Her face turned grim as she spoke.
"The Immortal Realm above these small planes is called the Great Sea Immortal Realm."
"Our Great Sea Immortal Realm contains many continents, but not all of them are inhabited by humans. There are those filthy nether creatures, mythical beasts, and us humans."
"Just as humans in the lower realm have feuds with the nether races, we immortal humans are also opposed to those nether creatures and mythical beasts."
"Our Great Sea Immortal Realm controls countless smaller planes. These planes are just floating orbs in the Great Sea."
"But these floating worlds can help improve our cultivation. That's when the feud started."
"Humans used planes that contained no living creatures to improve their cultivation, but the nether creatures and beasts don't care about these lower-level planes at all."
"They started refining any of these planes at will. We humans couldn't stay still, and a huge war started between the three races."
"At some point, the apex powerhouses decided to arrange a game."
"The Playground of Immortals. We would arrange a competition and the winner would take over the Great Sea for the next million years. We thought we'd win, but reality hit us hard... when the nether races won the bet and took control of the Great Sea."
Huai's anger flared. In an instant, the miasma turned cold and eerie. The mythical creatures inside the miasma started whimpering, shaking their heads continuously in fear, lowering their gaze from Huai, even bowing their heads.
Bai Liuli felt suffocated by the aura Huai unconsciously released.
She stammered, "Your... Your Highness!"
Wuhe immediately came to Huai and placed a hand on his trembling shoulder. Huai looked at him, and seeing the pain on his face, he stopped. The atmosphere in his inner world calmed again. The mythical beasts resumed appearing and disappearing as before. Bai Liuli also felt relief. She breathed heavily, bending over slightly... just a moment ago, she thought she would die here.
Huai said, "I'm sorry. Hearing your foolishness, I felt anger..." He still clenched his fist.
He looked at Bai Liuli and said, "Then what are you doing here?"
Bai Liuli took a breath and continued, "Not just me. Other immortals also came to this lower realm and settled in many holy lands. They train the Galaxy Sovereigns for humanity."
Huai nodded. Bai Liuli continued, "I'm from a holy force in the Great Sea Immortal Realm called the Jade Sea Immortal Holy Land. Our sect master, the Jade Sea Immortal Sovereign, ordered me to take care of the humans here. That's why I came."
Now Huai understood what was happening in this lower realm, what many of the immortal powerhouses were doing here. They were actually playing with the living creatures of this plane.
Bai Liuli frowned again and said, "We thought those nether creatures would kill indiscriminately after landing here, but my lord, after all this time here, we found out they are actually trying to find something. They are searching for something..."
Huai and Wuhe both frowned.
"So," Huai said, "they have a reason to come here too, and it is different from yours..."
Bai Liuli nodded. "Yes! And the thing is really important to them. They even tried to invade the human and beast planes many times in the last 10,000 years..."
Huai nodded, but a deep thought began to form in his mind. What could it be that those fools are searching for...
Wuhe looked at Huai with worry but didn't say anything. After a few seconds, Huai looked at Bai Liuli again.
"Now that you've been here for at least 10,000 years, you should have some way to contact the other human immortals, right? Contact them. Tell them you want to arrange a meeting. Don't tell them about my existence or his..."
At that, Bai Liuli looked at Wuhe, who was standing beside them. When she looked at him, she felt the same immense pressure she felt from her own sect master. Yes, Wuhe had already reached the Immortal Sovereign realm. After he saw that dream, his cultivation speed became much, much faster... and he had already reached peak Immortal Sovereign.
Bai Liuli immediately nodded and said, giving both of them a proper salute, "As you command, Your Highness..."
After that, Huai waved his hand, and Bai Liuli appeared at the same spot where she had been standing inside the Moonlit Jade Pavilion.
She looked around to see Mei Ling and the elders serving little Yan and Xiao Yu. She sighed and went toward them.
Inside the inner world, Huai stood on the mountaintop and watched the sun rising. Wuhe stood behind him.
There was silence between them. Wuhe wanted to ask him more but couldn't start the conversation yet.
Huai himself began. "Wuhe."
Wuhe answered immediately, "Hmm?"
Huai continued, "These are the things that gave me happiness in my life. That small mountain over there..."
He pointed at the ordinary small mountain and said, "It was the only place where I found a little happiness and peace in my past life."
Wuhe clenched his fist. He knew Huai's last life was not good... he had shared very little detail of it, but it was awful.
Huai chuckled softly. "But when I came here, I met many people inside my sect... they loved me. They let me see the happiness of a family... and the most beautiful memories of me in this world..." He turned to look at Wuhe and continued, "...when I met you here."
Wuhe looked at him, stunned. He knew Huai loved him, but he didn't know that Huai loved him so much that he had even carried these memories in his heart, built them into his soul.
Wuhe stepped closer to Huai. Huai asked again, his voice lower, "Do you remember those moments?"
Wuhe didn't say anything. He just closed the distance and locked his lips with Huai's, trying to melt into his mouth, pouring every unsaid word into the kiss. Huai let him, meeting him with the same fierceness, his hands finding Wuhe's waist as if afraid he would disappear.
After five uninterrupted minutes, breathless, Wuhe rested his forehead against his, looked into his eyes, and said while hugging him tightly, "I remember every moment with you, Huai. Every sunrise, every sword form, every night you stayed. Don't forget ,I'm still here with you."
Huai nodded, his arms tightening around him.
And they both turned to watch the rising sun, beautiful and golden, spilling light over the rose-petal lake below. Two lovers standing alone on a mountain that existed only inside one heart and now, belonged to both.
***
Inside the Nether Shadow Clan,
Deep in the forbidden core of the clan, in a place even the Nether Shadow Ancestors could not enter without permission, the air was thick with cold, rotting yin qi.
The ground was black stone veined with purple, pulsing like a slow heartbeat. Shadow mist coiled around broken pillars carved with screaming faces, and above, there was no sky only a swirling vortex of ash and starless night that never moved.
In the center, on a throne of bone, a being meditated alone.
His upper body was bare, his skin scratched in dozens of places, black blood still crusted at the edges. It was all because of Bai Liuli.
He was Immortal Lord Mo Lin, who had descended from the Great Sea Immortal Realm. He was a true nether shadow being.
Suddenly, his breath caught.
He shook like a fish on land, his chest heaving. He jumped up and slammed onto the ground, clawing at his throat as if his whole life was about to be suffocated out of him in that moment.
Then, with a dull thud, he felt several of his internal organs burst. A single trail of black blood spilled from his mouth.
The last time he fought against Bai Liuli, he had been injured too. This time, he had sent the Phantom Shadow Lord to check if that immortal was still there... he had placed a spiritual mark inside the Phantom Shadow Lord.
Just now, he had suffocated through that link. Then even his own mark burst in human territory, and he couldn't save it at all and was injured by the backlash.
He stood up, gritting his teeth, black veins bulging on his neck. "Bai Liuli! How are you still alive! I even used Nether Shadow Poison to poison you... how could you find a cure and destroy my spiritual mark..."
But what he didn't know was that it was not Bai Liuli at all who had destroyed his mark.
He still gritted his teeth, took out a pill, and swallowed it. In seconds, his injuries healed, the torn flesh knitting back together with a hiss of shadow. It is a forbidden medicine of their clan, that he hesitated to use before...
He sat down in meditation again, his eyes burning. "We need to find it! We need to find it no matter what, before that person comes back to the world..."
He performed a ritual, cutting his palm and letting the blood drip into a magic circle in front of him, murmuring, "Progenitor will return! Progenitor will return! The day Calamity surfaces again will be the day the Progenitor will also return to the world! My lord! Please take my sacrifice..."
In just a moment, half of the blood inside the Immortal Lord dried out completely. Then the magic circle glowed, and from the Shadow Land, Nether Rats Land, Nether Wraiths Land, and Nether Bats Land, four different lights shot up and met at one point in the sky above.
He started grinning, then laughing out loud, his voice echoing off the bone pillars.
"Successful! Successful! My lord, my lord, you have already reincarnated again... hahahahah my lord, you came back... now we just need to find you..."
***
On the other side ,
Inside the Gu Family main hall, Sect Master Gu Tianzheng sat on his throne, his Azure Spirit Sword resting across his knees.
Below him, the five elders of the clan Great Elder Gu Qingxuan, Second Elder Gu Moyan, Third Elder Gu Lianxin, Fourth Elder Gu Zhengtian, and Fifth Elder Gu Wuyou were seated in order. Young Master Gu Changfeng stood at his father's right side, his hand on his sword hilt.
This was the family meeting held every morning.
At that moment, the heavy doors slammed open.
Elder Gu Shan ,the keeper of the ancestral mountain and personal lackey of Gu Changfeng entered the hall with a terrifying face. His old body thumped onto the ground the moment he crossed the threshold. His clothes were disheveled and his hair was a complete mess, as if he had run for his life.
He didn't look at anyone. He crawled forward and directly grabbed Young Master Gu Changfeng's robe and cried out, "Young Master! We... we are doomed!"8