Chapter 1860: A Clean Break
“You seem very afraid of me.” Diexi advanced on the king soldier. She was no match for him at her current strength, but he seemed extraordinarily terrified of her. He stumbled over his feet and plopped to the ground.
“Don’t, don’t force me!” the king soldier stammered. “You better put that crystal coffin away. The chief worlds will be doomed if it splits open! You’re nothing good either, you’re a demon! A perverse demon!
“That coffin of empyrean crystal isn’t meant to bury you, but to seal you away!” A strange curve flashed across the king soldier’s lips and he turned to Lu Yun. “Didn’t you ask about the mistress? I can tell you that she sealed this person into the coffin!”
“Mo Yi?” Diexi blinked, the look in her eyes clear. She didn’t seem like the demon that the king soldier spoke about, one that could destroy the chief worlds.
A tiny ripple appeared in the void before a delicate figure appeared. She reached out with a slender hand and struck the king soldier in the chest. Color drained from his face as he flew backward and crashed heavily to the ground.
“You’re here.” The king soldier struggled up with a slight smile.
Mo Yi.
“If you hadn’t mentioned me, Yun Yi, I wouldn’t have broken the rules to interfere with your affairs.” Dressed in the same masculine outfit as usual, a lack of makeup didn’t detract from Mo Yi’s stunning face.
“Yun Yi?!” Chu Xingran, Xie Tianxun, and Lu Yun jumped with shock. “The king soldier of the Firmament Prison is Yun Yi?!”
The soldier in front of them was Yun Yi?!
“You put on a good act,” Diexi grumbled and sat on the ground, watching the show.
“Of course it is me.” Yun Yi wiped away blood at the corner of his mouth and smiled more easily. “I finally managed to make it past everyone to see you.”
“You did all this and set up all these plots just to see Mo Yi?!” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped. If that was the case, Yun Yi was seriously wrong in the head.
“Of course not.” Mo Yi shook her head and looked at Yun Yi still sitting on the ground.
“The idea struck me when I happened to be at the right place at the right time.” Yun Yi shrugged. “I thought you were limited by the rules, but you still hit hard.”
Mo Yi’s palm strike had truly injured him.
“There are no rules that can impose limitations on me. I just didn’t want to break them,” Mo Yi shook her head.
“I need your help!” Yun Yi looked solemnly at Mo Yi.
Diexi yawned and interjected lazily, “I bet Mo Yi won’t help you, but I might be interested.”
Yun Yi ignored her and remained looking at Mo Yi.
“Not interested,” she shook her head.
“Are you really Yun Yi?” Lu Yun asked dumbly. “I thought Yun Yi placed a special mark or brand on the Firmament king soldier. But… you’re here yourself? What about the king soldier?”
“In the Firmament Army Pagoda, of course.” Yun Yi flicked a glance at Lu Yun.
“Here I was thinking that no matter how bedraggled, we made it out of this round alive. Escaping from your claws is a victory regardless, but really, we still lost in the end,” Chu Xingran sighed.
Yun Yi knew what Lu Yun’s trump cards were. Since he’d dared come regardless, that meant he was no longer afraid of the zombie king formation or crystal coffin.
The man shrugged.
“You do put on a good act, I thought you really meant what you said.” Lu Yun looked at Diexi. Yun Yi should win an Oscar for how terrified he’d been earlier.
“I wasn’t lying, I meant every word,” Yun Yi replied calmly. “There is indeed a demon sealed within the crystal coffin, one sufficient to destroy the chief worlds.”
Chu Xingran barely repressed a shudder and Lu Yun frowned as well. Diexi paused, then looked wordlessly at the coffin behind her.
The atmosphere grew odd.
“Is this your primary body, or a replica?” Lu Yun asked. “Or have you occupied the king soldier’s body?”
Meanwhile, the Soldier King shifted awkwardly off to the side. He’d thought that letting his brethren see that he’d revived and become a real living being would be sufficient to recruit the Firmament king soldier to Lu Yun’s banner. Who would’ve thought that it wasn’t one of his kind at all, and more egregiously, he hadn’t realized anything was off?
“I’m not here to pick a fight. I need your help, so I thought it’d be more sincere if I came in person.” Yun Yi shifted slightly as he spoke, separating himself from the king soldier. The king soldier immediately turned into something like a sculpture and sat down, motionless.
Yun Yi was dressed in purple robes and looked around with a feminine hint between his brows. His face was ever-so-slightly wan—Mo Yi really had injured him with her blow.
“I can have Mo Yi help you if you give me the core essence of the Firmament Prison,” Lu Yun smirked.
“I can give it to you, but do you dare accept it?” Yun Yi smiled craftily.
“Of course I dare,” Lu Yun snorted. “I can return the Imperial Seal to you too, but you must change who you’ll sacrifice to the realm monster. Its return will signify the end of all karmic ties between you and me, and you and Chu Xingran!”
Lu Yun remained coolly composed, even though he faced a being like Yun Yi. The Imperial Seal appeared with a flip of his hand.
“Possessing the Imperial Seal means power over the primeval heavenly court and receiving a most wondrous heritage. You will automatically command the loyalty of its old troops. Are you not moved by it?” asked Yun Yi instead of accepting the seal.
Mo Yi was surprised as well. Chu Xingran didn’t want the seal because he was terrified out of his mind by it. As a rational person, he knew that he couldn’t possess a treasure like that. It wasn’t a fortuitous opportunity, but a seal of his death.
On the other hand, Lu Yun didn’t want the seal because he… didn’t want it. The thing had ended his family in thirty-three loops and caused his friends to die such awful deaths that they couldn’t be buried. His own end was to wither away in the void, accompanying the death of the immortal dao.
At one point, he’d mistakenly assigned all of the curses inflicted on him to the withered wood. But no, they came from this seal.
“Nope!” he responded decisively.
“The heritage of the primeval heavenly court lies within it. That is the faction that ruled all of the chief worlds, back in the day,” Yun Yi chuckled. “You can give it a try. You escaped from my grasp in the Firmament Prison, so you might be stronger than me and can fully control the primeval court.”
“Is it worth it though?” Lu Yun tossed the seal onto the ground since no one wanted it. It was like he’d thrown away an old shoe. “Is a primeval faction eliminated by the times worth risking my life for? Is it worth becoming enemies with someone like you for? I am confident in my future, but being enemies with you right now is a death wish.”
Yun Yi registered the young man’s words with an unpleasant expression.
“The destruction of the primeval heavenly court wasn’t an elimination by the times like you speak of. It was an accident,” came the Dao King’s voice. However, he didn’t show himself. “It had yet to reach its prime when it perished.”
“Do you mean that it had yet to acclimate to its time, that it was powerful enough, but destroyed because it went against the heavens?” Lu Yun clarified.
The Dao King paused, he didn’t know how to explain it to Lu Yun.
“Yun Yi is the primeval heavenly court’s crown prince. Do whatever you want with that information.” Annoyed, the Dao King fell silent.
Lu Yun looked at a slightly mollified Yun Yi with surprise.
“I get it!” the young man shouted. “You don’t want Mo Yi’s help, you want the Dao King’s! Where she goes, he will follow!”
“No wonder. I was wondering why you’d come for me,” Mo Yi grumbled.
Yun Yi coughed sheepishly. He’d come up with the idea after his replica sensed Mo Yi and the Dao King’s existence when he briefly joined hands with the god of Mount Tai. His previous plots had indeed been to sacrifice Lu Yun, Chu Xingran, and Xie Tianxun. But when he realized that Lu Yun had gone to the Firmament Prison, he’d modified his plans to nudge the young man into bringing him here.
Apart from the few on the scene, no one else knew that Lu Yun had entered the chief worlds with his primary body. All of that took place under Yun Yi’s watchful eye. While it looked like he was hunting the trio, his real goal was to quietly make his way here.
Though the young man in white seemed to be a surprise element, that had been part of Yun Yi’s calculations as well. Lu Yun was a fresh-faced innocent when going up against someone who’d lived through countless eons.
Thus, he decisively gave up the Imperial Seal. He lacked the qualifications to be enemies with someone like Yun Yi. Lu Yun bent down and picked up the treasure, handing it to the Dao King.
“Please save me, senior!”
