A Hundred Years

Jun Anshi opened her mouth, wanting to say something in rebuttal, but found that the other party's words actually made sense.

Sense was sense, but Jun Anshi just felt a bit awkward about it.

If the other party were her elder or master, she would have just listened to a few words of preaching.

But his cultivation was similar to hers, yet he wore a preachy expression, making him feel like a nagging old hen.

"Alright, since it's dealt with, let's head back."

Gu Changyuan jumped down from the tree. With a wave of his right hand, a silvery-white dharma artifact flew out from his grasp, shooting accurately toward that spatial rift.

The artifact was shaped like a shuttle, entirely silvery-white, with its surface engraved full of spatial array formations.

The moment it touched the spatial rift, its silvery-white light flared brilliantly. The array lines peeled away from the shuttle's body, acting like a giant net that covered the entire rift layer by layer, from its edges to its center.

The net of light contracted inward, and the edges of the rift began to heal. The faint blue light grew dimmer, the chaotic darkness shrank, and the rift completely closed, restoring the sky to its flawless state.

Cangwu Immortal Island was located in the northernmost part of the Wanluo Immortal Realm. The space and time in this region were turbulent, frequently spawning spatial rifts. Various strange beasts would surge out of these rifts, disrupting the surrounding order.

Therefore, major factions would often dispatch cultivators to deal with them, which served both to clear out the strange beasts and to gain practical experience.

And that silvery-white shuttle was the Void-Sealing Shuttle bestowed upon them by Immortal Emperor Cangwu. It was a dharma artifact specifically meant to eliminate spatial rifts, brimming with dense spatial power.

Capable of rapidly stabilizing turbulent space-time and closing rifts, it was an absolutely superb artifact for handling such spatial anomalies.

......

Fifty years later.

Jun Anshi's cultivation had reached the Human Immortal realm.

In the Wanluo Immortal Realm, advancing from the Tribulation Crossing realm to the Human Immortal realm did not require climbing the Immortal Path—once one's cultivation reached the threshold, the breakthrough happened naturally.

She stood beneath the parasol tree, the aura surrounding her entirely different from fifty years ago.

It wasn't just her cultivation; her comprehension of the three Great Daos of Space, Azure Wood, and Reincarnation had also undergone a qualitative leap.

Fifty years of diligent study, fifty years of accumulation, and fifty years of settling had elevated both her perspective and her realm to a whole new level.

Although she had not yet reached the point where she could thoroughly integrate the four Great Daos and achieve the Cangwu Great Dao.

Gu Changyuan displayed his cultivation at the peak of the Earth Immortal realm.

For a full fifty-odd years, he and Jun Anshi had spent day and night together in this world.

They dealt with strange beast rifts together, traveled together, sought out delicacies in unfamiliar cities together, and talked through the night by campfires in the desolate wilderness together.

In terms of cultivation, Gu Changyuan never held anything back. A seemingly careless remark from him could often awaken Jun Anshi when she was stuck in a bottleneck.

Whenever Jun Anshi encountered difficult Dao problems she couldn't understand, as long as she asked, he could always explain the essence thoroughly in the most accessible and easy-to-understand manner.

"Did Cangwu not come today either?"

Gu Changyuan sat on a branch of the parasol tree, leaning his back against the trunk. One foot rested on the branch, while his other leg dangled down.

His gaze fell upon the setting sun at the end of the distant sea of clouds, which dyed his white mask in a warm hue.

Jun Anshi sat by the stone table beneath the tree, holding a bamboo slip in her hand. Hearing his words, she looked up at him and nodded.

"Mm, Immortal Emperor Cangwu hasn't been here for a while."

In the past, Immortal Emperor Cangwu would come to this sky island every few days to guide her cultivation.

But as time went on, the frequency of his visits grew lower and lower.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his gaze from the tree and frowned slightly.

He could sense that during Immortal Emperor Cangwu's last few visits, the aura around him was different from before—it wasn't weakness, nor was it exhaustion, but a kind of baleful aura.

He was far too familiar with that kind of aura; it was the lingering scent left on one's body after prolonged battles with some sort of fierce entity.

But the other party hadn't brought it up, and Gu Changyuan hadn't asked.

This world was essentially an illusion, an inheritance space constructed by Immortal Emperor Cangwu using the power of his remnant soul.

Anything that happened in this world was either a reenactment of things that had truly occurred in the past, or events created by Immortal Emperor Cangwu himself to temper his inheritor.

He didn't know what Immortal Emperor Cangwu was busy with, nor did he want to waste energy trying to guess.

"If he didn't come, then forget it."

He withdrew his thoughts, his tone casual.

"I wonder how much longer this inheritance trial will last. It's already been fifty years."

Fifty years wasn't exactly long, but it wasn't short either. For an inheritance trial, however, it was plenty long enough.

Jun Anshi put down the bamboo slip. Her gaze fell on the distant setting sun, her voice gentle and slow:

"It's a good thing time flows faster here. Not much time should have passed on the outside; everyone is definitely still in the secret realm."

It was precisely for this reason that she dared to cultivate here without any distractions.

If the flow of time were the same as the outside world, she would have anxiously tried to run away long ago.

Jun Mukong wouldn't be able to contact her, Gu Xing'er wouldn't be able to contact her, and the entire Holy Land team wouldn't be able to contact her.

Just thinking about that scenario made her scalp tingle with dread.

But there was no need to worry now.

Their secret realm exploration period had originally reserved ample time, so this little bit of elapsed time was completely within an acceptable range.

......

Another sixty years passed.

The canopy of the parasol tree expanded by another circle, its branches and trunk grew sturdier, and its leaves became denser.

A small path had been worn into the grass beneath the tree, trodden out by Jun Anshi and Gu Changyuan walking over it countless times.

Jun Anshi's cultivation advanced from the early Heavenly Immortal realm to the early Heavenly Immortal realm.

Her comprehension of the three Great Daos had improved once again.

Yet she still had not managed to comprehend the Cangwu Great Dao.

Time, Space, Azure Wood, and Reincarnation—the four Great Daos were like four parallel rivers. She stood on the banks of each one, able to see the opposite shore and touch the water, but she could never merge them into a single riverbed.

Immortal Emperor Cangwu had said that the core of the Cangwu Great Dao was not the simple stacking of the four Great Daos, but their fusion.

Only when the four Great Daos fused into a single new Great Dao would it be the true Cangwu Great Dao.

Jun Anshi understood this principle, but understanding it did not mean she could achieve it.

One hundred and ten years of time was nothing more than an illusion in this world.

But for Jun Anshi, these one hundred and ten years were real.

A century of companionship, a century of spending day and night together, had caused Jun Anshi to develop special feelings for the mysterious man by her side.

It was a reliance that surpassed that of companions and fellow Daoists.

Xuanxu.

The weight of this name grew heavier and heavier in her heart.

So heavy that she began to fear—fearing the day the inheritance trial would end, fearing the day they would have to part.

Although he always wore an indifferent, lazy expression, every time she went out to slay strange beasts and got injured, he would be the first to bring out healing pills.

Every time they encountered a powerful strange beast, he would always be the first to stand in front of her. Even if he claimed he was just warming up, he would always quietly lend a hand the moment she fell into danger.

Her feelings for Gu Changyuan were no longer the initial partnership of fellow sufferers pitying each other.

When did it start? She couldn't say for sure.

She could always sense an indescribable familiarity from him.

It was as if an invisible thread connected them, making her always subconsciously want to get closer to him.

It was no ordinary affection, nor was it ordinary trust; rather, it was a deeper, more instinctive pull.

What Jun Anshi did not know was that this was the result of the intertwining threads of karma and providence.

From the very moment Gu Changyuan took her in as his disciple, their threads of karma had been tightly bound together.

Moreover, her providence—a grade-ten iridescent providence, marking her as one chosen by heaven—resonated with Gu Changyuan's own.

Their two threads of providence echoed and attracted one another.

This inexorable pull was not something she could resist, nor did she need to.

It was precisely because of this profound connection that she felt absolutely no barrier between them.