The monster ancestor’s tomb contained part of the ancestor’s soul, and as it happened, the little fox was missing part of her soul. That explained why she was so cowardly, despite being a golden immortal. She was as timid as a mouse, jumping with fright from the slightest scare.

“If the tomb is indeed on this island, then it’s definitely in Myriad Returns City.”

The city at the center of the monster spirits’ sacred land was where the monster ancestor had once resided, but now… it’d crashed into the inner sea, its whereabouts unknown.

The small fox wanted to burst into tears.

“There was no tomb on the floating peak.” Lu Yun declared with perfect timing and great certainty. “I’d already scoured Myriad Returns City and the rest of the floating peak, and saw no tomb.”

He’d expressly used his luopan when visiting the floating peak, but didn’t find the existence of an ancient tomb.

“Strange, the floating island’s gone now.”

Levitating Island was now a barren ruin and the inner sea had recovered its serenity, but the floating peak was nowhere to be seen. The small fox’s Myriad Returns Formation was on the isle, so Lu Yun had originally planned to take it with him and store it in hell. If Feinie could study the formation and understand its inner workings, it would perhaps help her achieve a breakthrough.

But the peak had disappeared, as if it’d never fallen into the inner sea to begin with. Even the two zombies had vanished.

They were born of the corpse coffins and had once been members of the Exalted Divine Tribe. Incomparably powerful when alive, they’d touched the limits of the dao immortal realm. Though hit by the crystal mountain, their bodies hadn’t been destroyed. The impact had merely sent their giant selves to the bottom of the sea. Yet somehow, they were now impossible to find.

Even if they were dead, there should’ve been bodies left behind, but all of the zombies seemed to have vanished from the inner sea.

“The inner sea is connected to the skydragon tomb in the North Sea,” Diexi interjected. “I first met Xiaoxiao inside the skydragon tomb, but we somehow made our way to Levitating Island at some point in time.”

Lu Yun looked at Su Xiaoxiao. He’d obtained her memories in life, but not those she’d acquired after death. However, his new envoy looked confused as well.

“I don’t know what’s going on either…. That tomb is indeed connected to the skydragon tomb, but I haven’t the faintest idea how I got there, or how I came back.”

Lu Yun sighed softly. “Looks like there’s truly something afoot with this Levitating Island. The emergence of the skydragon tomb must also be related to this place.”

He brought out the luopan, employing the Dragonsearch Invocation and the cosmic feng shui method to survey the land. A sense of normalcy had returned to the island, but each and every layout related to the tomb had disappeared into thin air.

The formerly thriving Levitating Island, once a harbor of easy wealth for the entire North Sea, was now nothing more than a barren, ring-shaped island that held no value whatsoever.

……

“Levitating Island, Levitating Island is ruined!” A desolate scream reverberated in the sky. “The island is a key North Sea location, a symbol of our glory. How have things dissolved to this?!”

Gripped by the throes of insanity, Beigong Chonglou looked at the island in sheer disbelief. “Who are you people? How dare you destroy our island?!”

Lu Yun’s group was the first party he laid eyes on. Staring widely with fury, he arrived in front of them and loudly interrogated them.

Even after the floating peak’s destruction, the North Sea court’s foundations wouldn’t have been shaken as long as Levitating Island itself still stood. However, the island was now nothing but worthless rubble.

Next to Beigong Chonglou, a crowd of Corpse Refiners coolly observed the situation. Inside the ancient tomb, the prince had attacked them when possessed by an immortal ghost. Given the sect’s frequent dealings with the dead, they’d quickly realized the presence of ghostly involvement.

Once the ghost had been dispersed, they halted their attacks against Beigong Chonglou. It hadn’t been the prince who wanted to attack them, after all, and they needed his authority to enter the North Sea and explore the skydragon tomb.

“Beigong Chonglou!!” The corners of the Deaf Prince’s eyes split as soon as he saw the speaker. Dark red blood flowed out, a show of how enraged he was to see his adversary still alive and kicking. “You bastard, how are you still alive?! Go. Diiiiieeeee!!!”

The crystal mountain he’d put back appeared once again, whistling through the air and crashing down onto Beigong Chonglou.

“Damn it!” Jin Heyi’s face fell.

Black mist shrouded his figure and eighteen pitch-black banners appeared around him, hovering in the air. Faster than one could blink, a dense, black fog sealed off the local section of space. The great crystal mountain collided ruthlessly with the fog, and then… rebounded back high into the sky!

Jin Heyi blanched, a trail of greyish-yellow blood visible at the corner of his mouth.

“Wh-what?!” The Deaf Prince stared in disbelief. How could an all-out attack from the crystal mountain be unable to pierce the strange, black fog?

“Again!!” he roared in fury. The crystal mountain crashed down once more, leaving a long trail of fire behind.

“Hehehe….” A sinister curve appeared on Jin Heyi’s lips. His skin turned grey as the eighteen banners shook lightly in the sky, quickly repositioning themselves while something alive seemed to flicker in and out of sight inside the black fog.

Bang!

When the mountain connected with the fog, a strange sound rang out. Then, the spiritual nature of the mountain seemed to vanish and it thudded to the ground in a cloud of dust.

“How is this possible?!” Flabbergasted, the Deaf Prince fell back several steps in succession, a violent shudder coursing down his spine.

“Those are Celestial Mistfield Banners!” Su Xiaoxiao turned grim. “One of the ten greatest defensive treasures of the immortal court… Wasn’t that supposed to have been destroyed? What’s it doing here? There’s a formation between them that’s turning the banners’ energy into dense eeriness....”

A member of the once ancient immortal court, a single glance was enough for her to recognize one of the court’s precious treasures.

“The banners have indeed been destroyed….” Lu Yun scowled as he looked at the eighteen banners flapping inside the black fog. “Or rather, they’ve become zombies.”

Zombies!

Even immortal weapons and treasures could turn into zombies in this world! For example, there’d been the countless zombie swords surrounding the Sword Barrow. The eighteen flags, like those swords, were indeed zombies as well. Lu Yun just couldn’t tell whether the change had occurred long ago, or if it’d been a recent development at the hands of Jin Heyi and the Corpse Refiners.

Thankfully, the full set of Celestial Mistfield Banners numbered one hundred and eight banners in total, but there were only eighteen of them at this moment. If all one hundred and eight were deployed…. No one in the entire world, not even the nine celestial emperors, would be able to breach their defenses. One of the greatest defensive treasures of the ancient immortal court wasn’t something that contemporary immortals could contend with.

Despite only eighteen banners deployed on the field, being augmented by a Great Formation of Corpse Refinement made the combination extremely potent.

“Lu Yun.” Jin Heyi didn’t press on after neutralizing the crystal mountain. “I said I’d wait for you to become an immortal, but your people had better not keep provoking me, or I might lose my patience.”

Clad in embroidered robes of satin and a jade belt, his skin had recovered its normal color and he was the picture of a noble scion from an opulent house.