CH 2176.2

“This humble one would never dare!” Wu Zhen turned ashen.

“Alright, stand guard outside with your men. I’m going into the cross ark to take a look.” Lu Yun infused the crystalline stone with Hongmeng qi before Wu Zhen could respond and disappeared with a flash. When he next appeared, he was inside an enormous space that was three thousand meters across.

“So it is a small cross ark. This one can hold thirty thousand cultivators.” Lu Yun assessed the ship’s internals, finding it very low on qi. There was much more in the barren outside, a sign that the ark was heavily damaged.

He sent his consciousness into the key and used it as a medium to inspect the entire ship.

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“The core’s over here.” Lu Yun flashed to another space that held a ponderous object similar to a pill cauldron. It was the core of the ark—a pill cauldron named the cross forge. It was the center of propulsion for the ark and consumed spirit crystals to provide momentum.

Cross arks were enormous constructs that weren’t treasures, so not even immortals were able to manipulate one with their personal strength. They depended on these forges for movement.

“Although this is a small cross ark, its cross forge is an upper rank forge. This ark’s master has an uncommon background—he was very likely an immortal.” The more Lu Yun observed the ark’s core, the more he concluded that the vessel was immensely damaged. There was a terrible sword mark on the cross forge, like someone had pierced it through.

“An upper rank cross ark can certainly withstand an ordinary immortal’s full blow. Did a high level immortal strike it?”

The hulk of a cross ark was an immense treasure by itself. Given enough time, he would be able to repair it.

“The family’s strength will leap forward with this cross ark. It won’t be a problem to advance Darklake forward to another level then.”

Elevating Darklake empire wasn’t the desire of the royal family, but his grandfather Lu Tianling.

His grandfather’s enemy was the Origin Sect of Great Xia, it would be an utter joke to use a cultivation empire’s strength against the sect. Lu Tianling, however, seemed to have other plans. Though Lu Yun didn’t understand them, he would help his grandfather to the best of his abilities.

Lu Yun’s first task at hand was to comprehend heavenly dao. When one sought to do so with a human body, following one’s heart was of paramount importance. What Lu Yun wanted most was to help his grandfather seek revenge.

All valuables in the ruined cross ark had long disappeared, but its formations and restrictions remained powerful.

“Hmm?” A sudden thought struck Lu Yun and he shifted out of the vessel.

“Connate earth origin!” he roared, summoning a layer of yellowish-brown light from his body. Nearby rocks, sand, and dirt were forced to the sides by the energy.

Two beams of yellowish-brown radiance shot out from Lu Yun’s eyes. Covered by connate earth origin energy, everything beneath the land was laid out in front of him.

“This… is… a battlefield?” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped. Carcasses were strewn thirty thousand meters below Tiger Suppression Pass, even a few partial wrecks of cross arks could be found. They were completely ruined as their internal spaces were broken. None were intact like the one he was just in.

Lu Yun shook his head gently. The cross arks were three thousand meters below ground. Even if he had connate earth origin protecting his body, he wasn’t able to dive down that deep. His current cultivation was too weak.

“I have to get down there when I’m stronger. The lack of resentment in the pass very likely has something to do with the battlefield below.” Lu Yun thought for a bit and returned aboveground through his cross ark.

Sounds of fighting drifted into his ear as soon as he materialized.

“How dare you bandits stop this young master’s people! I’ve found your headquarters today and will leave none of you alive!” The furious roar was punctuated by agonized wails.

“Damn it, my new lackeys are dying!” Lu Yun glowered. He’d spent only an hour in the cross ark, but more than half of the bandits were dead and the rest were greatly injured.

A young man roughly twenty years old stood in the air, flanked by two nascent soul cultivators. Thirty-some golden core cultivators were assembled in a formation below and scything through Wu Zhen’s men.

Despite only being thirty odd people, they were highly trained and wielded lower fine rank weapons. Wu Zhen’s motley crew was a far cry from them.

Whoosh!

A golden bird appeared in the sky and wafted heat waves in all directions. Half of the golden core cultivators were swallowed in a single breath.

Who dares!” A keen light glinted in the young man’s eyes.

“How dare you touch this young master’s minions? Are you tired of living?” Lu Yun stood atop the golden bird and raised a provocative eyebrow at the young man.

“Hahahahaha!!” the young man sneered. “You’re not so simple yourself if you can instantly kill some random servants I took under my wing.”

The young man was handsome and fair skinned with a scarlet birthmark in the center of his forehead. The thumb-sized mark twinkled with red light as he laughed.

Lu Yun’s brow turned quizzical when he noticed the mark.

“But you’re the one who’s tired of living after saying that to me.” Instead of taking further action, the young man stared intently at the bird beneath Lu Yun’s feet.

“We’ll see about that!” Lu Yun smirked. Although he’d lived through three thousand lives, he was still the tyrannical good-for-nothing who loved to strut around. Rivers and mountains might be changed, but a man’s nature was hard to alter. Such was Lu Yun’s personality in this life.

He waved his hand and sent out blazing fire from the bird beneath his feet. It reduced the remaining golden core cultivators to ashes with yelps of pain.

“Sol Truefire…” The young man’s eye twitched. “We go!”

He was only golden core himself. Although he had two nascent soul guards by his side, he was no match for Sol Truefire. He immediately abandoned the fight and retreated.

“You want to leave after killing my men? I don’t think so!” Lu Yun directed the bird in chase.

On the ground, Wu Zhen swallowed hard. That young man’s thirty-some golden core cultivators had been sufficient to overrun all two hundred of his men, but they’d died in just a few breaths when Lu Yun made his move.

Sweat soaked Wu Zhen’s back when his thoughts traveled to this point. Had he really lured Lu Yun into the cross ark and used its restrictions against the lad, the only outcome would be Wu Zhen being casually executed after the fact.

……

“Who is that young man? He’s only latter foundation establishment, but he killed three dozen of my men in quick succession!” The young man sped to the west on the back of his sword, escorted by the two nascent soul cultivators.

“Damn it, this guy’s fast with a sword. My cultivation is too weak to get to him.” Lu Yun abandoned the chase when he saw their gap growing wider and returned to Tiger Suppression Pass.

“Master!” Wu Zhen quickly came up to him.

“What’s the situation?” Lu Yun swept a glance at him.

“There are eighty-seven brothers left…” Wu Zhen said dejectedly. These were brothers he’d spent a dozen years with. It quite pained him that only less than ninety were suddenly alive.

“Who were those people?”

“We robbed a young man with a decently illustrious background half a month ago in Profound Wing Empire. This young man is probably that one’s backer,” Wu Zhen cobbled together after thinking for a while and referencing what the young man had said.

“A young man from the Profound Wing Empire?” Lu Yun thought for a bit. “Alright, I’ll take care of this matter. Stay here with your men.”

Wu Zhen blinked; he’d thought that Lu Yun would take them with him.

“This is the key to the cross ark and some other items. Distribute them as you see fit. Remember, I want loyalty!” A cold light sparkled in Lu Yun’s eyes as he tossed a storage ring to Wu Zhen. Given that he held the man’s nascent soul jade slip, he wasn’t afraid of betrayal.

An overjoyed Wu Zhen hastily caught the storage ring. There were spirit stones, cultivation methods, formations, treasures, pills and medicines in abundance inside. It was sufficient supplies for Wu Zhen and his men for a hundred years.

Lu Yun also left a transmission stone to facilitate communication.

“There should be numerous bandits among the borders of the second and third rank empires. Your mission is to dominate them all. Find out a way to develop an intelligence network, one that can keep tabs on the general happenings of nearby nations. You were once a patriarch of a clan, so this shouldn’t be hard for you, no?” Lu Yun instructed.

Wu Zhen’s heart swelled with emotion. What the ring contained was more than one hundred times what the Wu Clan once possessed. With the cross ark as an infallible base, he could absolutely rise again.

After giving a few more instructions, Lu Yun left for the west in a flash of sword light.

Recruiting Wu Zhen was a pure accident. He had too few forces of his own—Wu Zhen was the only one apart from Bloodbath. The elder was sufficient for a third rank nation, but far from enough when the Lus’ enemy came from Great Xia.