The sun shone with a chilling brightness, its piercing rays cutting deep into Chen Xia's heart.
He stared blankly at the sky, unsure of what to say or to whom he could speak after all these days.
The Blue Sky Sword Sea was gone, and everyone in his world had suddenly vanished. It was the natural cycle of life and death, and he couldn’t blame anyone.
It felt as though the world had cast him aside, only to pick him up again, leaving him utterly alone.
In the end, even an immortal is but a plaything of time. How ironic.
Chen Xia’s gaze shifted away from the heavens, and he leaned slightly against the doorframe. Zhang Yue came to see him again, calling out from beyond the entrance.
“Senior Chen!”
“What is it?” Chen Xia asked.
“Well… um…” Zhang Yue hesitated, her clear eyes lowering as she fumbled with a pouch of spirit stones from her robe. She spoke in a pleading tone.
“The clan competition is coming up soon. I’m only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and if I don’t do well, I’ll be demoted and sent away from the family. I won’t even have a chance to advance. So, I’ve gathered all my savings to ask for your guidance, just a little would be enough. I don’t ask for more.”
Chen Xia looked at her, studying her features, and suddenly asked, “Was it the one-horned dragon on your shoulder who came up with this idea?”
“Sort of,” Zhang Yue nodded nervously. The one-horned dragon poked its head out from her shoulder guard, rolling its eyes as if scolding her for betraying its trust.
Chen Xia waved his hand lightly and said, “You can keep the spirit stones. Just play a game of chess with me.”
“Of course, of course!” Zhang Yue quickly agreed, following Chen Xia into the house.
It was a quiet game of chess, without any dramatic moves or underhanded tactics. Everything was straightforward. Chen Xia played calmly, while the young girl didn’t dare to win.
In the end, Chen Xia narrowly won.
Zhang Yue wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, feeling relieved that she had lost.
It was a strange game.
Chen Xia put away the chessboard and asked the girl, “What do you want? Supreme divine abilities, unparalleled insights, or a direct boost to your cultivation?”
“Gulp.” Zhang Yue swallowed hard, her heart racing at the options Chen Xia presented. She wanted to choose all of them but didn’t dare to be greedy. After weighing her options, she said,
“I… I’ll take the insights, if that’s okay, Senior… Senior Chen?”
With insights, she wouldn’t lack combat power. Divine abilities required training, and boosting her cultivation might have side effects. Insights felt the most practical.
“Alright,” Chen Xia nodded.
Zhang Yue’s consciousness instantly expanded, as if she were traversing the cosmos, accompanied by the stars. In a single breath, she became the most immense sun, then transformed into the tiniest grain of sand.
She could be a mountain, a river, a flower, or a tree—everything and nothing at all.
It was an insight so profound it defied comprehension.
Chen Xia stood up, his footsteps light, leaving Zhang Yue to her epiphany as he walked slowly toward the door.
The one-horned dragon perched on Zhang Yue’s shoulder timidly watched him leave.
Chen Xia stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
And then, he was no longer outside either.
He walked a new path, a path of time, not toward the future but back into the past.
He was heading to 500,000 years ago, to witness the glory of the Blue Sky Sword Sea in its prime.
By the time he reached 300,000 years, his steps grew heavy, burdened by the immense pressure of the passing millennia. Yet, he pressed on.
Time bent his spine, making him appear aged.
But his steps never faltered.
When he reached 500,000 years, he strained to look out, hoping to see the Blue Sky Sword Sea in its most glorious era.
There were many people in the Blue Sky Sword Sea, a sea of faces, but none of them were the old friends Chen Xia longed to see. Perhaps they had already passed away long before. Who could say?
After all, he had been asleep for a very, very long time.
A wry smile crept onto Chen Xia’s lips as time began to drag him back, trying to pull this ghost of a bygone era back to where he belonged.
He offered no resistance, letting time take him.
At 400,000 years, Chen Xia suddenly paused, his feet firmly planted. He sensed a familiar aura flickering within the flow of time.
What was it?
Chen Xia hurried to investigate, unraveling the spiritual energy enveloping this moment. It was a message left by several emperors, their voices overlapping as they spoke the same words.
“Brother Chen!” “Chen Xia.” “Brother Chen.”
Hearing these voices, Chen Xia froze, his hands trembling with emotion.
“Brother Chen, we discussed it and didn’t know when you’d wake up, so we left this letter in the future for you to find. When you wake up, you should be able to see it. Haha.”
It was Huang Qingyue’s voice.
“Chen Xia, you’ve been quite the absentee leader, leaving the Blue Sky Sword Sea for me to manage. And you still owe me 10,000 spirit stones. Can you hurry up and pay me back?” Li Yang’s words were tinged with urgency but also sorrow.
“Chen Xia, Chen Xia, have you gotten addicted to sleeping? Back in the Dead Star Region, you slept in that coffin, and now you’re still sleeping. We can’t even wake you up. Sigh.” Li Yue lamented.
“The Blue Sky Sword Sea is in good hands with me. Don’t worry about it when you wake up. Oh, and Chi Yu left a message for you. He said he misses you… and so do I.” Big Yellow Dog’s voice was soft.
“Brother Chen, what am I supposed to do if you don’t wake up? I’ve reached the third level of the Emperor Realm. You have to see me. We haven’t even started dominating the myriad realms yet.” Emperor Capital called out.
“We met in the realms, went through the trials of the Great Death Realm, and our bond grew stronger. Then came the realms beyond, and finally the Immortal Realm. I never thought our parting would be like this. Life is unpredictable, but let’s not make farewells too sorrowful.” Wang Yangzi chuckled lightly.
“Brother Chen, do you remember the snow in the imperial city that year? It feels like it was just yesterday. I wonder if we’ll ever get to see snow together again.”
Huang Qingyue’s voice was tinged with melancholy but carried a note of hope.
“Brother Chen, wake up. It’s me, Little Xu. The one who wandered the markets with you, fought alongside you in the Great Death Realm, and spent time with you in the Immortal Realm. Don’t you want to see me again?”
Xu Zhen’s voice trembled with quiet sobs as she pleaded.
The letter ended with a collective message from them all.
“Hey, if you’re reading this, don’t forget to think of us. But don’t think too much. We hope you can embrace this new era and become the new Chen Xia… Well, that’s all…”
“Farewell.”
“Brother Chen.”
The voices faded, and the flow of time fell into a hollow silence.
Chen Xia stood still.
Tears streamed down his face.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
