Ye Futian spread his will out and scanned the vast space he was in. A majestic building appeared in his mind, and he learned where he was right there and then.
The most powerful place among the Nine Supreme Imperial Realms was the Empty Imperial Palace of the Imperial Realm.
The location from which he emerged after passing through that passage from the Imperial Palace was none other than the Empty Imperial Palace.
“Emperor Ye, you are from the Void Realm. Could you lead the way for us?” Zhou Muhuang then asked Ye Futian.
“The Void Realm isn’t that huge to you all, unlike the Divine Prefecture where there are countless continents. This place only has 3,000 realms, and the strongest is the Nine Supreme Imperial Realms. This is the Imperial Realm, and I believe that it wouldn’t take you much time to get to know the Nine Supreme Imperial Realms.” Ye Futian then added, “It has been quite some years since I was last here, and I need to see my friends and family. I shall take my leave here.”
He then walked away from that place right afterward. It was indeed as he put it. He had been gone for 20 years, and he missed his home, which meant that he had no time to serve as a guide for Zhou Muhuang and the others.
Ye Futian, at the moment, wanted nothing but to go home to his people.
“We, too, shall take our leave,” Duan Tianxiong of the Duan Clan cupped his hands and said, leaving with Ye Futian and those from the Four Corner Village. He paid no heed to what the others might think of them. The way he saw it, Ye Futian had the strongest potential among all in the Shangqing Domain, and he had the master to serve as his backing. As such, he had nothing to lose by being friends with someone like that.
Zhou Muhuang watched as those people went away. He took the initiative to talk to Ye Futian to ease the tension between the two of them. He knew without a doubt that what happened before had driven a wedge into their relationship, and Ye Futian became very, very guarded.
However, Ye Futian seemed not to bother to give him any face, refusing his request and leaving right away.
Ye Futian traveled at very high speeds in the air. He was very anxious and wanted to check things out at the Heavenly Mandate Realm as soon as possible.
Old Ma and the others seemed to be able to sense his worries, and they followed him quietly, heading for Heavenly Mandate Realm.
…
The Heavenly Mandate Academy back at the Heavenly Mandate Realm had once been a renowned academy before Ye Futian left. It had forged the strongest alliance among the 3,000 realms with the Yuanyang Clan, the Dou tribe, the Xiao Clan, the Divine Palace, and some other forces. Countless cultivators had come to join the Heavenly Mandate Academy to train.
However, it was precisely due to the prestige of the Heavenly Mandate Academy and the threat that Ye Futian posed, the Shen Clan, the Golden Divine Nation, and some other forces allied with the ones from Divine Prefecture forging an alliance that was even more terrifying. The opposing forces had waged two battles against them, with the first one to destroy the Divine Palace. That battle at the Sea of the Path shook over half of the forces throughout the nine realms. There was then the battle at Heavenly Mandate Academy to kill Ye Futian, who fled to the Divine Prefecture after that battle and lost all connection with the Void Realm.
20 years passed since then, and the Heavenly Mandate Academy was no longer as esteemed as it had once been. Instead, the place looked rather dilapidated, with a good number of places among those majestic buildings now broken. Scars of the Great Path powers remained.
An old man lay on a bench in one of the compounds inside the academy to rest. The old man had silver hair and coughed every now and then. His aura appeared rather weak, and given his cultivation level, it would have been impossible for him to look that weak. He had apparently been severely injured.
“Grandpa Xuan, you’re slacking off again.” A voice was heard, and a girl was seen walking up to him. The girl was beautiful and sported features that men would kill for. She looked like some kind of goddess.
She came to the old man’s back and massaged him. The old man flashed a beaming smile right away, and an amicable look appeared in those tired eyes of his. It was apparent that he doted on that girl very much.
“I wasn’t slacking off,” the old man said in a rather lazy tone.
“You’re basking in the sun instead of healing your injuries, and that’s slacking off,” the girl said with a grin on her face. There was a tired look on his face as he added, “Injuries like that don’t heal easily, and once you’ve gotten used to it, it’s like they are there the whole time anyway. By the way, I may be old, but I can still take it. I’d be fine.”
The girl’s eyes looked glum upon hearing what that old man said. She was seemingly sad for him. She knew that Grandpa Xuan’s injuries were actually quite severe, as they would have been all healed given the old man’s cultivation level. If the injuries couldn’t heal well, it only meant that the Great Path injuries he sustained were very, very harsh. This was so much so that they might be stuck with him for the rest of his life.
“It’s good to hear that you can withstand the injuries, but you have to tend to the academy as well.” A voice was heard, and two other people were seen walking up to them. One of them was pitch-black all over, and the aura around him felt somewhat terrifying; it seemingly having something to do with his powers.
“Tianhe, I’ll leave the academy in your hands,” the old man said gently. That man was his old friend, and he, naturally, wouldn’t stand on formality.
“You’re the college chief. This is your job,” the Sky River Great Elder said with a low tone. That old man was none other than the college chief of Heavenly Mandate Academy—Lord Taixuan.
“Man…” Lord Taixuan grinned as he shook his head. He knew that that old friend of his was only paying lip service. If that man were to truly be able to just cast everything aside, he wouldn’t have returned. He had avoided the place for many years until he knew what happened there, which prompted him to return.
“He is right. You’re the chief, and this is your responsibility. Don’t even think of dumping it on someone else right now,” the woman by Sky River Great Elder said. That woman was Shen Luoxue, the great elder’s wife. There was yet another very pretty girl behind them, and it was Feixue. She went up to Lord Taixuan and advised him, “Grandpa Xuan, you should really pay more attention to your health.”
Lord Tiaxuan wore a bitter grin and shook his head. “Alright, alright. Geez, I got it.”
He then smiled and looked up at the sky and said, “I wonder if I could still make it in time.”
“What do you mean ‘make it in time?’ We’re around, so what’s there to fear?” the Sky River Great Elder asked.
“The world has changed considerably now, and things are not how they used to be. You can see how many terrifying ones are among those from the Divine Prefecture. We’re still far from being strong enough.” Lord Taixuan sighed.
“The place has changed considerably, and a lot of things won’t go back to the way they used to be. We could only do our best to live from here on out,” the Sky River Great Elder added.
“Yeah.” Lord Taixuan nodded. “It’s been 20 years, I guess. I wonder how they’re doing now.”
The arm of the girl behind Lord Taixuan flinched, and she looked up at the sky. Her thoughts seemed to have traveled back to when she was still little, back when she was still very young and innocent. She missed her sister and brother-in-law.
How are they doing now, I wonder? she thought.
There were many people out there who said that his brother-in-law was dead, yet Grandpa Xuan and the others said that her brother-in-law would be fine and that he had only left for the time being. However, it had been 20 years, and she was all grown up. She wondered why wasn’t he back yet.
The Sky River Great Elder and Shen Luoxue sighed as well, thinking that over 20 years had passed just like that.
Actually, they, too, didn’t know if Ye Futian had truly been able to leave alive. While he did indeed say that he could retreat unscathed, it was still an enigma until the present day. They could only choose to believe that he was still alive and was already at the Divine Prefecture.
“He had only become a Renhuang when he left all those years ago. I think that it wouldn’t be that easy for him to return,” Shen Luoxue sighed and added. Those who came to the Origin Realm were all super cultivation forces. It would have probably taken Ye Futian considerably more time to return, for he had to, at the very least, get to higher levels of Renhuang Realm after all.
Coming to think about it, 20 years were still too short a time.
“I’m afraid that we won’t be able to hold on,” Lord Taixuan sighed and said.
“We will be able to hold on, Grandpa Xuan. He and the others will come back to see you,” Hua Nianyu comforted him. Lord Taixuan then nodded and smiled. “I sure hope that I live to see that day.”
They then seemed to have sensed something all of a sudden as they talked. Lord Taixuan and The Sky River Great Elder looked at the sky, and the murky eyes of Lord Taixun became sharp all of a sudden, piercing into the sky like swords. There were many powerful presences apparent, and none of them were familiar. There were even two extremely terrifying presences among them who were every bit on par with him.
Who is it this time?
The cultivators from the Heavenly Mandate Academy all looked up to the sky right away. They watched the clouds above rolled, and dazzling divine light of space rained down. A group of people then shot through the sky and appeared high above. All of them then came to stand in the sky above the academy.
When those people stopped moving, Lord Taixuan, Sky River Great Elder, and the others seemed to be completely stunned. It seemed like they had spaced out instantly.
The eyes of Feixue and Hua Nianyu were locked in place as well. It appeared as if time had stopped moving as they looked at the one in the lead among those people.
That man’s silver hair billowed alongside his white robe in the wind, and he also sported very chiseled features on that handsome face of his. It was a very familiar sight for them all.
A beaming smile was seen in the eyes of Lord Taixuan after he being stunned for quite some time. He looked incredibly relaxed at the moment, seemingly having released all of the tension he had accumulated over the years. Lord Taixuan finally confirmed that that man had indeed lived back then and had even returned alive.
Sunlight shone off the weathered face of that old man, illuminating the wrinkles that covered his face.
“You’ve returned,” the old man said. His voice wasn’t loud. His casual tone sounded somewhat relaxed, glad that the man had returned.
Cough, cough… He then coughed for a bit after that. His aura appeared rather weak.
That silver-haired figure in the air felt quite a heartache upon seeing that. He was also fuming deep down as he was told that Lord Taixuan had suffered serious injuries.
What has happened throughout the years I’ve been gone? he
wondered.
Jieyu, Yu Sheng, Wuchen, and the others aren’t around. Where are they? And what is with Lord Taixuan’s injuries? Why does the Heavenly Mandate Academy look so rundown?
