Supreme Swordsman of the Nine Heavens

Reunion with the Past

“The first domain I need to experiment will have to be Dad’s Dead Zone Formation domain.” Mu Yu took out a jade piece that Ku Mu stored his domain in owing to him not being able to leave Pill Cauldron Sect. Reverend Nilei, Daoist Chu Buqu, Mu Yu and Nameless Swordsman had one each of the six jade pieces created.

“Need to call Dad for his help?” Xiaoshuai asked.

“What do I need to help with?” Ku Mu showed up inside Revealing Cauldron.

“Mu Yu is searching for suicide ideas again!”

Mu Yu shut Xiaoshuai up with a disapproving glare.

“What are you up to this time?” Ku Mu questioned.

“I… suddenly feel the urge to control your domain…”

“What?”

Eyes shut to dive deep, Tian Ran eventually opened her eyes, still unable to grasp a rule for herself. From the stone stool in the pavilion, she gazed out to the cave halfway up the mountain and asked, “A-Dai, what’s inside the cave?”

A-Dai gently released a butterfly he caught in the colourful garden. “Mm… Master said it leads to the past. I remember it was different the last time I was here.”

“Ah, it must be what Mu Yu referred to when he travelled to the past on Fiend Island.” Tian Ran performed a long exhale. “How do I invent my own domain?”

“Don’t you resonate with World Manifestation Samsara Cycle Mountain?”

“No. I have a feeling that there’s something inside the cave, but I couldn’t get in before.”

A-Dai went to push open the cave without any issues. Stepping inside, nevertheless, was impossible due to the Contiguous Horizon Formation active. “I don’t know. I thought you’d be able to figure it out once you were here since your qi is linked…” Eyes wandering, A-Dai scrubbed his head. “Did A-Mumu damage the mountain?”

“Dao artefacts don’t break.” Tian Ran went over to run her hand along the cave wall. “Eh?” Tian Ran crouched down to inspect an eight trigrams diagram by the right side of the entrance. “Maybe I should consult Mu Yu for this.”

Upon touching the yin yang symbol, qi transferred over to Tian Ran’s finger from the diagram. The entrance lit up, and a striking man with an amiable upward tug of his lips meandered out. While she was unable to tell if he was an illusion or real, A-Dai cheered, “It’s Master!”

Feng Haochen stated, “Don’t think too much. I live in the past.”

“H-hello, I-I am T-”

“I know you’re my daughter from your qi. You don’t need to tell me your name as I want to let my future self enjoy the surprise.” Feng Haochen stroked a bitter Tian Ran’s head and then took a seat in the pavilion. “You don’t need to tell me too much about the future. What did you come to see me for?”

Tian Ran followed Feng Haochen into the pavilion but did not know where to start, giving A-Dai a chance to speak. “She wants to invent her domain, but she’s been stuck. Because it’s absolute chaos out there n-”

“A-Dai, don’t divulge too much of the future to me. Why don’t you go play on the water slide?” With a wave of his hand, Feng Haochen turned the waterfall starting at the beak into a winding stone slippery slide, redirecting the waterfall down the path.

“Oh, yes! A-Dai’s favourite!” A-Dai bolted up to the peak.

“Sorry, I did not mean to disturb you…” Tian Ran’s hands and feet were as disconcerted as her thinking.

“The future sure is bizarre. I’ve never wanted to interfere with the future, yet I’ve met people from the past on more than one occasion now. It makes me wonder if I did the right thing or not.”

“I shall leave now.”

“You don’t need to be apologetic. I’ll help you; what father wouldn’t help his daughter?”

“Really?”

“Yes, but I must stress that you can’t share too much about the future. There’s nothing to look forward to if there are no surprises, haha.”

“But the future you w-”

“Even if I die, I don’t want to know about. Is there anything stopping immortals from dying? If you understand the concept of time, you won’t tell me about the future.”

To respect her father’s wishes, Tian Ran wore on a reluctant smile. “Understood.”

***

Bai Jie, gently tapping the arm rest of the throne in the majestic palace at Sword Shadow City, asked one of the fifty-seven Apotheosis Realm adepts present, “Mu Yu and his friends found a way back?”

“Yes, Commander. Mu Yu killed my three brothers,” Shi Xiuluo reported, hands shaking with fury.

“Four against two, yet you lose three people. You’re an embarrassment,” insulted Gu Yinsheng, a bone race member.

Though one might have assumed them to be skeletons from their name, the bone race was not just walking bones as they had muscles – only that their muscles made from bone collections.

“What was that?!” thundered Shi Xiuluo.

“I said you’re useless.”

Right when Shi Xiuluo powered up to lash out, Bai Jie snorted, evoking fear that stunted Shi Xiuluo’s power and compelled him to lower his head.

“We came here to hunt, not to kill each other,” Bai Jie stressed.

“Yes, Commander.”

Gu Yinsheng continued condescendingly, “What can one measly human possibly do.”

“Sword Shadow Dust Gale’s disciple. Does that change your mind?” Bai Jie rhetorically asked.

Although he juddered, Gu Yinsheng fronted, “Sword Shadow Dust Gale may be strong, but he is no threat now that Divine Executioner has him. If his disciples were as strong, we would not be here. In my opinion, we should just raze Pill Cauldron Sect and Formation Sect to the ground.”

“Divine Executioner fears Sword Shadow Dust Gale, yet you think he would be unprepared? Keep underestimating Mu Yu, and you won’t even realise you’re dead,” Bai Jie fired back. Although Gu Yinsheng did not want to yield, he refrained from challenging Bai Jie’s authority. Bai Jie then queried, “He coated his celestial sword in black and whites qis, did you say?”

“Yes…” Shi Xiuluo recounted his experience against Mu Yu.

“By the sounds of it, he utilised Ju Mang’s Life and Death in the Blink of an Eye. Knowing Mu Yu, I have a hunch he has more than one domain up his sleeve.”