Chapter 1995 - One Year Later

Spring turned to summer, and summer turned to fall. Flowers bloomed, then withered.

A year later.

The autumn air was crisp, and all was clear and still save for the occasional falling leaf.

Su Yi lay in a courtyard, reclining in his wicker chair, his eyes narrowed in contentment as he stared into the dome of heaven.

It was a lovely autumn afternoon. A gentle wind blew past, and the swaying pines and bamboo cast their shifting shadows on the ground.

“Sovereign Venerate, over the past year, every prominent orthodoxy in the Immortal Realm has been paying attention to see when you’ll re-establish the Central Immortal Court. Moreover, many of them had expressed their willingness to take the Academy of Eternal Night as their leader and let us oversee the Central Immortal Court’s affairs.”

Qing Wei sat on a little bench beside Su Yi, keeping his glass full of wine. Her snowy skin shone with eye-catching luster beneath the light of the heavens.

“There’s no rush,” Su Yi replied distractedly before raising and draining his cup.

It had been a year since he’d returned from the Epoch Battlefield. He’d gone straight into seclusion, paying no need to worldly affairs.

His time in seclusion included sixty years in the Spring and Autumn Space—two months in the outside world.

By now, his foundations in the Great Profound Stage were incomparably firm, and he’d progressed rapidly. However, there was still some distance between him and the peak of the realm.

Cultivating bitterly in seclusion was, ultimately, a matter of gradual accumulation. This was especially true in the Great Profound Stage; seclusion alone couldn’t temper one’s cultivation base to perfection.

During his time in seclusion, Su Yi consumed no small number of medicines so precious that even gods would have drooled over them; however, they didn’t have much of an effect.

It wasn’t a problem with the medicine, but that blindly consuming resources to boost your cultivation was counterproductive.

Thus, when Su Yi went into seclusion, he focused most of his attention and efforts on tempering his Laws of the Grand Dao.

Especially the Grand Dao of Reincarnation. He’d already had an obvious breakthrough!

All of this was thanks to his encounter with Demon God Lin in the Spacetime Barrier Marker of the Place Abandoned By Heaven.

It was then that Su Yi received a complete imprint of reincarnation!

Su Yi’s grasp and understanding of reincarnation had rapidly improved his breaking into the Great Profound Stage. Now, he could even use the power of reincarnation to manifest a true Grand Dao Hidden Realm of the Six Paths of Reincarnation!

It was no mere illusion. It was practically real!

But it was not yet complete.

Reincarnation was, of course, at the heart of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, and the Grand Daos that comprised reincarnation—like Oblivion, the Far Shore, and Rebirth— were each taboo in their own right. Each required gradual tempering and exploration.

“Chee chee!”

A series of joyous cries resounded outside the courtyard, followed by the terrified roars and mournful wails of vicious birds and divine beasts. Heaven and earth shook, the forest swayed, and clouds of dust filled the air. The resulting commotion startled everyone in the Academy of Eternal Night.

Su Yi furrowed his brow. “What’s going on here?”

A hint of exasperation appeared on Qing Wei’s beautiful face. “Your Excellency, while you’ve been in seclusion, the Divine Spirit Macaque has been wandering the mountains. It’s been, ah, helping us look after the natural variant beasts you brought back from the Epoch Battlefield. As a result... disturbances like this have become commonplace.”

The Divine Spirit Macaque. That was what everyone in the Academy of Eternal Night called the little monkey.

Everyone, of course, except Su Yi. He just called it “the dirty monkey.”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead, then extended his divine sense and called the little monkey over.

Before long, the three-foot-tall monkey walked into the courtyard, its glittering golden eyes full of wanton, untamed pride. It had a fierce, unbridled attitude, like a little hooligan.

Its soft fur emanated chaos qi.

However, when it saw the man reclining in the wicker chair, the little monkey somersaulted with joy and dashed up to him, scratching its head, jumping about, and chittering with excitement.

Su Yi said with solemnity, “Going forward, if you want to play, find a place without people. You are not to disturb the peace.”

The little monkey stiffened, then obediently nodded its head.

“Did you already finish all of the divine medicines I gave you?” asked Su Yi.

He'd given the monkey a portion of divine medicine before he went into seclusion. There was nothing else for it; as a divine lifeform born of a chaos source, a natural divinity, ordinary immortal medicines could in no way satisfy its appetite.

The little monkey gestured in the air. Its meaning was clear: it had run out of food half a year ago, and it hadn’t found anything good to eat since. It had been hungry this entire time.

Su Yi was instantly exasperated.

He’d come back from the Epoch Battlefield with an abundance of divine medicine. He’d barely used any of it, and he couldn’t bear to waste it.

But the little monkey was different. It saw these precious divine medicines as nothing but food to fill its stomach with!

If things went on like this, no amount of divine medicine would be enough. Not even his superabundance of wealth would be enough to support this “god of gluttony!”

But then, the little monkey’s shocking transformation was readily apparent!

In just a year, it had grown from one foot tall to three feet tall. Its fur was shinier, and its chaos aura was denser.

Now, even those demigod-level variant beasts seemed pitifully weak compared to the monkey, and they quivered at the mere sight of it!

Su Yi tossed the monkey more medicine and said, “Take your time to...”

But the monkey stuffed all of the medicine into its mouth before he could even finish his sentence, like a hippopotamus devouring cabbages.

Su Yi opened his mouth, then closed it and said no more. Inwardly, he concluded that he’d have to take the monkey with him when he left the Immortal Realm.

Without him around to keep it in check, the mischievous little creature would cause untold disasters.

The natural variant beasts he’d brought back could stay behind to serve as guardian beasts.

Suddenly, Ning Xiu rushed over, her face full of unconcealed delight. “Master, Apprentice Brother Lin Feng has completed his preparations. He’ll ignite his Divine Flame and prove his Dao in three days!”

Su Yi smiled. “Wonderful.”

......

A year prior, the Epoch Battlefield shattered, and transformed back into chaos source power, which in turn fused into the natural order of the Immortal Realm.

The Laws of the Immortal Realm then underwent an unprecedented transformation!

It wasn’t just that dense spirit energy had surged forth throughout the world; one long-lost immortal mountain after another had risen out of the ground!

This development took the world by storm, and every prominent faction beneath the heavens was clamoring over the resulting good fortune.

In the eyes of the world’s immortal cultivators, the Immortal Realm had invited an unprecedented golden age! Now, so long as they found the right opportunity, any Great Realm cultivator could prove their Dao and become a god.

Lin Feng was an example of this.

Three days later.

Lin Feng stood in the skies over the Academy of Eternal Night beneath countless eyes. There, he ignited his Divine Flame and welcomed a seldom-seen Divine Tribulation!

Su Yi personally watched over him.

Fortunately, as perilous and terrifying as the tribulation was, and for all its destructive power, it wasn’t

taboo

or

calamitous,

and nothing unexpected happened.

Lin Feng faced severe adversity, took severe injuries, and had a close brush with death, but in the end, he overcame his tribulation and became a god!

Auspicious clouds surged forth, and flowers rained from the sky. All manner of strange, unparalleled phenomena were reflected overhead. As Lin Feng walked through it all, he cut a grand and holy figure.

This scene shook everyone in the Academy of Eternal Night to the core.

In the end, Lin Feng thoroughly refined the Sky-Covering Boat, transforming it into his Natal Epoch Treasure.

That’s right. He’d achieved divinity through contemplating and condensing the Epoch Law contained within the Sky-Covering Boat.

It was comparable to a supreme Epoch Fragment!

This was what made the Nine Mysteries of Chaos so mighty, and this was why the Angler and the Dipankara Buddha were both dead set on acquiring the Book of Karma.

Lin Feng’s breakthrough pleased Su Yi.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

After returning from the Epoch Battlefield and taking inventory of his spoils, Su Yi had collected nineteen Epoch Fragments in total.

They included two supreme Epoch Fragments, and five first-level Epoch Fragments!

But Su Yi had the Grand Daos of Reincarnation and Profound Ruin, so the chances at divinity these fragments represented were naturally of little interest to him.

Thus, he left the Epoch Fragments to the Academy of Eternal Night.

It was also then that Su Yi finally understood why Li Fuyou had left four Mysteries of Chaos to his disciples when he left the Immortal Realm.

It was simple, really: Li Fuyou had no use for them, and he wanted to pave his disciples’ paths to divinity!

Now, Su Yi was doing much the same thing.

He could picture it already. In the days ahead, the Academy of Eternal Night would give rise to numerous new deities. When the time came, no one in the forty-nine provinces of the Immortal Realm would be able to shake the Academy of Eternal Night’s position!

“Please allow me to express my gratitude, Master!” Lin Feng approached from afar, bowed three times, and kowtowed nine times, utterly pious and utterly solemn.

Becoming a god meant leaping out of the cage of the Immortal Dao to arrive in the lofty Divine Dao. It was a level far beyond the Great Realm.

But even though Su Yi had yet to become a god himself, Lin Feng performed the solemn rite befitting a disciple!

“From this day forth, you shall protect the Academy of Eternal Night,” said Su Yi. “You are not to leave the Immortal Realm for the next one hundred years. Can you do that?”

“I shall assiduously carry out your orders, Master!” Lin Feng said solemnly.

“Furthermore,” said Su Yi, “Once we’ve re-established the Central Immortal Court, you are to oversee it.”

“Yes, Master!” Lin Feng agreed without hesitation.

Su Yi smiled and inclined his head. “Quick, get up.”

That very day, word that Lin Feng had proven his Dao and achieved divinity spread, astonishing the whole world.

With the obvious exception of those who’d entered divinity in the Epoch Battlefield, Lin Feng was the first and only person to achieve godhood in the Immortal Realm since the Primeval Era!

That very night, Su Yi called his friends and disciples to his side.

After several rounds of drinks, Su Yi announced his decision.

“In a few days, I’ll set off and proceed to the River of Epochs. I don’t know when I’ll return. I’ll have to trouble you to look after things in my absence.”

The lively atmosphere instantly died down. Everyone was a bit flustered.

Everyone had long since anticipated that Su Yi would leave for the God Domain. They just hadn’t expected this day to come so soon!

For a moment, the crowd’s emotions churned. Each had their own concerns.

“I’m simply going to a place beyond the Immortal Realm. It’s not like it’s goodbye forever. What’s there to be so upset about?” Su Yi laughed and raised his cup of wine. “Come on, drink up.”

The crowd raised their cups and drank, but their mood had changed.

After a long, hesitant pause, Lin Feng suddenly asked, “Master, have you... recovered the memories of your past life?”