Deep underground in the nest, there was a peach forest inside a Grotto-heaven.
Qin Yun cast his sword arts, causing Sword Qi to surge everywhere, and making countless peach blossoms flutter into the sky.
After practicing for two full hours, Qin Yun came to a stop and put away his Misty Rain Sword. He then took out the Butterfly Portrait from his Cosmic Bag and carefully observed it.
“I thought that by seeing the Butterfly Portrait, along with the numerous insights and experience I have gained, I should be able to create the sixth and seventh move of the Dreamlike Sword one after the other.” Qin Yun looked at the Butterfly Portrait for a moment before gently shaking his head. “The sixth move of the Dreamlike Sword, First Lightning Encounter, was quite easily created but the seventh move… I’m falling just a little short due to my lack of experience.”
The sixth move, First Lightning Encounter, was a natural result of having sufficient amounts of experience.
The dark lands in the Butterfly Portrait made Qin Yun feel stifled when he looked at them, to the point of vomiting blood.
However, the ‘dark lands’ and the ‘flying butterfly’ seemed to represent Yin and Yang respectively. They gave him many new insights, and as such he had a strong desire to create a more powerful move, which would become the Dreamlike Sword’s seventh move.
But clearly…
He was still lacking in experience. What he had was insufficient to reach the goal of the standards he demanded.
“One must learn how to walk before they run. Once more experience is accrued, the seventh move will come naturally.” Qin Yun did not demand any more of himself for the time being. He knew very well that he was already not far from creating the seventh move.
After putting away the Butterfly Portrait, Qin Yun flew towards the compound deep in the middle of the peach forest as a whooshing stream of light.
In the compound, the female warrior was sitting beside the white-robed corpse, silently guarding him.
“This female Guardian General sure has deep feelings for her master,” thought Qin Yun.
“You’re back again.” She looked up at Qin Yun.
“Yes.”
Qin Yun nodded. “I’m here to bid farewell.”
“The circulation of the Heavenly Dao results in karma. Remember your promise to my master,” said the female warrior.
“Don’t worry. I, Qin Yun, will naturally keep my promise,” said Qin Yun. “But as I am now, I’m no match for that Hawk Fiend King.”
Even the Heavenly Courts needed to send powerful Heaven armies and generals to deal with a powerful fiendish demon of that level.
The female warrior looked at Qin Yun without saying a word. Then, all she did was look at her master silently.
Qin Yun cupped his hands gently before turning to leave.
Phew!
With a flash of his figure, he streaked across the sky and landed at the end of the granite path. It was the entrance of the Grotto-heaven.
“Open.” He easily opened the Grotto-heaven’s entrance. He saw the wall of the underground passageway before he took a step and exited.
The Grotto-heaven’s doorway sealed up once again.
The Grotto-heaven once more only held the female warrior and the Skyimmortal corpse.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The entire Grotto-heaven was quaking.
“Master, you said that once a visitor accepts your karma and treasures, their departure would trigger the destruction of the Grotto-heaven.” The female warrior lifted her mask gently as she looked passionately at the white-robed corpse. “You also ordered me to allow you to be vanquished by the spatial storms along with the peach forest.”
The Grotto-heaven was collapsing while the space around it was filling with spatial storms.
The five-kilometer span of peach trees began to collapse as well.
The compound in the middle was the last to go.
“You handed me my Life Talisman to give me freedom.” The female warrior flipped her hand and produced a crystalline figurine made of jade. It was in the shape of a woman. “But I died the day you did.”
The female general gently hugged the white-robed corpse. “I remember that when I acquainted myself with you, you were alone, without friends or family, or even a place to call home. All you sought was revenge.”
“I followed you and we traveled the cosmos in search of opportunities.”
“I wished so much to avenge you but I’m only a Guardian General, a refined item. It’s impossible for me to increase my strength.”
Whoosh!
The compound began to collapse as well. The spatial storms swept over it, hurling both the female warrior and the white-robed corpse into the air.
“Your dying wish was for me to see the world and smile more.”
“However, I don’t want to see the world or others. All I wish is to spend time with you.”
The female warrior gently crushed the Life Charm in her hand, causing fine cracks to appear instantly across her armor.
Guardian Generals remained immortal only as long as their Life Charms were intact.
The destruction of a Life Charm also meant the true death of a Guardian General.
“Whoosh.”
The white-robed corpse dissipated under the grinding winds as the female warrior’s body was reduced to smithereens. Two streams of tears rolled down her cheeks.
“So I’m only able to cry when my Life Charm shatters.” The female warrior sighed lightly. She hugged her master and vanished amid the tempestuous storms.
…
“Greetings Master.”
“From this day forth, you will follow me. I call nowhere home and travel across the cosmos. I have been a lonely vagrant in the past, but now I have a partner.”
Back then, the somewhat ignorant female warrior obediently followed her master, rushing across the starry cosmos as they visited world after world in search of opportunities.
To her, her master was everything.
******
In the underground nest’s passageway.
Qin Yun quickly emerged. He was still unaware of what had happened to the Grotto-heaven once he left.
Qin Yun did not find the Guardian General’s Life Charm alongside the most precious Butterfly Portrait and medial-grade Numinous treasure that the Skyimmortal had left behind. Therefore, he knew very well that the Skyimmortal did not plan on giving the female warrior to others.
“Perhaps he had feelings for her after spending so much time together,” thought Qin Yun.
Swoosh.
Qin Yun again traveled within the underground nest. Although he had been in constant pain all these years, fraught with worry over his wife and daughter, he felt a little excited at the moment.
It was not because he had reached the level of a Skyimmortal but because…
He had accrued the necessary amount of treasures!
He had enough to request Puqu Dragonlord’s services.
“After I leave, I should study the situation outside. I need to know if the fiendcelestials are still outside. If they aren’t, I can tell Lu Fan, Miss Yu, and the rest of the prisoners that they can leave.” Qin Yun had quite a good impression of Lu Fan and Yu Yan. Perhaps it was because of his feelings for his wife, he usually acted favorable towards couples in true love.
Sou!
He constantly approached the surface while following the map provided by Yu Yan.
“Boom!” “Bam!”
Faint shockwaves reached him. He could still sense them despite them being a distance away.
“What’s happening outside? Has a battle broken out?” Qin Yun was puzzled. “I’m still fifty kilometers away from the surface but I can already sense the intense battles outside.”
Sou!
As he passed through forks in the caverns, he constantly proceeded based on the map.
When he came to the final passageway, about five kilometers from the surface, he paused. The terrifying shockwaves from the battle on the surface caused the cavernous passageways to quake.
“What exactly is happening?” Qin Yun was in no rush to leave. Instead, he opened the Eye of Lightning at his glabella.
He would only leave after ascertaining the situation. Charging out without any notion of what danger awaited him would be foolish.
Although the cavernous passageways were twisted, Qin Yun’s Eye of Lightning would be able to see the outside world clearly as long as light managed to enter.
“Hahaha, all your Magus Gate has is that handful of people. Yet, you want to vie for this? I think it’s best you scram now. Don’t throw your lives away here.” An eight-armed fiendcelestial let out an angry bellow. In front of him stood an elder with a wooden stave. He stood on a mountaintop as nine long veins flew out from the surface of his body and attacked the the eight-armed fiendcelestial.
“Oh? My Magus Gate is unafraid even when against the eight great sects of your fiendcelestial lineage. Besides, there are more and more Daoists and Buddhists arriving every moment. You have to consider how many of you will leave today alive,” said the elder nonchalantly.
The magus lineage was waning.
Among the top thirty-two factions of the Effulgent Great World, there was only one sect that stemmed from the magus lineage, the Magus Gate.
In contrast, the fiendcelestial lineage took up eight spots! It showed how powerful the fiendcelestial lineage was.
Of course, the Daoist and Buddhist sects were the most impressive, taking up more than half the spots!
“You people from the fiendish sects are too greedy. It will only spell your doom.” A blue-robed woman gently flapped the fan in her hand, sending countless astral winds surging forward.
“Does your Jade Tripod Sect think it has what it takes?” An ape-like fiendcelestial roared as he intercepted the incoming attacked.
Boom!
…
“So many Essence Souls are fighting?” Qin Yun was secretly alarmed. His Eye of Lightning carefully observed the area. It was difficult to spy through the scattered light; therefore, he penetrated the layers of soil instead.
The rocks, sand, and mud no longer obstructed his view.
He observed one area after another.
Qin Yun was only watching the battle as an uninvolved observer but he was stunned by what he saw. On the periphery of the battleground, there were three Essence Souls in combat formation. Two of them were a thin man and a woman in azure-colored clothes who Qin Yun did not know. But the final person… was an aloof-looking youth in white. Qin Yun stared at him in a daze.
He was shocked and confounded!
The infant that garbled as he hugged his thighs…
That quiet boy that began practicing swordplay at the age of six…
A flood of memories inundated Qin Yun’s mind and, without knowing it, he could not stop the tears from streaming down his face.
“Huan’er!” Qin Yun murmured, his voice trembling slightly.