In the eyes of everyone at the Dao Academy, Lu Yun had only been gone for a few short days. But to him, everything had changed during this period of time.

The immortal dao in residence at Mount Xuanhuang was only the immortal dao, it wasn’t the great dao of this realm. The great dao had vanished, or more accurately speaking, been completely destroyed.

What remained was just the tattered fragments that the world of immortals knew, a broken immortal dao that supported the existence of this realm. If that too was destroyed, then this world would implode and return to the chaos.

Though the path of cultivation had been repaired in the current immortal dao, it still suffered from a thousand boils and a hundred holes, and was broken at the dao immortal realm.

The Dao Tree’s existence was as if an enormous parasite; it continuously fed off the immortal dao to strengthen itself. Even though Qing Yu had already sealed it away, it still drew from the immortal dao without pause or interruption.

“I didn't see the Dao Tree when I was in the great wilderness, nor did I see anything related to it. That thing must have appeared after the establishment of the immortal dao.” Lu Yun suddenly thought of the existence that’d been completely obscured the great war a hundred thousand years ago. It seemed very likely to be the Dao Tree, but he wasn't quite sure yet.

…...

As the Dao Academy continued to flourish and prosper, cultivators and immortals streamed in to become part of it from all corners of the world of immortals. However, the various peak factions of the world continued to engage in various unsavory deals to secretly oppose the academy.

Lu Yun was aware of it all, but he didn't mind. His mindset had reached completely new heights after his sojourn in the great wilderness and he no longer considered these so-called peak factions as rivals. Rather, he now viewed them as simple whetstones for his disciples.

……

“The Chaos Lotus is in the Dao Academy?” Lu Yun started. He’d caught a glimpse of the final spirit root—it was on a female disciple dressed as a male. She was Ling Rumeng, the first genius of the Ling Clan.

She’d attracted a great deal of attention when her phenomenon of ascension had been a chaos lotus, and many guessed that the greatest of the ten spirit root rankings was on her. Thus, she’d been targeted with unceasing ambushes for a long time afterward and nearly died a few times. Out of options, the Ling Clan finally sent Ling Rumeng to the Dao Academy.

This was the safest place in the entire world of immortals right now.

Though Lu Yun had located the last spirit root he lacked, he didn’t immediately collect it. Once he refined the Chaos Lotus and broke through to chaos realm, his replica would have to immediately transform into the cosmos and mend the immortal dao.

He couldn’t let that happen before certain things were taken care of, such as… the various soul force wrapped around his fingers. Those were his ties to the great wilderness that he’d brought back to his time.

……

“So this is your biggest secret,” murmured the little fox as she looked at the Karmic Tree in hell.

“Yep, this whole place is my secret.” Lu Yun nodded. “You can let them out now. It’s safer here than in the Bell of Chaos.”

The little fox exhaled slowly and summoned the bell, releasing the Deaf Prince and his six friends, Houtu, Shentu, and Yulei. They were all deep in meditation as they slowly refined Vastspace Mountain and Timelight Tower.

“Vastspace Mountain and Timelight Tower… one controls space and the other time. Neither of them are treasures that any empyrean realm great emperor could’ve refined,” the little fox explained softly. “Rather, the heavens borrowed Emperor Vastspace and Timelight’s power to manifest in that era. The empresses could traverse time and space not because of their great dao, but because we sent them to the time of the immortal dao.

“The treasures of human dao!” she declared solemnly. “Vastspace Mountain and Timelight Tower are the treasures of human dao!”

The dao weapons of the primitive great dao had been a tower, a cauldron, and a bell. The ones for human dao were a mountain and tower. As for the treasure of the immortal dao… Lu Yun had already seen it during the battle of the Sovereign Rankings. The enormous plate inside the arena was the immortal dao’s weapon.

When Fuxi and the others traveled through time, their trip hadn’t been like Lu Yun’s in which he floated along the river of time and dropped down in his era. They’d become part of the world and experienced all of its changes and reformations from the Primeval Era to the Primordial Era.

They’d taken up different roles to witness, and even participate in, the many transformations of heaven and earth. However, the price they’d paid for that was the little fox entering the wheel of reincarnation and becoming a native of the future, Ah Zhi separating into two and almost dying, while God… really did die.

“Human dao is the foundation of immortal dao, so its treasures cannot be destroyed. That’s why God sacrificed his realm of creator and deployed his last trace of power over time and space to rip apart the river of time, so that he could send Vastspace Mountain and Timelight Tower to the immortal dao’s era,” the little fox said softly.

If God hadn’t lost his cultivation realm, the four of them would’ve returned safely to their time and nipped all trouble in the bud during the great wilderness. They could’ve reforged the future to avoid all of the pitfalls they’d observed.

However, God’s death was the clearest indicator of everything—they could not change the future from the past.

“Is my future also set in stone?” murmuring to himself, Lu Yun lifted his head and seemed to peer into the depths of the river of time.

“No, your future isn’t set!” The little fox shook her head firmly. “I didn’t see you in the river of time. In fact, I’ve never seen you anywhere!”

Lu Yun started, then thought of the Tome of Life and Death on him—the ultimate treasure that not even Hongjun could see through.

The Deaf Prince, Jing Dichen, Bai Qi, Beicang Qiong, Lin Yin, and Feng Ruyu were jointly refining Vastspace Mountain. Jing Huaci and Houtu were tackling Timelight Tower together.

As for Shentu and Yulei, they were Houtu’s subordinates. Though they were powerful connate demon gods, they could only be her guards while she existed. They could not be considered on par with her and refine the treasures of human dao together.

“Hmm?” Lu Yun’s eyes widened when he felt one of the tendrils of soul force tugging at him. It disengaged from his hand and slowly melded into Jing Dichen.

“Changxi! Jing Dichen is Changxi!” He gaped at the princess.

He’d spent some of his last days in the great wilderness collecting the soul force of everyone he’d gotten to know, the insignificant energy leakage representing a little spark of hope.

Judging from the behavior of a lot of the tendrils, many of them were unexpectedly still alive! Though they’d died after the system of reincarnation had been established, they’d been reborn into this world through that system and lived life after life to people he possibly knew now. The goddess of the moon had reincarnated into Jing Dichen.