s tomb with his primary body, so Forebear naturally trusted him. Even though he constantly played the part of a villain, she still entrusted herself to him.

Her decision proved to be correct as he used a variety of methods and misdirection to ultimately send the empyrean crystal coffin and Diexi to Lu Yun.

The tomb of the living that turned Changxi into corpse king Diexi was also Jiang Chen’s work. All of it was orchestrated by the zombie.

Perhaps it was Fuxi and Yun Yi who demarcated the overall plan in grand strokes, but it required many others to perfect the details. Once he thought everything through, Lu Yun looked at Ancestor lying in the coffin.

“He’s Ancestor? Why is he Ancestor?” Confusion still shone in Lu Yun’s eyes. He had a hunch when he saw the Dao King that Ancestor might be someone he knew, but he’d never dreamed that he would be Ancestor!

“Why isn’t it him?” Jiang Chen stood next to Lu Yun and gently shook his head. “Why do you think he passed on the method of nothing to you?”

The method of nothing.. the overlord of Ice.

Ancestor was the overlord of Ice.

The overlord had taught Lu Yun the method so the young man could access the sequence of time. Being armed with the strength of sequence had saved the young man from a great deal of trouble.

Unrest had also said that Lu Yun was walking the proper path—it was all because he’d practiced the method of nothing. Not the method of nothing from the fourth realm, but the method of nothing from the nothing.

Although time had formed a sequence, no one had ever accessed it. Apart from the spacetime travelers, the only one skilled in the dao of time was Moran Wu.

Lu Yun had entered the domain of time thanks to the overlord’s method. If he’d continued cultivating it, he might’ve pierced through the barrier between nothing and existence to enter the true nihil.

However, he had his own path to walk. He wouldn’t continue walking this path despite knowing that nihil was unfathomably powerful. That was not his path.

And it was because of this that he was able to enter the tomb and see the truth.

“That makes sense.” Lu Yun inclined his head and refocused on himself, but his eyes were locked onto Ancestor within the empyrean crystal. His whole body was starting to shake. He could clearly see Ancestor’s corpse through the coffin and every detail of the man. Ancestor was dead—completely dead.

The cause of his death was a sword—a sword planted in his chest and pierced through his heart.

Lu Yun looked mechanically at Jiang Chen.

“A coincidence? Or..” the young man asked woodenly.

“What do you think?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“There are three hundred and sixty-five nihil powerhouses who turned themselves into the Major Cycle Worlds to support the operations of order within the Three Thousand. The Dao King should’ve already told you that yours is the three hundred and sixty-sixth, that you do not belong to the Major World Cycles?” Jiang Chen looked at the empyrean crystal coffin again.

None of the ghostly or evil entities beneath the tree had put themselves forward. Even though they’d discovered Jiang Chen, they didn’t take action.

They merely observed silently.

“Look at the sword,” Jiang Chen continued.

“..Quietus,” Lu Yun forced out through clenched teeth.

Quietus was the treasure that he’d obtained in the chaos, said to be a stunning treasure on par with Heavenfall and Worldcarver. The latter two had both demonstrated unparalleled killing strength, but Quietus—while very strong—appeared to be just an ordinary connate weapon in Tianqi’s hands.

Lu Yun saw the weapon once more today. Perhaps this was the sword’s true body, the real Quietus. The one in Tianqi’s hands was just the shadow of a sword.

“So the World Heart is here..” Lu Yun murmured to himself. He finally understood why the Dao King had said what he had in front of the doors. He’d always thought that their existence came from the corpse of a nihil powerhouse floating in the nothingness. But he saw Ancestor lying in a coffin, buried in a tomb!

Ancestor was their world, their existence!

This knowledge truly did overturn what he knew about the world. So they’d been in a tomb all along, living inside a coffin! Even if the one responsible for their existence was the vaunted ancestor, such was still their world.

“No, you must enter the World Heart if you wish to retrieve the sword—Ancestor’s heart,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “But you can’t do so yet. You must first destroy this tomb and this coffin.

“The Dao King was an unparalleled genius and used the separation stone to safeguard Ancestor’s body, but he was not Fuxi. He could not control the events to come, so this place became an irreversible tomb.

“You must destroy the tomb, destroy the empyrean crystal, and send Ancestor’s corpse to the true nothing to fully revive him.”

“What about the living beings within his body?” Lu Yun frowned.

“Ancestor’s body has become a patch of existence, a false one. But he has hewn a new path with his own great dao. He has nurtured a patch of real existence within his body, one on par with the Three Thousand!

“Your purpose here is to bring the existence out of his body.” Jiang Chen looked into Lu Yun’s eyes.

The young man was incredulous. “A patch of real existence.. Was this your plan?”

“Yes, this was the plan,” Jiang Chen nodded. “Leize, Fuxi, Pangu, God, Hongjun, the Dao King, Mo Yi, the tree god, Tailong, and I, as well as Yun Yi and her family who joined later on. This was our ultimate goal.

“We wished to create another real existence within the unbounded nothing. A real existence with flourishing great dao and organized order.” He raised his head to look at the countless ghostly entities on the tree. They were all quiet, also keeping an eye on the area.

“No wonder Yun Yi would seek to achieve the plan at the cost of her own life,” Lu Yun sighed. “Is the Dragonquake Scripture the key to everything?”