The Divine Seaquell Staff!

The sight of it immediately set Lu Yun’s heart ablaze. It was made of the same material as the Divine Seaward Iron, which he’d ultimately used as Black Emperor’s main component.

The Divine Seaward Iron had been a cherished treasure of the blackwater snakes; now it was clear that a formidable powerhouse must have obtained it in the ancient times by cutting off a section of the giant ape’s iron staff. It’d then been refined sometime down the line into the seal-like Divine Seaward Iron.

If Lu Yun could take the staff for himself, he could sacrifice the souls of a few enemies and mass produce Black Emperor-class cannons. At that time, anyone standing in his way would be welcomed with a cannon shot to the face!

The hundred and eight peerless immortals had completed the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons and trapped the fearsome ape inside it. Lu Yun didn’t take charge of the grand formation this time, but left everything to the peerless immortals themselves.

The giant ape swung his staff in a savage dance inside the formation, roaring all the while as he fended off the four peak arcane dao immortals besieging it. However, the power of the land interfered with the connection between him and the fiery cape. As a result, the cape’s aura slowly waned.

“Concentrate on suppressing the treasure!” roared the remaining three powerhouses surrounding the cape.

……

Protected by Situ Zong, Lu Yun retreated from the battlezone. The energies generated by the clash of multiple arcane dao immortals were too powerful. Stray shock blasts alone would be powerful enough to pulverize him into fine powder.

Unconstrained fighting between pinnacle powerhouses was destroying increasing swathes of the cemetery. One after another, zombies, immortal ghosts, and other strange undead creatures crawled out of their graves, quickly turning the cemetery into a chaotic battlefield.

“You’d better forget about robbing that golden ape.” All of a sudden, Empress Myrtlestar appeared beside Lu Yun and draped him in a layer of protective starmist.

Lu Yun finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Qing Han had lost contact with the empress a while ago. After the empress had entered the phoenix nest and been swallowed by the sacrificial altar, the nest had severed the connection between them.

There was now an external force interfering with this area in turn. He’d tried to use the Path of Ingress to forcibly tear a rift through space earlier, but still couldn’t get in touch with Qing Han. Thankfully, he could rely on the Tome of Life and Death to contact his own Envoys of Samsara.

“What’s that?” Lu Yun’s eyes suddenly sparkled. To be sealed here by the Nineqilin Coffinbiers and used as the source of the two-headed zombie’s power meant the golden ape was nowhere near a harmless, benevolent creature.

“A Fiend Beast, Scarlet Ape.” Empress Myrtlestar spat out the name.

“Scarlet Ape?” Lu Yun blinked. He searched Xingzi’s memories to find the name.

“They’re an already extinct species. Compared to their Primordial Era brethren, the bloodline of the species is now mixed and impure. Rather than a Fiend Beast, contemporary Scarlet Apes can be at best called immortal beasts possessing the bloodline of the Scarlet Ape… However, the one in front of us is a pureblood, through and through,” Empress Myrtlestar explained. “So do not even think about it. The ape’s roots are too deep and its causality too great. Nothing good will come from provoking it.”

“It’s a little too late for that,” Lu Yun responded somewhat helplessly. “I’m the one who set it free. Also, look at the staff in its hands. See that severed end? I’ve already refined that into one of my treasures.”

The empress stared into space.

“Anyway, causality or whatever, I’ve never been afraid of things like that. Causality, hehehe….”

So-called causality was a special kind of force born when goodwill, karma, virtuous merit, and retribution were mixed together.

Causality. Plainly put, cause was always followed by consequence. Said consequence could be good or bad, but Lu Yun could rely on the Sal Tree of Life and Death as well as hellfire to digest those consequences. Hellfire in particular was a delightful tool for bad karma that could dissolve retribution and cut off causality.

I need to somehow get this iron staff. That said, this big fellow isn’t easy to handle, so cutting off part of it will also do.

Scarlet Ape?

Xingzi’s memories imparted to him what a Fiend Beast was. Back in her time, these apes had been one of the strongest races in the world, on par with the three great royal tribes of the shamanic race. In an era dominated by the shamans, these apes had stood head and shoulders above dragons and phoenixes.

Lu Yun turned around and looked a little sheepishly at Empress Myrtlestar.

“That’s Seaquell, a divine treasure from the legends. It’s a staff that’s even harder than connate weapons. How exactly am I supposed to cut off a part of it?” replied the empress with a wry smile.

“With this?” Lu Yun took out the Sugato Sword.

“Not enough. The Sugato Sword is one of the finest manmade weapons, but the connate treasure it’s said to have broken was also said to have been defective. It will shatter the moment it runs into something like Seaquell.” The empress shook her head.

While Lord Sugato had been a formidable powerhouse in the primordial times, he was, in the end, only an ingress realm immortal. Although it was a mighty treasure, his Sugato Sword couldn’t cut through an extraordinary weapon of legend like Seaquell.

“What about this, then?” Lu Yun brought out a ninth-rank immortal sword that was glowing with a haze violet: Violetgrave.

Empress Myrtlestar’s figure shivered imperceptibly. Plainly, she wanted nothing to do with this malicious weapon that devoured its previous owners.

“Don’t worry, it’s asleep. It won’t eat you.” Lu Yun squeezed out a chuckle when he noticed her expression, but the empress’ expression remained stony, obviously refusing to reconsider.

“I will give you this instead, so forget about the staff.” She deposited a pair of silver eyes in Lu Yun’s hands.

It was also a connate treasure known as the Cosmic Eyes. Belonging to the same set as the Cosmic Skycarver and the Cosmic Sea, they’d once belonged to the dragon empress. But now, the will of the dragon empress had completely dissipated, so they’d naturally landed in the Empress Myrtlestar’s hands.

Lu Yun accepted the eyes and casually tossed them into hell, but his gaze remained riveted on the Scarlet Ape that was currently battling four mighty opponents.

Huff!

All of a sudden, the ape opened its mouth wide and breathed a golden-red tongue of flame, aiming it straight at the arcane dao immortal in front of him. At the same time, ripples of black water surged from Seaquell, forming a massive wave.

Sooner than one could realize, the surrounding area turned into a world of water, followed by intense flames blossoming from the water world!

Boom!

The giant ape’s staff caught the arcane dao immortal off guard and landed squarely on his head. Black beads flew out with an explosion of brain matter, his eight arcane dao fruits scattering into the air.

“Keke—” The Scarlet Ape growled at the sky before opening its mouth wide and sucking the eight fruits straight into its belly. Its hair instantly became brighter and its presence grew even more powerful.

“This is bad!” Canghai Xi and the other two remaining people gaped in horror. “This brute cultivates fire and water attributes at the same time!”

However, the Scarlet Ape no longer paid them any attention. Instead, it swung its staff once again, this time aiming it at the Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Demons in the sky.

Crack!

The formation immediately shattered, and one hundred and eight peerless immortal coughed up blood as they fell from the sky.

Roar!!

The Scarlet Ape howled again as the scarlet, flame-like cape finally broke free of the three dao immortals’ suppression. Streaking into a multicolored rainbow, it landed on the ape’s back.