Bang!

Space exploded, sending spatial fragments scattering in every direction. However, Lu Yun had already retracted the Path of Ingress. While the ape had shattered the void, it still couldn’t pursue the vanished treasure.

The ape put its staff away and extended its arm inside the void, grabbing Beigong Xuan.

“Talk!” Its tone was hoarse and its words carried a strange accent that was entirely different from modern speech in the immortal world. Quite obviously, it hadn’t been long since it’d learned the current language from the immortals it’d been battling moments before. “Who was that mewling human just now!”

Beigong Xuan twisted and transformed back into a snake in spite of himself, his eyes filled with fright.

“H-he’s called Lu Yun, the lord of Dusk Province in Nephrite Major!” Beigong Xuan shouted hastily, terrified that this fearsome fiend would pinch him dead.

“Nephrite Major, Dusk Province’s lord.” The ape flung Beigong Xuan’s giant figure away. “You may follow me, but from now on, you are forbidden to transform into a human. I hate humans! Monster spirits should look like monster spirits! Why should we fawn over and imitate humans?!”

“U-understood….” Beigong Xuan was a peak nine-fruit arcane dao immortal. While only eight arcane dao fruits were left inside him now, he was still stronger than others of the same level. Even so, he was nothing but an oversized loach in the Scarlet Ape’s hand.

……

The crowd finally heaved a sigh of relief when the last layer of space closed on itself. Canghai Xi flopped to the ground, his mouth wide open and heaving for breath, grateful to be still alive after such a narrow escape. Out of seven eight-fruit arcane dao powerhouses, three were dead!

Two had been smashed to death by the Scarlet Ape, while the third had been swallowed by Beigong Xuan. Such a loss was unprecedented in the history of the world. From now on, the factions behind those dead powerhouses would see their statuses plummet.

“Where did that monkey come from? Why is there such a terrifying living creature inside the dragon tomb?!” Canghai Xi murmured to himself while fighting for air. Someone as sharp-eyed as him had seen that the ape was a living being, not one of the zombies or ghosts roaming around.

He wouldn’t have been as surprised to see a living dragon or phoenix spring out of nowhere. After all, they’d already come across undead dragons and phoenixes—but an ape?

“It’s Lu Yun!” shouted the previous peerless immortal from the Ling Clan. “Lu Yun’s the one who unraveled the seal inside the dragon tomb and freed the giant monkey!”

All eyes landed on Lu Yun. Joining the group with Ge Long and Situ Zong, the Dusk lord had already stowed the Divine Glory.

The ghost tree had been eliminated, and the Blithe Entrapment Formation was back in its owner’s possession.

“Ling Yu!” Ling Zhen thundered at the immortal, “do you even know what you’re saying?”

“Ling Zhen, you ungrateful traitor! Do you even remember where you come from?!” The peerless immortal called Ling Yu sneered. “You’re the son of the patriarch, yet you shamelessly submitted to an enemy of our clan! Everyone here saw him enter the minor world, destroy its seal, and release the monkey!

“We’ve lost three peak powerhouses and more than ten thousand immortals in one go! We didn’t need to lose so many!” Ling Yu deftly dumped all responsibility squarely onto Lu Yun’s shoulders.

“Ling Yu, you can shut your mouth now,” coolly ordered the eight-fruit arcane Ling dao immortal. “This matter ends here. After we exit the tomb, all Ling disciples are forbidden from opposing Lu Yun, on pain of being branded a clan traitor!”

“What?!” Ling Yu blanched and stared dumbly at this great personage of his clan. “Forefather! Lu Yun murdered the hope of our clan, young master Ling Ruyu!”

“I have spoken. This. matter. ends. here! One more word and I’ll kill you,” glowered the arcane dao immortal.

Ling Yu’s heart shook and he fell silent, but deep resentment still glinted in his eyes.

“What’s the matter? Is the Ling Clan bowing their heads to Lu Yun?” After celebrating their narrow escape, the other immortals were now rather confused. Lu Yun had indeed been the one who’d released the big ape that’d killed more than ten thousand immortals and two peak powerhouses.

Moreover, it was no secret that the Ling Clan and Lu Yun were irreconcilable enemies. Ling Ruyu had been the clan’s rising star, the ray of hope that was supposed to prevent them from being eliminated in the new world order after the restoration of the void realm.

So why was the clan choosing to swallow their humiliation and call it quits? Minds reeled from the sudden development out of nowhere.

“I was on Immortal Sky Island when all this happened. Ling Ruyu coveted Lu Yun’s ship and chose to oppose the Dusk lord of his own accord. He has no one but himself to blame for his death. But… the Ling Clan has always been infernally overbearing. This isn’t the way they usually do things!”

“You bunch of fools,” an aether dao immortal sneered suddenly. “Lu Yun took one hundred and eight peerless immortals with him into the monster’s lair to slay the demon. If the demon didn’t die, none of you would have returned alive!”

Cheeks stinging from the verbal slap, the immortals glowered darkly at the aether dao immortal while Canghai Xi and the other three surviving powerhouses also looked at the Ling ancestor in confusion.

“None of this matters.” The Witherdew Emperor looked at Lu Yun, his tone leisurely. “The lord of Dusk Province possesses formidable talent and has created the Great Formation of Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends. As long as we find a method to integrate it with our bodies, we, too, can attain the realm of harmonizing ourselves with the world, just like a void-realm immortal.”

The newly arrived immortals gasped at the emperor’s words. Ling Yu, too, felt an icy grasp clench around his heart, as though he’d been drenched from head to toe in ice water.

Kill Lu Yun now? That’d be as good as declaring himself the enemy of every immortal in the world.

“Hmph! Are we to blindly trust his words? Who knows if it’s actually possible to integrate the formation into ourselves?” Ling Yu snorted one last parting shot before falling silent. Naturally, he wasn’t the only one to think this way; many others harbored the same doubts.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The entire dragon nest suddenly started to shake. Deafening explosions thundered one after another, as if the nest was being pummeled by a giant weapon. A rain of stone fragments cascaded from the ceiling as the dragon and phoenix nests began crumbling.

“What’s going on?!” The Witherdew Emperor’s expression sank and his somewhat weary figure snapped to attention.

“It’s the giant ape! He’s attacking the dragon tomb!” Canghai Xi shouted in fright. He was truly terrified of the Scarlet Ape. The creature’s staff had easily mashed two experts dead, neither of whom had been weaker than himself.

As for the one eaten by Beigong Xuan, well, the poor sap had just been really unlucky.

Crack!

Ugly fissures snaked through the tunnel walls in the dragon tomb.

“The tomb’s breaking! The North Sea’s probably going to become a ghost realm inhabited by the undead.... We’re leaving!” Lu Yun immediately called out the Divine Glory, rushed below the ghost tree to yank Qing Han out, then carried his friend aboard the ship.

……

Billions of tons of water sprayed skyward in the seas surrounding the North Sea’s capital, dusting throngs of nearby cultivators into ashes before they could react.

From below the surface shot a giant black iron staff, stirring all of the North Sea into raging waves that tore through the territory.

“Humans! Get out of the North Sea or die!” a hoarse snarl spread across the entirety of the North Sea.