Though she was ready for action, the Yin Prince was numb to current developments. She didn't find anything wrong with Lie Shan being able to project God’s true form. After all, the youth had already first produced Pangu’s figure.

Lu Yun clearly sensed a wave of fear skitter in the void the moment God’s body appeared. The combined might of Worldcarver, God’s body, and the Yin Prince’s carriage finally resulted in strength that frightened the uncurbed akasha ghost.

“Waugh—“ Its rough gash for a mouth shrieked piercingly and abruptly retreated from Pangu’s body, vanishing as a wisp of shadow. The terrifying aura and boundless negativity in the surroundings also disappeared with it.

Lu Yun plopped down on the ground, panting heavily for breath.

“Thank goodness it was scared off. If we really broke out into a fight, either you or me would have to die in the clash.” His heart still pounded furiously from the stand-off.

“Hmph, of course you'd be the one to die,” snorted Yulei.

“I don’t know who would die out of me and the Flame Emperor, but the two of you would be demolished without a trace left behind.” The Yin Prince walked out of her litter with an unpleasant expression.

“I’d always thought that akasha ghosts were the lingering obsessions of future great emperors. It now looks like they're only a small part of the greater whole. It feels like… their origins should lie in present times,” Lu Yun murmured to himself.

“What? Future?” The Yin Prince looked askance, not sure of what she’d just heard.

Crap, I just let it slip. Lu Yun stood up and bowed respectfully to the goddess. “I would request that Your Majesty Houtu keep the secret for me. I’m not a human of this era, but from the future.”

“From the future?!” Shock colored her expression. “Can it be… that Fuxi and the others succeeded in going to the future?”

She whirled backwards and smacked Yulei, Shentu, and all of her men to the ground, forcefully destroying the most recent segment of their memories.

“This is where the matter ends, it shall not be mentioned again! You are the Flame Emperor of the human race and the first great emperor of humanity!” she proclaimed sternly.

Lu Yun nodded slowly. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Alright, you can leave now that you’ve obtained Worldcarver. Don’t tell anyone of what happened here, not even Fuxi and Wahuang!” she said solemnly.

Lu Yun blinked. “Why not?”

“Don’t tell them anything if you don’t want them to die. I can guarantee that they will explode into nothingness the second they learn of the truth behind Worldcarver and Pangu’s death!” the Yin Prince sneered. “They may be strong, but they’re not on Leize’s level. There are certain things that they don’t have the right to know.”

Lu Yun jerked, then nodded. So he’d surpassed Fuxi and Wahuang at some unknown point in time, but he still wasn’t on Leize’s level if he didn’t summon hellfire with the help of the Sal Tree.

“Many thanks for Your Majesty’s reminders!” He made another bow to the goddess. Though there were legends of the Yin Prince and Houtu in the future, Lu Yun didn't know if he'd be ever able to see this unrivaled demon god again. “Then Lie Shan will be taking his leave.”

“Wait.” Houtu called out to the youth before he departed from the premises and opened her hand. A yellowish-brown plant appeared in her palm, one with a tiny rootstalk upon which grew a singular jade-green leaf. It was the Earthly Duskroot, fifth ranked among the nine great connate spirit roots of the world.

“I don't have much use for this Earthly Duskroot anymore and I can sense the presence of several other spirit roots in your body. This is a present for you.” She sent the spirit root to Lu Yun with a light wave of her hand.

He shook from the implications of this gift. There were six great spirit roots in his body right now—Immortal Myriadtree, Fusang Purewood, Moon Osmanthus, Embittered Bamboo, Constellation Willow, and Demon Vine. He was infinitely close to chaos realm, so he couldn't deny another one of their members when it was right in front of him.

Now he only had Chaos Lotus—first of the spirit roots—and number four Heavenly Grass to find.

“Your Majesty’s boon will never be forgotten. If there’s anything Your Majesty needs to be done in the future, please just say the word!”

Upon the Yin Prince’s smile at this display of gratitude, it felt like the local space capered wildly with joy.

“Alright, we can talk about later things later. If you want to seek out the Heavenly Grass…” She pointed at the sky.

Lu Yun bowed once more upon grasping her meaning, but the goddess, her carriage, and her men had already disappeared, as if they'd never existed in the first place. For some reason, a sense of loss welled in his heart.

……

“You brat, you’re finally willing to come back!” Wahuang glared ferociously to see Lu Yun walk out of Pangu’s tomb. “If it wasn't for Mount Buzhou shaking for all of these fifty years, I would've thought you died down there!”

“What?! Fifty years?” Still wrapped up in his emotions of bidding farewell to the legendary goddess, Lu Yun jumped in shock when he heard how much time had passed. It felt like he’d only spent less than a day in the tomb, but it'd been fifty years!

“Ah, I spent a little too much time trying to derive Pangu’s true form… I usually do these things in hell.”

Back in the future, Lu Yun had the habit of meditating in hell whenever he wanted to deduce a combat art, cultivation method, or calculate certain crucial details. Time in the world of immortals would stand still even if he spent a hundred million years in his kingdom.

He had fallen into his old theorizing ways when he'd been in that patch of unknown space, not realizing that fifty years would pass by in the blink of an eye like that.

“Did you get Worldcarver?” Wahuang ignored his expression and cut to the chase.

“Yes.” Lu Heng nodded and materialized the axe with a beckon of his hand.

“That’s good.” Wahuang didn’t press for details. “Fuxi’s back, so it’s time for the rule of demon gods to come to an end.”

“Holy Emperor Fuxi’s back?” Delight shone in Lu Yun’s eyes.

“He came back thirty years ago and has waited in the sacred land for you for twenty. The three hundred and sixty five geniuses you’ve selected have all become his disciples. He takes great care in training them.” Wahuang nodded.

“How is the human race now?” Lu Yun slowly relaxed after his shock of finding out so many years had passed.

“I have something interesting to tell you,” Wahuang said as they walked. “The current Xuanyuan of the Xiong Tribe is the little fellow called Han Shuniu, and he turns out to be the son of the previous Shennong, Shaodian!”

“Huh? What? Isn’t he the last Xuanyuan’s son?” Lu Yun was at a complete loss.

“And the chief of your Yan Tribe is also someone new,” Wahuang gleefully stomped over Lu Yun’s confusion with no intention of enlightening him. “Another one of Shaodian’s sons. Because your reputation in the great wilderness is really too awful, Fuxi had to recall your authority in order to protect humanity’s good name.

“The human race is truly one race now,” she cackled with amusement. “The Yan Tribe and Xiong Tribe clashed in a terrific war and both sides pulled out every trump card they had at their disposal. In the end, Xuanyuan proved to be stronger than Shennong and founded the Xiong Nation. He is now called Emperor Xuanyuan, or the Yellow Emperor, and is the second great emperor of the human race.” [1]

Lu Yun gaped at her like a goldfish, completely shell shocked by everything that had taken place in his absence. It seemed the world had completely changed in the few moments he’d spent observing Pangu.

“What, unhappy with how things have turned out? Want to reclaim your title or turn the kingdom into the Yan Nation?” Wahuang could barely suppress her grin.

“No, no, what’s there to be unhappy about? Everything is fine as long as the human race is strong.” Lu Yun smiled ruefully.

While the sudden turn of events was indeed a shock, he really had gone missing for a very long, very crucial period of time. Besides, his title of Flame Emperor was something that Fuxi had dumped onto his head and not grasped out of personal ambition. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t shove himself into the limelight like this and have to deal with all the mess that ensued.

“But there seems to be something off about human great emperors… Certain interested parties made you out to be a perverted demon when you became the Flame Emperor, so that doesn’t count, but that Han Shuniu really is…” Wahuang frowned.

“What about him?” asked Lu Yun.

“He wanted to take both Tushan and Ah Bao as his empresses, but also never dared mention it again after Tushan brought out the Bell of Chaos and beat him within an inch of his life.” Wahuang plainly disapproved of Han Shuniu, but since the human was Fuxi’s handpicked candidate for the next emperor, there wasn’t much she could say.

Lu Yun rubbed his nose and didn’t say anything. The little fox was a powerful chaos realm demon god and Emperor Xuanyuan couldn’t be more than empyrean realm at most. How could he possibly be a match for the little fox?

Therefore, Lu Yun wasn’t worried at all. But with the situation now, the core of Yan strength had all been integrated into the human sacred land. Apart from the three hundred and sixty-five geniuses Lu Yun had wanted, everyone else was part of the sacred land.

……

“You’re back!” Fuxi was quite happy to see him again. “You’ve gotten stronger again, you’re almost as strong as my father now.”

“Just a little step further remains. I’ll properly reach Leize’s level only after I collect the Heavenly Grass and Chaos Lotus.”

“The Heavenly Lotus is in the celestial court and you won’t be able to obtain the Chaos Lotus until you return to your time.” Fuxi shook his head slightly. “This is for you.”

With a casual wave, he delivered a long bronze pike into Lu Yun’s hands.

Lu Yun trembled violently as he recognized it. This pike was the prototype of the dao weapon in the crimson long-haired monster’s hands!

“Is this pike going to end connate demon god rule?” he asked hesitantly.

“Your skill comes from me, so you should know the three great methods that I left behind. Dragonsearch, Dragonshift, and Dragonspike! Together, they become Dragonquake.”

Lu Yun snapped to solemn attention and listened carefully to his sect patriarch’s words.

“I’m not the one who created these methods—I found their fragmented records in the chaos. It’s a pity that the heavenly dao of this era is too crude and unrefined to restore these three methods, so I had to pass them on to future generations in hopes that they would be able to do it.

“Thankfully, you came along.

“This pike and Worldcarver are the same level of treasure, superior to all connate treasures. If you use this long spear as a spike and nail it into the lifepoint of the celestial court, that will destroy the last of their fortunes!” Fuxi concluded harshly.

1. It wasn’t until 221 BCE that Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty made the title huangdi – conventionally translated as "emperor" – refer to himself. Before that, the di character referred to the highest god of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE) pantheon.

To emphasize the religious meaning of di in pre-imperial times, historians of early China commonly translate the god's name as "Yellow Thearch" and the first emperor's title as "August Thearch", in which "thearch" refers to a godly ruler.