The combination of Sugato Sword and inheritance tower shattered Jiangchen Xie’s Corpse Refinement Formation. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, the genius wilted visibly.

“H-how can this be!” Protected by a ball of Hadal Bonefire, he could only stare, flabbergasted, at the inheritance tower that now soared three thousand kilometers in the clouds.

Such was Dusk Province’s true strength, and such was Lu Yun’s trump card!

Having refined the tower long ago, he’d already received the ancient lord’s recognition and heritage. This alone provided him with the ability to found a great faction in the world, provided he had sufficient strength. The ancient heritage of Lord Sugato held an incomparable amount of knowledge.

Yet no one had ever noticed this fact. They’d always thought the inheritance tower to still be masterless, open to be taken by anyone.

Reality had cruelly snapped their dreams in half.

“He could’ve taken the tower away at any time as his personal treasure, but he allowed it to stand here in Dusk Province for everyone to cultivate in...”

“He wants to start a sacred land! He wants to become a saint!”

That was the only possible explanation for Lu Yun’s apparent altruism.

The inheritance tower was a haven for cultivation, comprised of ancient laws and methods that significantly bolstered the strength of all those who entered it. Anyone else would certainly keep such an amazing treasure for themselves and their own, whether for use or for profit.

During the Feng clan’s occupation, anyone who wanted to use the inheritance tower had to pay a hundred thousand crystals a day. For most people, such a price was exorbitant beyond belief.

After Lu Yun had retaken the province, everything had immediately gone back to its previous normal. And now, it seemed that everyone had discovered the reason why.

……

Inside the Skandha Range, the desolate willow glowed with a black, spectral light. Dissolving into heaven and earth, the light passed on to Lu Yun in Dusk Province.

“Up!” Lu Yun commanded loudly, compelling the tower to slowly uproot itself and fly into the air. It exerted a terrifying pressure upon everyone around it, forcing even Qing Yu, Xing Chen, Wu Tulong, and Mo Qitian to cease fighting for a time.

By now, Dusk capital was completely destroyed. A huge hole in the ground was revealed where the tower had been: Lord Sugato’s tomb.

“Come on, then! Who else wants to die?” With both hands behind his back, Lu Yun declared a cold ultimatum to the rest of the world.

All of creation became silent for a moment.

The pressure of the inheritance tower was too much for them to bear. Even the nearby dao immortals watching the commotion from the province’s border paled at the tension. The power the tower emanated was sufficient to strike one of them down in a single hit as well!

“That’s not Lu Yun’s true strength! He’s borrowing influence from elsewhere. A perceived void cultivator like him shouldn’t be able to move the tower at all!” a  dao immortal called out emphatically.

“You’re right,” Lu Yun nodded. “I can hold on like this for another thirty breaths, though. At twenty, I’m going to begin a massacre.”

Saying this, he closed his eyes and waited.

“We’re leaving!” The cultivators within and without the city paused for only a moment at his words, then turned their backs on the battleground without hesitation. Even Jiangchen Xie was compelled into involuntary retreat. 

It would be suicide to clash against Lu Yun right now; no one wanted to see whether they could survive the tower’s impact.

In twenty breaths of time, every foreign cultivator and immortal had vacated the premises.

Boom!

Ten breaths later, the inheritance tower smashed weightily into the ground.

Drained of every iota of energy, Lu Yun collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap. He’d borrowed strength from the desolate willow of the Skandha Range, otherwise calling upon the tower would’ve been impossible.

The desolate willow had taken root in Dusk Province countless years ago, and was practically one with the province. The power it’d sent him was equivalent to natural energy of the purest variety. Just as tired out as the young Dusk lord by the exertion, the human face on the tree dimmed.

……

Some of the immortals and cultivators outside the province noticed Lu Yun’s weakness, but not even the dao immortals turned around.

They had already lost.

Going back now would allow them to take Dusk Province and kill Lu Yun, but their dao hearts wouldn’t permit such an act.

“He didn’t kill us in the end.” Casting a glance back at Dusk Province, Jiangchen Xie gave a cursory wave. The throng of Corpse Refiner disciples and their zombies instantly melted away at the signal, as if melding with heaven and earth.

Zi Chen, Mo Qitian, and Wu Tulong vanished as well.

“That’s too bad,” the dao immortals sighed as they took their leave.

……

“Roooooar!” A bestial noise tore through the peaceful silence as a golden wave of sonic energy rippled through all of Dusk Province.

“Who is it?!” The immortals in the process of leaving stopped in their tracks, shocked by what they saw in the north.

A golden lion slowly approached upon the waves.

“Come out here, Qing Yu!” The monster was enormously large at three hundred meters long. Its fur burned with golden flames and its dark eyes focused on a certain lonely figure in Dusk Province.

Qing Yu.

The shout seemed to strike the girl like a thunderbolt, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“You killed my heir, my direct descendant. Today, I’m only after your life. Show yourself outside of Dusk Province!”

“The Golden Lion King! That old thing decided to show itself?”

The Golden Lion King was the strongest member of the gold bloodline. When the Scarlet Ape had first established the monster sacred land, it’d been the first one to jump out in support of the ancient monkey, dividing the monster spirits as a result.

The Lion King was an origin dao immortal itself, and had endured grievous injuries in order to pluck its origin dao fruits. However, the aura it radiated right now was far stronger than any of the other crippled origin dao immortals in the world. It stood between heaven and earth like an insurmountable mountain, dividing the gap between the two with endless strength.

Even though it was still outside the province, the immortal restriction was already on the verge of activating. Every crippled origin dao immortal opened their eyes at the same time and looked in its direction.

“The Golden Lion King’s origin dao fruits... are perfect,” one murmured.

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