Time to Go Home

Marsh Abyss Intent! Chen Xiaozhao's intent was entirely different from those of his two older brothers, and that was the very reason he had been able to survive. Whether it was Chen Dahai or Chen Huohai, their mental strength extended outward, ultimately transforming into water and fire respectively. Only Chen Xiaozhao's mental strength extended inward; his intent was itself like a colossal marsh abyss. When his physical body was slain, his spiritual spark would awaken from the depths of the marsh abyss, turning him into a pure spirit body. The marsh abyss was formless and colorless, yet possessed a myriad of wondrous capabilities. For instance, the marsh mud could be transformed into ceramic figurines for combat. As long as Chen Xiaozhao's mental strength was not exhausted, he could forge an endless horde of them. The Mighty Ones atop the Stargazing Platform watched Chen Xiaozhao abruptly emerge and multiply into countless avatars. Even those of profound mental fortitude felt a surge of dread. Although these avatars of Chen Xiaozhao were ceramic figurines, every single one wielded the might of a Mighty One. All the Mighty Ones of the Slay-Quan Alliance combined did not even amount to a fraction of Chen Xiaozhao's numbers. That meant if Chen Xiaozhao wished to wipe them out, it would be as easy as turning over his hand. This was quite literally an army composed of Mighty Ones! Witnessing this, Longjing Tea felt his heart die completely. His grand designs, his ambition, everything he had strived for—perhaps from the very start, it had been nothing more than a joke in the eyes of the three Chen brothers. When all was said and done, it would have been far better to find some secluded corner and bury himself in cultivation. Longjing Tea closed his eyes, and a new aspiration gradually bloomed within his heart: *I wish to become a tea tree, bestowing grace upon all living beings; I wish to become a tea tree, devoted solely to arduous cultivation; I wish to become a tea tree, aloof from the squabbles of the world; I wish to become a tea tree...* A breeze swept past, and the surrounding Mighty Ones suddenly caught the fresh, delicate fragrance of tea leaves. In an instant, every trace of negative emotion lingering in their hearts was swept entirely away. One after another, they turned toward Longjing Tea, realizing that their alliance leader appeared to have had an epiphany and broken through. *** Between Being and Non-Being, within a severed branch, inside a certain world. Yu Xian crouched at the foot of a mountain. The surroundings were desolate and silent. With his head bowed, he watched an ant searching for food. He produced a piece of candy and placed it on the ground. Catching the sweet scent, the ant scurried over, circled the candy, and bobbed its two antennae up and down, visibly overjoyed. Then the ant hurried away, clearly off to rally its companions so more ants could come haul the prize. The moment the ant left, Yu Xian promptly took the candy away, thoroughly cleared every trace of its scent, and then looked expectantly toward the ant nest. A short while later, that ant returned at the head of a grand procession. The swarm searched the spot where the candy had just been, but after finding nothing for quite some time, they dispersed in disappointment. Grinning, Yu Xian remained crouched there motionless. He stayed like that for several days until that same ant came out foraging once more. This time it went in another direction. Yu Xian set the candy along its path again. The ant soon discovered it, circled around it with antennae twitching in excitement, and scurried off once more. Wearing the triumphant smirk of a successful prankster, Yu Xian quickly snatched the candy away and cleared away all lingering traces of its scent. A moment later, the ant led the host back, only to come up empty again. After a fruitless search, the ants returned to the nest. It was plain to the naked eye that the ant that had discovered the candy hung its antennae low in dejection. Yu Xian chuckled and kept staking out that ant. After a week, the ant finally pulled itself together, left the nest again, and ventured out to forage. Though all ants might appear virtually identical, every single one looked distinct in Yu Xian's eyes. He immediately brought out the candy and set it in the ant's path. Thus, the previous scene repeated itself. When the ant returned with the swarm only to find nothing once more, it stood frozen in place for several minutes before trudging back to the nest all alone. Time and time again, the exact same routine played out for an entire year. Eventually, this ant suffered total credit bankruptcy. The final time it discovered the candy and returned to the nest, not a single ant followed it out to haul the prize. It returned all alone to the spot where it had found the candy, only to discover that the candy hadn't vanished! "Hahahahaha, hahahaha..." Watching the ant go utterly mad, shaking its head and dashing wildly back toward the nest, Yu Xian burst into gleeful laughter. Then he took the candy away once more and erased the scent. At last, the ant returned, dragging the colony with it. When they found the candy gone yet again, the surrounding ants swarmed the poor ant, clamped onto its limbs, and tore it apart in a miniature execution by dismemberment. "You are way too wicked!" Li Heihei had arrived behind Yu Xian at some point and spoke in total speechlessness. "Ehehe." Yu Xian poked his tongue out at Li Heihei with a mischievous grin. Achieving Oneness did not mean completely stripping away one's humanity; if anything, one's humanity became even richer and more boundless. He could freely choose whatever he wished to do. A child's heart, a loving heart, an adult's heart, an elder's heart... All of it was encompassed within. Just as he could mess with an ant for an entire year solely to bankrupt its credibility, he could also endure across countless ages for the sake of a single plan, all to ensure its flawless execution. At this point, he stood up, wiggled his hips, stretched his back, and looked up at the sky with a grin. "Finally, it's time for the grand finale." "What grand finale?" Li Heihei asked, bewildered. Yu Xian smiled. "Quan Juehua's doom has arrived, of course. I'm going back to deal with him. Do you want to take the long-distance coach or fly?" "What long-distance coach or plane?" Li Heihei could make neither head nor tail of it. Yu Xian nodded with a chuckle. "The long-distance coach it is, then." "Hey, wait!" Li Heihei hadn't even grasped what was going on—why was Yu Xian already deciding for her? Yet with Yu Xian's willful nature, he was hardly going to listen to her. In the next moment, Li Heihei felt the scenery around her shift, and she found herself standing inside a room. After depositing Li Heihei into the Zhen Realm, Yu Xian took a deep breath and smiled. "Time to get down to business!" In an instant, the entire world was swept into the Zhen Realm. At the same time, the severed branch rapidly shrank, and within breaths, every world within it had been tucked into the Zhen Realm. Yu Xian himself reappeared in Between Being and Non-Being. Glancing in another direction, his whole figure flashed like golden lightning, appearing at another branch in the blink of an eye. He grasped the branch, refined it in mere moments, and then shot like lightning toward yet another branch. Ricocheting endlessly in this manner, he absorbed all the Being-Void from the branches that Quan Juehua had severed, while the worlds within them were all collected into the Zhen Realm. The next moment, he drew the Zhen Realm out from within himself and coated its exterior with a dense layer of Being-Void. In a flash, the Zhen Realm took the form of a gigantic incandescent bulb. "Hehe, Brother Whale, lend me a hand!" Yu Xian turned to look toward Transcender-Whale, who was an infinite distance away. Without caring in the slightest whether Whale agreed, he instantly yanked Whale to his side. Grabbing Whale by the tail, his body spun rapidly in circles. Using Whale's gargantuan body like a baseball bat, he smacked the Zhen Realm toward the Tree Universe with a mighty swing. "Nice hit!" Having struck the blow, Yu Xian laughed happily as he watched the Zhen Realm swiftly vanish into the distance. At that moment, Transcender-Whale gave its tail a gentle flick, slipped free of Yu Xian's grip, and continued drifting forward. Yu Xian smiled. "Thanks, Brother Whale! Go on back to sleep; I won't disturb you anymore." After bidding farewell to Transcender-Whale, he glanced around his surroundings. The next instant, he vanished. It was time to go home.