Aftermath

A few minutes before Xue Bai's disappearance

Yue Zifeng didn't take more than a few minutes to exterminate all of the Wang Clan members still in the estate.

Since Wang Yichen took all of the powerhouses, none of the ones that remained were even above the Law Engraving realm, while most were still in the 5 physical realms, making it extremely easy.

All Yue Zifeng needed to do was spread out his Spiritual Sense across the entire estate and send directions to the Core Elders, who would then follow his commands.

However, any Wang Clan descendants who were hidden behind a defensive array or a far-to-reach spot, Yue ZIfeng would take care of personally sending a volley of conjured swords in their direction.

He didn't even need to control them manually as after he conjured them, his swords seemed to have a mind of their own and would reach their target no matter the distance or what impeded their progress.

Following the short but thorough extermination, Yue Zifeng flew back over to where he left Xue Bai, planning to go back home in anger, but as he was flying over, he sensed something far beyond his cultivation realm.

On top of his Firmament Sword, Xue Bai stood upright, purple light glowing in his eyes as he stared into a random distance, seemingly entranced.

Yue Zifeng looked at Xue Bai, confused for a second, and shouted out his disciple's name.

Yet no matter how loud Yue Zifeng yelled, Xue Bai was in too deep a state of enlightenment to even hear him. His entire attention was on the Wang Clan's teleportation and nothing else.

No matter how loud Yue Zifeng yelled, if he didn't stop Xue Bai manually, everything would pass over his head.

Yue Zifeng could somewhat tell what was happening, but that still didn't stop him from being confused. So to find out what was happening with his disciple, Yue Zifeng flew over to his Firmament Sword, planning to do just that, but as he flew over, he witnessed Xue Bai change forms and reveal his tails and fox ears.

To his shock, he saw nine fox tails shrouded in the same purple radiance that his eyes were and a pair of small purple fox ears that popped out from under his ponytail. Now, Xue Bai no longer looked human but a demonic beast who had gained a physical form.

historical

"Wait, no. He doesn't have the Baleful Qi a demonic beast has," Yue Zifeng quickly saw that Xue Bai lacked the defining feature that every human form demonic beast possessed, "Is Bai'er like that Zhu Que girl then?"

Reaching a reasonable conclusion, Yue Zifeng tried once again to get Xue Bai's attention with a few more shouts as he closed the distance. However, this time, he was interrupted by something else.

Instead of changing forms once again, Xue Bai closed his eyes and furrowed his brows as if he were thinking about something for a moment before opening them once more.

This time his eyes were clear and filled with both purpose and excitement.

"I can interfere with the teleportation." Xue Bai mumbled.

Yue Zifeng was in the Spirit Severing Realm and could hear a mouse squeak from dozens of miles away, so how could he not hear Xue Bai's mumbling?

However, even after he heard and understood what Xue Bai said, he still felt like he had thought he had heard wrong.

Interfere with the teleport?

Even Yue Zifeng, who was in the Spirit Severing realm, couldn't interfere with the half-started teleport earlier and could only watch in anger as they disappeared. That was the reason why Wang Yichen looked so arrogant earlier and dared to mock him. He knew that no matter how strong Yue Zifeng was, Yue Zifeng could only watch in anger as he and his clan left in front of his eyes.

So how could Xue Bai, a pup in the Bone Strengthening realm, interfere with something that he could only watch in anger as it happened?

Still, Yue Zifeng's thoughts remained unanswered as Xue Bai started to move.

Xue Bai stood upright and raised his palms to his chest level. After that, he covered them in the same mystical purple radiance that his eyes and tails were covered in and pushed them forward.

"What is he..." Yue Zifeng's words were caught in his throat.

To Yue ZIfeng and everyone's astonishment, Xue Bai's hands disappeared. And after a second of pause, Xue Bai swept his two arms in opposite directions as if he were slicing the air in front of him.

The space in front of him opened.

Like it was a sliding door, the space in front of Xue Bai opened, allowing him access to the void.

Still oblivious to the now-growing crowd around him, Xue Bai stepped into the crack of space, still possessing the same deep look of purpose and excitement.

Horrified, Yue Zifeng turned into a bolt of lightning and quickly flew over to the crack in space, hoping to stop his nephew. However, he was too late.

By the time he got to Xue Bai's previous position, Xue Bai had already entered the void.

Tongue-tied, anxious, and scared beyond his mind, Yue Zifeng wanted to almost switch positions with Xue Bai so he could die instead of his nephew.

Nothing could survive in the void. Even powerhouses in the Spirit Fusion realm couldn't survive in the void for more than an hour, let alone a Bone Strengthening realm child. Xue Bai might not even survive a second with his fragile body and tiny cultivation base.

Yet to his astonishment and bewilderment, Xue Bai was fine. Even after stepping into the cruel and remorseless void, he was perfectly fine.

Xue Bai was as calm as if he were scrolling through a park and not the void.

"Space is my domain," Xue Bai murmured unconsciously, "What I wish for must happen, and what I don't like cannot. You all have wronged me. Forever be banished into the void."

And in a final attack that destroyed Yue ZIfeng's three views of the world, Xue Bai raised his right arm and sent out a purple slash of the same mystical energy he was immersed in.

The purple slash wasn't very large, only a few meters in length, and didn't carry any overwhelming power that scared Yue ZIfeng. However, it still terrified him.

It was as if the slash was created and manifested by a higher being and made of a higher power that almost turned off Yue Zifeng's mind and made him kneel in worship.

This power was something Yue Zifeng knew nothing about but instinctually wanted. Even without knowing what that power was, Yue Zifeng subconsciously craved it.

Shaking the odd feeling away, Yue Zifeng tried to pay attention to his disciples. If something happened to him, he wouldn't know what to do.

Yue ZIfeng didn't see into the void, so he didn't see where the purple slash went or the fact that the Wang Clan members were hit.

But after hearing a few hundred screams of anguish and anger, Yue ZIfeng managed to piece together what Xue Bai attacked.

"Bai'er, quickly come out!" Yue ZIfeng screamed out after seeing Xue Bai accomplish something he couldn't. He was scared that Xue Bai would overestimate his power and still die in the void.

However, Yue Zifeng's heart was caught in his throat, as by the time his words left his mouth, he had witnessed the second worst thing he had ever seen.

Xue Bai's body started withering.

Like he was being wrung dry, Xue Bai's body was seemingly milked out of all its essence. And he soon became basically skin and bones.

"NO!" Yue Zifeng screamed out.

Putting caution to the wind, Yue Zifeng didn't care about his own safety anymore and tried to enter the void and grab Xue Bai out as he could see his nephew losing consciousness fast, but once again, like all those years ago, he was too late.

And the crack in space soon healed up, leaving Yue Ziefng empty-handed once again.

–

Neither Yue Zifeng nor Duan Zhen bothered to hide the news, so within the week, the entire continent knew what had occurred in Yuan City.

The Wang Clan and all of its subordinate families were killed in a raid led by Yue Zifeng and the Core Elders of the Soaring Sword Sect on the first day of the tenth month of the year 975.

Wang Yichen and his clan were corrupted by the continent's long-mortal enemy, the Blood Saber Sect, and had tried to infiltrate and take down the Soaring Sword Sect from the inside.

However, that wasn't the piece of shocking news that shook the continent, but rather it wasn't Yue Zifeng, the Spirit Severing realm powerhouse who killed the Wang Clan, or even one of the Core Elders, but instead Xue Bai, the greatest prodigy in the history of the Southern Continent.

In an act that could break people's worldviews, like an immortal himself, Xue Bai, with his own hands, split his open space before unleashing a purple slash of energy that killed the escaping Wang Clan.

Thankfully the purple radiance that Xue Bai exuded after comprehending the Dao of Space blocked the commoners below from seeing his tails and ears, so only Duan Zhen and Yue Zifeng saw it.

But Duan Zhen, as Wang Yichen said, cared for nothing but his Duan Imperial Family, so after seeing it and thinking that it was weird, it went over his head.

On the other hand, Yue Zifeng was Xue Bai's uncle, so after seeing it, instead of questioning anything, he only tried to block that specific news from leaking.

Li Rou and Xue Feng most likely knew about it, so it would be out of place for Yue Zifeng to mention anything.

Following the fight, Yue Zifeng tried his best to block the news of Xue Bai's disappearance, but since the boy was the son of such a high-profile person and a public icon, he couldn't contain it for too long.

So the continent was in heartbreak for a long time, as they knew that nothing could survive in the void.

Yet to the public's shock, Li Rou and Xue Feng announced that Xue Bai's soul lamp was still lit, though weak and about to extinguish, the boy was alive.

Xue Feng and Li Rou placed split Xue Bai's soul lamp into two parts, one large and one small, before placing the small part in the city center of Snowy Wind city.

There, many people would watch it, hoping to see the soul lamp finally extinguished; however, it never did. And time slowly passed.

Because of Xue Bai's soul lamp that stayed lit, Li Rou and Xue Feng always stayed hopeful for Xue Bai's return. But as time passed, though they knew that their son was still alive, they soon realized that maybe Xue Bai had ended up somewhere far from home.

And because Xue Bai's soul lamp stayed one gust of wind away from extinguishing the entire time, they could also figure out that he was in horrible condition.

However, nothing came to them even after making a continent-wide bounty for any information about Xue Bai and his whereabouts, and their hopes slowly died out.

Two and half years passed.

—

4th month 978

'Master, what about Brother Bai? Do you believe that story?' Huo Long asked in his mind as he ate in a motel's dining area.

Since the Huang and Xia Clan extermination, Huo Long had almost little drive to cultivate. But after his Master told him about the Immortal World, he regained his drive.

His Master was wronged so badly by the scum of the Immortal World. How could he, as her disciple, not avenge her?

"Long'er, you know how I told you about how your Spear Intent is nothing in the grand scheme of things?" Feng Huang asked.

Huo Long nodded. After he comprehended Spear Intent, Huo Long thought that he was the center of the world. How could he not? But Feng Huang poured a cold basin of water over him and said that Spear Intent was nothing in the Immortal World.

"I also told you then that above the Intent realm is the Dao, right?" Feng Huang continued.

Huo Long nodded once more.

"Your brother comprehended a Dao." Feng Huang spoke, shocking Huo Long out of his shoes.

'How do you know, Master?' Huo Long couldn't help but ask, 'Some of the other students even said that was a load of nonsense, and they only said that to hype up his performance.'

"Long'er, my soul strength is almost completely recovered. How could I not know when someone comprehended a Dao this close to us?" Feng Huang retorted with a snort, "The phenomenon of Xue Bai slicing open space is something only achievable by someone who comprehended the first floor of the Dao of Space, while that slash represented the second floor. Even treasures at the peak of the black–grade can't do that. If it wasn't a Dao, what else could it be?"

'But didn't you say that you can only comprehend a Dao at the Immortal Origin realm at the minimum?' Huo Long asked once more.

"No, I didn't say that," Feng Huang shook her head in the ring, "I said that people in the Immortal Origin realm are close to the Dao and have a heightened affinity with it. Anyone of any cultivation realm can comprehend a Dao. It's just extremely hard to do so without a high-grade bloodline or special cultivation technique. For people like you and your brother, it's not impossible to comprehend a Dao before the Immortal Origin realm. Most likely, he had had a flash of enlightenment from the Wang Clan's teleportation and comprehended the Dao of Space on the spot. However, from the news, it's not hard to guess he hadn't known how to fully use his Dao, and instead of manipulating reality with it, he foolishly used the essence within his own body and nearly killed himself."

'Then is he going to be fine? He fell into the void. Nothing is supposed to survive in there. If he is super weakened, how can he survive for so long?' Huo Long said.

"Fine? Xue Bai will be more than fine." Feng Huang couldn't but smile after healing Huo Long's concern, "Just worry about how strong he will be when he returns."

'Second Senior Brother's Nine-Tailed Celestial Void Fox race are children of the void. The void wouldn't even hurt a hair on that boy's head. If anything, it would bless him and enhance his physique.' Feng Huang thought inwardly.

The two would continue to converse for a little more until a girl in black and gold robes with a signature phoenix imprint in between her brows walked into the motel.

"Huo Long, come one. I found the target." Jiang Xiaorou spoke coldly.

Huo Long shook his head, hearing that cold voice. However, he didn't point anything out but instead stood up calmly and walked over.

"Then let's go, Xiaorou." Huo Long said as he grabbed the woman's hand and ran off.