Chapter 2054: A Book Made of Paper

What the Judgment of Life or Death brought down in its current iteration was pure fire of reincarnation, not hellfire. Hellfire was just a branch of the fire of reincarnation.

The death art reduced the nihil-level vicious beast to ash.

Reincarnation flames are crazy, they didn’t even leave behind the beast’s will of death! Lu Yun’s jaw dropped. The beast didn’t turn into his Infernum after death—not because it resisted the young man, but that the Judgment of Life or Death didn’t give it a chance to.

“What a pity, that would’ve been a nihil powerhouse Infernum..” he sighed with pity and left without further dallying. Compared to a strong Infernum, the fragment of the Firmament Prison was the most important.

“Eh? Jin Huo just died!” Lu Yun hadn’t thought that she’d start using the Resurrection Talismans so quickly. His creations were so powerful that not even nihil powerhouses could negate them, so he wasn’t concerned that she’d been temporarily taken out of the picture.

Lu Yun continued forging forward moments later after sensing that Jin Huo had come back to life.

....

“You’re finally here!” A blazing furnace stood at the end of the void. There was a dark figure struggling within it.

“The empyrean supreme from the darkness??” Lu Yun’s eyes widened when he gained a clear look at the figure. He never imagined that the dark empyrean supreme would be sealed here.

The blazing furnace was the fragment of the Firmament Prison!

The flames were white, the color of the fire that burned in the Firmament Prison. Ruina also possessed its own fire. These flames of the three hells were manifested from the flame of reincarnation.

The core fragment of the Firmament Prison was the fire inside the furnace. Lu Yun hadn’t thought that it’d be perfectly preserved in pristine condition. Plainly, Yun Yi had left it for him.

More importantly was that the dark empyrean supreme’s primary body had been sealed here all this time. The numerous plans he’d made at the tomb of the empyrean supreme hadn’t been to kill Lu Yun or Jin Huo—he meant to lead the two to this fragment and free him.

“Lu Yun!” the dark empyrean supreme begged loudly. “Help me out and free me from this suffering. I’ll give you everything I have! I don’t want to be here anymore, even if it means my soul scatters and I can never reincarnate..”

If hell was a prison for those who’d committed great sins in life, then the Firmament Prison was a land of unending punishment. One could neither struggle for life nor beg for death!

Even death was desirable if one could be freed from the Firmament Prison.

Hellfire represented destruction while the fires of the Firmament Prison represented punishment. Not even someone as formidable as the dark empyrean supreme could withstand the fiery agony. He was almost on his knees to beg for Lu Yun’s help.

The young man sucked in a sharp breath, never imagining in his wildest dreams that Yun Yi would deliver such a wondrous gift to him. An empyrean-level henchman was right there for the taking!

Although empyrean supremes seemed run-of-the-mill now that sacred supremes from the Three Thousand were in the picture and even nihil powerhouses were seen with increasing frequency, Lu Yun lacked a true empyrean supreme by his side.

The Disordered Empyrean Supreme was one, but she’d never joined Lu Yun’s banner. It was just a business transaction between the two of them.

Fuxi, Tailong, and the others were wary of the overseer of the Three Thousand. They didn’t dare reveal their true strength out of deep concern that it would lead the overseer to them. If the overseer arrived in the chief worlds, the entire realm and the world that Ancestor had formed would be extinguished beyond a hope.

Thus, they could not make a move.

Only when the world of immortals was perfected as a true existence could they erupt in all out war with the overseer. For now, they had to bide their time.

The same went for Pangu, Hongjun, and their friends.

Thus, the dark empyrean supreme was an incredible boon for Lu Yun. If he could be stationed in the chief worlds, Lu Yun would immediately conquer the entire realm and irradiate all of the chief worlds with the world of immortals’ light.

He wouldn’t have to worry about his home even if other realms in their part of existence declared war on them in the future.

When his thoughts traveled here, Lu Yun swept away his hesitations and mobilized the Tome of Life and Death to capture the blazing furnace.

Whoosh!

Flames of three colors ignited over his body as the Firmament Prison came under hell’s sway. Ruina had long been incorporated into hell, and with the fragment’s addition, the latter was now fully complete.

Although Lu Yun could manifest the flames of reincarnation and use them to compel the death arts, he was more interested in wielding the dao within the fire.

Despite gaining fire from lightning striking a tree and using it to cook food, the primordial humans never fully controlled the method to create fire. The combination of the fires of three hells gave Lu Yun the true method to ignite the fire of reincarnation.

With that, reincarnation was finally his.

The combination of the three hells gave rise to reincarnation, which was directly reflected in the Tome of Life and Death.

Whoosh!

The bamboo scroll went up in flames and began its next stage of evolution. It vanished, to be replaced by.. a book.

A book that Lu Yun was familiar with.

An ancient book made of paper. Titled the “Tome of Life and Death”, the characters sparkled on the cover.

The big headed doll suddenly appeared and smiled at the young man. When the Three Brushes of Reincarnation appeared in his hand, his body disassembled into traces of ink that collected into the brushes.

The treasure then swallowed the brushes.

“The Tome of Life and Death..” Lu Yun’s lips vibrated, finally seeing what his nascent spirit was. “The dao that the Grand Pure One comprehended was indeed the ultimate peak of creation, the core essence of nihil.

“The true dao can be spoken of, but it will always change.

“The true name can be voiced, but it will not be so forever.

“To be nameless is the origin of heaven and earth. To be named is the mother of all creation.”

He couldn’t help himself and recited from the renowned Tao Te Ching.

“From dao came one, and one begat two, two gave birth to three, and from three resulted all living things!

“Dao is nothing, the origin of everything, and the inception of the orders of the highest degree!

“But from dao came one.. and that one is not the Three Thousand. It’s the Tome of Life and Death!”

He finally understood the origin of his treasure when the three hells became one and the brushes appeared to make the treasure whole. The first existence within the nihil was not the Three Thousand, but the Tome of Life and Death. It hadn’t been a world then, it was just an ultimate treasure that was the vessel for reincarnation that could manifest the order of creation.

One begat two—the two was the Three Thousand!

All of the great daos and orders in that world were from the Tome of Life and Death. That was why the treasure couldn’t be hidden in the Three Thousand. While the eyes of great dao couldn’t see through it, they could always find it.

The world within the tome was the blueprint for the Three Thousand. All of the latter’s orders and great daos were perfected on the basis of that world.

“The Tome of Life and Death becoming my nascent spirit is an indication that it was incomplete and needed a living being to supplement it. I was chosen because I wielded the Imperial Seal through loop after loop. All of those reincarnation cycles left traces of reincarnation on me, which is why the Tome of Life and Death chose me,” Lu Yun breathed out slowly.

Order was what living beings relied on and great dao came from living beings. But the great dao of existence came from the Tome of Life and Death, which happened to be Lu Yun’s nascent spirit.

That meant that the origin of all great dao was Lu Yun.