As the Dao Flower bloomed, it unleashed a tremendous wave of ideology and engraved it into the minds of all cultivators. Only when the names of Qing Han, Wu Tulong, Zi Chen, Mo Qitian, and Lu Yun appeared did people comprehend with shock that the flower was blooming in Dusk Province!
The development floored the Feng and Jin Clans, and all of the other factions that had attacked Lu Yun and his companions.
“Impossible, impossible!” Jin Shikong shrieked in unhinged tones, rejecting what he was learning with every fiber of his being. “They’re demons that crawled out from the Blood Sea! They can’t be the escort of the Dao Flower….”
He’d been the one to give the order to blast Lu Yun.
Likewise, the Jin and Feng Clans fell into despair. It was too serious a crime to have attacked the Dao Flower and obstructed the repair of the path of cultivation! After today, the two clans would become public enemies in the world of immortals and many of the other worlds.
By now, the Dao Flower had bloomed and shared its knowledge with everyone. Peak nascent realm cultivators, one step away from ascending to immortality, let out discreet sighs of relief.
The qi, core, and spirit realms trained a cultivator to temper their own body, while the void realm trained them to understand heaven and earth. Cultivators were to become one with the heavenly dao, to perceive, unravel, and return to the void until they reached an understanding and integrated with the world. Then they would bound to immortality.
That realm had a direct impact on one’s progression through the dao immortal realm. With the experience of the void realm, plucking a dao fruit at peak peerless immortal wouldn’t be such a dangerous task. Even if one were to fail, they’d be able to easily retreat, unscathed by the repercussions of the world.
“Back in Xiankan, Lu Yun asked the mysterious expert to not allow Wanfeng to ascend to immortality. Is this the reason why?” Someone recalled what the young man had said back then.
Do not ascend to immortality!
“Did he already know then that the path of cultivation was incomplete?”
“No wonder he and the other youth sovereigns departed Xiankan and missed even the Nephrite Celestial Emperor’s coronation!”
“The coronation was nothing compared to repairing the path of cultivation!”
“They were missing for a year and three months. Did they repair the path during that period of time?”
“Lu Shenhou of the Lu Clan and youth sovereign Dongfang Hao sacrificed themselves for the restoration of the path….” The two names evoked many mournful sighs. Meanwhile, the Mo Clan, Immortal Martial School, and Zi Clan jubilated that their geniuses had contributed to such a great feat. Such glory to their factions and to their ancestors! It would even further improve their standing in the world.
“Hao’er sacrificed himself for the world. He is also a hero, and all living beings in the world of immortals must never forget about him!”
“Lu Shenhou was the first to discover that the path of cultivation was severed! I pity the Lu Clan, who’ve been imprisoned by the Nephrite Court! Has the court really been taken over by demons that stand against the immortal dao?”
“Oh dear, that poor Qing Clan branded Qing Han a traitor and kicked him out. I wonder what they’re thinking now.” Many lamented the loss of Lu Shenhou and Dongfang Hao, and even more laughed at the Qing Clan.
“Why didn’t they previously announce it to the world if they already knew the truth about the path of cultivation?!”
At the same time, there were questioning voices as well, mostly from those who had ascended to immortality while Qing Han and the others were repairing the path of cultivation, or from those whose youths had made the ascension and thus missed out on the void realm.
“Would you believe it if someone told you before this that the path of cultivation was missing a realm?”
“This concerns everyone in the entire world! Qing Han and the others were attacked by the Jin and Feng Clan as soon as they returned with the Dao Flower. If the news had gotten out beforehand, the path would’ve never been successfully restored!”
……
The Dao Flower was still blooming, and the path of cultivation it carried slowly integrated into the great heavenly dao.
“They can’t succeed… can’t let them succeed….” muttered Jin Shikong as he stared at the blooming flower on the border of Outré Province. He would be persona non grata in the entire world once the flower finished blooming, and the Jin Clan would never recover from these circumstances.
“Soldiers!” he yelled crazily. “Activate the weapon of war and blow that flower to pieces!”
That only resulted in cold, chilling stares being directed at him from those around him.
“The Dao Flower will benefit all cultivators and even the future of the world of immortals, milord,” his second in command remarked coldly. “Are you sure you should destroy it?”
Even some of the Feng immortals were shooting murderous gazes at Jin Shikong.
“We’re done for….” Jin Shikong fell into deep despair. He knew his clan would be made a scapegoat to quell the world’s fury.
……
The flower’s blooming was a prolonged process. Some time was required for both the flower’s strength and the cultivation path it contained to integrate back into the world.
“Well now, those little fellows have done something big… they’ve repaired the path of cultivation.” Wayfarer looked up at the flower with empty eyes. “However, restoring the path will put them under attack by that tribe. I wonder if they’ll be able to survive it.
“In my gradually recovering memories, I recall that more than a hundred genius cultivators once set foot on the path and attempted to repair it. However, all of them died at the hands of that tribe….”
Within the ancient tomb at the center of Dusk Province.
The celestial emperor from the Blood Sea that bore a heavenly mandate had been devoured by the Dusk restriction and become its thrall.
“Good, good, good!” The enormous zombie that was the Dusk restriction threw its head back and roared, impure tears trickling down from its eyes. “The Dao Flower is restored and the path of cultivation is mended,” it growled with an edge of insanity. “What a great feat! What great merit! Anyone who dares make a move against those little fellows in this resting place for emperors will meet their end at my hands, even if it’s the last of me!!”
Mo Yi looked at the sky with a faint smile.
“So the path of cultivation was incomplete,” Mo Yi muttered with her head cocked. “Shall I sever my cultivation again and retread the path to immortality?”
The giant zombie shuddered. “That girl is more unsettling than Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi…”
……
Deep within the Endless Desert, three glowing cocoons swung on the top of a behemoth tree.
“My dearest brother, when are you gonna break these damn things?” Zhao Shenguang whined. “I’m in a rush to go back to my throne!”
“Shut up! You wanna be the Nephrite Celestial Emperor?” Qing Buyi huffed, trapped within another cocoon. “Don’t even think about it. Once Mo Yi presents that thing as a tribute to the Dusk restriction at the resting place for emperors, that bastard Zhao Changkong will take the throne back.”
Zhao Shenguang sniffed, wanting to cry.
“Zhao Changkong is also an incompetent bastard, but he at least looks the part of a celestial emperor. If you’re put in charge of Nephrite Major, it’ll quickly become the greatest whorehouse in the world.”
Zhao Shenguang was a thorough good-for-nothing who frequented brothels, and even owned a good number of them in Xiankan. Silent all this while, Chen Xiao focused his efforts on fighting the cocoon trapping him.
“Little Han has restored the path of cultivation and was in charge of the overall framework at that!” Qing Buyi suddenly widened his eyes with great pleasure. “Hahaha! That’s wonderful! He’s gonna be a dao sovereign after restoring the path! We’ll all latch onto his thigh in the future.”
“We have to make sure he survives, first,” Chen Xiao said coolly. “Without the fruit of the Ancient Tree of LIfe, his poison will soon kill the Fusang Purewood and turn it into a tree of great poison, which means he’ll die! So stop fooling around and break these damn cocoons, we need to get the tree’s fruit!”
Qing Buyi shuddered.
……
Dusk Province.
Lu Yun rose to his feet and took flight. Four blood-stained white paths slowly emerged from four directions, unfurling at the feet of Qing Han and the other three youth sovereigns.
Four black-furred monsters wielding giant axes appeared on each of the paths. At the same time, terrifying tribulation clouds loomed overhead and black lightning crackled violently within.
