Necropolis Immortal

The Immortal Pagoda immediately became the center of Cloudexit attention when it issued the mission and associated bounty. Never-ending goodwill streamed to the building from all directions, converging on the Karmic Tree in hell.

Fruit instantly blossomed in aureate glory on its almost bare branches. Tianqi’s tree also developed in a healthier direction; flowers of merit bloomed over its smaller branches. Tianqi’s cultivation level was currently at peak eternal overlord and he wasn’t far off from becoming a sovereign of the chaos.

……

A hundred thousand black robed enforcers had come to Cloudexit City to bolster the Enforcer Alliance’s prestige, but the Immortal Pagoda’s stunning bounty thoroughly overshadowed their might!

As irritated and angry they might be, there was nothing the enforcers could do about it. The pagoda’s actions were selfless and for the greater good. Exchanging valuable purple crystals for unusable ghost crystals? That was just throwing money into the sewer.

And yet, the mission spurred Hongmeng cultivators to take proactive action and even stoked passion in arcane beasts. Many arcane beast kings could be sighted in Cloudexit City these days.

Lu Yun didn’t return to Cloudexit City; he continued journeying along the border of Cloudruin and Starspace Region. The ghost crystals that the Skyfall King collected were transported to him through the Tome of Life and Death.

Faint silver flashed through his eyes as the nigh illusory flame of order finally condensed into a wisp of true fire after consuming more than fifty billion ghost crystals.

Though the wisp was thinner than a thousandth of a strand of hair, it was still a bonafide flame.

“It took fifty billion ghost crystals and two from ghost kings to temper my flame of order to this degree. If I want it to become a lively fire and then form the hell of order… I won’t be able to do so even if I empty out Redbud Mountain,” Lu Yun murmured to himself. “But my judgment was correct. If I become a titled king now and coalesce my dao rules, this wisp of order will be consumed by my dao rules and integrated into them. I won’t be able to walk that path anymore.

“Therefore, I can’t become a king before it fully evolves.”

“What are you talking about?” Li Zhen shoved his head next to Lu Yun’s.

“Many of the Immortal Pagoda’s experts are in Cloudexit City now, why aren’t you cozying up to them? Why follow me?” Lu Yun asked with resignation instead of answering the young man.

“Because I’m afraid you’ll run off! Little princess Qing Ting is also following you, why don’t you lecture her too?” Li Zhen harrumphed.

“I’m different.” Qing Ting drew herself up proudly. “My brother told me to follow him, and I can also protect him.”

“I can protect the Champion Duke too!” Li Zhen grinned lopsidedly. “My third uncle taught me the clan’s ultimate move—Dragonslay—before he left. Once I master the technique and deploy it with my ghost-headed blade, I might be able to fight kings!”

“The two of you, protect me? I might be the one protecting you when trouble arrives.” Lu Yun casually dispatched a roving ghost and put its crystal into his seed storage.

There were many ghosts here and though they didn’t travel in packs, they frequently appeared out of nowhere.

Qing Ting sent out her king grade flying sword instead of responding, directing it to sweep through the air like a scythe of death. Li Zhen busied himself with practicing his new technique with his blade.

Lu Yun half rolled his eyes at the two and fell silent as well, looking to Starspace Region in the distance.

The Meteorite King didn’t drop any crystals when I killed him. He comes from the mausoleum in the skies, which means that the Moon King and related ghosts have different origins. He mused over the situation at hand, comparing the differences between the Meteorite King and their enemy.

“But what is the Moon King trying to do? Redbud Mountain is the foremost dragon of the realm, so it’s no surprise she’s scheming after it, but what is she trying to do now?

“…hang on!” Lu Yun’s expression shifted with shock and he frowned at the shadowed Starspace Region. “The region’s layout is beginning to change into that of a tomb’s! It’s the layout of… a… ghost tomb!”

He shuddered in spite of himself. Humans had human tombs, immortals had immortal tombs, and ghosts had ghost tombs.

Ghost tombs weren’t meant to lay their dead to rest. It was their home and a place to breed more ghosts. Ordinary ghosts didn’t require one, and based on Lu Yun’s calculations, neither did a ghost king like the Moon King.

“The Moon King is summoning a mightier ghost king! We can’t let her succeed, or the dozen regions around Starspace will be annihilated!” Lu Yun looked a bit sick at the implications.

The ghost tomb had yet to fully take form. Once it did, Starspace Region would immediately become the nest of all ghosts in the Hongmeng and give them roots in this realm.

The Moon King’s long laid plans most likely culminated in this ghost tomb. Perhaps her machinations on Redbud Mountain were just a decoy so that the heavyweights of the Hongmeng wouldn’t pay attention to Starspace Region.

Indeed, the strongest heavyweights at Cloudexit City and nearby cities were only a few sixth step kings.

“Once the ghost tomb forms, it’ll be a piece of cake for the Moon King to conquer Redbud Region. We have to stop her! …hmm? They’re back!”

Hummm.

Cerulean blue radiance soared into the sky within Starspace Region and killed all of the ghosts in its path. It came from a towering mountain of intersecting blue and purple. Waves of sword aura emitted from it, sweeping through a hundred million kilometers like a gigantic whirlwind.

The turbulence traveled all the way to Cloudexit City, several billion kilometers away.

“That’s… Purple Stellar Mountain of the Immortal Pagoda! Isn’t it supposed to be in Multitude City? When did it go to Starspace Region?”

“So the Immortal Pagoda sent its people to the region a long time ago!” General astonishment reigned at its appearance.

The mountain was uncommonly heavenly and flared with the sword qi of Stellar Light Magneticus. Jinse held it aloft, protecting Hua Fengwen, Dusksnow Morningstar, and a bedraggled Zhuo Bufan within.

There was no one else alive inside the region apart from them.

The Beast King and others had died, resurrected, and reentered Starspace Region countless times. Lu Yun couldn’t be bothered to send them back in after a while. After all, their resurrection through the Tome of Life and Death consumed karmic fruits.

Thus, the Beast King and other kings had returned to the City of Immortals to continue expanding its territory.

“That’s Jinse, the seventh step king of the Immortal Pagoda!” Someone immediately recognized her when she emerged from Starspace Region.

“Ghosts!!” Zhuo Bufan suddenly turned around and howled, “If I don’t destroy you and take revenge for my father, I, Zhuo Bufan, swear that I am less than human!”