Chapter 1666: Ruina Nation
Lu Yun slowly s.h.i.+fted from a stiff expression to outright ashen faced. His scalp went numb and it felt like his brain was about to explode.
He was extremely uneasy.
The Curse King had mentioned “breaking out”—plainly, he knew something about the constant loops of reincarnation, despite not knowing that Lu Yun’s future dao fruit self had personally experienced many of them. If he wasn’t one of the conductors of the loops, he was at least an informed partic.i.p.ant.
The Curse King had snuffed out more than ninety percent of his memories before his replica met its end. Only fragments of falsehood intermixed with truth remained to bewilder Lu Yun. Anything regarding the truth of existence and the endless reincarnation loops had been erased. That was the most important that could not be divulged—not even a hint.
Everything was either a game or its rules in the Curse King’s eyes, be it immortal dao, the worlds, or destroying the Hongmeng. It was critically important that the game pieces remain unaware of their reality.
Herein lay the problem.
The Curse King didn’t know the truth about this world either! He’d brought curse dao into Myriadsea World and attempted to devour the Sea Lord to create a world of curse dao sequence.
He’d been deceived by this world too!
“Can it be…” Lu Yun didn’t dare see this line of reasoning through. He didn’t know what to think anymore. The world he could see was large enough, but the realm monster and the altar’s origin were far beyond his zone of comprehension. He couldn’t reconcile the circ.u.mstances against the backdrop of his understanding.
Lu Yun’s brows furrowed ever more deeply and two faint flames appeared in his eyes.
“Master?” Qi Fengyun gently pushed Lu Yun when he saw the young man’s expression turn dark.
Lu Yun shuddered and snapped back to his senses.
“Holy s.h.i.+t, that was close!” Cold sweat poured from his brow. The realm monster—or rather, the altar—had invaded his mind and nearly stirred up his internal demons! If they’d taken effect, he would’ve died to a heart engulfed in flames.
Thank goodness that Qi Fengyun had noticed something amiss and awoken him at a crucial moment!
“Master, what is it?” Qi Fengyun asked compulsively. His master had undoubtedly derived the truth behind the altar and this world. He was very, very curious.
“Just a ghost,” Lu Yun sneered. “I acted very carefully before because I didn’t know what kind of parasite had attached to the realm monster. Now that we know, there’s nothing to worry about.
“I leave Immortal Nation to you, my disciple. I’m heading to Ruina.” Lu Yun vanished with a turn, leaving behind a baffled Qi Fengyun. No matter how many times the man operated formula dao, he came to the same results as before.
……
The immense underwater cavern beneath Ruina Immortal Nation wasn’t the real Ruina. The true Ruina was above the sea. The Sea Lord had so easily refined more than ninety percent of the orders around the area because this had been an endless sea to begin with. Ruina was the origin of the sea and its final resting place.
The sea here didn’t just represent Myriadsea World. It represented all of the seas and all of the worlds. Legend had it that those who died in the great sea ultimately found their way to the kingdom of Ruina, that it was the equivalent of h.e.l.l within the sea.
But that was just a myth. Since Lu Yun walked the path of h.e.l.l dao, he naturally knew that whether it was the sea, sky, or land, all beings belonged to h.e.l.l after death. His six h.e.l.ls had fully formed and were beginning to operate in tandem, overseeing the sequence of reincarnation within this realm. Once h.e.l.l dao reached perfection, Lu Yun would become the master of life and death in the Boundless Planes and control everything’s existence.
That was incredibly far off for now.
If the legends of Ruina were true, then its kingdom likely lay in ruins. Lu Yun suspected that the altar and the Ruina of Myriadsea World had something to do with that kingdom.
He’d attempted to create h.e.l.l dao before, but had never truly succeeded. That’d been overturned in Myriadsea World; he’d even created combat arts for h.e.l.l dao. These outcomes were proof enough that this world contained an imperceptible trace of h.e.l.l dao.
That trace was the final piece to the puzzle of his h.e.l.l dao. In addition, one of his Yama Kings confirmed his speculation that the Ruina of Myriadsea World was also the mythical kingdom of Ruina.
Xuanxi!
She was a shark spirit, the race rumored to be the masters of Ruina. The shark spirits of the world of immortals possessed great potential, but were themselves extremely weak. They’d essentially become the playthings of the good-for-nothings in the world, but Xuanxi was different.
After becoming an Envoy of Samsara and then a Yama King, her bloodline was fully activated and she demonstrated incredible talent that rivaled any of the other Yama Kings.
By now, Lu Yun was piecing everything together. While it seemed that he’d casually and randomly selected his Yama Kings, his actions had followed mysterious guidance from the Tome of Life and Death. The ten Yama Kings represented the ten different h.e.l.l daos, and Xuanxi represented the Ruina h.e.l.l dao.
Ruina h.e.l.l dao had appeared in Lu Yun’s dao long ago, but he was unable to glimpse the kingdom. He couldn’t see everything in full just yet, so here he was. The source of the infinite sea, its final destination, and a h.e.l.l that was the equivalent of the sea.
This was also an existence that soared above the endless reincarnation loops.
Lu Yun deployed the Boundless Step and covered a hundred million kilometers with one pace, making his way to the true heart of the world. It was a patch of seawater that was extremely far from land.
“The altar, realm monster, and Ruina are three independent ent.i.ties! The altar took the kingdom’s fragments and latched onto the realm monster, trying to turn it into Ruina so it could rebuild the kingdom,” Lu Yun murmured. “But since the kingdom has broken, it needs sustenance from sea dao. Thus, the Sea Lord arrived in this world to answer an unknown calling, but his sea dao is too weak to satisfy that altar. That’s why everything afterward happened!
“If the Sea Lord succeeds in devouring all of the great daos, then the world of dao sequence he manifests won’t be one of sea dao, but the kingdom of Ruina!
“The thing leeching off the realm monster will possess his body, just like the Curse King was possessed!”
Formula dao operated furiously in Lu Yun’s mind and his eyes shone brightly. His voice started off as gentle murmurings and built to ringing tones.
“But with immortal dao occupying Ruina, what was a perfectly laid plan has been knocked awry. Thus, that dead thing can’t sit still anymore and threw out bait, luring most of the dao beholders into Ruina so it can personally devour them and rebuild the kingdom.”
Lu Yun paused. There was a ma.s.sive vortex that spanned millions of kilometers beneath his feet, drinking in the waters around it. A blue-haired man with a fish tail stood above it; he wielded a crystalline-blue metal bident and looked quietly at Lu Yun.
The Sea Lord!