“What?! That can’t be right!!” the priest of flame shrieked when she heard Qing Yu’s words. “They can’t possibly have done that, the Xuan Yuan Slaves are our kin!!”
She shook her head desperately, trembling violently as she stared fixedly at the images projected by Qing Yu.
An enormous altar hovered in the middle of the yang tomb realm. Bloody lights circled around it while howls and wails of anguish echoed throughout the realm. They didn’t originate from the living, but instead were the cries of the sacrificial goods. They’d already died and their souls sucked into the altar, never to reincarnate or find release from their torment.
The priest of flame sank to the ground, clutching her head as her world shattered around her. Everything she’d ever known and cherished was brutally refuted by the merciless carnage in front of her eyes. Lu Yun remained silent, keeping her company.
“I finally understand what the torch dragon meant by corruption,” he murmured after a long period of silence.
Previous priests of flame had all died within the yin tomb when Xuanyuan Xiaoyue ate them. Though the other four priests knew how inordinately dangerous the entrance to the yin tomb was, they still let generations of their colleagues go to their deaths.
The current priest of flame had only assumed her position for three years and was yet to come into her own, so she didn’t yet know the meaning of her existence. But in this moment, she understood everything.
“I… from now on, I am no priest of flame. My name is You Si.” A burning ball of hatred rose in her eyes.
The origins of the other four priests had long been lost to history, but You Si hailed from the fire tribe of the Xuan Yuan Slaves. The yang tomb was her home, and the slaves her family. She’d accepted Ashu’s proposal and obtained the Fire Altar to become the dean of fire also because she wanted to find a way to help the Xuan Yuan Slaves leave the tomb.
The slaves were tomb keepers, but they could guard the tomb all the same even if they left this place and reclaimed their former glories in the current world of immortals. But her world had caved in on itself, and her only reason for living now was revenge. She wanted nothing more than vengeance from the four high priests!
Qing Yu walked over to the former priest of flame and patted her shoulder in comfort.
“Since the four high priests have made their way here, I’ll tell you the way of claiming the volcano.” You Si lifted her head to look at Qing Yu and continued in a small voice, “There are five restrictions related to the priests located outside the volcano, and the way to break them is…”
Qing Yu nodded and listened carefully. Her grasp of formula dao was greater than Lu Yun’s, so she only needed a bit of time to determine the proper way to break the restrictions, but she still listened attentively and paid close attention.
Right now, what You Si needed was to vent her hatred and feel that she was taking her revenge.
She spoke of everything related to the Xuan Yuan Slaves, yang tomb, secrets of the other four priests, and even secrets of the mother altar. Nothing was off limits and nothing was withheld.
“So if there really is a mother altar here, then what’s the altar in the mausoleum of the Exalted Divines?” Lu Yun frowned, but as Yueshen and Ruyi were guarding the World Gates and helping the nine celestial emperors, there was no one he could ask about this. At least, Zhaoqing didn’t know anything about a mother altar either.
“The key to collecting this Embittered Sea should lie with the fish form of Great Emperor Kunpeng. Once we travel through the sea, try to find a way to claim this connate treasure!” Lu Yun said to Qing Yu.
“Be careful, there are more terrors in the sea than that woman from earlier…” You Si quickly spoke up.
Qing Yu chuckled faintly. “Don’t worry, I’ll grab a few more helpers if it comes down to that. Alright, I’m going to go take a look at things in the yang tomb and try to collect the mother altar and volcano. Lu Yun, you must be careful!” Worry flashed through her eyes when she looked at her beloved.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got some more heavyweights living in hell. I’ll send them all out if things get too much for me to handle.” Lu Yun flashed a brilliant smile, but it didn’t alleviate the worry in Qing Yu’s eyes despite her nod.
If the great personages in hell could do as they would, why would they be hiding in the netherworld? Hell and the world of immortals were two completely different worlds in entirely different dimensions. For Ge Long, Carmine Eternal, and Carmine Arbiter, hell was more like a sanctuary where they could avoid being hunted down.
……
After Qing Yu’s departure, the kun island continued drifting on the surface of the waters. Ashu stood upon its head, his eyes pure green once more as he looked gravely into the depths of the island.
“What’s wrong, why are you like this again?” Lu Yun frowned when he saw Ashu’s eyes of undiluted green.
“You noticed early on that Xuanyuan Xiaoyue wasn’t alive?” Disbelief rippled through the holy lord’s gaze when he looked at Lu Yun.
The young man nodded. “She’s a vicious ghost being kept here by someone, just like the moat snake outside.”
Inside hell, the young girl manifestation of the moat snake shook her head with dissatisfaction. “My name is Carmine Arbiter, don’t call me the moat snake anymore!”
A human face formed out of the six paths of Lu Yun’s nascent spirit and he smiled at the girl. “Alright, alright, I gotcha. You’re Carmine Arbiter.”
“Her body is here, sealed within ice located inside the kun!” Urgency tinged Ashu’s stare at Lu Yun. “Save her! She and I have a very strong kinship, perhaps she can help me escape the zombie tree’s pursuit!”
Though Xuanyuan Xiaoyue had been scattered by a single blow from Qing Yu, she was so strong that her soul had reformed. She flitted around the perimeter, staring slightly at the group of visitors.
“She won’t be cold anymore if her body is freed from the ice. She won’t kill anyone anymore… I think I should know who she is!” Agony twisted Ashu’s face as he struggled to restrain the restriction deep within his soul, one that hid even deeper memories. He couldn’t let them awaken, or he’d no longer be himself anymore.
“Alright!” Lu Yun promptly agreed and opened the Spectral Eye to scan the island.
Though the enormous fish was the body of a great emperor, it was a body without a soul or thoughts. Like a walking dead, it was a door to the Embittered Sea that drifted on these boundless waters. Deep within it was a vast world of snow and ice; Xuanyuan Xiaoyue’s corpse was sealed in that land.
The vicious ghost that was her cowered off to the side, sneaking fearful glances at Lu Yun’s group.
“But we have to be careful, there should be other things here guarding this island. Xuanyuan Xiaoyue…” Inspiration flashed through Lu Yun’s mind. A world of snow and ice to foster a vicious host… he found something unusual in Xingzi’s memories.
“This is the shamanic divine’s method of Yin Yang Ghost Fostering! Xuanyuan Xiaoyue is a yin ghost while Carmine Arbiter is a yang ghost. The combination of yin and yang reverses life and death—someone’s trying to revive Xuan Yuan!” Lu Yun cried out in shock. “No, no wait, not to revive Xuan Yuan, but his body! Someone’s trying to place a dead soul into a living body!”