Lu Yun’s nascent spirit double reached the end of the passageway in only a few breaths, whereupon it was met with a scintillating ray of brilliance that almost blinded him and robbed him of all perception. There seemed to be a sun at the end of the tunnel… no, not seemed, there really was a bonafide sun!
Its terrifying heat and luminosity had melted everything around it, turning the environment into dense flows of leaping lava and currents of red air.
“Everyone who's come here is dead…” Lu Yun felt like his own double was also being melted by the dreadful waves of heat. The Tome of Life and Death resided within his primary body, offering no protection for his double. However, the six paths of his nascent spirit still circulated in hell, continuously ferrying enormous power that enabled him to maintain the projection.
A resplendent world as glorious as the cosmos unfolded in front of him. A wheel of a blazing sun hung in the center of this world, radiating grim light and waves of heat.
The sun was... a coffin. The main chamber of the immortal emperor's tomb held a fiery sun as a coffin that granted the great emperor of immortals his final rest!
The Immortal Subjugation Seal lay within the blazing coffin before him, and from it rose a pillar of light that stabbed into the skies. It broke through the barriers of the tomb with immeasurable momentum, but what Lu Yun had eyes for wasn't the legendary treasure, it was... the coffin.
“You had me come here not for the seal, nor the item that cannot be named, but for this blazing sun of a coffin.” Lu Yun seemed to be both murmuring to himself and addressing someone as well.
“To be more precise, the Sol Truefire that blazes atop the coffin.” The ghost of the immortal emperor once again appeared quietly by Lu Yun’s side, as if he’d been here all along and hadn’t taken a single step away.
“The primeval human emperor used hellfire as the foundation to illuminate hell and establish the rule of human dao,” murmured the immortal emperor. “Fire is the origin of civilization, the symbol of enlightenment, and the guide of living beings. Only fire can create an ultimate dao.
“The three founders of immortal dao collected the flames of the world and attempted to use the three great immortal fires—Emerald Mistfire, Lucent Voidfire, and Daevic Skyfire—as the foundation for a world that could encompass the immortal dao. But they failed.
“The three great fires are the fires of immortal dao. Though immensely strong, they did not possess the strength to illuminate a world. I inherited their dying wish to find a flame that could spark such a world and I… succeeded.
“This Sol Truefire is one that will light up the heavenly palace and behold a world of immortal dao.”
The immortal emperor opened his arms wide and took in a deep breath. He didn't seem to be a ghost in this moment, but a real man of flesh and blood.
Lu Yun stared dumbly at the emperor in front of him. He was suddenly reminded of a particular scene—the resurrection of the Dao Flower!
In the Firmament Prison, where the tomb burying the Dao Flower was located, there’d been one last survivor from an incomparably ancient period. She’d used the civilization of an era to irrigate and revive the Dao Flower.
Dao was the path of all living beings and of civilization, and fire the key to the doors of civilization.
Hell was illuminated by hellfire, and if the heavenly palace wished to become a true world that wasn’t subordinate to the world of immortals, it required the support of its own flame as well.
The immortal emperor had located that flame in the Primordial Era.
During the Primordial Era, the Central World had seceded from the world of immortals and become the basis of the immortal court. Back then, the immortal emperor had wanted to further redefine it as a separate world and the root of a race, much like the hell of human dao.
Sadly, the world had suffered a cataclysmic blow before he could fully realize his ambitions.
“Now, I entrust this flame to you!” A smile floated onto the immortal emperor’s face as he looked at Lu Yun. “This is the dying wish of the three founders, and it is my wish as well: use the Sol Truefire to create a world that truly belongs to immortal dao and ensure that it prospers forevermore, that its light is never extinguished!”
“You’re going to become one with the flame?!” Lu Yun immediately saw through the emperor’s intentions. The immortal emperor was dead, his soul scattered and true spirit extinguished. This ghost was just a manifestation of his obsession, one that carried the last of his will.
The Sol Truefire wasn’t something that Lu Yun could touch. It completely burned everything in its vicinity, taking the form of a sun itself. In fact, it was more dreadful than the actual sun hanging in the skies of the world of immortals.
However, the flame belonged to the immortal emperor, so if he combined his will with it, he would be able to calm it and hand over a tamed Sol Truefire to Lu Yun. If he did so, though, the last traces of the emperor would be erased. There would no longer be an immortal emperor of the Primordial Era in all of the world.
“You need to think carefully about this. I can save you, reform your true spirit and shape your soul again… I can bring you back to this world so you can continue trying for your aspirations...”
“Hahahaha!!” the emperor laughed heartily. “So what of life, and what of death? I failed and died for my inadequacies. Even if I am reborn, I would still be a failure.
“My only wish now is for the Sol Truefire to carry on my hopes and illuminate all life, that the immortal dao be eternal…”
Zoom!
The immortal emperor rushed into the blazing sun as he spoke, and the debonair youth in the coffin slowly opened his eyes.
Whoosh!
He shot into the sky and held his hand out to the Immortal Subjugation Seal, which came down gently in a haze of resplendent glow.
“The immortal dao is free and unfettered, and immortals are without chains and shackles! The world needs no Immortal Subjugation Seal!” The immortal emperor gave voice to a long whistle, igniting the golden seal in his hand and turning it into a ball of blazing flame. All of the flames on the coffin gathered to the seal in his hand; tongues of fire flickered to life on his body at the same time.
Though he was going up in flames, the immortal emperor flung his head back in deep, satisfied laughter, the kind that originated from the bottom of one’s heart. At long last, the greatest wish of his life was to be fulfilled.
His body grew indistinct as his will was immortalized in the flame.
Puff!
Nothing was left behind of the emperor, and his will began fading away as well. A brilliant pearl that shone with the brilliance of a sun hovered in front of Lu Yun.
Dao City.
“WaaaAHHHHHH—“ While keeping an eye on Donglin Taihuang, the little fox suddenly burst into loud sobs.
“Your Immortal Majesty… We have an emperor no longer, our emperor is no more!” Tears streamed down Qi Hai’s face as he froze, trembling within Destiny City. “You’ve… disappeared completely… How I wish our ideals were the same… I made my moves for humanity, but you undertook things for the good of all…”
“Your Immortal Majesty!!” The lord of Ingress Island and head of the Dark North Sword Sect wailed and beat their chests in anguish.
“Was that the immortal emperor? The man that defined an epoch a hundred thousand years ago…?” Silverlight and Goldenlight looked at each other. “What a pity we were sealed away and never witnessed his eminence for ourselves… He is no longer.”