Wang Lin’s spirit trembled. As he listened to the other’s words, a rare admiration bloomed within him. This man’s talent surpassed all other cultivators Wang Lin had encountered in his life!

Compared to this being, Red Butterfly, Li Qianmei, even Situ Nan paled. They lacked not only his innate gifts, but more importantly, his unwavering resolve to shatter illusions and seek truth.

“I broke through the cage,” the bald youth recounted, “and for the first time, I saw the world beyond the sky… a star-strewn expanse, beautiful beyond words… My suspicions were confirmed, and I saw others like me, cultivators, but their strength was paltry. The weakest barely reached the Transformation God stage…”

His voice hardened. “Yet, even this cultivator in the Transformation God stage could become the embodiment of Heaven, proclaiming himself an immortal, descending with heavenly tribulation to slaughter my people! Rage consumed me, and in my fury, I began to kill. With each life I took, I learned more of the truth!”

He threw back his head and roared with laughter, tears streaming down his face. “The truth!”

“The truth is that the land where we dwell, these seven million worlds, are but a vast enclosure created by the Lightning Flash Clan. We are cattle, driven by the Lightning Flash Clan with whips of heavenly power. When we reach the Transformation God stage, they unleash the tribulation, harvesting our spiritual thunder!”

Bitterness laced his tone. “And the countless tales of glorious ascension passed down by our forebears, the immortals of the seven million worlds, are all lies! All lies! They are dead, annihilated the moment they ‘ascended!'”

“This is the Immortal Realm! This is what it means to be an immortal!”

His words were a torrent of pain and madness, thick with a suffocating resentment. Wang Lin remained silent, his mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions.

“The ‘Heavenly Dao,’ the ‘Heavenly Tribulation,’ these are merely tasks assigned to the Lightning Flash Clan, tasks any of them can undertake! Fool that I was, I refused to believe it. Even as I slaughtered those Lightning Flash dogs, I hesitated to kill too many…”

He shuddered. “I was afraid, I was terrified, I learned that the cultivator who spared me during my tribulation years ago had become a Grand Elder of the Lightning Flash Clan… I feared they would discover my knowledge, I feared the Immortal Realm that had weighed upon us for countless years, across the seven million worlds…”

“I dared not rebel…” Tears flowed freely as he relived the agony of his past.

“I even tried to convince myself it wasn’t real, that my world wasn’t a prison. I tried to escape the truth. I fled, traversing the starry expanse, weaving through the seven million worlds, just as I do now…” He moved, each step a burden, crossing the boundaries of worlds.

“Until one day… I arrived here…” The bald youth halted, his gaze fixed on Wang Lin. He raised a hand and pointed ahead.

He had crossed through the entirety of the seven million worlds in this short span of time. His outstretched hand indicated a region still part of the star-strewn sky, but shrouded in a dense fog, rendering it indistinct. It was utterly silent, devoid of any sign of life.

The youth advanced, but stopped before the mist. He placed his hand upon it, pressing gently. The fog churned violently, swirling and receding to reveal a blinding light erupting from the stars beyond.

Ripples spread, and behind the light, a colossal barrier began to materialize. It was a wall, impossibly tall, stretching into infinity, dwarfing any cultivator to the size of dust.

“I fled here, to the very edge of the seven million worlds, to the end of all things…” the youth whispered, “Here, my illusions shattered. I could no longer deny the reality, the truth of it all!”

“I stopped running. I chose to confront, to fight back! I returned to the seven million worlds and formed the Scattered Spirit Sect. Each of my incarnations became a Scattered Spirit Ascendant, spreading my doctrine, controlling the vast majority of cultivators within these worlds!”

His voice rose. “I disseminated the quickest method to achieve the Transformation God stage, and I began to cultivate like a madman! Incarnation upon incarnation! And now, after tens of thousands of years, my cultivation has reached what you immortals call the Fourth Heavenly Tribulation!” He turned to Wang Lin, his eyes burning with a fierce light.

“I will slay immortals! I will overthrow the Lightning Flash Clan! I will lead my people out of this prison!” Desperation crept into his tone. “But even after cultivating for all these millennia, the power I have accumulated is not enough to overcome the Grand Elder, who faces the Fifth Heavenly Tribulation…”

“I risked everything, every cultivator I had trained. Together, we attacked, and even with the Life Formation I spent millennia preparing, we could only wound him! Not kill him! And there are other Elders of the Lightning Flash Clan…”

“And my cultivation has reached its limit, I cannot survive the Fifth Heavenly Tribulation! I need your help!” His gaze, imploring, locked onto Wang Lin.

“You are different from the Lightning Flash Clan. You are the first to give me hope. With your power, you can help me. I can sense it.” He paused. “You harbor no love for the Lightning Flash Clan. We can both benefit from working together!” Wang Lin remained silent.

“I followed you and saw you collecting spiritual thunder. I possess such thunder! If you agree to join me, I will give you all of it!” The youth’s voice was taut with anxiety.

Wang Lin still didn’t speak, only stared up at the shimmering barrier at the world’s end, lost in thought.

“Furthermore, there are countless members of my clan scattered throughout the seven million worlds. If we succeed, if my people escape this prison, then should you ever require anything of me, I will fulfill your request, even if I am gone, my clan will continue my promise, obeying you for generations!”

He leaned forward, urgency etched on his face. “I learned from the memories of those Lightning Flash scum that in your world, there are Inner and Outer Realms. If you need it, my entire clan will help you fight against the Inner Realm!”

“What are the odds of success?” Wang Lin finally asked, his voice low.

The youth’s eyes glinted with determination. “If you join me, I give us a seventy percent chance of success!” he declared after a moment’s hesitation, his voice ringing with conviction.
“Seven-tenths…” Wang Lin murmured, drawing his gaze from the shimmering barrier at the edge of this realm. A curious light flickered in his eyes as he slowly, deliberately, nodded. The bald youth, his face alight with hope, gave Wang Lin a profound look and then burst into triumphant laughter.

“Juan, I shall slaughter every single Spark-Lightning Clan warrior here! This carnage will surely draw the attention of the Clan, and their Grand Elder will be compelled to come!”

Wang Lin’s voice, though calm, held the weight of mountains. “Nay, such a massacre, though effective, risks drawing not just the Grand Elder, but a host of others. A council of elders, perhaps? A complication we can ill afford.”

He turned his gaze upon the bald youth, his expression unwavering. “If you possess a means to grant me passage, I can draw the Grand Elder out alone! With his demise, our grand design is all but complete.”

The bald youth fell into contemplative silence, then slowly, resolutely, nodded. “I shall sacrifice two-tenths of my essence, distilled across my myriad scattered forms, to forge a spirit-rune. With this rune, and my incantations from within, I can rend a temporary portal for you to enter from the outside. It will hold for but three breaths. An exit it shall not provide, but entrance, it will.” He spoke with fierce determination, then abruptly closed his eyes.

In that instant, across these seven million worlds, tens of thousands of cultivators, deep in meditation, shuddered violently as their physical bodies dissolved into swirling blood and vapor. All that they were, all that they contained, vanished into the ethereal void.

The transformation was instantaneous. The bald youth’s face paled, yet he raised his right hand, weaving arcane gestures. From the nothingness, the power of those sacrificed forms coalesced, drawn together by unnatural forces. Moments later, a crimson spirit-rune materialized in his hand. He presented it to Wang Lin.

Wang Lin accepted the rune, scrutinizing it with a knowing eye. He bowed deeply to the youth. Then, with a single stride, he vanished, swallowed by the shadows.

“Await my word!” Wang Lin’s voice echoed, fading into the void.

The bald youth stared after him, his face etched with worry. “I can only trust him… I *must* trust him…” he whispered to himself.

Streaking across the star-strewn void, Wang Lin’s thoughts raced. He trusted the bald youth’s words sparingly. It was his nature to doubt, to seek verification. Hence, he had demanded the rune. He knew, from the depths of his own power, that breaching such a sealed realm demanded vast energies. The swiftness with which the youth had decided, the willingness to make such a sacrifice for the rune, spoke of a genuine commitment.

He had agreed to this undertaking not only for the promise of slaying the Spark-Lightning Clan’s Grand Elder. More than that, he felt a strange compulsion to aid these prisoners. A feeling stirred within him. He wanted to shatter these chains, to liberate these souls, to prove something, he knew not what, to himself.

His pace was relentless as he navigated the cosmic ocean, driving toward the central plaza. Soon, it loomed before him, a nexus of light and power at the edge of his vision. With a single, impossible step, he traversed the immeasurable distance and landed upon the plaza’s surface.

Ignoring the stares of the surrounding figures, startled by his sudden arrival, Wang Lin blurred into motion, vanishing once more. He reappeared before a towering edifice, the gateway leading back to the Spark-Lightning Clan’s dominion from this seven-million-world prison.

Beside the great hall stood a colossal array, currently humming with power. Within, dozens of figures stood ready for transportation. Even as the array prepared to activate, several Spark-Lightning Clan members worked diligently to maintain its function.

Wang Lin materialized, stepping directly into the transport array without hesitation.

“Halt! The array is in operation! You must wait for the next cycle!” One of the Spark-Lightning Clan warriors, tasked with controlling the array, barked out the command.

But his words were swallowed by the deafening roar as Wang Lin reached out, and with a force that shook the very stars, *tore a gaping rift into the heart of the operating array!* Wang Lin stepped through the opening, his presence resonating with untamed power.

The Spark-Lightning Clan warriors guarding the array recoiled, their faces contorted with horror. Even the figures within the array, poised for transportation, gasped in astonishment and disbelief.