âSee, I was right, there are many flaws and holes in formula dao. Itâs not a perfect great dao.â The Sea Lord tilted his head up to Lu Yun and smiled. âAt the very least, you failed to derive that I am the master of the altar.â
Lu Yun silently looked down at the Sea Lord beneath him.
âYou announced your findings and speculations in a loud manner to draw me out, didnât you?â the Sea Lord continued. âSo here I am, right in front of you. Satisfied?â
âStill trying to throw me off balance even now?â Lu Yun slowly breathed out and smiled in return. âItâs true, I didnât calculate that youâre the master of the altar and the terrifying existence lurking in Ruina.
âBut does it really matter to me whether or not I figure it out? Is it important to formula dao? If formula dao really can take every conceivable possibility into account, what would that mean to living beings?â
The Sea Lordâs expression shifted as he listened to Lu Yun.
âEverything that exists is unpredictable, constantly changing, unfathomable, and unpredictable. Even I canât possibly know everything that is to happen in the future and took place in the past. Though the cycle of reincarnation has repeated infinite times, many changes have still cropped up. Itâs not always one hundred percent the sameâI am an anomaly in this iteration, and perhaps other unexpected developments also appeared in others.â
âI see, so you knew about that long ago.â The Sea Lordâs mood changed slightly. âThat Curse King told you about it, didnât he? He came here because of me, to eliminate the aberration that is me. Refining a world of curse dao sequence is just a ruse, but to think you are an anomaly as well!
âHow about the two of us ally together to break free of this misbegotten place?â The Sea Lord looked seriously at Lu Yun. âThis forsaken place is a massive prison, an enormous tomb. Everything drifts sluggishly along the never-ending cycles of reincarnation, repeating the same things again and again. True freedom is forever out of reach and we are never able to shake off destiny.â
âAlly with you?â Lu Yun raised an eyebrow. âHow?â
âGive me immortal dao, give me formula dao, and give me hell dao. Also, give me that treasure thatâs enabled you to break free of these endless cycles. Help me return to my full strength so I can blast apart the destiny here.â The Sea Lord stared intently into Lu Yunâs eyes and carefully enunciated each word.
Lu Yun: âŚâŚ
âHow about it? I will reward you handsomely if I escape and bring you out with me. What do you think?â The Sea Lord rose into the air to draw level with Lu Yun.
âLook into my eyes.â Lu Yun was uncommonly grave at this moment as well.
âMmhmm, I am.â Success was within reach! The Sea Lord stared sincerely into Lu Yunâs eyes.
âDo. you think. I look like a fucking idiot?â Lu Yun articulated gingerly with the same grave expression.
The Sea Lord blinked.
âOr do you think Iâm a fucking idiot??â
Whoosh!
Black flame ignited around Lu Yun and he slammed his fist into the Sea Lordâs face. Crying out with anguish, the Sea Lord lost his mermaid body from that single punch.
âI wouldnât dare come if you were alive, but youâre just a dead thing! You know that this young master practices hell dao and can restrain all ghostly and dead entities, but you still dare scheme against me?â Lu Yun sneered. âThereâs holes in my formula dao? I didnât calculate your existence?? Fuck you motherfucking piece of shit! Do you think that little of me?! Would I have come to my death if I hadnât already derived what you were??â
The dead entity once more coalesced a mermaid body, but Lu Yun punched it to pieces before it was complete. A pained wail echoed around the vortex.
Lu Yunâs hell dao had truly taken form and could restrain all ghosts within creation. He no longer feared even the ghost race or yin spirits of the world of immortals. Though he couldnât command their lives as of yet, he could trounce any ghost in single combat, including the one in front of him.
He hadnât believed anything that the bastard had said. Lu Yun had come with only one goal in mindâbeat the living daylights out of him!
His analysis had been correct, with one modificationâthe ghost had absorbed part of the Sea Lordâs power to transform into his image. The ghost wasnât strong. If he was, he wouldnât have set a fake Sea Lord as bait. It wouldâve been the ghost himself.
That Lu Yun had dared come meant that he was in full control and assured of kicking the otherâs face in. In fact, the ghost turning into the Sea Lord to deceive him meant that the ghost was afraid.
Sadly for him, Lu Yun wasnât.
Punch after punch. Power from the Hadal, Nether, Sanguine, Nihil, Abyssal, and Disordered Hells transformed into six basic combat arts of hell dao. Their combination gave rise to even more sophisticated combat arts, similar to the calculation methods and formulas of formula dao. From elementary came advanced, from ethos to burgeon to creationâŚ
The unknown ghost gave up the form of a shark spirit and took his ownâhalf of a face.
It wasnât a human face, but that of an unknown species. Lu Yun couldnât determine what it was either. It was dark blue and covered with tiny scales, looking rather like a reptile. It had no mouth or nose, just a broken eye.
Lu Yun smashed punch after punch into it, dimming the face with each blow.
âROAR!!â The face suddenly formed a mouth and snarled with fury. The enormous vortex beneath it erupted and an ice-blue hand reached out, grabbing for Lu Yun.
âFinally!â Lu Yun brightened. The sudden hand was no ghostly force, but pure strength from sea dao. When the terrible strength closed around Lu Yun, it crushed him out of existence and reduced him to a shriveled soybean.
Endless sea waters gathered together into a transparent body and wrapped around the face. They reformed into the body of the Sea Lordâa shark spirit.
Extreme fury was visible on the ghostâs face. Heâd guessed that Lu Yun wasnât here in the flesh, that the young man was just a replica. That was why the ghost hadnât called upon his own strengthâhe was preoccupied with all of the dao beholders in Ruina.
However, he hadnât imagined that just a soybean replica would nearly devour him! In the meantime, the dao beholders that heâd lured in struggled free from their confinement due to his distraction.