“Alright” Bai Zhaoju raised a cupped fist salute at Lu Yun before withdrawing from the area.
Lu Yun approached Taiyi’s corpse and gave it a silent inspection. Bai Zhaoju had driven away the giant hand reaching out from behind the body, leaving only Taiyi.
“Here you are.” The flames in the area twitched and gathered into a red-haired man dressed in red robes. Like Yinglong, the man assumed the form of whoever was looking at him. Humans saw a human when facing him, and other races would see their own kind.
“We met the last time I was here, didn’t we?” Lu Yun asked.
The man was Taiyi. Since he’d died, he was a powerful ghost instead of a living spirit, and he guarded the fissure to protect the living of this world.
“We did.” Taiyi nodded. “The last time you were here, you were ostracized by the connate great dao. I didn’t expect you to become a part of it so soon.”
Lu Yun paused. His true form had cultivated the connate great dao and entered the golden core realm. His replica was in turn accepted by the connate great dao as well, enabling him to unleash greater power under the primitive dao.
“I’m going to the other side of the seal to see for myself what it’s like,” Lu Yun said after a pensive pause.
“The other side… holds no world, just pure chaos. A vast, endless chaos.” Taiyi shook his head. “It’s best that you don’t cross over.”
“Why?” Lu Yun frowned. “I’m only curious.”
“You went to the other side last time because you were curious too, but you immediately erased your memory when you returned.” Taiyi sighed. “I don’t know what the chaos has become now, but you mustn’t go.”
“I erased my memory upon my return?” Lu Yun closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “When was my true form injured? Why don’t I remember anything beyond entering this patch of space?
“Has something followed me here?” The possibility tightened Lu Yun’s expression and he recalled the black hole Xing Chen had been guarding. “I really shouldn’t have erased all of my memories. At least… I should have left myself with the knowledge of what I should and shouldn’t do.”
A tremor passed through Lu Yun.
“You didn’t have a choice back then. The great dao of this world was against you, and Tushan hadn’t recovered her strength yet.” Taiyi shook his head. As a ghost, he didn’t possess the presence or strength he had when alive. All he had was his body and the connate yang fire it released.
The little fox popped out of Lu Yun’s arms, looking at Taiyi. The celestial emperor’s jealousy was clear on his face, which prompted the little fox to hide herself again.
“You really are trouble,” Lu Yun muttered. “Allow me to take a look still. I won’t be able to rest easy otherwise. Moreover, I have a feeling that I must go.” He looked at Taiyi with steely determination.
“I won’t stop you if you wish to go, but you have to leave Tushan here. She may be in danger if she goes with you.”
The little fox had gone to the other side with Lu Yun last time, but she didn’t remember the trip either.
“No!” The little fox showed herself again, equally determined. “I’m going with him!”
Taiyi scowled. The last time the little fox returned from the chaos, she’d been on the brink of death. He wouldn’t allow her to risk herself again. Though the tale told in the great wilderness about Taiyi and Yi killing each other due to fighting over Tushan might be hearsay, Taiyi’s affections for Tushan weren’t.
“Let them go. They didn’t lose the last time they went there.” Fuxi’s voice suddenly sounded from the golden spirit pearl, which floated out of Lu Yun’s robes in response
“Fuxi… so you’ve come as well!” The emergence of the pearl put Taiyi somewhat at ease. “Then I won’t stop you since Fuxi’s here to protect you.”
He gave Tushan a meaningful look, reluctance still tugging at his heart. When all was said and done, he was nothing but a dead man.
“Have you completed your task?” Lu Yun perked up.
“Not yet.” Fuxi manifested his true self, a human with the body of a snake. “I have to enter the chaos to recover something else first.”
“You… you can’t be serious!” Taiyi reacted immediately when he heard Fuxi’s words.
“Their existence does only harm and no good. If not for them, Pangu wouldn’t have died and you wouldn’t have ended up like this.” Fuxi scoffed. “Put away your useless pity. As long as they’re around, they will destroy the great wilderness sooner or later and this world will become another realm monster!”
Lu Yun turned to Fuxi in horror. The world will become another realm monster?
“Do you know where realm monsters come from, Lie Shan?” Fuxi asked, holding Lu Yun’s gaze.
The little fox turned to Fuxi with curiosity as well.
“Aren’t they transformed from dead worlds?” Lu Yun asked in return.
“Indeed, they originate from dead worlds... The worlds before our own. They’ve all died and become realm monsters!
“Our world will follow the same trajectory,” Fuxi said with an impassive look. “It will die and become another realm monster, which will make us the yin spirits residing within its body.”
Lu Yun took a deep breath. He finally understood why Ashu reacted with such despairing horror when realm monsters were mentioned.
“In the future… realm monsters have been eliminated,” he murmured.
A realm monster was a world, and the world Lu Yun currently resided in was vast and boundless. There were countless worlds in the universe. More than hundreds of millions. How terrifying must realm monsters be?
“The future?” Fuxi shook his head. “If this world is destroyed and turned into a realm monster, there will be no future.
“The universe, in its endless space and time, is the scaffolding of the world… If our world is destroyed by the realm monsters and becomes one of them, the universe will be naught, along with all points in time along this timeline, be it the past or the future!”
The revelation chilled Lu Yun to the bone.