Necropolis Immortal

“I thought she was the princess or empress of the primeval court. But now it looks like… that’s not the case,” Lu Yun shook his head with a wry grin.

“The primeval heavenly court? They’re a bunch of stubborn idiots who insisted on taking the road to ruin. Who is the mistress? She is one who created Ruina with a wave of her hand!

“The primeval court held every possible advantage when it came to fortune and public will, but still needed her guidance to complete the Firmament Prison. Without these ruins, how would that so-called heavenly court have ruled the chief worlds?

“In the end… heh. She nurtured a bunch of ungrateful riff raff and snakes.” The Soldier King plainly knew the history of those times and was very contemptuous of this ancient court.

Lu Yun forced down his curiosity and refrained from asking further.

“You cannot keep the Army Pagoda on you—the Firmament Army Pagoda will eat it,” the king suddenly switched topics with a solemn air. This was why he’d emerged from the treasure.

“Wait, what did you say?” Lu Yun’s eyes widened. “The Firmament Army Pagoda?”

“Correct, the Firmament Army Pagoda,” the king nodded. “It is like the Army Pagoda in your hands, but the Firmament Army Pagoda has evolved into the medium for the Firmament Prison. Therefore, it’s stronger than your pagoda. With the destruction of the Firmament Prison, its Army Pagoda has suffered devastating damage. It will dismantle your pagoda to make itself whole again.”

Lu Yun shook his head fiercely. “The Firmament… Army Pagoda!”

“What you summoned earlier is what the other soldiers and I were in the past. We are heroic spirits of battlefields past. Collected by the Army Pagoda, we turned into its soldiers.”

However, the Soldier King and his one hundred and eight men were now real living beings instead of puppets. When they revived in the sea of Hell Flowers, everything sealed in the pagoda regarding their past selves returned to them as well.

This was what God had prepared for them.

Lu Yun’s thoughts couldn’t help but run wild when he saw that the tower in front of him was also an Army Pagoda.

“So… my golden armored warriors are all soldiers from the Army Pagoda in their final form?” he asked.

“Yes,” the king nodded. “If you wish to subdue this pagoda and obtain the core essence of the Firmament Prison, you will need to overcome the king soldier of this prison and win his allegiance.”

The soldiers and king of the Firmament Army Pagoda were different from the Soldier King and his men. The Soldier King and others were puppets under the rules of the Army Pagoda, whereas the ones in the Firmament Army Pagoda were more akin to Infernum.

“I understand.” Lu Yun nodded and handed his Army Pagoda to the Soldier King, then set foot into the black structure in front of him.

……

“This is the real Firmament Prison… the thirty-two layers before were the world projected by the pagoda,” Lu Yun realized after he entered the thirty-third layer.

The preceding thirty-two layers of ruins that he’d walked through, including the Firmament Prison in the outside world, were built from the core of this pagoda. All of the prison’s rules originated from this building.

Its inner world was also a scene of obliteration. Decrepit and broken-down buildings rose and fell in piles so great that they formed mountains. Debris filled the world, all of it a testament to how glorious this place had once been—and how rotten.

Everything was pitch black except for a tiny pinprick of light that allowed Lu Yun to see his surroundings. Yet, he was so out of sorts it was like he was blind.

The death arts were ineffective here.

Normally speaking, he instinctively called upon the Spectral Eye to observe the world. This had become second nature, but since the death arts didn’t work here, there was no Spectral Eye for him to use.

Shapeshifting was also negated and he returned to his true form.

I have to be even more careful.

“The thirty-third layer of the Firmament Prison is bigger than the entire prison! It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack if I want to find someone in here!” Lu Yun crouched on the ground and stuck a Stillness Talisman on himself, trying to conceal the ripples of immortal force from him.

This precaution was probably more self comfort than not—the young man in white from earlier had easily located him.

“Strange, why does the layout here seem like a tomb…

“A dragon sleeps in mountains coiled, those deathly cliffs with mysteries roiled.

“If thousand peaks with locks deter, a noble soul be thus interred!” He silently operated the Dragonquake Scripture and tried to use the Dragonshift Method to probe the area. As he thought, there was a tomb in this world.

“The coiled mountains form locks… the tomb of a noble soul!” He sucked in a sharp breath. Nobility that could be buried in the core of the Firmament Prison was likely someone from the primeval heavenly court.

“Are they all in that tomb?” he wondered.

“Master!” A sinister voice sounded in his ear. Lu Yun jumped with fright and hastily shuffled to the side. A ghastly pale man in rusty armor had appeared next to him at some point in time. There was no presence of the living on him—yin winds gusted around him like he was a yin ghost. But somehow, he had the body of a living person.

He wasn’t a living dead, but a dead man. Or an Infernum.

“Are you the soldier that I summoned earlier?” Lu Yun raised a brow.

“It is I!” An uncanny smile appeared on the soldier’s face and he walked toward the young man. “Allow me to show master the way!”

“You just told me not to trust any of you.” Lu Yun took three steps back as fiery black sparks sizzled over his body.

“Surely you jest, master. I am your servant, how can you not believe me? I was joking earlier. Now, let me lead you to your friends.” The soldier drifted up to Lu Yun like he was weightless.

Whoosh!

Instead of wasting his breath with more talk, jade light flashed through Lu Yun’s hands as he stuck a nine-colored talisman on the soldier’s forehead.

The talisman blazed with light and froze the soldier on the spot. It was a Principal Nineheavens Talisman, one specifically to incapacitate immortal ghosts. The Infernum were a type of ghost, so they were susceptible to the talisman.

Indeed, the soldier ground to a halt and couldn’t move.

“What are you doing, master?” Another voice came from behind him. And then…

“What are you doing, master?”

“What are you doing, master?”

“What are you doing, master?”

The same words echoed from all directions as more Infernum walked out of the darkness. They looked different from each other, but their expression, words, movement, and gestures were all the same.