When it came down to it, the Age of Myth legacy of immortal dao that Lu Yun had received earlier was also one of the inheritance in the tomb. If even a creator could keep his heritage intact, then what of those existences beyond the chaos?
The huge corpse-qi-shrouded body also retained her own heritage. She’d set up their current tests to identify her most suitable heir. There were too many man made traces in this pit of mythological lives—it’d long grown out of a pure tomb and into a testing grounds.
It also wasn’t until this test that Lu Yun detected the truth of the Tomb of Heaven and Earth.
Testing grounds!
Only a testing ground would collect cultivators of the same level and bring them to the same place…
Additionally, though there were artificial modifications to be seen here, the changes didn’t seem to be the result of one singular guiding hand. A certain set of rules had come into being here—rules to test those who’d ventured into the tomb. The ghouls that’d attacked the living earlier were also affected by these rules.
Previously, Lu Yun had mentioned offhandedly that perhaps the realm monster core fragments might be useful later on. It was as much a surprise to him as any of the others that realm monster arctic air would really restrain the ghouls here.
……
The others stirred to greater wakefulness when they heard Lu Yun’s words, anticipating shining out of their eyes. However, they were all elite disciples of the sacred palaces—geniuses among geniuses. They wouldn’t charge in with abandon simply because someone else had mentioned something they wanted.
Everyone remained staring at Lu Yun.
“We’ll each take a fragment of realm monster core and head inside! Remember, under no circumstances can we fight each other when we’re in there!” His tone was incomparably grave. “I strongly suspect that if you die in there, you won’t revive from the soul lamps.”
“What?” Everyone’s eyes widened when they heard this.
“Impossible, soul lamps are the greatest of sacred palace secret arts! Legend has it that a master who exceeded the chaos left it to us…” You Huoran exclaimed.
“How is it impossible?!” Ying Luo rolled her eyes at him. “Before this, junior brother Lu Yun and I lost our souls at one point! Our souls slipped off our soul lamps and we almost died here!”
She had indeed been terrified that her soul had mysteriously detached from its soul lamp and come here. It was then that she’d formed her attachment toward Lu Yun. For the very first time in her life, she’d sensed the approaching specter of death.
Wang Shu, You Huoran, and Wei Yuan trembled collectively and Wei Yuan began to look shiftily around the scene. He was absolutely stricken by the idea of death. If his only reassurance in coming here—the soul lamp—could fail at any time, it was enough to give him pause.
“I don’t know if you’ll die when we travel ahead, but you’ll be dead without a doubt if you take a step back.” Lu Yun flicked his eyes at Wei Yuan, seeing through the genius’ intentions.
“We can’t fall to internal conflict now. Since we’re here at the same time, we should work together to pass this challenge. It can be every person for themselves when it comes to the opportunities later on,” said Wang Shu. His eyes were full of battle intent and excitement. Life and death didn’t matter to him, the test of the unknown was the most thrilling.
Wei Yuan and You Huoran looked at each other, understanding that those statements were spoken for them.
“Alright, I agree, let us work together for now.” You Huoran was the first to nod.
Though Wei Yuan was unwilling, he didn’t want to give up like this. Lu Yun and Ying Luo weren’t necessarily telling the truth either, so he nodded as well.
“In that case, we’ll head inside. We’ll communicate through transmission from now on. Don’t let that corpse qi enter your body no matter what, or you really will become a zombie!” reminded Lu Yun.
He stepped forward into the yellowish-gray corpse qi, Ying Luo and Wang Shu close behind. Wei Yuan and You Huoran hesitated, but ultimately followed as well.
……
It seemed to be another world entirely inside the corpse qi. Grayish-yellow haze suffused the air and unearthly howls rang in their ears. The group sealed off their pores and forced their power outward as a tiny layer of light over their skin, isolating the terrifying haze from their bodies.
“Is this… another world? What about the way back?” Wei Yuan turned his head to see the same boundless corpse qi behind him as lay in front of him.
No one answered him, they’d all sealed off their nine orifices. They could only see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Opening their mouths didn’t cross anyone’s mind—if they breathed in any of this corpse qi, they’d be done for.
They proceeded slowly forward, Ying Luo subconsciously tugging on Lu Yun’s hem. She didn’t notice that the others spewed fire from their eyes at her subconscious gestures.
Whoosh.
An enormous sound rang over their heads as a huge furry hand descended from above—a zombie covered with green fur. Three hundred meters tall, its huge hand swung with pungent gales as it swatted down on them.
Whoosh!
Wang Shu sliced it off the second it appeared and sprayed grayish-yellow liquid across the void. Scrambling out of the way, the group dodged and ducked in a frenzy before they evaded all of the disgusting liquid.
Lu Yun glared ferociously at Wang Shu, who blinked and grinned sheepishly back.
The zombie went berserk after its injury—it stomped forward and brought a foot down on everyone.
Wang Shu took action again, slicing his sword through the air in a dazzling pattern. Vibrant power of burgeon flared from his body as rays of cuttingly sharp sword light and swiftly churned the huge zombie to pieces in the blink of an eye.
Before they could relax, scarlet corpseflies and ghostface maggots buzzed out in a swarm. Apart from Wang Shu, the rest were all within attack range of these creatures bred from the zombie’s body.
The group reacted swiftly and exterminated all of the new threats the moment the creatures showed themselves.
More zombies within the depths of the corpse qi discovered the disturbance in this direction and came howling over. Lu Yun suddenly felt like he was back in the zombie sea. Zombies met the eye in every direction he turned; it was a literal flood of them.
The only thing that reassured him was that the strongest among them was only second level mortal realm, but there were too many of them!
“Gather together and don’t get separated. Stay within three meters of each other or we’re dead without a doubt!” he hastily transmitted.
Being no fools, the rest of them quickly drew close to each other. The power of inception, creation, burgeon, opposition, and nirvana soared into the air as five pillars of light. Splitting the area into five sections, they began to dice the overwhelming tides of zombies from all directions.