Inert in Lu Yun’s arms, the little fox’s ears suddenly twitched gently before she blearily lifted her head and looked at Lu Yun with baby-blue eyes.

“Hongjun left a restriction in your true spirit, so you wouldn’t have really died.” Lu Yun caressed her head and winked at her.

Blinking, the little fox took a second to collect her bearings and then… scrambled out of Lu Yun’s arms and shot onto his head.

“Oh no, oh no, ohnonono. Dijiang has the Bell of Chaos!” She panicked, running ‘round and ‘round on Lu Yun’s head.

Lu Yun: ……

Daoist Yuyu: ……

Wahuang: ……

……

No one knew how or why the little fox had come back to life, but neither was anyone determined to get to the bottom of it. Maybe things were like what Lie Shan had said, that a great master by the name of Hongjun had left a restriction in her true spirit and spared her from succumbing to her injuries.

Those who were unfamiliar with the name looked around blankly, while those who had heard of it remained silent. No one was willing to pursue this mysterious existence that’d listed himself as a taboo.

The little fox was just as lively as before her resurrection, but she was a frantic mess. Too many secrets were sealed within the Bell of Chaos, including the Deaf Prince and the six others. If a divine weapon of time that didn’t belong to this day and age suddenly appeared in this eon, then it could very likely give rise to a series of horrifying events.

However, no one knew where Dijiang was. Even Leize wasn’t able to locate the demon god.

“Now that Dijiang has the bell, we probably won't be able to get it back even if we find him. In that case, let’s just see how things play out.” After musing over various possibilities, Lu Yun finally sighed and set it aside for now.

“Tianqi, I have matters to attend to and must leave the tribes for a while. You have a mission to carry out in my absence—ferret out any demon god who’s creating trouble for humans and kill them all. If you can’t, partner with Bingyi. If that still proves insufficient, go to Mount Buzhou and ask Her Majesty to take the field!” Lu Yun summoned his disciple.

Nuanzi had acknowledged his status and confirmed humanity as a peak race in the great wilderness. If there was any great master who still courted death even now and sowed discord among the tribes, then Lu Yun would do as Nuanzi had said and bring down the full might of his wrath upon them.

However, he wasn’t strong enough to easily sweep all of his enemies just yet. He could temporarily summon hellfire and bolster himself with it, but like he’d said in the earlier battle, Lu Yun was less than Nuanzi for now. He was less than even Dijiang, unless they happened to be in the netherdark and he was reinforced by the true Sea of Hellfire.

He had the faintest hunch that Fuxi’s return from the chaos would be the prelude to a heaven-shattering war. Perhaps demon god rule over the great wilderness would end in that war, and human dao might be… officially established.

Therefore, he really needed to get stronger.

However, he couldn’t cultivate in his Xing Chen replica. This body of the world had only come to be because Qing Yu had theorized the proper method to do so—refine the five divine treasures and nine connate spirit roots into him so that he could break through into the chaos realm.

The Dusk River, living soil, Traceless, corpsefire, and demonic tree were all in hand. In fact, they’d all melded into Xing Chen’s body thanks to their journey through spacetime. If Lu Yun could find the nine connate spirit roots in this era and continued to incorporate them, then Xing Chen’s strength would increase as a result.

The first one he thought of was the Constellation Willow. Luo Houluo was gravely injured thanks to his disciple, so now was the perfect time. However, Lu Yun needed to find Ling Weiyang first before doing anything. Ling Weiyang’s natural talents would help him locate the spirit root.

Meanwhile, the little fox sprawled on top of Lu Yun’s head and wouldn’t let go of his hair roots no matter what he said.

“I’m going with you!” She shook her head violently from side to side. Two crafty glints shone out of her eyes; there was patently something in the Mu nation that’d caught her attention.

“Big brother Lieshan, I want to go too!” Ah Bao tugged piteously on the hem of Lu Yun’s shirt.

“Alright, alright, let’s all go together.” Lu Yun rubbed his forehead. Now that his status had been confirmed, he could do just about whatever he wanted in the great wilderness. Not many would provoke him under the current circumstances.

“Tianqi, remember what I said. You must be unyielding and dominating so that they fear you!” Lu Yun imparted a final solemn reminder.

“Understood!” Tianqi nodded gravely.

……

The Mu nation was located to the east of the great wilderness in the depths of the East Sea.

Lu Yun didn’t know what connection it had to the East Sea in the future world of immortals, but he did know that the latter was currently called the world of celestials. It was held up by Mount Buzhou and hung in the outer realm of the great wilderness, in another dimension.

A trace of confusion flashed through Lu Yun’s eyes when he exited Suncrows Plain and looked out at the vast East Sea. It was… rather similar to the one that would be in the world of immortals.

“Greetings to Lie Shan.” A warm current suffused their surroundings as a young girl wrapped in flames floated down from the void. She swept a graceful curtsy at Lu Yun when she reached the ground. “My deepest gratitude for your aid last time. You saved my younger sister from being overrun in the tide of yin spirits.”

The visitor was one of Xihe’s replicas, the goddess who lived in the sun and Changxi’s elder sister.

“It was a simple act of convenience not worth mentioning. Besides, Changxi helped me hold off Dusk Snake last time as well.” Lu Yun waved a hand.

“Nothing can repay the debt of saving a life. I have observed your battles a few times and notice that you utilize hellfire. While hellfire is ferocious, all things in the world have their counter. Please accept Yi’s greatest treasure, his Rearbow.” Xihe’s form slowly transformed into a jade-green bow before it disappeared into the air.

“What the, she gave you Yi’s bow just like that?” The little fox popped out and assessed the weapon with surprise. “I remember Xihe being a big miser… she’s way less generous than her younger sister, Changxi!”

“Well, the bow is indeed the Great Yi’s. Though he’s dead to the point where his body doesn’t even exist, his true spirit hasn’t scattered,” Lu Yun analyzed thoughtfully. “Xihe may attract karmic repercussions if she continues keeping the bow, so that’s why she gifted it to me. Honestly, it’s killing three birds with one stone—thanking me for saving her sister, avoiding any karma that may be coming, and transferring any consequences to me…”

Thankfully, he didn’t care about any potential backlash. He did indeed lack a handy treasure at the moment after gifting the hundred-and-eight-ranked white lotus to Eternal. The bow had showed up right on time.

When he grasped the bow, a pillar of jade-green brilliance shot into the clouds. The power of the world’s liver within his body instantly connected with the bow; he didn’t even have to refine it before it became his.

“Absolutely perfect! I’m at least thirty percent stronger with this bow in hand!”