Chapter 1611 - I’m Back

Chen Fan had finally set out on his return to the Featherlight Sect.

By all rights, he should have gone back two years ago, right after leaving the Immortal Conferral Ancient Realm. Fate had other plans.

The Xuan Clan had calculated his whereabouts and laid a deadly trap. An Immortal King personally took action. At the time, Chen Fan had only just stepped into the Immortal Platform realm.

That encounter was nothing short of terrifying.

If it weren’t for his master, the Heavenly Punishment Elder, detonating his immortal will and earning him a chance at survival, Chen Fan would have lost his life right there.

Badly injured, he had escaped into the Illusory Domain and fainted. Had Gongsun Jing not happened to pass through and pull him out, his injuries alone would have doomed him there.

Afterward, he followed Gongsun Jing back to Guangyuan City to heal his injuries. In return, he helped the Rolling Thunder Mountain Manor resolve its conflict with the Deng Clan, then went to the Chaotic Demon Sea. There, he came across the emergence of a demon and narrowly escaped death yet again.

Over the past two years, danger had followed him relentlessly. Each step felt like walking on the edge of a blade. Somehow, he had always survived.

Now, he had finally settled everything and could embark on his journey back to the sect.

Along the way, he broadened his horizons immensely.

Compared to the Tianwu Continent, the Heavenly Realm was a truly prosperous world.

Although it had already been decades since he arrived in the Heavenly Realm, his life had revolved around cultivation within the sect, followed by ten years sealed inside the Immortal Conferral Ancient Realm. He had barely seen the world beyond.

The Heavenly Realm had thirty-three heavenly domains, and each territory was larger than the Tianwu Continent. Even a small city had a population of over ten million, while towns with a million residents were commonplace. Some major cities held populations exceeding a hundred million.

When the Hidden Star Immortal Emperor had escorted them to the Immortal Conferral Ancient Realm, they could make use of the super teleportation arrays due to their statuses, crossing billions of kilometers in a flash. There had been no time to observe the scenery.

Now, Chen Fan relied solely on himself. Emperor-level factions and holy lands monopolized the super teleportation arrays. Ordinary cultivators had no access to them.

Ordinary teleportation arrays, on the other hand, could only transport people between nearby cities, covering roughly five hundred thousand kilometers at a time.

Along the way, Chen Fan passed through cities of various styles and crossed different heavenly domains. He witnessed diverse local customs and encountered dangers.

He didn’t rush his journey.

A journey was itself a form of cultivation.

Travel refined the heart, teaching calm in both honor and disgrace. For a cultivator to advance, talent and resources were not enough. One’s state of mind mattered just as much.

Chen Fan had heard of cultivators with mediocre talent who reached extraordinary heights purely through their mindset. He did not consider his own mental state flawless. This journey, therefore, was the perfect opportunity to temper it.

For years, he had lived under constant tension. On the journey back to the sect, stopping and moving at leisure, that pressure gradually dissolved. The unbreakable cultivation barrier also began to loosen.

Chen Fan didn’t pay attention to any of these, however. He fully immersed himself in this journey of cultivation.

Body refined. Mind tempered.

He saw strange lands, met all kinds of people, and experienced countless small moments that broadened his outlook. His thoughts grew more open, his heart more expansive.

Now that the Xuan Clan couldn’t track him down, as long as he kept a low profile and avoided provoking Immortal Kings and Immortal Emperors, he faced little danger. After all, such figures wouldn’t lower themselves to deal with an Immortal Platform realm martial artist.

The Heavenly Realm was too vast.

Time quietly went by as Chen Fan journeyed his way back to the sect. A year passed, and he had only covered a third of the distance.

There was no helping it. Even at full speed, traversing the Heavenly Realm would take decades. Without teleportation arrays, he might still be wandering within a single nation.

Another two years passed.

On this day, at the edge of the Imperial Supremacy Heavenly Domain, Chen Fan sped through the mountains.

Three years.

He had finally returned from the Matrka Heavenly Domain’s Chaotic Demon Sea Region back to the Imperial Supremacy Heavenly Domain.

During these three years, he had set aside progress in his cultivation level and fully immersed himself in tempering his mind through the journey. He had also expended a vast amount of immortal stones to deduce and complete the Seven Stars Fist Art, a high-grade immortal art.

Since acquiring it, circumstances had repeatedly interrupted his deductions. This long journey, however, gave him both time and resources. He refined the art step by step as he traveled.

More than that, through studying its principles, he absorbed its strengths and corrected his shortcomings. Inspiration struck repeatedly, allowing him to refine his Royal Path Divine Fist further.

“I’ve finally returned,” Chen Fan murmured. “Senior brothers, senior sisters... I’m back.”

As he entered the Imperial Supremacy Heavenly Domain, a faint ripple stirred in his heart. The closer he came to home, the more restrained his emotions became.

Without hesitation, Chen Fan sped forward in the Featherlight Sect’s direction. Several days later, a green-robed figure appeared outside its mountain range.

“I’m here!”

Even though he had seen it before, the sight still moved him.

Towering mountains stretched endlessly. White clouds drifted lazily. Immortal cranes soared through the sky. Ancient pines stood firm, waterfalls cascaded like silver ribbons, and cultivators moved faintly among the peaks, exuding an aura of transcendence.

Since I left the sect, fifteen years have passed

... Chen Fan remarked inwardly.

That was how long it had been since he left. For mortals, fifteen years was a lifetime. For cultivators, it passed in the blink of an eye.

His heart swelling with emotions, Chen Fan charged straight into the Featherlight Sect.

At the Immortal Tread Institution, where outer disciples gathered, Chen Fan descended. His immortal will swept outward, yet he sensed none of his familiar auras.

His powerful immortal will swept out like a storm, but he didn’t find any traces of his senior brothers and sisters’ auras.

“

Hmm

?” Chen Fan raised his eyebrow. After inquiring around, he learned that his senior brothers and sisters had all overcome their immortal ascension tribulation and entered the inner sect.

“Senior Brothers and Sisters have all become immortals.” Chen Fan was a little surprised to learn of this news.

Huang Wuji, Di Chen, and Duanmu Lingxing advancing was expected. What he hadn’t anticipated was that Yan Weiyi, Jian Qi, and the others had also stepped into the immortal realm.

Afterward, Chen Fan went to the inner sect disciples' gathering area and finally found them.

“Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, I’m back!”