Lu felt his soul bloom like a fleeting epiphyllum flower, sublimating in an instant.

  Yet deeper insights stirred within him.

  These were the realizations born from living a full mortal life, stripped of a cultivator's identity—of soaring through skies, escaping the earth, and defying death. It was like a flower sprouting from the soil only to return as spring mud: a unique cycle of rebirth.

  The singular charm of life itself.

  A century passed in the blink of an eye, while everything around him shifted endlessly.

  In his aged state, Lu often sat in his chair for half a day at a time.

  When he possessed immortality, he hadn't truly understood this. Only after experiencing it firsthand did he grasp it.

  So this was what it meant to grow old—like countless ordinary elders, sitting at the doorstep.

  In that stillness, all he saw were memories.

  In that stillness, all he pondered was the past.

  Time spared no one.

  The rolling red dust of the mortal world was a way to cleanse the soul and heart.

  Inside the weathered chess hall.

  Master Lancang's body trembled. He had never imagined Old Lu's aura could surge with such overwhelming power.

  Now he finally understood why that lofty celestial being paid such close attention to him.

  Old Lu... was no ordinary man.

  A wave of dizziness washed over him.

  The next moment.

  Master Lancang found himself gently displaced outside the hall.

  In the alley.

  He saw the empress in her red robes, holding an umbrella.

  Beside her stood the legendary figure of the southern prefecture, the centuries-old master of the Tang Mansion—Tang Xiansheng.

  Buzz!

  A pillar of crimson-white radiance pierced the heavens, turning the night bright as day.

  The vault of the sky rippled as though white waves were rolling across it.

  In Nanjiang City.

  Many deep in slumber jolted awake, gazing out their windows in shock and awe.

  Cultivators near the city were roused, rushing toward the beam of light, mistaking it for some heavenly treasure emerging. But upon sensing the empress's terrifying celestial aura, they hastily retreated.

  Ni Chunqiu's beautiful eyes rippled like autumn waters as she gazed into the alley.

  She ignored the reverent cultivators around her.

  "As expected, it's Brother Lu."

  Excitement flickered in her eyes.

  Yet she also seemed thoughtful. "Comprehending the red dust, experiencing the mortal world?"

  Could returning to mortality be a form of cultivation?

  ...

  In the boundless ocean, within the ancient tomb.

  In the dim palace depths.

  Gu Mangran slowly opened his eyes, sunken sockets filled with astonishment.

  Then, a hint of appreciative smile emerged amid the surprise.

  "This is a sublimation on the soul level—truly rare and precious."

  "Though far from the ancient Great Emperors' instantaneous enlightenment, it greatly aids one's cultivation all the same."

  "Worthy of Young Master Lu."

  Gu Mangran smiled faintly.

  Soon, the coffin returned to stillness. He sank back into slumber—or perhaps preparation for the impending great war.

  ...

  Like a beam of light shooting into the ninth heaven.

  Lu felt his mind ascend, a rare and invaluable experience.

  In his soul vortex, a new Dao stele appeared.

  Originally, one stele already resided there: the Intent of Destruction, fused from the Dao intents of Five Phoenixes cultivators—overbearing and terrifying, now at second-sequence level.

  But now, another stele had joined it.

  This one bore a different Intent.

  Like a solitary blooming flower, standing alone as a stele, it rendered Lu even more profound.

  His consciousness rose higher and higher...

  Soon, a familiar sensation returned—that of transcending this world and slipping into another realm.

  He remembered it from when he first gained chaos force.

  Of course, he also remembered... getting kicked that time.

  Not because he was petty, naturally.

  Boom!

  As though breaking free from shackles, with the sea vast and fish leaping freely.

  Lu strained to open his eyes, desperate to see clearly.

  "Hm...?"

  A surprised exclamation seemed to echo through heaven and earth.

  The next instant.

  Lu felt his soul kicked back by an immense force.

  Lu: "..."

  Well, damn. Twice now!

  When had Lu Ping'an ever suffered such grievance?

  Boom!

  Just like last time.

  Lu raised his hand and seized fiercely, as if grasping raging waves.

  Surging chaos force poured forth.

  Enveloped in it, he returned.

  ...

  All radiance converged.

  Nanjiang City sank back into nocturnal silence.

  Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu did not rashly enter the hall, fearing they might disturb Lu.

  But as the oppressive presence filling the world faded, they knew his enlightenment had ended.

  Inside the hall.

  The oil lamp burned out, plunging everything into darkness.

  Lu, seated in his wheelchair, opened his eyes.

  He glanced sideways at the chessboard.

  This one game seemed a portrait of his mortal life.

  Withdrawing his gaze.

  Lu rested his hand on the wheelchair arm.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Wood chips began to flake away, revealing flashes of silver light.

  In an instant, the dim hall blazed bright as day.

  Lu sat upright as his aged features transformed, shedding centuries of wear in a heartbeat.

  The century among mortals complete, he felt reborn—his soul lighter in a way words could not capture.

  His heart like a clear mirror, untouched by dust.

  His garments shifted abruptly into ethereal white robes.

  Young Master Lu had returned.

  He was still the same Lu, yet somehow more vivid now, infused with a touch of mortal warmth.

  That very warmth made him all the more enigmatic, impossible to fathom.

  He sensed Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu in the alley.

  No rush to greet them.

  In truth, during his mortal return, he had not used his primordial spirit to observe surroundings. So he hadn't known of their presence then. In hindsight, they had likely guessed his identity long ago.

  Lu didn't mind.

  Suddenly.

  System prompts materialized before his eyes.

  "Congratulations, Host, on comprehending life: A century among mortals yields sudden enlightenment."

  Lu paused slightly. As a mortal, he hadn't seen the system; its abrupt return felt both foreign and familiar.

  The system panel unfolded.

  Host: Lu

  Title: Qi Refiner (Permanent)

  Qi Refinement Level: 8

  Spiritual Energy Reserves: 213,659,000 / 1,000,000,000 strands

  Primordial Spirit Strength: 7,989 (units)

  Chaos Force: 8,902 (He) [Pending Extraction: 10,000 He]

  World Rating: Five Phoenixes Small World [High Martial]

  [Challenge Mission]: Forge the Gate of Ascension. Immortal Abode Realm: 1000/1000, Immortal Host Realm: 10/10.

  Lu regarded the panel calmly.

  He had stepped into Qi Refinement Level Eight, yet his heart remained serene.

  He could feel the shift in his aura—a transformation from lake to vast ocean.

  Containing immense power, as if his presence alone could punch a hole through the heavens.

  "Qi Refinement Level Nine... requires ten billion strands of spiritual energy."

  Lu tapped the armrest lightly.

  His primordial spirit strength had exploded from its former cap of 999 to nearly eight thousand.

  Beyond his prior accumulation, this surge stemmed largely from his mortal insights.

  Chaos force had grown little.

  The harvested Dao essence continued slowly etching into the Five Phoenixes' origin.

  "Hm? Pending extraction... ten thousand He?"

  Lu's eyes narrowed slightly, then his lips curved upward. He remembered.

  Like before, this had been stripped away.

  Last time, he could only peel off one He. This time, he had seized ten thousand in one go.

  "Integrating ten thousand He of Dao essence into the Five Phoenixes' origin will surely elevate it further."

  Lu smiled.

  But the smile soon faded.

  He lifted his head, white robes fluttering, gazing as if through the roof into the boundless sky.

  Twice entering that strange space...

  What exactly was it?

  Why did it hold such abundant chaos force?

  Each Qi Refinement breakthrough brought system rewards—this time no exception.

  Yet unexpectedly, the system seemed to have brewed this one for quite a while.

  Without waiting further for the reward.

  Lu slowly maneuvered the Thousand-Bladed Chair out of the hall.

  The alley felt dimly profound, the atmosphere heavy.

  Master Lancang stood drenched in cold sweat, hardly daring to breathe.

  Suddenly.

  His eyes widened.

  He heard wheels rolling over the ground—could Old Lu have come back to life?

  Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu stared fixedly at the hall.

  Thick clouds dispersed; brilliant starlight poured from the heavens.

  Illuminating the figure emerging from the shadowed building.

  White robes purer than snow, peerless grace.

  Eyes profound as endless vortices.

  Seeing Lu appear, both Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu tensed...

  It truly was Young Master Lu!

  Master Lancang was utterly bewildered—returned from death?

  And rejuvenated?

  What manner of demon was this?

  But soon, a shiver ran through him; he sensed the extraordinary nature of events.

  Lu glanced at him.

  "This old one congratulates Young Master Lu on his cultivation breakthrough."

  Tang Xiansheng smiled, bowing hunched despite his frailty.

  Ni Chunqiu beamed with excitement: "Brother Lu is incredible, as always!"

  Now a celestial herself, she found Lu ever more unfathomable—a bottomless pool.

  Lu nodded slightly.

  Then, with a flick of his sleeve, he rose.

  White light flashed, whisking Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu away.

  The alley fell silent once more.

  Leaving only a dumbfounded Master Lancang.

  What had Old Tang just called him?

  Young Master Lu?!

  In all the Five Phoenixes... who could make Tang Xiansheng address them as Young Master Lu?

  A chill shot from his soles to his crown.

  Could it be... that most mysterious Lord of White Jade Capital, Young Master Lu?!

  A figure of legend?!

  Suddenly.

  Master Lancang looked up to see the chess hall distorting, twisting in transformation.

  He rushed inside.

  But found no trace of a chess hall—only cluttered piles of wood carvings.

  This shop had always been a woodcarver's; the chess hall seemed never to have existed.

  All of it... like a fleeting dream.

  ...

  In the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  A decade passed in an instant.

  Boom!

  The massive killing formation suspended there began to crumble faintly.

  As the anomaly erupted.

  Countless Yuan Magnetic Heaven cultivators soared skyward. Holy lords of various high-martial worlds stood atop their realms, gazing at the colossal array beyond.

  It collapsed like a melting snow mountain, avalanches thundering down from the peak.

  The moment the formation vanished.

  Blood sealed within for ten years gushed forth!

  Splash!

  A crimson river seemed to emerge.

  The stench of blood permeated the Blood Evil Heaven, chilling everyone to the bone.

  This was the blood of Upper Realm cultivators!

  Ten years ago, the entire conquest army had perished here, reduced to this bloody deluge!

  Boom!

  Suddenly.

  From the blood, a figure emerged—mad with laughter and curses.

  "It's Ye Bei! He actually survived?!"

  "Truly the Dao Clan's Ye Bei? Trapped in the killing array for a decade?"

  "Unbelievable. In a grand array even a Saint Ancestor feared to touch, he endured and lived."

  Cultivators gasped in horror.

  They recognized the raving madman.

  Ye Bei was drenched in crimson; even his skin had turned blood-red. Soaked in blood for ten years, his mind had shattered.

  Ye Bei had gone insane.

  A genius wielding the "Travel" array word—driven mad by a mere grand formation.

  The formation dissipated.

  The crisscrossing auras lingering between heaven and earth began to fade.

  Souls trapped for ten years emerged rapidly, scattering in all directions.

  Yet a vast suction drew them in.

  As though a sinister underworld materialized—Yellow Springs origin, boundless sea of bitterness.

  What was that?

  When the strong perished, shouldn't their souls dissipate into the Nine Heavens, becoming its energy?

  What was this eerie underworld?

  Many were baffled.

  This underworld was the realm of the dead, absorbing all souls fallen in the Lower Three Heavens.

  Goosebumps rose on many; something profound was shifting.

  What had happened to the Lower Three Heavens?

  The Heavenly Gate had appeared, a new ascension path—that was one thing.

  Now, even an underworld governing souls had emerged.

  Figures streaked forth.

  Racing toward the Upper Realm.

  But before they could return.

  Suddenly, at the edge of the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  Terrifying silhouettes loomed faintly.

  The Yun and Dao Clans had concealed the array's ties to an ancient emperor from other saint clans, harboring intentions to claim it solely.

  Yun Clan experts stood at the Upper Realm continent's border, watching the scenes unfold.

  They swiftly relayed news back to their clans.

  "The underworld?"

  Boom!

  Within the Yun Clan.

  A terrifying existence seemed to awaken.

  Overwhelming aura caused heaven and earth to collapse inward.

  The Yun Clan's Saint Ancestor was puzzled.

  In ancient times, the Order of Death had been governed by the Great Emperor of Death. But after that war and his disappearance, the Nine Heavens' cycle of life and death fell under the Heavenly Dao's autonomous control.

  No one had ever heard of an underworld.

  "Could this underworld... be a legacy of the Great Emperor of Death?"

  The Saint Ancestor's thoughts churned like thunder.

  Then.

  From the Upper Realm continent torn open by cracks from the Yuan Magnetic depths, figures burst forth at blinding speed.

  These were saint clan powerhouses.

  They appeared in the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  After restraining the raving Ye Bei and sending him back to the Upper Realm, they turned to the strange underworld floating there.

  Soul after soul was absorbed.

  Their gazes sharpened.

  Suddenly, they witnessed a fallen divine son's soul—wailing in agony, twisted in torment—plunging into the rushing Yellow Springs. Like fish and shrimp swept along with countless others, it drifted toward the boundless sea of bitterness.

  Finally sinking into its depths, enduring endless suffering.

  Boom!

  In the Upper Realm continent.

  At the Yun Clan ancestral ground.

  A terrifying figure erupted with aura—oppressive, untouchable.

  It seemed to fill the entire continent, colossal and seated, gazing toward the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  The Yun Clan's Saint Ancestor!

  As the divine son's soul fell into the underworld, emotion finally broke his composure.

  A hand reached out.

  Blotting sky and sun, clawing toward the underworld.

  Mysterious force shattered everything in its path.

  Countless souls evaporated; faintly, the ten great cities trembled!

  In the Nine Hells Underworld.

  Dantai Xuan, clad in black ornate robes, sat solemnly like an impassive Yama judging souls.

  The lords of the other nine cities manifested as well.

  Their ten auras wove together into a vast net.

  Seeking to block this horrifying palm!

  Puff!

  Yet their power fell far short. The net shattered instantly before the palm even neared.

  Meanwhile.

  In the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  The descended Upper Realm saint clan experts thrust forward cultivators they had long nurtured to half-step Immortal Transformation.

  Boom!

  Aura soared, as if shattering all bonds.

  The Heavenly Gate manifested grandly.

  Atop the thousand-zhang gate, mystical beasts seemed to stir to life.

  Boom boom boom!

  From the Upper Realm continent.

  Yun and Dao Clan powerhouses shot forth.

  Prepared for a decade, they had awaited the formation's end. Now, they would act.

  Regardless of secrets beyond the Heavenly Gate, its very existence was intolerable to the Upper Realm.

  Though they scorned Lower Three Heavens cultivators, ascendants from there were vital to Upper Realm balance.

  They had waited and prepared ten long years.

  ...

  On the Five Phoenixes.

  Nanjiang City.

  Tang Mansion.

  Lu sat in the Thousand-Bladed Chair. Tang Xiansheng faced him across a chessboard; the two played while conversing.

  The empress sat obediently to the side.

  Her once-unrestrained posture was fully tempered before Lu.

  After chatting with Tang Xiansheng a while.

  Lu naturally sensed the upheaval in the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  The Upper Realm saint clans had finally moved.

  In truth, Lu felt some pent-up frustration—they had truly waited a full decade.

  "Hm... by twist of fate, they struck the underworld first."

  He was mildly surprised. The one acting... was actually a saint clan ancestor!

  He could not allow the Nine Hells Underworld to be destroyed by a saint.

  Thus...

  Lu's lips curved upward.

  "How dare you touch the Five Phoenixes' underworld?"

  His robes billowed in sudden gale.

  Tang Xiansheng, playing across from him, felt crushing aura bear down, leaving him gasping.

  Lu pinched a chess piece between index and middle finger.

  To Tang Xiansheng and Ni Chunqiu.

  That piece gleamed brilliantly!

  Like the brightest star in the night sky.

  Clack!

  Lu slammed it onto the board.

  Myriad silver-gray lights exploded forth.

  ...

  In the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  The Saint Ancestor palming toward the underworld suddenly blazed with radiant fury.

  "How dare you!"

  Rage thundered in ten thousand echoes!

  The next instant.

  The entire underworld was enveloped in silver-gray radiance... vast spatial profundities surging.

  The underworld, manifest in the Yuan Magnetic Heaven.

  Instantly shifted position—to the Void Heaven beyond the Five Phoenixes.

  In the Yuan Magnetic Heaven, the Saint Ancestor could act unchecked. But in the Void Heaven... even he lacked such audacity.

  The Saint Ancestor himself was momentarily stunned.

  He hadn't expected his palm—and the underworld with it—to be transposed to the Void Heaven...

  Ding-ling!

  The dormant rules of the Void Heaven awakened as though alive!

  The Saint Ancestor sought to withdraw his hand.

  But... too late.

  Puff!

  Countless rules coalesced into a terrifying blade of light.

  A blade that chilled even a Saint Ancestor to the bone.

  One slash.

  Saintly blood sprayed; an arm severed clean!