“My son…” Lu Sheng held the wrinkly baby up high, and examined it with the moonlight.

Surprisingly, a sliver of the Yuanguang Family’s burning bloodline existed among the dense life force. Aside from that, there was also another strong aura of something similar to Yang Essence. The two bloodlines were equal in strength, twisting and integrating to stabilize the infant’s various organs and functions.

“Such unique potential…” Lu Sheng exclaimed.

“Have you thought of a name?” Lu Quanan’s face was blooming with a big smile, and he walked up to carry the baby.

“I have, we will call him Ning. Lu Ning ¹ . Simplicity is good. I hope he can have a peaceful life in the future.” Lu Sheng sighed. His heart was ecstatic as he saw his second mother and other relatives’ faces that were filled with smiles.

He turned and strode into the room, sat beside Chen Yunxi who had now calmed down, and lightly held her hand.

“Nice work, Yunxi.”

Chen Yunxi couldn’t even talk, and could only give a weak nod.

“Sleep. Rest well.” Lu Sheng brushed her eyelids shut, and Chen Yunxi instantly fell into a deep slumber.

Afterwards, the whole family celebrated along with the sect. Several powerful masters in the area all came with gifts and blessings. Even the Moling Branch of the Thousand Sun Sect which had been in conflict with Lu Sheng sent gifts.

The entirety of the Autumn Moon County held a nine-day-long feast that expended countless resources. Lu Sheng promptly sent a drop of Lu Ning’s blood to Yuanguang Yuan to confirm the bloodline. The result immediately drew the attention of the Yuanguang Family. The little guy’s bloodline was way denser than Lu Sheng’s—he was a Burning Heir with vast potential.

The Yuanguang Family immediately attempted to bring Lu Ning into the inner family, but was stopped by Lu Sheng. After the two parties discussed a detailed plan of collaboration, the Yuanguang Family finally backed off.

Lu Sheng, finally finished with all the arrangements, left to guard the Gate of Illusion.

***

Three years later, Eastern Sea.

The Island of Illusive Sky.

In the middle of the verdant island stood a beautiful complex of ancient and simple buildings, all built with red bricks, white tiles, and turquoise stones.

Lu Sheng was resting with closed eyes in his bedroom. He wore a gray robe and a tall, black headdress with a gray gem embedded in the middle on his head.

It had been two years since he arrived on the Island of Illusive Sky. Only after he arrived did he realize that something was wrong.

The Gate of Illusion wasn’t the only thing in this place. The Island of Illusive Sky also sealed a horrifyingly powerful existence beneath its surface.

A total of four Divine Lords, including him, were the only guardians on the island. No subordinates, no servants, only the four of them.

Everything else, even Devils, couldn’t survive there.

The part that worried Lu Sheng the most was the fact the Gate of Illusion was extremely unstable. He could clearly feel that within the two years of his standing guard, the Gate of Illusion’s range of activity had almost doubled. The gate itself seemed like it was trying to form a connection with another gate.

“Whoosh…”

As his eyes snapped open, Lu Sheng slowly left his bed. He looked at the time-keeping disk on the wall and calculated the time before tidying his clothes and walking out of the door.

A green and untainted forest greeted him. Some kind of fine fungi floated in the air, but there was no sound of bugs or birds anywhere.

Lu Sheng skillfully navigated his way through the walkway outside of the room. After a hundred or so steps, he made a turn, arriving at an enormous open plaza.

A hexagonal pond stood at the center of the plaza, filled with faint blue water. The water was spinning in circle silently, and an especially dark hole in the shape of a whirlpool appeared in the middle.

“You made it?” Three other strange people stood beside the pond. All three dressed like Lu Sheng—a gray robe and a tall headdress.

Lu Sheng stepped up to the rest of the three, his eyes focused on the water slowly flowing in the pond.

“Another opening?” Lu Sheng asked in a low voice.

“Been a while. Two evil creatures came out, but me and Xingyun took care of it,” a woman in gray robe answered in a low voice.

“Two?” Lu Sheng frowned slightly. He could tell his three companions had a hard time. One even seemed to be wounded.

He had seen the evil creatures that crawled out of this thing before. All of them possessed horrifying power, being seemingly completely immune to Divine Lords’ spirit-based attacks, and could only be harmed by physical ones.

These evil creatures somehow also possessed powerful Black Membrane, even stronger than normal, as well as troublesome hidden claws.

Hidden Claw also happened to be the name given to the killing moves of these Evil Spirits.

It was an unobservable, untraceable weapon that could completely eradicate any living creature it touched.

“They are coming!” Liu Xingyun, one of the four Divine Lords, warned in a low voice.

Lu Sheng focused his mind, and stared at the whirlpool within the pond.

“Whoosh!”

Abruptly, a dark blue figure shot out from the black hole, and went straight into the sky, attempting to distance itself from the four guardians.

“Let me!” The only female Divine Lord among the four, Qi Xiu, stretched out her right hand. A plum blossom-shaped triangular symbol appeared on her palm as she firmly blocked the evil creature’s path.

“Clang!”

The evil creature slammed into her arm, and somehow made a crisp, metallic sound. A jade white shock wave exploded outward between the two, with the blurry shape of plum blossom among it.

The evil creature was blocked head on, and its body shakily dropped to the side of the courtyard. Even though it just bore the brunt of a full-powered strike from a Divine Lord, it didn’t pause, and instead dove toward another Divine Lord.

“Puff, puff, puff.” Several rays of True Essence similar to red lasers shot out, and accurately landed on the head of the evil creature. It stumbled backward, and almost fell.

“Kill it!”

Lu Sheng stepped up, his arms instantly transforming into sharp black claws. He swiped at the evil creature.

“Ca’Duka Seal!” The evil creature abruptly let out a final shrill roar.

“Boom!!!”

Instantly, red light exploded outward, and a halo of immense heat mixed in with countless feather-like particles radiated outward.

Lu Sheng, who just charged up, was slammed back by the immense force. He put his arms in front of him to block the hit, and the skin on his arms somehow showed signs of melting.

“Are you ok!? Lu Sheng!” Liu Xingyun immediately ran up, his finger drawing a symbol in the air so fast it became blurry. The symbol exploded into countless green specks of light, and covered the wound on Lu Sheng’s arm.

But the result made Liu Xingyun sigh in his heart. His Rune Secret Art was capable of reviving the dead and make flesh grow again on bones under normal circumstances, but in this place…

He looked at the melting skin on Lu Sheng’s arm absorbing the green light to regenerate at a painfully slow rate, and sighed again silently.

“There is only one this time, we should be done.” He turned and looked at the whirlpool.

“Don’t be reckless. We found out a while back that the rate at which these evil creatures spawn has increased. Something went wrong.”

The Divine Lord and Great Demon Ouyang Huo that didn’t move but served as a last resort said with a frown, “Did something happen at the other places?”

“Not sure.” Qi Xiu was confused too. There hadn’t been any big news, and the Gate of Illusion shouldn’t change by itself.

But the current situation was similar to the past times when the other gates experienced drastic change. Whenever some major turbulence happened to the world and caused problem for the other gates, the Gate of Illusion would experience the same change.

These evil creatures weren’t easy to deal with, either. Even if one managed to escape, it could reproduce by splitting and could replicate itself several hundreds of times in a few days. All its clones would have the same power of the original.

They also possessed hard shells that were hard to penetrate even for Divine Lords, horrifying power, as well as the mad self-destruction as a last resort.

If they got out, they would cause an apocalypse at least. If the Divine Lords could even stop them in the first place.

The four of them stood guard for a little while longer, and watched the whirlpool shrink in size. After seeing that no other evil creature would emerge, they finally relaxed.

“That seems to be it for today.” Liu Xingyun let out a sigh of relief.

“Speaking of which, does anyone know what’s on the other side of the whirlpool? Does any of you Fellow Daists know?” Divine Lord Qi Xiu asked.

Lu Sheng shook his head, as did Ouyang Huo beside him.

Liu Xingyun, on the other hand, seemed to know something.

“I have heard some news. The newly discovered Evil Spirit Gate seem to be connected to the Gate of Illusion and Gate of Cloud. It might become another way into our Human World after the World of Pain.”

“Not so. In reality, the World of Pain is still part of our Planet Lie, but these evil creatures… are completely different. Their strength has far surpassed that of any of our known native creatures. Even the red dragons of the Devil World aren’t as tough. The red dragons live near the most uninhabitable volcanoes of Devil World, and if something that evolved in such a rough environment as them isn’t as powerful, it’s telling how much worse the environment on the other side is.

“What if they didn’t evolve naturally, and were perhaps created artificially?” Lu Sheng interjected.

All three fell into deep thought.

What kind of being could create such terrifying creatures? Even thoughts of that were terrifying, and the feeling got more intense as they thought more.

By then, the whirlpool had became smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller, almost closing.

“Alright, let’s go. Our task today is complete. If Fellow Daoists are interested, you could come to my Heavenly Raven Hall. I just picked something recently that would be perfect with wine.” Liu Xingyun smiled.

“If you say so.” Qi Xiu was the first one to agree. Her biggest hobby was eating. Be it from the sky or earth, she had almost tasted everything that could be eaten.

Lu Sheng smiled, and was about to reply when he saw the whirlpool in the pond in his peripheral.

“Not good!” His body instantly switched into the Yin Yang Integration Mode, while his hand held the black raven figurine tightly.

Abruptly, a giant pitch-black shadow shot out of the whirlpool. The shadow quickly solidified, and formed several thick and cruel-looking arms dozens of meters long, then promptly slammed toward the four of them.

The hand on the arms opened, and somehow its palms were packed tight with a swarm of triangular symbols shining like the stars—they were Divine Weapon marks of all kinds!

A single palm had about several hundred thousands worth of Divine Weapon marks, all shining with different color and light.

“Black Arms! Run!!!” Liu Xingyun’s face paled immediately. He turned and ran without hesitation, but his whole body was quickly twisted as if an immense force field compressed his surroundings. He only managed to fly for a few seconds before being grabbed by a Black Hand behind him.

Following a crisp sound like snapping dates, Liu Xingyun disappeared.

The other two suffered the same fate—slowed by the twisted dimension of the hand and unable to escape, they could only helplessly watch as the Black Hands caught up, grabbed them, and disappeared.

Goosebumps rose all over Lu Sheng’s body, the cells all over his body struggling like mad, trying to escape from the powerful force field. But nothing worked.

He could feel the black hands approaching. Because he had the strongest physical body among the four, he ran away the furthest, but Black Hands still almost caught up.

“F**K!!” He shattered the raven figurine.

“Crack.”