Four hundred years.
For the mortal spirits of the mundane world, it was the passing of twenty generations.
But for cultivators, it was nothing more than a Yellow Millet Dream.
That year,
The whole world came to attack.
The experts from the Central Plains, the East Desolation, and those above the eighth stage in the North Sea had all raised their weapons.
The Demon Abyss had chosen to stand by and watch.
Only the Tushan Immortal Fox before him had never drawn her sword from beginning to end. Furthermore, she had saved his two senior brothers in the far north.
In front of the Wendao Sword Sect's mountain gate, she had ignored the judgmental gazes of the world and openly favored the sect.
She was the first, and the only one.
Whether it was because of Tu Kongkong,
Or because of Li Taibai,
Or perhaps because of a promise made long ago to Senior Brother Yun Zheng...
It didn't really matter.
The result,
Was simply the result.
She had ultimately acted, even if it was only through a spirit body.
That was enough.
Of course, Xu Xian did not deny that he viewed Tu Sisi as an exception partly because of his master and Tu Kongkong.
She was his master's former companion and his disciple's biological mother.
He had every reason to let her stay behind rather than forcing her to face the perils ahead.
Tu Sisi did not press him further. She accepted Xu Xian's explanation. As the saying goes, true feelings are revealed in times of trouble, and one truly knows a person's heart in times of failure. Humans, after all, loved such sentimentalities.
She simply asked in passing, "So, your senior brothers aren't going with you?"
"Of course not," Xu Xian replied matter-of-factly. "Even a vicious tiger does not eat its own. Those of my Wendao Sword Sect will naturally stay behind."
Tu Sisi nodded, acknowledging it as a logical choice. She then asked tentatively:
"My Tushan lineage has over ten beast gods. What about them? Can you show them some mercy, Young Friend Xu?"
Xu Xian remained silent, a troubled expression on his face.
Tu Sisi gestured toward the area outside the mountain and continued, "They are all waiting out there right now."
Xu Xian glanced out of the corner of his eye and mused, "Senior, you know that I am the Young Lord of the Demon Abyss, yet even the people from the Demon Abyss must go."
The implication was clear: the Demon Abyss was his own side, yet he didn't trust them to stay. How could he trust the beast gods of Tushan, whom he had never even met?
"No room for negotiation?" Tu Sisi asked again.
"Please don't make things difficult for me, Senior."
Tu Sisi shook her head and compromised. "Fine, then we shall do as you wish."
Xu Xian offered his thanks.
"Thank you."
Tu Sisi changed the subject, saying, "However, I do not wish to be that exception."
Xu Xian was stunned. "Hmm?"
Tu Sisi’s red lips curled into a smile as she gazed up at the sky. "I want to go. I want to see his homeland."
Xu Xian raised his cup and took a small sip of celestial dew...
Tu Sisi shifted her gaze back to the youth and asked, "The Immortal Realm must be very beautiful, right?"
Xu Xian hesitated for a moment before finally shaking his head.
The people of the world spent their entire lives trying to achieve the Dao and become immortals, hoping to ascend to the Upper Realm and catch a glimpse of the immortal realm.
In his younger years,
Xu Xian was no exception.
He had filled his mind with fantasies of magnificent palaces, cloud-shrouded mountains, and seas of mist...
But...
He had never been there.
He didn't know.
Although his master had said that darkness had swept across the Heavens, that was ten thousand years ago. Another ten thousand years had passed since then, and he truly did not know what it was like up there now.
Perhaps the darkness was at its peak.
Perhaps the darkness was gradually receding.
Anything was possible.
Even when shrouded in darkness, a completely different kind of civilization could evolve.
The Demon Abyss,
Was a perfect example.
There was no light there either, yet the ten-colored lichens were equally brilliant and colorful.
"True, you've never been there, so how could you know?" Tu Sisi answered her own question. "Still, while one is alive, one should travel more. Water flows to the lower ground, but people strive for the heights. I'm going. You won't stop me, will you, Young Friend Xu?"
Xu Xian understood Tu Sisi's thoughts.
He understood,
And he respected them.
If he were in their position, guarding a single place for hundreds of thousands of years, he would certainly leave if given the chance. He would go to see the distant lands and explore the unknown.
Perhaps to take a step further,
Or to search for the unknown.
Just as described in that incredibly long story his master had told.
Consciousness,
Life,
Over long periods of time, will always breed loneliness and confusion, followed by a longing for the unknown and the distance...
He was like that,
And so was Tu Sisi.
In the mortal world,
They had already reached the peak. Staying behind would be the same as always—utterly dull.
He said, "As I said, Senior is an exception. You don't have to go."
She could choose not to go,
But she could certainly choose to go as well.
The choice was hers, not his.
Tu Sisi understood.
She smiled triumphantly.
She stood up and walked away gracefully, not forgetting to say to Xu Xian, "I'll act as your mediator. You can stay here for now. In three days, we can set out together..."
Xu Xian said nothing.
He continued to sit there.
After Tu Sisi left, he picked up the pot of celestial dew on the table and drank it all in one go, saying with a lingering sense of satisfaction:
"Good stuff!"
Smacking his lips, he too disappeared from Tushan.
...
Over the next three days, the eight sacred islands returned to their usual tranquility. Everything seemed no different than before.
The demon immortals and beast gods,
Were legendary existences on these islands to begin with, and they rarely showed their faces.
In truth,
Whether they were there or not made little difference.
In the shadows,
Power was being handed over on the eight sacred islands. The old monsters called in their most outstanding juniors to give their final instructions, and in passing, taught them one last lesson.
The juniors knew the truth,
And their hearts were filled with resentment.
They felt an intense hatred for the Central Plains across the sea.
Four hundred years ago,
Bai Mang had kidnapped them.
Four hundred years later,
Xu Xian was taking their ancestors away.
The creatures on the continent—be they humans, demons, or devils—were all rotten to the core...
Even though,
Their ancestors repeatedly comforted and emphasized that no one was to blame for this, and that this was their destined fate. At their level, reaching for even greater heights naturally meant ascending to the heavens.
And that the juniors would be the same in the future.
But they were young and lacked experience, so how could they possibly understand?
Besides the eight sacred islands, the subordinate beast gods of the various North Sea islands also received the news one after another.
Upon learning that the demon immortals had all agreed,
And hearing the harsh words Xu Xian had left behind,
Whether they were willing or not, most of them chose to comply in silence.
The outcome was already decided.
They could either be beaten and dragged away,
Or they could leave with their dignity intact.
They were smart enough to know which was better.
On the Shores of the North Sea.
At that boundary line, The Living Flora still hung in the sky. On the azure sea, a small boat drifted. On the boat sat a youth, fishing without bait day after day.
In the area surrounding the youth,
The beast gods who had arrived early were hiding in secret.
Some were in the clouds,
Some were in the deep sea.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The appointed day arrived.
The nine demon immortals,
Bringing their respective beast gods, gathered on the North Sea.
They converged at a single point.
In the shadows,
Those beast gods who had arrived early also began to show themselves one after another.
Xu Xian looked up from the small boat and counted.
The number was close to a hundred and fifty, all of them ninth-grade great demons.
He couldn't help but smack his lips. "The North Sea truly hides crouching tigers and hidden dragons."
One had to realize,
Excluding the North Sea, the total number of ninth stage experts among the humans, demons, devils, beasts, monsters, and spirits in all of Fanzhou was only around two hundred.
The North Sea alone almost matched that number.
This showed just how immense their strength was.
Furthermore,
If Xu Xian remembered correctly, in the war four hundred years ago, the North Sea had lost nearly thirty percent of its beast gods.
Thus,
The original number must have been around two hundred.
It was no wonder that whenever the North Sea was mentioned, the people of the world would turn pale with fear.
Among the demons,
Ao Tian, the leader, spoke up. He said in a deep voice, "Xu Daoyou, please draw your sword..."
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