Gu Changge remained in his punching stance, staring at the two rapidly dimming clouds of light.
Mixed within them were the remnants of several artifacts that had clearly suffered a massive loss of spiritual essence, some even cracked beyond repair. He fell silent for a moment.
Then he slowly withdrew his fist and looked at his fair knuckles, his brows drawing tightly together as obvious frustration appeared on his face.
“Damn it…”
He muttered under his breath, his tone filled with the gloom of someone who had messed up yet again.
“I used too much force again. I was clearly holding back ninety percent of my strength, so how did this still…”
“Are the True Immortals of the Immortal Realm really this fragile? This is the Ninth Heaven? They’re made of paper, aren’t they?”
With that punch, he had deliberately restrained his strength. His goal had been to heavily injure and restrain his opponents, not annihilate them completely.
Who could have known that they wouldn’t even be able to withstand that single blow?
He simply couldn’t understand it.
He had clearly been paying close attention to his strength, going from failing to hold back last time to deliberately restraining himself this time.
And yet the result was still an instant kill. This made him seriously question the average physical constitution of the True Immortals in the Immortal Realm.
“My intelligence, my map, my guide to the customs and conditions of the Immortal Realm…”
Gu Changge looked at everything before him with heartache, feeling as though he had just lost several billion.
Suddenly, his eyes sharpened. He keenly sensed that at the very cores of those two clouds of light, which were on the verge of completely dissipating, a few extremely faint soul fragments were still struggling like candles flickering in the wind.
“There are remnants of their souls!”
Gu Changge’s spirits lifted. He no longer had the heart to complain and simply pointed into the air.
“Restrain!”
An invisible force instantly bound those few soul fragments in place.
“Soul Search!”
His domineering divine sense forcibly invaded them, extracting the deepest and most profound memories that remained.
In an instant, countless chaotic, fragmented images and pieces of information surged into Gu Changge’s sea of consciousness.
Broken palaces wreathed in immortal light, crisscrossing spatial rifts, countless desolate and withered fragments of continents, and one dim figure after another struggling to survive in barren worlds…
The scene of the shattered Immortal Realm flashed past.
Immediately afterward came the territory ruled by the Chengyun Immortal Palace.
It was not the supreme immortal paradise he had imagined, but a fragment of an immortal domain where immortal energy was exceedingly thin.
Only the central palace complex, relying on the origin power forcibly siphoned from several lower realms, managed to maintain the barest semblance of an immortal land.
Then, another memory fragment surfaced. It was more blurred, but carried with it a sharp killing intent.
On their way to the Xuanhuang World, Zhao Gang and Sun Yan had been intercepted!
The memory images were fragmented and disjointed.
Several figures shrouded in primordial chaos qi had suddenly launched an attack amid the chaotic spatial currents, their objective clear: Zhao Gang and Sun Yan!
The two sides had erupted into a fierce battle. However, Zhao Gang and Sun Yan were extremely powerful.
Although their opponents had prepared an ambush, the difference in cultivation realms had been too great. In the end, they had been defeated and forced to retreat.
“Hm?”
Gu Changge’s brows knitted slightly.
“Someone actually intercepted people from the Chengyun Immortal Palace halfway here? Was it a personal grudge, or were they targeting the Xuanhuang World?”
He tried to discern the origins of the attackers, but the memories had already become too blurred to identify them.
“What a pity…”
Gu Changge slowly withdrew his divine sense, and those few remaining soul fragments completely dissipated.
He opened his eyes and gently exhaled, a trace of regret flashing through them.
“Their souls had been scattered. Less than one memory fragment in ten remained, and even those were nothing but broken pieces.”
After quickly clearing away the remnants of the battlefield, he looked up once more.
“So the so-called Immortal Realm has long since been shattered.
“The Chengyun Immortal Palace is merely a faction occupying one somewhat larger fragment. It maintains its rule by siphoning the origin power of the lower realms.”
“Above the True Immortal realm are the Earth Immortal, Heavenly Immortal, Immortal Lord, and Immortal King realms…
“And Heavenly Immortals are already the topmost pillars of strength within the shattered immortal domain where the Chengyun Immortal Palace resides.”
“I didn’t expect them to encounter an interception on their way here. Who could it have been?”
Although he had once again failed to control his strength properly, this time he had at least gained something.
The fragmentary information obtained through the soul search—the shattered structure of the Immortal Realm and the weak foundations of the Chengyun Immortal Palace—was enough for him to piece together a rough outline.
It was far better than being completely in the dark as before.
“What force shattered the Immortal Realm?”
He murmured to himself, his gaze sweeping across the void before settling on several floating objects.
One was a ring, and another was a jade pendant covered in cracks.
“Storage artifacts?”
Gu Changge reached out through the air, and the objects flew into his hand.
His divine sense swept through them. There were only a few items inside the spaces contained within the ring and jade pendant, and most had already lost their spiritual essence.
However, several crystal stones were slightly warm to the touch, containing energy that was more than a hundred times purer and denser than the finest-grade spirit stones of the Xuanhuang World. Unfortunately, there were pitifully few of them.
“Are these immortal stones?”
Gu Changge weighed the crystals in his hand. There were probably fewer than fifty in total. He then looked at the several inferior treasures that seemed to be immortal artifacts.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Two True Immortals at the Ninth Heaven, and this is all they have?”
He recalled the barren scene within the territory of the Chengyun Immortal Palace that he had glimpsed during the soul search.
He also remembered the scenes of immortals haggling over the smallest amount of resources.
Understanding dawned on him.
“Looks like this so-called shattered Immortal Realm is even poorer than I imagined.”
Gu Changge muttered to himself, his gaze once again turning toward the depths of the endless chaotic void.
Toward the direction of the Chengyun Immortal Palace, a cold glint quietly condensed in the depths of his eyes.
Passively defending and waiting for their next arrival—perhaps by an Earth Immortal or an even more powerful existence?
That was absolutely not his style.
The best strategy was to nip danger in the bud and move the battlefield away from his homeland.
He would return and make some preparations first, then pay the Immortal Realm a visit.
“Chengyun Immortal Palace…”
He softly spoke the name. Beneath his calm tone lay a killing intent cold enough to freeze the stars and rivers.
“For now, I’ll let you catch your breath for a few more days.”
Having made up his mind, he lightly swept out his sleeve.
An invisible ripple passed through the area, completely erasing the final traces of energy left behind, the dust of the immortal artifacts, and even the threads of cause and effect. He made certain that no clues remained for anyone to trace.
Then he turned and glanced to the side.
Xing Tian'ao was still maintaining a posture of full alert, imperial qi surging around his entire body.
His eyes remained fixed on the empty space ahead, where only a few ripples in the void had yet to settle completely. His face was filled with extreme shock, bewilderment, and…
The vacant stupor of someone whose entire worldview had been utterly overturned.
The earth-shaking battle he had expected, the desperate struggle to the death, even the tragic scene of imperial blood burning away—none of it had happened.
All he had seen was Honored Master casually throw a single punch.
Then the two True Immortals who had made him feel suffocated and hopeless were gone.
Completely gone.
It had happened so quickly that even the thoughts of this Great Emperor had nearly failed to keep up.
“We’re leaving.”
Gu Changge’s indifferent voice pulled Xing Tian'ao out of his immense shock.
“Ah? …Yes! Honored Master!”
Xing Tian'ao suddenly came back to his senses and answered instinctively.
When he looked at Gu Changge again, his eyes were already filled with awe that words could not describe, as if a mortal were gazing up at a god who commanded the Heavenly Dao.
Gu Changge said no more. With a single step, his figure merged into the barrier of the Xuanhuang World.
Xing Tian'ao hurried to catch up, his emotions thrown into utter turmoil.
Looking back on his earlier vow that he would face death without regret, he now felt a faint, inexplicable embarrassment. In the face of absolute strength, even tragedy seemed like a luxury.
Beyond the realm barrier, silence returned once more.
Only the fragmentary information about the Immortal Realm that had appeared in Gu Changge’s mind proved that the brief, absurd scene had truly happened.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
