Diting headed east.
Inside a bubble, Chen Zhou looked out through the thin membrane.
There was nothing.
He couldn't perceive direction, distance, or even keep track of time.
Chen Zhou felt as if even his own sense of existence was fading.
"Crossing between realms is always like this," Wu Gou's voice came from a neighboring bubble, sounding slightly distorted.
"The boundaries between provinces are not roads; they are nothingness."
"How long or how far you travel through that nothingness depends entirely on Diting's intuition."
Chen Zhou nodded to show he understood.
He looked toward the True Lord of Purity and Filth in another bubble.
Jing Hui stood in the center of his bubble, motionless, his face devoid of expression.
However, Chen Zhou could feel that he was trembling.
It might have been uncontrollable excitement, or perhaps the hesitation one feels when nearing home after a long absence.
Plague Rat's bubble floated at the very back. He pressed his face against the membrane, flattening it, and rolled his eyes toward Jing Hui.
"Old man, can you stop shaking?"
"You're shaking so much that Lord Rat is starting to feel nervous too."
Jing Hui didn't speak.
Lord Rat clicked his tongue and continued, "We're almost home, so what are you so worked up about?"
"Even if you were once the provincial lord of Tianchi Province, right now you're just a paper-pasted remnant soul."
"Don't go and shake yourself apart before we even land."
Jing Hui shifted slightly and turned his head toward Plague Rat.
Plague Rat felt a bit uneasy under his gaze and puffed out his chest. "What are you looking at? Is Lord Rat wrong?"
Jing Hui remained silent for a moment.
"I am not excited."
Plague Rat sneered. "Then why are you shaking?"
"I am somewhat afraid."
Plague Rat blinked.
Afraid?
What did this old fossil have to be afraid of?
He had been dead for a thousand years; what was left to fear?
Jing Hui's voice continued, low and sounding as if it were drifting from a great distance.
"I am afraid of what I might see."
"I'm afraid that Tianchi Province has become something I no longer recognize."
"I'm afraid it still looks exactly as it does in my memories."
"I'm afraid that no living beings remain there."
"And I'm also afraid that there are still living beings, but their lives are more miserable than death."
Plague Rat scratched his head in confusion.
"Wait, old man, with all this 'afraid of this' and 'afraid of that,' what are you actually trying to say?"
Jing Hui gave a bitter smile.
"I do not know myself."
Plague Rat rolled his eyes.
He thought for a moment, then suddenly slid down the side of his bubble. He maneuvered his bubble until it was right next to Jing Hui's and reached out to tap on the membrane.
"Old man, come over here."
Jing Hui was startled for a moment before walking toward him.
Plague Rat crossed his arms, wearing a stern expression on his scarred face as he faced Jing Hui.
"Listen up. There are some things Lord Rat has wanted to say to you for a long time."
Jing Hui watched him quietly.
Plague Rat gathered his thoughts and began.
"Lord Rat lived in Tianchi Province for over three hundred years. Do you know how I spent that time?"
"Hiding."
"Hiding from demons stronger than me, hiding from terrifying monsters that eat people, and hiding from that nonsensical plague."
"I hid every single day, hiding until I almost forgot who I was."
"Eventually, I couldn't hide anymore. I was heavily injured by the Plague-Eating Stove and was lucky enough to be chosen by the Lord's General-Summoning Platform."
"Back then, Lord Rat thought that a dump like Tianchi Province deserved what it got, and I swore I'd never come back."
"I blamed it all on a madman like you."
Jing Hui's paper body swayed gently.
Plague Rat continued, "During this past half month, the Lord told me everything about Tianchi Province. Only then did I realize that wasn't how it was at all."
"It turns out you've been guarding that dump for a thousand years."
"A thousand years ago, to protect countless lives, you swallowed the plague every day, using yourself as a filter."
"Those people you killed at the end were driven mad by the Golden Buddha. It wasn't because you actually wanted to kill them."
At this point, Plague Rat suddenly grew irritable.
He scratched his head and then his face.
"Anyway..."
"Lord Rat lived in Tianchi Province for three hundred years and heard for three hundred years that the True Lord of Purity and Filth was a madman, a butcher, and a beast who destroyed an entire province."
"But in the end, every person who cursed you was someone you had protected."
"Merits are merits, and faults are faults; they are two different things."
Plague Rat's voice became muffled.
"Lord Rat doesn't really know what to say."
"I just feel that this whole mess is quite pointless."
"Old man, why are there so many stupid things in this world?"
"The things that should be remembered are forgotten, and the things that should be forgotten are never lost."
"Good people are cursed as beasts, while the actual beasts live in luxury."
Jing Hui remained silent.
Plague Rat looked up at him.
"Those people you protected back then didn't know, but Lord Rat knows now."
"You gave your power to me, so Lord Rat acknowledges this karmic bond."
"So stop shaking. There's nothing to be afraid of."
He slammed a fist against the membrane of the bubble, causing it to ripple.
"Our Lord is personally taking action. Even if Tianchi Province has rotted into dust, he can level it and rebuild it from scratch!"
Jing Hui froze.
He stared at Plague Rat, unable to speak for a long time.
In a nearby bubble, Wu Gou burst out laughing.
"Amitābha. This is the first time this poor monk has heard Benefactor Rat speak like this."
Plague Rat's face turned beet red, but fortunately, he was wearing a mask so no one could see. He glared at Wu Gou. "Shut up, you bald ass!"
Wu Gou laughed even harder.
The corners of Chen Zhou's mouth quirked up. He prepared to bail the little rat out.
If the mockery continued, the rat would definitely blow a fuse.
He looked at Wu Gou and spoke.
"What price must be paid for this crossing between realms?"
Wu Gou stopped laughing and thought for a moment.
"Cultivation."
"Diting is an exotic beast of heaven and earth. For it, the cost of crossing realms is much lower than other methods."
"However, once we reach Tianchi Province, the cultivation of everyone here will still drop temporarily."
Chen Zhou nodded.
It was as he expected.
When the Plague-Eating Stove abandoned its physical body to travel from Gloomlight Province to the dream in Lantao City, its cultivation dropped from the seventh-stage to the sixth-stage.
When the Judge crossed from the distant Central Province to Gloomlight Province, he needed a thousand years of accumulated sinful karma to recover his strength.
The common factor was a severe drop in cultivation.
That was exactly why Chen Zhou hadn't brought many people this time; everyone accompanying him was an evil spirit.
Evil spirits had strong recovery abilities. As long as there was sufficient death qi, they could minimize the impact of the cultivation drop.
Chen Zhou sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness, contacting Su Xue who was far away in the Western Region.
A moment later, Su Xue's voice echoed.
"Lord?"
Chen Zhou spoke concisely. "I am currently crossing between realms and will soon arrive in Tianchi Province."
"After the crossing, the cultivation of Wu Gou and the others, as well as mine, will temporarily drop."
"I need you to go to the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm immediately and prepare to convert a large amount of death qi."
"We may need a lot, and the faster, the better."
Su Xue's voice became solemn.
"Understood."
"Rest assured, Lord. I will go at once."
Chen Zhou trusted Su Xue to handle matters. Once he finished the instructions, he cut the connection.
Suddenly, a strong sense of emptiness rose within his body.
His death qi was slowly draining away.
It was a strange sensation, as if something were drawing power from him bit by bit, slowly but surely.
He could feel his cultivation beginning to slide downward.
Rate on N.U.
