Necropolis Immortal

"If it wasn't for Hong stopping me last time when you took the river's waters, I would've turned you into a big fish on the spot! Now you want more water from me?!" The city lord's expression darkened.

Lu Yun had also noticed that when he siphoned off ten inches of water; he wouldn't be immediately looking for Hong after his arrival otherwise.

"I'm just borrowing water, it's not like I won't return it to you," he grumbled. "Don't they say that returning borrowed things on time means that you'll be welcomed next time?"

The city lord laughed merrily from the sheer temerity of this little bastard. If it wasn't for what Hong had said to her before the little girl left, she would've turned Lu Yun into a large fish the second he appeared and dumped him into the river.

"And what will you be returning in lieu of the water?" she asked coldly.

"A life." Lu Yun raised his head and looked fearlessly straight in the beautiful city lord's eyes.

"Your life will be mine in due time." The look in her eyes turned even colder.

"Your life, not mine," Lu Yun enunciated carefully.

"What did you say??" Shock snapped across her face.

"You're dead—the lingering will and mind of an unparalleled powerhouse. You've found sustenance in this city and become its city lord. I can help you collect your true spirit and soul again and come back to life!" he said in an intense tone.

Humm!

A young girl with powder-blue long hair and a similarly colored silk dress appeared in front of him.

"The Hongmeng is a cage and its denizens the birds in the cage. They are not prisoners under lock and key in a prison. You've taken the Hongmeng beings who grasped the order of time and kept them here because that order is not allowed to exist, right?" Lu Yun ignored the city lord's appearance and murmured to himself, "If my guess is right, you play the role of a Hongmeng rule. Your rule is that the order of time is not allowed to appear in this realm."

"Can you really return me to life?" The city lord looked at the human, not knowing herself what mix of emotions she was feeling. She suddenly recalled Hong's words—that the little girl was saving her, not the young man.

Save her? How?

The city lord was one of the rules of the realm and would remain so as long as the realm existed. Who could save her??

However, Lu Yun's words jarred her into wakefulness. Save her? Could that really be done?

"Yes." Lu Yun nodded and materialized a red flower with the flip of a hand.

A Hell Flower!

A hundred and eight thousand karmic fruits revolved around the flower, the full sum of all of the fruit currently hanging on the Karmic Tree. Gifting all of the fruit wasn't a concern since a steady stream of goodwill flowed to the tree due to the Immortal Pagoda constantly acquiring ghost crystals. Not only did the pagoda's bounty indirectly eliminate the ghosts, but it also provided another avenue for cultivators in need of purple crystals.

"This flower and these fruit can help you recollect your true spirit and soul, returning you to the state of a real living being." Lu Yun gently pushed the flower and fruit to the city lord.

Her eyes remained fixed on the tiny flower and she slowly sighed after a long moment.

"This flower and fruit can indeed help me evade the various rules of the realm and resurrect with none the wiser. You may take the water from the river." A complicated expression floated onto her face. "But you'd do well to remember that water from the river of time is deeply poisonous to Hongmeng beings. If this river overflows, it will wipe away all life within the realm.

"Thus, if you use its waters to kill innocents, someone will be along to take care of you before I even get to you."

"Thank you for your reminder." Lu Yun raised a cupped fist salute to the city lord.

She vanished without a trace after accepting the gift, leaving only Lu Yun and countless fish glimmering with purple light in the river of time.

He immediately summoned another karmic fruit with a flip of his hand. It'd only just formed on the Karmic Tree and wasn't ripe yet, but it was enough for his purposes. With his internal force as flame, he crafted the fruit into a gourd and extracted ten inches of time from the river beneath his feet.

He'd taken water from downriver last time—the time there had just coalesced into the light of time. The time, he was standing upstream. The light here had solidified into water and possessed a slight weight.

Thus, the ten inches of time obtained on this visit were much more powerful than what he'd gained last time.

After he collected what he'd come for, he opened the Gates of the Abyss and instantly left the lost ancient city.

"Those two left just like that and leave their mess for me to clean up!" Hong's diminutive form appeared when both the city lord and Lu Yun were gone. Grumbling with irritation, she erased traces of what had taken place with a quick wave of her hand.

"Or did they know I was here all along and did it on purpose?" She swiftly looked around her. "Mount Cloudcover…"

She suddenly turned in the mountain's direction and sighed, "Who knows what got into Meng's head for him to bury himself there? The characters for Cloudcover are 'meng' and 'yun'… 'meng' stands for Meng, and 'yun'… for Yun of the future."

She waved her hand again and erased the mark that Lu Yun had left on the black qilin.

"Hey big guy!" She suddenly appeared with a merry smile in front of the enormous creature. "Do you want to get out of here?"

"No." It munched placidly on a carrot and didn't even lift its head.

……

Less than one hour had elapsed when Lu Yun returned from the ancient city. The other three were sitting docilely on the ground, having remained strictly in place.

"Did you—" Dragon Butterfly was about to speak when a purple light flashed through the air; Lu Yun had stuffed her back into Purple Stellar Mountain.

She stomped her foot furiously when she realized what had happened.

"Don't waste time and focus on cultivation. With your current level of strength, you won't be able to get the ancestral blood even if you make it into Dragonhollow Mountain," Lu Yun lectured before cutting off the mountain's connection with the outside world.

"Oh? The path of death is now one of life!" Qing Yu wanted to ask him something when she exclaimed with surprise, "You've figured out how to resolve the danger!"

"That's right, the solution is here." Lu Yun smiled faintly. "Come on, let's go see what the heck is at the end of this path."

He took point and headed down the nearest passage. Someone had changed the thieves' tunnel anyhow, so all roads would lead to the same dead end.