Chapter 1975 – Watching From A Hilltop While Two Tigers Fight
Jin Huo stared dumbly at Lu Yun for a prolonged period of time before she nodded with a rueful smile.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect the two of you while you are in the burial mound.”
The elder giant had used an unknown method to place Chu Xun into a deep sleep; she slumbered in Lu Yun’s arms. When the young man stripped out the last hint of the order of life from her body, it enabled her to break free of a certain fate.
At the same time, it inflicted essential damage to the young girl. As Lu Yun gazed upon a face that so closely resembled Jin Huo’s, he strongly wondered whether Chu Xun was a manifestation of one of Jin Huo’s soul parts.
“Is he still alive?” she suddenly asked.
“Who?” Lu Yun paused.
“Him.” She pointed at the beating heart behind her.
“The tree god?” Lu Yun realized. “Perhaps… he’ll come back to life when the Land of Reincarnation is reactivated.”
The tree god had died in the Land of Reincarnation. Due to the land’s unique attributes, all things within the land cycled continuously through a loop of death and rebirth. If one died in a previous cycle, one would be reborn in the next and repeat the actions they had undertaken before. One experienced a never ending continuation of the same birth, development, and death.
Even if some inhabitants saw through the nature of the Land of Reincarnation and could anticipate what was to come, no one could shake off the control that such a vast and indomitable power exerted over them. If the reincarnation cycles were to begin anew, then the tree god who’d died in this cycle would return once more.
He was currently thoroughly dead and dispersed to the four corners. Not even Lu Yun could resurrect him, but the Land of Reincarnation could. His primary goal in recreating the land was to attempt to bring the tree god back to life.
Although a new Land of Reincarnation wouldn’t be the same as the previous one, Lu Yun had once journeyed through thirty-three loops. If he added formula dao to the power of reincarnation in his grasp, he could truly reproduce the past Land of Reincarnation!
Just for the tree god!
Thus, the key to all of this was painting the land anew, and the crux of that step was the god of Mount Tai.
The mountain god was in the ancient burial mound!
“The Land of Reincarnation…” Jin Huo frowned slightly. “The primordial heavenly emperor wanted to imitate the long-vanished reincarnation, to make a world that repeated without end so injured heavyweights could rest and recover within.
“Did he… succeed?” She looked at Lu Yun.
“He did,” the young man nodded. “But I ended it, so I need to create a new one and you have to help me.”
Jin Huo spread out her hands. The vibrant branch that was the former withered wood rested quietly on her palms. She raised it to her cheek and gently closed her eyes.
Lu Yun stared when he saw her expression. It seemed likely that… the tree god and Jin Huo had been dao partners. If not dao partners, then two souls who shared an intimate relationship. Why else would the fragments of her soul reside in the heart of life? The heart had been the tree god’s heart in his past life.
“Very well, I’ll help you.” She carefully put the small branch away and looked up with resolution. “The god of Mount Tai, is it?”
“Correct,” Lu Yun nodded. “We need to capture the mountain god and use his hell dao as the catalyst to manifest another Land of Reincarnation. But be careful, the Disordered Empyrean Supreme has come back to life as well. Her goal is also the mountain god.”
“The Disordered Empyrean Supreme?” Jin Huo frowned faintly. “That must be the little princess’ doing.”
“The little princess?” Lu Yun blinked, then immediately realized that she could only be referring to Yun Yi. That rather made him curious, however. He’d met the primordial heavenly emperor before and that personage didn’t seem to be an incredibly ambitious visionary. Although he was dead and a ghost, one could glean from certain bits and pieces that he hadn’t been a mighty leader in life.
But Lu Yun thought things through in the next second.
If the primordial heavenly emperor had been a premier sovereign of his time, would his court have been destroyed before it reached its peak?
The primordial heavenly emperor was a stunning genius and an empyrean supreme—one of the few of the chief worlds—but he hadn’t been an ideal leader.
In the same vein, Lu Yun wasn’t leadership material—but he was well aware of his shortcomings. He always found the right person to leave his business to so he could return to the task of clearing the way.
But the primordial heavenly emperor… hadn’t had that kind of self awareness. He was a genius, not a general. That was why his court had toppled over before it reached its potential.
Yun Yi, on the other hand, was a very qualified leader. It was why those who knew her true gender still hailed her the crown prince, as opposed to a regular princess.
“The Disordered Empyrean Supreme has also led a hard life. She entered the Infinite Deorc for the chief worlds, returning with one of their ultimate treasures and a stolen bit of disorder. She cultivated disorder in the chief worlds, turning her into her namesake.
“A pity…” Jin Huo sighed.
“A pity indeed.” Lu Yun understood. All of the great personages had their own schemes in play, their ambitions, and their burdens. The ultimate treasure that she’d seized was likely the Master of Darkness. As for how it’d found its way into Moran Dongning’s mother’s hands… Lu Yun had no way of telling.
“The god of Mount Tai should be close by. This is the heart of the ancient burial mound,” Jin Huo said. “The burial mound should have collapsed on itself and buried everything here. The tree god used his past self to ensure it still stood.”
“Why did Yun Yi open the burial mound?” Lu Yun still had no idea. She’d obviously planned it for a very long period of time and with her abilities, it was impossible for her to be unaware that the human race here could not leave the tomb.
“I don’t know either,” Jin Huo shook her head. Her expression shifted as a thought struck her. “The battle between the humans and cultivators of the outside world is about to begin. What are your plans?”
“That has nothing to do with me,” Lu Yun furrowed his brows tightly.
“Don’t you want to stop them from clashing?” Jin Huo looked strangely at him.
“What’s the point in that?” He shook his head. “The humans here cannot leave and those grand supremes want nothing more than my utter annihilation. I’d thought there was some room for coexistence between them and the World of Immortals. But now… let us watch from a hilltop while two tigers fight.”