Lu Yun wasn’t worried about Qing Yu. Although Empress Myrtlestar’s existence had been revealed to the world, no one would expect Qing Yu to carry the primordial empress around with her.
Hair-raising screeches occasionally rang throughout the dark mausoleum.
“Someone’s fighting over there!” Lu Yun quickly stepped behind a tombstone and looked toward the closest disturbance.
Two powerful immortals were clashing against each other; heavenly power radiated from both and their every move summoned the might of heaven and earth.
Void-ascended immortals!
Although the two were only true immortals, they were more powerful than many arcane, or even peerless immortals. Only void-ascended true immortals would possess such terrifying might.
“Yin Qingran, this will end up biting the Yin Clan in the end!” an immortal roared in frustration, retreating as he fought.
“Tsk tsk tsk, I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m certain that House Donglin is doomed.” Yin Qingran was a beardless, fair-faced man who looked to be in his early thirties. Dressed in cyan, his attacks were quick and vicious with no extraneous movement, forcing the Donglin immortal to retreat time and time again.
“Your head and nascent spirit are worth a billion premium immortal crystals!” Yin Qingran threw his head back with laughter. His weapon of choice was a narrow sword that blended into the air like a faint breeze. It danced through the air, imperceptible to the eye and consciousness.
A billion crystals was a great fortune to many immortals and would be a particular boon to the Yin Clan. The Yins were a second-rate clan in Exalted Major; a billion crystals would increase their strength by thirty percent!
……
“Yin Qingran? What a funny sense of humor fate has… You plotted against me in the Last Repose, so how can I possibly let you take Dusk’s crystals so easily?” Lu Yun smirked. With a single step, he vanished from where he stood. Manifesting an unassuming, simple sixth-rank immortal sword, he struck out with sword dao.
Swoosh! Blinding brilliance shot out from the sixth-rank sword, illuminating the area.
“Who’s there?!” Both Yin Qingran and the Donglin immortal whirled with great shock. Before they could react, the sword light reached them and vanished into the sky.
Thud! One of them collapsed, nascent spirit and head gone.
Yin Qingran stood rooted to the spot, his flabbergasted consciousness sweeping over the prone form of the Donglin immortal.
Lu Yun’s bounty called for the heads or nascent spirits of members of House Donglin, assigning no value to headless corpses. As the final lifeline of an immortal, nascent spirits were the more important of the two, so there was more weight on turning in nascent spirits.
The head and nascent spirit were the most important things to an immortal. If both of them were preserved, an immortal would be able to regrow their body, even if they were beheaded. However, there wasn’t a trace of the Donglin’s nascent spirit to be found.
Poleaxed by the sudden turn of events, Yin Qingran could almost picture a pile of immortal crystals growing a pair of wings and flying right out of his reach.
“Who is it?!” he howled in rage. “Who stole my crystals?!”
……
“Tsk tsk, this fella’s pretty strong, eh. He’s definitely one of the greatest geniuses in the world of immortals. If Yin Qingran hadn’t crippled him first, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat him.” Lu Yun stuck a talisman to his captive’s head and sealed it off, then tossed it into his storage ring. The man hadn’t died yet, or he would’ve entered hell as Lu Yun’s Infernum.
Hell was an absolute mess at the moment, what with a holy war taking place between Ge Long and an army of akasha ghosts. Nothing could survive there.
“The last of House Donglin’s elites must be in the area as well.” Lu Yun’s eyes flared with vicious killing intent and, with a quick thought, he made use of Shapeshifting to take the form of Yin Qingran. “Yin elites can hide themselves in the air, which I can’t do… But I have Size Manipulation!”
He shrank down to the size of a dust particle and began hunting down members of House Donglin. He wasn’t strong enough to go after the mightiest of them, but with stealth on his side, Lu Yun had no difficulty taking down newly-ascended immortals. This was but a secondary quest to him, though, not to take the place of his main mission.
……
Boom!
An explosion vibrated the land as a pillar of red light shot into the sky, illuminating an area ten kilometers wide. A group of three hundred immortals erupted in whoops and cheers.
“It’s open, it’s finally open. This tomb belongs to an elite of the ancient divine court!” The leading dao immortal capered in victory.
Toppling the rule of immortal dao was ample proof of the primordial divine court’s strength. There would be endless treasures buried with their elites, and judging from the red light piercing the sky, there must be a great treasure within this one. Incidentally, treasures of the divine race could be employed by immortals of contemporary society without a hitch.
These tombs weren’t set up in the proper way of burial. They consisted simply of an underground palace divided into main and secondary burial chambers, along with an annex room.
“The tombs here are much simpler and safer than the ancient tombs outside.” The immortals began digging into the soil outside the tomb with their flying swords, slowly uprooting the tombstone and unearthing the rooms underground. A giant bronze coffin lay within the main chamber, where the red light originated from.
Waves of heat flooded out of nowhere, but that only served to heighten general excitement.
“It’s the tomb of a fire divine.” Someone jumped into the pit to pry open the coffin.
“I would suggest you not do anything reckless,” a grave voice sounded in caution.
“Who goes there?!” The leading dao immortal spun around on high alert, taking a good look at the newcomer through the crimson light.
“Yin Qingran of the Yin Clan.” Lu Yun had raised his cultivation to that of a void-ascended immortal with the Demonic Sovereign Cauldron. Regular immortals wouldn’t be able to determine that his strength was a temporary increase. “The divine buried in the tomb has mutated and transformed into a zombie. If you open the coffin, you’ll all die.”
“The Yin Clan… a bottom-tier clan from Exalted Major. Yin Qingran is a great genius, however. It’s said that his phenomenon of ascension spanned three provinces in Exalted Major.” The dao immortal nodded slightly. “I am Ling Chengzu of the Ling Clan from Nephrite Major.”
“Ah, a senior from the Ling Clan.” A plan began taking shape in Lu Yun’s mind, but he remained expressionless. “Truthfully speaking, the Yin Clan has explored the Exalted Divine Tombs more than once now. We know how the zombies inside should be dealt with. How about I act as your vanguard while you keep up a formation, senior?” Lu Yun affected a servile tone, as if he were attempting to curry favor with the Lings.