Chapter 1686: Foundations of Dao
“How does it feel?” A voice rang in Lu Yun’s ear as soon as he set foot into the gloom. A smiling Sea Lord Haidong Lin suddenly appeared next to the young man.
Lu Yun had taken only one step into the darkness, but the light behind him had completely gone out. There was no order here; all of the laws and rules were a tangled disarray. Or rather, it could be better said that rules and law without order were no longer rules and laws, but another existence entirely.
“I feel like I’m drowning,” Lu Yun carefully observed his body. “It’s the sensation of someone who lives on land venturing into water. No matter how comfortable around water I may be, only despair can be found in a world that is solely water.
“All things in existence have their counterpart. Where there is order, there is also disorder. Light is accompanied by the dark—such is what is decreed by the order of opposition. This isn’t a world that lacks order, it shows the other side of order. This follows the laws of opposition.” Two beams of black light radiated from Lu Yun’s eyes and concentrated the Disordered Hell’s strength onto his body, removing the perception of him drowning.
The Disordered Hell within the six paths of hell dao was one that could both suppress disorder and become it. Hell dao was a path of the darkness to begin with. Since Lu Yun cultivated it, he could naturally walk freely in the gloom.
Of course, he wasn’t fool enough to really explore the darkness by himself. The Sea Lord was one of the strongest powerhouses in Fairylands and he dearly wished to return home. Thus, Lu Yun traveled with him to navigate through the darkness and locate an unknown land of order on the other side.
The labels of known and unknown expanses were names used by creatures on this side of the darkness. From the other side, they called where Lu Yun was from the primary worlds. Worlds where the Sea Lord and Jian Bu’er hailed from were formed from the fragments of broken Major Cycle Worlds. Thus, they called themselves secondary worlds.
The lands of darkness separated the primary from the secondary worlds.
……
“Do you mean that it’s reasonable for the darkness to exist?” The Sea Lord paused and frowned slightly at Lu Yun’s elaboration, disagreeing with what he heard.
“No, their existence is not rational.” Lu Yun shook his head. “Light and dark, order and disorder should face off against each other in an equal balance of power.” His brows furrowed in thought and he drew a Taiji diagram. “They should oppose each other like this.”
Although they were in a land of darkness, neither the Sea Lord nor Lu Yun was affected by the gloom. Their consciousness could clearly observe each other and their surroundings.
There was only darkness here, nothing else.
“Um…” the Sea Lord blinked.
“It’s very illogical that the darkness has invaded the light, and that disorder has crept into order.” Lu Yun shook his head with resignation. “Anyhow, everything about this world is wrong, so who cares about all that.”
What he meant by “everything” was how this part of existence kept repeating the same things in an endless loop.
“I don’t know the way, so take me to the other side,” he said to Haidong Lin.
“Very well.” Haidong Lin was left baffled by Lu Yun’s words, but he didn’t pursue things further. He took Lu Yun with him via a wave of his hand and vanished on the spot.
Since there was no order here, all laws and rules were in disarray. They couldn’t make use of outside forces and had to rely on themselves—ergo, the power of sequence. Since sequence experts had access to a world of sequence, so they could draw upon the power of their world.
Although Nihil World Sovereigns could also travel through the darkness, they had no hope of surviving once they were inside the murk.
“So there is indeed life inside the dark.” Lu Yun could send out his mind without reservation when under Haidong Lin’s protection. At the same time, his hell dao began absorbing power from the darkness around them.
It was also a form of power. Only in the gloom would everything become disorderly and without order.
“Can those things actually be called life?” Haidong Lin laughed ruefully.
“This darkness is definitely formed from the order of opposition. There is always life under an order.” Lu Yun suddenly thought of Azure Dragon Lake in the Hongmeng. A terrifying destructive force had appeared in the lake due to the order of opposition. The same situation existed in the darkness and set it against the light.
“That’s right!” Lu Yun’s eyes lit up and his mental state transcended its current limits to undergo a metamorphosis. His cultivation advanced rapidly as well. He could now see the existence of sequence!
“I know now!” He couldn’t help but shriek and caper wildly with laughter. This was spontaneous enlightenment, and he’d obtained it right after entering the darkness!
“Quiet! Do you want to die?!” Haidong Lin jumped with shock and slapped his hand over Lu Yun’s mouth. His jaw dropped when he realized that the young man had experienced spontaneous enlightenment.
“What, what, what did you just perceive?” Haidong Lin couldn’t understand what kind of perverse genius this human was.
Lu Yun had been a World Manifest when they first met, but he’d risen to Nihil World Sovereign in a scant hundred years and now comprehended the existence of sequence.
What a monster!
“The so-called darkness and disorder isn’t what existed before the creation of order.” Lu Yun took a deep breath of air that didn’t exist and explained slowly, “This gloom and the order here are also part of the Boundless Planes. They should’ve existed around the planes, but something’s moved them here!
“The darkness is order and so is the disorder. It’s just a counter-order according to the principles of opposition!
“After cultivating hell dao, I should aim to construct an actual hell. I’ve been pondering where to build it, but now that I’m here, I know! This is where the hell should be!
“The land of darkness is the foundation for my dao. I’m going to build a real hell here and combine the six hells into one, into a true hell!”
“You…” Haidong Lin swallowed hard and murmured, “So do we still go to the secondary worlds then?”
“Of course!” Lu Yun scratched his head. “This is just a thought, a plan. With my current level of strength, I’ll be eaten by whatever’s behind the Curse King, Poison King, Kun and Peng Sovereign Kings.
“Plus, the most critical thing to tackle right now is to find the Imperial Seal.”
“Why do you trust me so much that you’d have me follow you to the secondary worlds?” Haidong Lin finally couldn’t contain his curiosity.
“I don’t, Lin Mo does,” Lu Yun was blunt. “She told me to take you with me.”
etvolare's Thoughts
Ah... yeah that's pretty blunt, Lu Yun.