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Having reached perfection, Shapeshifting turned Lu Yun into whatever he wanted to be. He hesitated as he gazed out over the paradise that was the Divine Temple of Nothing. Although he said that he would resolve things with his own methods, that he would search out a solution from the patch of real existence, he knew that it was impossible.
Existence was born from nothing and slowly grew until it occupied all of nothing. It would return to nothing when it touched the barrier—this was a cycle of reincarnation.
The six orders of the highest degree. Inception, ethos, burgeon, creation, opposition
 and nirvana!
This was the objective rhythm that all things followed. Lu Yun was certain that even the real nothing in the outside followed the same pattern, that it would also perish.
But as a subjective entity, he was loath to accept the situation. It wasn’t impossible for subjectivity to affect and even change objectivity and the rhythm. Surely there were already people attempting the task.
Not only was there formula dao in the Tome of Life and Death, but also reincarnation. The rhythm of objectivity was reincarnation, so someone was already trying to refine it. At this stage, the reincarnation within the Tome of Life and Death was still a subjective construct. It’d yet to reach an objective level.
But it was a seed all the same. If Lu Yun could guide it to germination, he might be able to plant objectivity into the subjective reincarnation and continue to attempt to transform objectivity into subjectivity.
He couldn’t accomplish it with his current level of strength, neither could the mistress or the Dao King. Perhaps this was just the hypothesis of a perfect status. The subjective thoughts of subjective beings were still theoretical pondering.
What Lu Yun needed to do now was not to get caught up in these musings. He had to try, even if it was impossible, to realize a perfect condition. Otherwise, there was nothing he could do but accept being assimilated by the nothing. That, he refused to do so.
So he focused his mental efforts on debating where his opportunity might be and how he could enhance his strength. The conclusions of formula dao could not be wrong, so while there might not be fights to be found here, it was where he could grow stronger.
He just hadn’t identified where exactly this opportunity could be found. Unease was also beginning to creep in, but he couldn’t determine its source. Thus, he decided to quietly observe for a while.
He transformed into a blade of grass and stuck himself in the ground so he could monitor the city in front of him. There were humans, monster spirits, demons, and all sorts of races inside. There was an abundance of fights to be found and, in fact, a decently sized battle taking place right now with its neighbor.
Lu Yun watched from the vantage point of a blade of grass and finally understood the origins of the war after half a year. The Wangshu city lord’s daughter had eloped with the neighboring Lunzai city lord’s son. The two met mountain robbers along the way and both were murdered.
Both city lords were of the ingress realm and the strongest within the area. They quickly deduced the truth from the clues they gleaned. What was mystifying afterwards was that their children’s murderers remained at large, free to kill and rob and live their lives as usual. Instead, the two city lords began fighting each other.
Neither city lord thought their child was at fault. It must’ve been the other who seduced their shining example of a child, resulting in a shameful elopement! They wouldn’t have encountered robbers if they hadn’t eloped and thus wouldn’t have died.
Lu Yun didn’t understand these leaps in logic. Wasn’t the matter at hand to jointly raze the robbers first, then decide who was at fault later?
Neither city was close to being a victor after half a year of battle, but the war intensified to the point of a death feud. It started off as wanting to force the other to apologize, but now the two were as if fire and water.
Lu Yun watched for another half year—they were no closer to a conclusion after a full year of fighting. The robbers, however, seemed to have received word and ran away in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again.
“The inhabitants here
” Lu Yun wanted to frown, but gave up as he felt a blade of grass shouldn’t frown. “Seem awfully similar to the feudal lords of Earth’s ancient Europe. They seem to view honor and glory to be more important than a life.”
He returned to human form with a puff of air and left at a leisurely pace. The two city lords were strong, but not much to Lu Yun. They were the equivalent of two cultivators who’d just accessed sequence.
He didn’t plan on intervening in this. Watching two ants fight was boring enough, but getting involved in their war?
Even more boring.
“I’m very happy that you didn’t interfere.” A golden shadow flashed by just as Lu Yun was about to leave, resolving itself into a golden-haired girl. She looked almost the same as the Fire God, but dense metal energy sparkled over her.
“Tsk tsk tsk.” Lu Yun sized up the young woman. “If my guess is right, you’re the Metal God of the Divine Temple of Metal.”
“That is me,” the Metal God nodded. “My primary body is the ultimate nihil treasure called the Golden Chaos Sovereign.”
“Oh, never heard of it before. What do you want?”
“To help improve your strength.” The Metal God looked intently at Lu Yun.
“We’re enemies, aren’t we? Why do you want to help me?” the young man smirked. He wasn’t the least bit worried as he could activate the Dragonspike Litany with a single thought and completely destroy the divine temple.
It would come back through the collective faith of the people, but those who died wouldn’t.
“Your Dragonquake Scripture is yet to reach perfection, so you’ll at most destroy the Fire God’s temple and leave ours unharmed.” The Metal God was wholly unconcerned as she saw right through Lu Yun. “But don’t worry, the divine temples of the five elements are not of the same heart as the other temples.”
“Oh?” Lu Yun frowned. “Not of one heart?”
“There’s no need for you to know about that,” the Metal God shook her head.
“So then what are you talking about it for?” Lu Yun grumbled.
“Fine.” She pursed her lips. “Helps us regain control over the Divine Temple of Nothing. The world you see is formed from the power of the five elements. The divine temple continuously destroys the existences that are born within the nothing. We of the five elements collect the denizens whose homes have been destroyed and bring them here.
“The world you see is not the entire Divine Temple of Nothing, it’s just our territory.”
“So that means I need to go to the other mountains if I want to increase my strength?” Lu Yun raised his brows.
The Metal God: