It was the night at Tianming's former residence. There was a stone table and two chairs in the yard.
"Checkmate! Sister Qingyu, you lost again!" Ye Lingfeng said gleefully.
"Sigh..." Qingyu pouted and said, "How annoying... I feel really restless ever since Big Brother and Ling'er left. That's why I lost."
"That's blatantly false. You started losing every match since you taught me the game," Ye Lingfeng said ruthlessly.
"Nah, it isn't."
"Is too!"
"Say that again?!"
"Is... not?"
"That's better. Watch your words. There's no way I would lose every match."
"Fine. One more round?"
"Nope. I want to admire the moon."
The two of them then turned to the moon.
"I feel so bored," Qingyu said.
"Me too."
"Come up with a topic.""I... I don't know what to talk about," he said with his head lowered.
"What do you want to do next?"
"Train."
"What about your free time?"
"I have no idea..."
"Let's just continue admiring the moon then."
"Alright. What day is today? The moon's really bright today."
"Is it the 15th of the month? Or was it the 16th? Wait... It's already the 21st! Why's the moon still so bright and round?" Qingyu's moon-colored eyes reflected the moonlight.
"It's weird..." Even Ye Lingfeng knew that the 15th was a few days past. There was no way for the moon to be so bright.
"Hmmm, this is weird..." Qingyu's voice suddenly sounded really thin and airy.
"What's wrong, Sis Qingyu?" He turned around and saw the glow coming from her eyes cover her whole body. It looked like she was bathing in moonlight.
"Rather return... Live out life with the nine moons," she mumbled.
"What?"
"Return... Oh, return... to the unparalleled brilliant moons," she said as she turned her head up to look at the moon with a trance-like look.
"What's going on?" Ye LIngfeng asked with a solemn look. The Soulfiend came closer and was just as shocked to see Qingyu in this state. All of a sudden, she began to float towards the moon even though she wasn't a sky saint. It was as if she was levitating upwards in a straight line.
"Where are you going?" Ye Lingeng asked as he followed her into the sky. The speed at which she ascended wasn't too high, so he could keep up. The Soulfiend also tagged along by converting itself into a breeze and wrapping itself around him.
Now, Qingyu was already impossibly high up. They were near the limits of the altitude a sky saint could fly. In another five hundred meters at most, Ye Lingfeng would no longer be able to keep up. Hurriedly, he grabbed her arm. "Let's go back."
Just as he applied force, a fearsome power came from her body and shook him to the point his hand was bleeding. She looked down and stared at him with her pale, white eyes.
"Sister Qingyu..." He felt a chill down his spine. Even though he couldn't keep up any longer, she still continued to rise. It was impossible for a fresh earth saint like her to fly so high. Was she heading towards the moon?
Ye Lingfeng stopped thinking too much about it and used the last of his energy to catch up to her and grabbed her calf. He didn't dare tug it too hard, for he would no longer be able to keep up if he was shaken off again.
Thankfully, she didn't seem to care now that he wasn't tugging at her. All this while, he didn't know what was going on. The only thought on his mind was that he couldn't just let Tianming's little sister float off like that. Just like that, the two of them appeared smaller and smaller before they turned into two black dots in the night sky, melding into the moon. Only then did the full moon return to its former waning form.
......
Outside Decimo Sacred Hall stood a blood-haired man. He watched the scene in the sky unfold. "So it's finally here, huh..."
He shook his head helplessly.
"Just like that, my two children have embarked on two different paths. As a father and godfather, all I wish is for them to live on without grudges or regrets. Live your lives to the fullest."
......
Ten days later, Tianming was speeding along the coastline of the Northern Voidsea, heading west. By the time the Canal of the Dead was within sight, Lan Huang was already out of breath. It rolled its eyes and laid flat on the surface of the ocean as it lazily floated its way over.
"Hey, is swimming still fun?" Tianming asked.
"No! I've swum enough for a lifetime!" Lan Huang groaned.
"Haha, there won't be a next life."
As they would be crossing the Canal of the Dead, Tianming asked them to return to the lifebound space. Now that Feiling had fused the two godchild bodies into one, her body took corporeal form, so he had no choice but to cross it with her.
He had decided to stop relying on her Spiritual Attachment unless absolutely necessary so as to not slow her cultivation down. Otherwise, it would be really troublesome to carry the corporeal innate godchild body the whole time.
She trained using Perpetia Sutra. Had Tianming not needed her to aid him with Spiritual Attachment lately, she would've become an earth saint already. Now, she was something akin to a revived god. All she needed was proper guidance and training to improve at a blinding speed.
If someone like Xuanyuan Xu had her divine soul and divine body, he would no doubt ascend to godhood quickly. Though, even at her slowed rate of growth, it was still terrifyingly fast. Her revival had something to do with the Perpetia City. Much like Li Muyang's reincarnation, it was something even the gods couldn't mimic.
"Ling'er, my next goal is to not be superseded by you. As long as I can do that, I stand a good chance of ascending to godhood!"
"Is that so? Looks like I'm giving you quite a lot of pressure, Mister Top Genius of the Theocracy in Ten Thousand Years," she said.
"Haha, if you can really eclipse me and dominate the skies, I wouldn't mind mooching off you. I love the feeling of other people's envious gazes."
"Then, I'll spoil you and you alone. Even if everyone sees you as a useless mooch, I'll never leave you."
"Really? Looks like I'll have to marry into your family instead."
"Oh worthless son in law, come greet your lady," she said, getting more into the role.
"Haha, dream on. I'm a real man and won't stoop to that," he said as he pinched her cheeks. It hurt so much that she bit him and pinched him a few times.
As they spoke, they reached the Canal of the Dead. It looked like a pitch-black wall that stretched leftward towards the Flameyellow Continent and right towards the endless seas. It didn't seem to have an end. But on closer inspection, one would see that it was not a wall, but rather a kind of black light. Tianming had thought that it would be filled with spirit hazards, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"The Canal of the Dead is a little like the wall that separates the two worlds," Feiling said.
"I see."
"It's said that the more powerful someone is, the more resistance the canal will offer. However, normal people without a trace of beast ki can easily pass through. The wall was made to stop the elites from crossing," she said.
"It sounds like it's a heavenly pattern barrier that was made to protect the Theocracy."
"Is there anything in the Theocracy that's worth protecting?"
"I don't know."
"All your father said was in crossing the canal, you'll be able to sever the karmic ties. But he didn't say anything else. Perhaps crossing it really is like crossing into another world. That must be why even karmic ties can be severed."
"That makes sense. I didn't think you'd know more about this than me, madame."
"I'm still young you know!"
"Haha, young indeed."
As Tianming was only a fifth-level sky saint, he shouldn't have a hard time crossing the canal. Xuanyuan Xu was able to make it through, after all "It's no wonder few elites of the Nine Divine Realms come to our side. It's not that they don't want to come here and rule over us; they simply aren't able to."
"That's right."
"Alright, let's go!" He took her hand.
"Okay." After she nodded, the two of them stepped into the wall of black light.
Almost instantly, Tianming felt like he was being burned. The power in his saint palace was being drained as if he was fighting someone.
"Why does this feel like Soulburn?" Tianming asked.
"Yeah, it's the same, but a little weaker," Feiling said.
They continued ahead. The range the wall of light covered was known as the canal, within which one wouldn't be able to see the road ahead. There was no way to tell how much distance there would be left. Even Feiling wasn't able to see anything.
However, he could at least feel the warmth of her hand, as well as how anxious she was. He gave her a squeeze and pulled her closer to him as they forged ahead.
"I don't care if you're a god or human. All that matters is you're mine," he said amidst the storm of light.
"You are mine too."
"Then whose are we?" Ying Huo asked.
"My excrement? You do pop out of my lifebound space all the time, so..."
"Why you little--"
Tianming felt completely carefree. No matter how dark it seemed, he never felt a hint of fear, for the one walking behind him needed him. His saint ki continued to drain, but he was able to replenish it quickly with Prime Tower. The canal was a walk in the park for him. Soon, they would arrive in Archaion!
Right at that moment, countless beams of black light gathered in front of Tianming, forming into a face so large that it covered the skies. There were millions of eyes dotting the gigantic face.