“How dare you!” The being in the darkness flew into a rage and loudly denounced Lu Yun.

“How dare me? Oh, I dare indeed. I’ve already turned Fuzhu into minced meat.” A nasty leer played at the corners of Lu Yun’s lips and he walked steadily ahead, the white lotus blooming gracefully over his head.

“This is the dao arena of Patriarch Darkriver! Lie Shan of the human race, aren’t you afraid of attracting trouble for your race?!” The mysterious being in the darkness seemed to be backing up and didn’t dare come face to face with Lu Yun.

“The human race has Leize, Huaxu, Fuxi, and Wahuang as its protectors. Whoever dares provoke humanity will face their combined wrath and be diced into minced meat. Are you looking for trouble with these words, or dragging down your Patriarch Darkriver with you?” Lu Yun sneered.

“You… will depart with all due haste before Patriarch Darkriver is enraged! He will tear you to shreds when that dire moment comes!” the unknown being snarled loudly.

Hummm.

The white lotus of a hundred and eight ranks abruptly unfurled into full blossom and cast a stark white light over the premises. Lu Yun saw a snake, an enormous snake as large as a mountain. It was pitch-black with scarlet red eyes, its scales flared out as uniformly keen blades. It seemed ready to attack Lu Yun at a moment’s notice.

“Bashe.” [1] Lu Yun’s eyes narrowed when he saw the snake. 

He’d learned a bit about the netherdark from the little fox before making this trip. Bashe was a connate demon god in the netherdark roughly on par with Dusk Snake and Huashe. But when physically located in the netherdark, he was stronger than both of them.

He was currently coiled around a mountain, large head slightly dipped downwards and eyes fixed in a deadly stare at Lu Yun. The human’s reputation was too renowned as of late. He’d slain Dusk Snake, Fuzhu, and Huashe; there was no one who didn’t know him in the three realms of the great wilderness.

Mount Buzhou was a path that led to the netherdark, but one only for ordinary lifeforms. For connate demon gods, the three realms of the great wilderness were their oyster. It was just that denizens of the netherdark rarely voluntarily visited the great wilderness or the cosmos.

Bashe naturally knew about Lie Shan killing Fuzhu and Huashe, so he was momentarily frightened out of his wits to see the infamous human arrive in his home. Of the three connate demon gods dead at his hands, two of them were snake demon gods. This human was a veritable snake killer!

“Lie Shan of the human race, this is the netherdark, a place where you have to toe the line and follow the rules!” Bashe roared, trying to spread word of what was happening here.

“This isn’t the real netherdark yet, just the intersection between the great wilderness and the actual netherdark. Only once we pass this mountain do we enter the real world of the dead.” Lu Yun smirked coldly at Bashe. “Do you think so little of me that you would bar my way here?”

He absolutely had the right to throw his weight around now. He’d been barehanded when he fought Fuzhu and Huashe, but now he had a treasure in his hands that clocked in at a hundred and eight ranks!

“You…” Bashe’s inky-black scales turned stark white as humiliation rose in his heart. How long had it been since someone dared speak to him like this?? Even Patriarch Darkriver treated him with utmost respect. 

“Piss off if you don’t want to die!”

Hummm.

Lu Yun’s lotus erupted with blindingly sharp light with his roar, illumination that shot toward the heavens.

No response was forthcoming from Bashe; he turned into a shadowy mass and disappeared.

“That Bashe dared provoke me means he was protecting something. If my guess is right, the mountain is holding a treasure!” Lu Yun murmured to himself as he looked at the dark landmark ahead of him.

“That’s Mount Tai, the mountain that marks the intersection of the great wilderness and netherdark. You’ll be in the world of the dead once you pass Mount Tai,” the little fox whispered, popping her head out of Lu Yun’s robes.

“Mount Tai? The Mount Tai of the Eastern Mountain?” Lu Yun blinked. “What’s Mount Tai doing here? Ah, well, I suppose the Five Great Mountains don’t exist in the great wilderness yet, but what is Mount Tai doing here?”

“Have you never heard of souls returning to Mount Tai?” The little fox curled her lip. “In the future, Mount Tai will be the boundary between the realms of yin and yang. It will be hailed as the mountain of the realms, which is why Mount Tai is the foremost of the Five Great Mountains and the grounds upon which emperors are coronated!”

“Will Mount Buzhou be destroyed at some point?” Another legend occurred to Lu Yun.

Gonggong would body slam Mount Buzhou to pieces at some point, but looking at the mountain now, a hundred, no, a thousand Gonggongs would be powerless before it, to say nothing of a single one.

“Have you seen Mount Buzhou at any point in time in the future?” the little fox asked him in return.

“That’s Wahuang’s lines!” Lu Yun’s expression was dark.

The little fox stuck her tongue out at him, then continued in a mystified tone, “I don’t know either. I really don’t know how Mount Buzhou vanishes… but I know that if it doesn’t, Mount Tai will forever be suppressed beneath it.”

“Perhaps…” Lu Yun sighed and headed toward the legendary mountain. “Hmm?”

He suddenly paused. Mount Tai towered majestically above, and though it wasn’t as grand as Mount Buzhou, the two were about the same. He’d felt a faint thought ripple the moment he set foot into Mount Tai, as if something were… crying out for help?

“It’s him!” Lu Yun set out in a certain direction and headed into the depths of the mountain. A stone fetus roughly one meter tall and depicted with nine orifices lay quietly on the ground. It’d taken the rudimentary form of a human and was about to come back to life.

“It’s an image affected by the primitive great dao, which in turn is affected by me. Therefore, the beings taking other forms now will mostly be human-shaped…”

Lu Yun had fully released himself in his battle against Fuzhu and Huashe. Thus, the great dao within him had begun to influence the primitive great dao, steering it in the direction of human dao.

It was also because of this that Lu Yun’s figure slowly became the mold for the future human dao. One must first take human form to train in the human dao, and lifeforms born beneath the human dao, whether connate or of nature, would ultimately take human form as well.

Lu Yun’s effect on the primitive great dao wasn’t that much yet, but the trends were clear to see.

“Bashe wants to eat me, please save me, milord!” A small thought ripple emanated from the tiny stone fetus.

“Who are you?” Lu Yun waved a hand and took the stone figure in hand.

“My name is Tianqi and I am the mountain god born in Mount Tai,” said the stone figure. Though it hadn’t taken true form, it had its own sentience and thoughts.

As Mount Tai was the boundary between yin and yang, all spirits had to pass through it upon death. As time went on, it accumulated a strong amount of goodwill and gave birth to its own mountain god.

“Tianqi?” Lu Yun frowned, taking a moment to think. “You and I have a shared destiny. Are you willing to take me as your master?”

“This disciple is willing to take milord as my master!” An overjoyed Tianqi quickly responded.

Lu Yun stretched out his hand and tapped lightly between Tianqi’s brows. The stone immediately took human form as a cute little doll less than a meter tall.

“Disciple Tianqi greets the master!” He fell to the ground in a kowtow and cried out in a babyish voice.

“My name is Lie Shan and this flower is my greeting gift to you. This is for your own defense, and you are your master’s third disciple.” With another tap in the air, a bit of hellfire landed on Tianqi.

Whoosh!

It ignited in full fury and became a small black shirt on Tianqi’s body.

“Your first senior sister is Liu Qingmiao, your second senior brother is Zou Longxiu. Remember these names well, if you by chance meet them one day, be sure not to harm them.”

“This disciple will remember!” Tianqi hurriedly assured.

He was Mount Tai’s mountain god, rather than a connate demon god. Born into an empyrean realm cultivation level, Tianqi was inordinately strong. His existence was also different from the others. Though he was a mountain god, he was unfettered by his mountain’s location. Just like the mountain ghosts, he could come and go at will.

Lu Yun had been able to see that as well.

In addition, this little bean sprout possessed the divine decree of Mount Tai. Whoever ate him would inherit it and become its mountain god, all of its power at their beck and call. That was why Bashe had kept an eye on the premises.

“Your master has some business to attend to in the netherdark. Follow this path and seek out Her Majesty Wahuang at Mount Buzhou. She will safeguard you,” Lu Yun said to Tianqi.

“But…” Tianqi remained in place, at a loss of what to do. Though he possessed intelligence, he’d only just taken form so basically knew nothing of the world.

“Worry not, the hellfire I gave you will keep you safe. Remember to keep hellfire burning all over your body.” Lu Yun ruffled his disciple’s little head.

Finally reassured, Tianqi took the path they’d come from and set off on his way, turning back every three steps to look at his master.

“Yo, so the future Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak is my disciple?” Lu Yun rubbed his nose.

The little fox was numb to it all.

“You know, you could’ve just passed him onto Wahuang. There was no need to take him as a disciple!” The little fox curled her lip.

……

“Patriarch! Patriarch Darkriver! Your subordinate has a report to make!” cried out Bashe when he reached the shore of the Blood Sea.

A pungent stench of rotting fish exuded from the boundless seas and a bloody sun hung high in the sky, casting all of the netherdark in its crimson shadow.

Splash!

A great wave reared up in the sea to form an enormous face—Patriarch Darkriver.

“What is it?” he boomed.

“Lie Shan of the human race has come to the netherdark!” Bashe bawled out.

“Then let him be and do not provoke him.” He knew about Lie Shan killing Fuzhu and Huashe and had no desire to get on the bad side of this human with such great patrons.

“But he wants to kill me!” Bashe whined with indignation.

“He wants to kill you? Why does he want to kill you?” Patriarch Darkriver frowned and took a good look at Bashe. There didn’t seem to be any injuries on the snake.

“He took the newly born mountain god of Mount Tai!”

Patriarch Darkriver fell silent. “I thought of saving Fuzhu and Huashe when they were being pursued and have them join the netherdark, but Wahuang was by Lie Shan’s side at the time. If I’d dared save them, she would’ve turned her hand against me.

“I am not afraid of Wahuang, but Fuxi, Leize, and Huaxu stand behind her. If the four of them act in concert, even I would have to flee in disarray.” The patriarch continued with resignation, “It’s just a mountain god’s divine decree, let him have it. Stay in the Blood Sea during this time and don’t head out. Even I will not be able to protect you if you irritate those four devils.”

Splash—

The patriarch’s great face scattered back in the seas, leaving a staring Bashe slack-jawed with disbelief.

1. Bashe was a python-like Chinese mythological giant snake that ate elephants.

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