Lu Yun’s manifested water god wasn’t all that strong, and in fact, was almost on par with himself. However, the two dragons that water god Gonggong used for shoes were the two dragon veins beneath the tomb of the immortal emperor. They were almost ancestral veins and possessed incredible might. Combined with the Dragonshift Method, Lu Yun was temporarily able to bestow greater strength to his manifestation than it would otherwise wield.

This also brought to him a stroke of inspiration at the same time, leading his understanding of the nascent spirit observation method to new heights.

Observation with the nascent spirit didn’t just result in using the power of the world to project whatever was being studied; he could also create form by borrowing from others.

……

Dark-green radiance shimmered over the golden-armored warrior when he discarded the look of a bean soldier for his original appearance of a youth in green robes.

“There’s a scar in the deepest reaches of its true spirit. If you can cause it to flare up again, you’ll be able to seriously injure it!” he quickly spoke up when he saw Lu Yun rush over.

“I can’t trigger its old injury, not at the moment,” Lu Yun’s response sounded in his mind. “If I cause it to act up again, then this divine spirit really will become a fat lamb for the slaughter. All of the things that go bump in the night will come charging out to claim ownership of it.”

The youth started.

“I’ve already discovered the demon god’s presence, at the very least. He’s lurking in the dark, waiting to take advantage of whatever prime opportunity shows itself!” Lu Yun sneered. “If he can divide himself into two, then he can divide himself into three! I’m willing to bet that him undergoing his tribulation is just another smokescreen—his real goal is the pair of kidneys!”

The organs of heaven and earth!

Xing Chen already possessed two, but they were completely concealed via Holy Lord Ashu’s special methods, thereby evading detection by others. The kidneys here didn’t possess that kind of cover, and as such, Lu Yun was sure that there were many eyeing it up.

For one, the demon god didn’t currently have a body and there weren’t many in the world that he could take. The Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign was one possible candidate, but the divine spirit born of the kidneys was undoubtedly one of the most suitable.

An organ of heaven and earth was no small matter. If one could assimilate such an organ, it was highly likely that they would be able to transform into a world themselves.

……

Kui water vapor had formed an ocean in front of them, and though it was so dark as to be impenetrable, it’d still taken on some of the translucent qualities of water.

Lu Yun and the youth in green both approached the coffin of the immortal emperor. It’d once been a blazing sun, washing over the main chamber with solar radiance. Now that the Sol Truefire had departed, its true form was available for all to see.

It was a flower.

A golden flower still in bud form that’d been chiseled into the shape of a coffin.

“Emperor Sunflower!” Lu Yun went slack-jawed with shock upon seeing it. “The last of the ten great spirit roots—the Emperor Sunflower!”

There were ten connate spirit roots in the world, the greatest of which was the Chaos Lotus and speculated to belong to genius Ling Rumeng of the Ling Clan, the one who’d summoned a lotus for her phenomenon of ascension.

Qing Yu herself possessed three of them—the Fusang Purewood ranked at number three, Moon Osmanthus at number six, and Embittered Bamboo at number seven.

Number ten was now right before Lu Yun’s eyes!

The Emperor Sunflower was a flower akin to the blazing sun, nurturing within it an incandescence and heat that was greater than the full sun. Legend had it that the Emperor Sunflower and Fusang Purewood came from the same origins, that the two spirit roots were twins of nature.

The Fusang Purewood had been Empress Myrtlestar’s treasure, while the Emperor Sunflower had been the principal ingredient that enabled the immortal emperor’s body and Sol Truefire to lie in state.

“The divine spirit is inside the Emperor Sunflower. It wants to draw on the spirit root’s energy, and if it ends up eating the spirit root, both fire and water will coexist in it. It’ll be an entity of both yin and yang then, a being that rivals the human lords of the Primeval Era!” The dire consequences of the situation suddenly struck the youth. “Hurry and stop it, the Emperor Sunflower’s strength is healing the sword wound in its body!”

No one had dreamed that the emperor’s coffin would be sculpted out of a spirit root!

Hiss hiss hiss.

Serpentine sibilance traveled out of the water domain as enormous black snakes slithered out of the coffin. Jaws extended and blue venom glinting off their fangs, they leapt at Lu Yun and the youth.

“Don’t let those water snakes bite you! That’s poison of the nascent spirit!” Lu Yun found mention of these snakes from Xingzi’s memories. Their poison wouldn’t harm the physical body, only the nascent spirit. In fact, the nascent spirit would instantly die if even grazed with this poison.

Lu Yun wasn’t afraid; his current body was a projection to begin with and the nascent spirit it harbored was nothing but a strand of his six paths. But if the youth next to him suffered a bite, there would be no recourse for him, not even from the overlord of hell.

In Xingzi’s memories, there was no antidote for a water snake’s poison. One bite was sufficient to pierce through life, consign the nascent spirit to death, doom the true spirit, and wipe out the last traces of that being beneath the heavens.

“Nascent spirit poison!” gasped the youth and flung himself out of the way, narrowly evading a water snake in the process.

Whoosh.

The next moment, the water snakes released their blue venom and dyed the waters a rich blue.

“Out of the way!” Gonggong grabbed the youth and threw him to safety over his shoulder.

Whoosh!!

Emerald flames erupted from the water god’s hands and blazed furiously in the ocean, purifying the yin waters. They then formed a ferocious snake of fire that churned toward the group of water snakes.

Screeches burbled in the waters as the water snakes were exterminated.

“Impossible! What’s going on here? How can Gonggong use fire?! If you learned Gonggong’s methods, how can you then use fire?! Don’t you know that water and fire are incompatible?!” exploded a roar of exasperated rage from the coffin. An enormous head extended from the petals of the Emperor Sunflower and fixed a vengeful glare on Gonggong.

Lu Yun was only projecting the ancient water god with his nascent spirit observation method, he wasn’t actually using the god’s water methods. Two of his Yama Kings—Cangyin and Su Xiaoxiao—were characters of the Primordial Era, so they’d both seen Gonggong with their own eyes before.

As the patriarch of the water qilins, Cangyin had once conversed and shared insights about dao and cultivation with the water god. Thus, it was the easiest thing for Lu Yun to manifest Gonggong. His nascent spirit observation method was newly formed, so no one else knew about it apart from the Venerated Sacrosanct Demon Sovereign.

Whatever was in the Emperor Sunflower had simply thought someone practicing Gonggong’s methods had arrived, so seeing Lu Yun unexpectedly deploy Emerald Mistfire greatly alarmed it with the unwelcome development.

“And here I was, wondering what manner of great personage you’d be. You’re just an old fart of a snake spirit…” sneered Lu Yun. His body underwent tremendous changes in the next second and he became a giant wreathed in flames—Zhurong!

Fwoosh!

The Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and Daevic Skyfire spontaneously ignited on him, burning so brilliantly that the connate kui water energy couldn’t douse the flames.

“The methods of the Zhurong Clan! Celestial Master Zhang’s three immortal fires!” shrieked the snake spirit in the flower. “Mercy, oh great one! This little monster spirit didn’t know of the venerated one’s arrival! Please spare this humble spirit, oh hallowed master!”