A beam of light visible soared into the sky from the Earthsea Land of the Heaven Continent, so great was the light that it was visible on the Earth and Mortal Continent. At the same, the scent of peaches covered the whole Huang Realm. The fragrance was the heaviest in the Heaven Continent, while the Mortal Continent had the least.
All the mortals who inhaled the fragrance felt their vitality strengthen. Those on the Heaven Continent had the greatest benefits. Depending on the circumstances, a mortal could even have their lifespan increased by ten years. Even some cultivators felt the effects as their hidden injuries were nourished or healed altogether.
Within the Buzhou Immortal Sect's forbidden ground, a middle-aged man glanced at the beam of light. He wore a white jade coronet with long white brocade robes with numerous dragons embroidered on it. Although he did not emit any qi fluctuation, just the majesty he emitted was enough to awe immortals.
A single tear leaked down the man's face as he stared at the beam of light. His eyes glazed over as if reminiscing over the past, and his gaze held both tenderness and sadness. He silently mouthed a name.
At the Saintly Scholar School, a middle-aged man with two streaks of white hair on both sides of his temples was conversing with a sloppily dressed daoist that had the faint scent of alcohol on him. The former was Lao Tzu, the founder of the Saintly Scholar School, and the latter would shock Tianyi and Daoyi. He was Daoist Lu that the two had met by chance.
"Before, I never had the chance to smell this fragrance. It lives up to its name as the Queen Mother of the West's treasure that judges life and death. You should be even more familiar with this fragrance. Isn't that right, King Duke of the West?" Lao Tzu asked with a smile at Daoist Lu.
Daoist Lu took a swig of alcohol from his wine gourd before wiping his mouth on his sleeves. "That's just a past life of mine. I no longer have any connection with that identity."
Lao Tzu poured a cup of fragrant tea with a smile and didn't say anything more.
At the epicenter of the beam of light, Tianyi, Daoyi, and Su Bojing received the greatest benefits. Tianyi felt as if his stressed mind had relaxed significantly, no longer as haunted as before. Daoyi felt her soul strengthened, and even her dominance over the ghosts increase. And Su Bojing felt as if he was nearing the next stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
The only one who didn't seem to have received any benefits was Elder Meng. Even Lei Jingye felt some of his vitality return. But Elder Meng didn't mind and instead gazed at the light with a happy yet sad gaze, full of complicated emotions.
It didn't take long for the light to rescind, and once the light was gone, Mengfei stood in the air was a bone-white mirror in her hand. The ground below her had a large hole in the ground where the grotto was once hidden.
But Mengfei didn't have a happy expression on her face as she immediately appeared in front of Tianyi as if she had teleported. The bone-white mirror dropped to the ground as Mengfei held Tianyi cheeks with both hands, inspecting every inch of him.
Mother, you just dropped a divine artifact like some roadside garbage! What are you doing! That's a divine artifact! Tianyi roared in his mind. Even if his mother didn't explicitly say it, the fluctuation coming from the mirror did not lie. Plus, Tianyi wanted to act calm and make sure his mother didn't sense anything wrong with him.
"You've gotten thinner," Mengfei finally said after releasing Tianyi's cheeks.
"I've gotten taller. Of course, I would seem thinner." Tianyi said as naturally as possible. Then he asked Mengfei with a worried expression. "What about you? Are you tired? You've been refining the divine artifact nonstop for almost a year now."
Mengfei shook her head. "It just took some time. Are you alright? You don't seem to be sleeping well."
Tianyi's heart shook at his mother's question. Before, he had a habit of sleeping once every few days. Even if he didn't, it would matter due to his cultivation. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep, but every time he did, he recalled his brush of death. Thus he decisively stopped sleeping.
"I just gained a great amount of motivation to cultivate. That's why I didn't sleep as much." Yeah, a great motivation such as not dying.
"What happened?" Mengfei asked, her eyes conveying worry without her realizing.
When did mother get so sharp? Tianyi couldn't help but question. He maintained his position, but under his mother's unblinking stare, he finally relented.
"Remember the Dragon Emperor?" Tianyi asked. Mengfei nodded; it was one of the greatest battles she partook in. "Turns out, his conscious awakened and became a bodiless soul or something. But whatever the reason, he has his complete memories and possessed one of his clones."
Tianyi pointed at Lei Jingye. "I don't know if mother knows, but he took the name Longwei and appeared at the Heavenly Connection Gathering. And due to some circumstances, we fought."
"Are you injured in any way? Did he did anything to?" Mengfei immediately asked and began to inspect Tianyi once more.
"Don't worry. Although the Dragon Emperor has all his memories, he's far weaker than before, not even having the strength of a Unity Venerable. How could a has-been be enough to beat me? I dealt him so much damage that he released his possession of Lei Jingye." Tianyi said, his chest puffed in a display of confidence.
"Has-been?" Mengfei repeated the words, not recognizing the meaning in Tianyi's usage. But she put in the back of her mind as there was a more important matter.
"Yi'er, no matter what, the Dragon Emperor was once a half-sovereign Immortal. His means are far beyond your understanding. We should return to the sect to make sure nothing happened to you." Mengfei said, her face beyond serious.
"Wait, wait!" Tianyi said, seeing his mother grabbing his wrist in preparation to take them back to the sect. "We have to take Lei Jingye back too. I don't know if the Dragon Emperor fled or is pretending to be Lei Jingye. Best to take him back to the sect and investigate clearly."
After saying this, Mengfei turned her eyes to Lei Jingye. Lei Jingye glared hatefully at Xi Mengfei. Anyone and anything related to Tianyi or rather Xi Longyi, such as the Buzhou Immortal Sect and Mengfei, Lei Jingye hated by association.
"Yi'er, he was the one who tried to assassinate you in the Northern Region?" Mengfei asked.
Tianyi nodded, but his heart skipped a beat when his mother pulled a sword out. He immediately grabbed her sword-holding hand. "Mother, what are you doing?"
"He's too dangerous. Whether alive or dead, even a corpse will do. Too dangerous to be left alive." Mengfei righteously said.
Tianyi felt that his mother wanted to say that he was too dangerous to Tianyi. She was fine if Tianyi fought with people of the same generation, but an old monster like the Dragon Emperor was a huge taboo, apparently. "Who knows, but we might need some means to soul search him. Elder Meng couldn't do it because his soul was too weak. It's better to get more information. Better to cut the grass by the roots. If we can't stop the Dragon Emperor, more problems will arrive in the future."
Mengfei paused and deliberated over Tianyi's words for a few moments. In the end, she nodded. "What about the Lei Clan?"
"No need to bother with them. I've already got my target," Tianyi said as he glanced at Lei Jingye. The only reason he was here was for Lei Jingye. He never expected to fight the Dragon Emperor here. The Lei Clan were minor characters without Lei Jingye's support. Who knows wether they can overcome the over three clans with the disappearance of Lei Jingye?
"Yi'er, if they found out about your actions that pushed them to the brink, then they would hate you to the core. It's better to eliminate them now, cut the grass by its roots as you've said." Mengfei warned.
Lei Jingye, who heard this, immediately exploded. Although his memories were fuzzy, he knew that Tianyi had done something to his clan from Mengfei's words. Not to mention how Mengfei wanted to exterminate his whole clan. But before he could speak much more, Mengfei sealed his mouth, the immortal artifact armor not having the power to resist her spells. He could only glare hatefully at this mother-son duo.
"They are just inconsequential people. What can they even do when they find out? The only noteworthy one is Lei Jingye over there. I'm afraid that they won't even have time to worry about me with their current predicament." Tianyi breezily said. He really didn't place the Lei Clan in his eyes at all.
Mengfei sighed when she saw that Tianyi didn't care at all. "Very well, we must return to the sect as soon as possible." She motioned for the others to come closer to her.
But before she left, she sent a glance at the three surviving Lei Clan members, including Lei De. All three of them lost their breath at the exact same time. Mengfei had exterminated their souls in the instant she glanced at them.
Lei Jingye went crazy as hot tears leaked down his face. Before he returned to the past, and before the clan's fall in his first life, Lei Jingye had lived a carefree life. Even though his mother had disappeared, his father gave him twice as much love to compensate him. And it was his father who sacrificed his life for him when the three of the four great clans exterminated the Lei Clan. Aside from Daoyi, his other greatest wish was to prevent his father's death. But now, his father had just been killed in front of him! And to make it even crueler, his death was even earlier than before!
Mengfei frowned and waved her sleeves. Lei Jingye was instantly knocked out. Tianyi just coldly looked on. Honestly, after the fight with the Dragon Emperor, he couldn't bring himself to empathize with Lei Jingye at all. In fact, it was rather good that he didn't torment Lei Jingye to vent his anger like when he first awoke.
"Wait, mother, aren't you forgetting something?" Tianyi said before Mengfei
Mengfei blinked before looking down at her feet to see the forgotten divine artifact. Under her control, the divine artifact floated next to her. "I didn't forget. It would've transferred with us."
Tianyi might have believed her had it not been for her looking away when she spoke those words. But Tianyi didn't expose her. Instead, there was a hint of a smile, the first time in months.
A pillar of light descended from Mengfei's Heaven, Earth, Man Trinity Palace outside of the Huang Realm and pulled them there before moving them to Jade Peak Palace of the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
In Paradise Sand City, the delegates from the four great clans were assembled at the Lei Clan. The Lei Clan naturally didn't know that their patriarch and the elders were dead, much less that Lei Jingye had his cultivation crippled. They were currently negotiating the terms of surrender.
Although Lei Clan was worried about the sudden departure of Lei Jingye, they didn't put much thought into it. Currently, the only clan able to threaten them was the Meng Clan and their nascent soul grandmaster, who was injured. Even with the Meng Clan's nascent soul grandmaster, the Lei Clan's own nascent soul grandmaster was still present, even if he was also injured.
Currently, the Lei Clan was hammering out the other three clan's surrender. They didn't want to push things too far. Although they had the upper hand, the Lei Clan didn't know what a cornered clan would do when all that was left was their extermination. Besides, even if they didn't take action above-board, they were plenty of shadowy methods they could take to eliminate the other clans.
Suddenly, a giant sword that seemed to have been formed from heaven itself descended onto the city. Everyone in the city felt their mind blank while the sword was still in existence as if all the Paradise Sand City was frozen in time. Only when the sword disappeared did everyone in the city regained their consciousness.
To their amazement and horror, they found all the Lei Clan members were dead, leaving only their soulless corpses. Even the nascent soul grandmaster of the Lei Clan died while sitting in his cultivation chamber. When the remaining three of the four great clans discover this, they felt as if they have been riding a roller coaster full of ups and downs as they glanced at each other, unsure of what happened.
Outside the city, a formation stopped working, revealing the tens of corpses inside. They were Lei Cai and the Lei Clan members Tianyi trapped inside over a year ago.
In truth, Mengfei was venting. Although Tianyi didn't explicitly say anything, she could still discern some changes in him. How could Tianyi, no matter how monstrous talented, not suffer fighting the Dragon Emperor, despite his weakened state?
That day, there were numerous witnesses of swords descended from the heavens and kill numerous people. To the shock of many, all these people were male and had the exact same face!