Chapter 1867: Survive
Rumble!!
Lu Yun and the Moran sisters fled in a panic after an earth-shaking explosion. He knew neither how long it’d been since he arrived on the World of Soul Dominion, nor how many caves they’d run out from.
The trial itself wasn’t the worst part of the experience—the worst part was having a goal, but not knowing how far away one was from it while having to avoid death at every second. Such was the situation that Lu Yun and the Moran sisters found themselves in.
Although time held sway over the world, no one could grasp enough of it to calculate how much had passed. Not even a thirty-ninth level senior cultivator like Moran Linlang knew how long it’d been since she came to this world.
Thus, the cruelest part of these trials wasn’t the torment of the body, but the torture of the mind.
Lu Yun also finally understood how difficult it was to survive for a year in this world. It seemed very conceivable that one’s mind would break down before the body. He could sense the passage of time, but there was nothing recording it or anything that could be used as a reference. There were no changes in the celestial bodies overhead and naturally no interchange between night and day.
……
Lu Yun couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood when the spatial disturbance from the stampeding herd reached them. They were ready to take on the female ghost and even set up the burial mound to lure her in, but a bunch of grass-eating supremes ran through their site and reduced their efforts to trampled dirt.
After that, Lu Yun followed the two sisters in fleeing helter-skelter, thoroughly routed. To his horror, the ghost followed behind them like a shadow. No matter how far they ran, they could still sense her ever-persistent presence.
If it wasn’t for Lu Yun’s Spectral Eye discovering her a few times and quickly using the Three Purities Talisman to suppress her, they might’ve already died several times over. A particularly terrifying detail for the young man was that his personally etched talisman could only hold the ghost for three breaths.
She broke it after that interval—this was no ordinary ghost!
“The ghost isn’t nearby at the moment, do we want to try again with another burial mound?” he wheezed for breath.
Moran Linglong curled her lip. “I thought that talisman of yours was really something, but it breaks after three breaths!”
“Three breaths is quite impressive already,” her older sister interjected. “If it wasn’t for that sudden herd of beasts, I would’ve killed her! What a pity, the ghost won’t so easily fall for our trap next time.”
“You guys haven’t been here all that long, have you?” Lu Yun suddenly raised a question that’d been puzzling him. He’d noticed that the two sisters didn’t display that many advantages in this environment. Towards the end, he was the one who discovered danger first and led them to safety.
“Um…” Moran Linglong blushed. “It’s true, we haven’t been here that long. Probably just a little bit longer than you—a few days, mayyyybe a dozen days? Everything we know comes from our lord. If we hadn’t met you…”
She and her older sister shuddered in unison. If they hadn’t run into Lu Yun, they’d likely already be dead.
“I suspect that the Myriad Spirit Grand Supreme sent you here to look after me and big sis. Out with it, who are you?!” Moran Linglong suddenly raised her voice.
“I’m Zhu Lingyan and the Myriad Spirit Supreme is my master. I’m here to temper myself,” Lu Yun explained with a rueful expression. His survival skills and adaptability were indeed far stronger than the sisters’. He only needed a surface understanding of an environment to immediately reorient himself to the most optimal condition.
The Myriad Spirit Supreme couldn’t be faulted for dereliction of duty anymore. While he hadn’t told Lu Yun about the world’s rules or mission, he’d sent the young man straight to the Moran sisters.
“I would’ve died a grisly death too if it wasn’t for your explanations about this place.” He spread out his hands and waved them around. “The beasts are moving in a haphazard fashion. There’s probably something strong chasing them from behind, we should get out of here.”
This world was like an enormous African savannah in Lu Yun’s eyes. Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and the like ran around everywhere while lions, panthers, and hyenas chased them at all times. An occasional murderous badger also lurked into view.
Everything present in the world was the most primitive form of life and the law of the jungle. However, the carnivorous beasts weren’t the most frightening life forms. There were even stronger existences, but they were so large that Lu Yun couldn’t even see them.
After they avoided the herd of fleeing beasts, Lu Yun looked curiously at Moran Linglong. “The beasts here mostly travel in packs, only the most ferocious carnivores travel alone. How did you collect more than twenty cores?”
“Um…” Moran Linlang’s mouth twitched and her younger sister said with embarrassment, “We, uh, dug them out of the prey they left behind after their feasting. Our feud formed with the ghost because we laid eyes on the same pile of bodies at the same time. We were one step ahead of her, which is why she refuses to give the matter up.”
Lu Yun smacked his forehead; inspiration lit up his mind like a lightning bolt. All thoughts of dignity and face had to be forgotten in order to survive in a place like this. One had to be ruthless, devious, utterly shameless, and heedless of the consequence to live.
Likewise, the sisters were undoubtedly stunning beauties in the outside world, but they’d camouflaged themselves as muddy dust balls here. Lu Yun’s snap decision upon arriving in this world was correct—he had to set aside concerns of dignity and find a thigh to latch onto. This world tested not strength, but the instinct of survival. Candidates were to survive through whatever means possible.
“The Myriad Spirit Supreme… no, it should be Fuxi and Leize who discovered my mental block and had the supreme send me here. They want to use the World of Soul Dominion to tell me that survival comes at the cost of everything else and the disregard of everything.
“Whether it’s hell or the death arts, all of these external and internal things are mine. Even if I don’t use them, they are still mine! So what if the Firmament Prison restricts the death arts?
“An ordinary person will drown if they don’t learn how to swim after being thrown into the sea. The Tome of Life and Death poses these tests not to have me avoid doing something essential for fear of a slight risk, but for me to learn more skills. I temporarily give up the death arts to learn how to swim in the sea and fly in the sky!”
Lu Yun’s mental state metamorphosed. He finally understood the supreme’s intention and the treasure’s test. An imperceptible halo of light hovered behind his head—twenty-five levels of sequence.
