No sooner had Wang Lin departed than a storm of arcane energy rippled across the True Word Star’s Ten Thousand Mountains. Crackling lightning danced between the peaks, while the roars of the tens of thousands of cultivators, subjugated and imprisoned, grew ever fainter, as if sealed away, their voices fading into silence.

The diagrams of power scattered throughout the Ten Thousand Mountains emitted an eerie glow, subtly radiating the very might of Heaven and Earth.

After a long while, above the Ten Thousand Mountains, the void itself twisted and warped, and from within stepped a figure. A man, middle-aged, clad in simple azure robes. The instant he emerged, the man’s pupils constricted, his gaze not falling upon the mountains below, but soaring to the skies above.

“Here, just moments ago… …, …, the Empty Gate! It is! I cannot mistake the aura of the Empty Gate.” The middle-aged man’s expression darkened, his eyes fixed upon the heavens, as if searching for something unseen.

“The Empty Gate should not be broken, else my true self would surely know… But a cultivator who could draw forth the Empty Gate… …, …interesting. No wonder the Elders Council was so generous as to offer a Rank Six Spirit of the Dao as bait!” This man was none other than a fragment of Si Mo Zi’s soul.

He had not rushed, but come at his leisure, unconcerned with the task of capturing the rogue. But now, this event had shaken his very core, filling him with a grave awareness.

Tearing his gaze from the heavens, Si Mo Zi glanced down upon the land, the Ten Thousand Mountains. With that single look, his pupils shrunk once more, and he inhaled sharply, staring intently at the diagrams of power etched across the peaks. His expression grew even more serious.

“He is a cultivator of Lightning! He achieved the Third Step through Lightning?! For… …, …from time immemorial, Lightning cultivators have found the Third Step the most difficult. Lightning is the power of Heaven and Earth, controlled by the Heavenly Dao. Even the Lightning Flash Clan, in all their long history, have seen but one ascend, and he stopped at merely the Initial Void Nirvana Stage. Yet this one, when enraged, could summon the very lightning of the heavens, enough to give even a mid-Void Nirvana cultivator pause.”

“No wonder he annihilated the Lightning Flash Clan; his goal must have been the Imperishable Thunder. By devouring it, he empowered his lightning cultivation enough to summon the Empty Gate.” Si Mo Zi’s face was grim, as if he had pieced together the whole.

“Even more terrifying is that, having failed to breach the Empty Gate, he was still able to fuse his Lightning power with the mountains below, forming Thunder Mountains to suppress tens of thousands of cultivators… …, …such a feat. To devise such a method! He is no ordinary being! He must have planned this long ago, that he could execute it with such ease!”

Si Mo Zi inhaled deeply, an odd light gleaming in his eyes. He was growing fascinated with Wang Lin.

“To hunt an Ancient God was exhilarating, but to hunt a cultivator such as this! Good, good, good!” Si Mo Zi laughed, not bothering to release the thousands of cultivators imprisoned below, and turned to depart.

But as he turned, Si Mo Zi shuddered, abruptly turning back to scrutinize the space where the Empty Gate had materialized.

“No… …, …” For the first time, shock and disbelief crossed his face, mingled with confusion and astonishment.

“There is no… …, no scent of the incense of disciples?!” Si Mo Zi stood frozen, before waving his right hand, summoning a tempest that swept across Heaven and Earth, forming a vast tableau. The images revealed Wang Lin’s three attempts to breach the Empty Gate, and his triumphant subjugation of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Staring at the spectacle, Si Mo Zi’s face grew ashen.

“He… …, …He did not use any power of incense. There is not even a hint of it upon him… He defied the need for incense, relying solely on his perfected Origin to summon the Empty Gate!!! Such a thing… …, …has never been heard of! And he even cracked the Empty Gate open a sliver!!”

“How can this be?! No one can perfect their Origin without the aid of incense! No one can conjure the Empty Gate without calling upon the faith of disciples!” The horror in Si Mo Zi’s eyes faded, replaced by a profound depth. He lunged forward, moving with several times the speed he had arrived, following the trail of Wang Lin, consumed with the need to pursue.

At the very same instant, when Wang Lin’s Lightning Origin reached its zenith and the Door of the Void opened, within the Blue Silk Clan of the Ancient Star System, on Blue Mountain, Blue Dream Daoist’s fingers faltered upon his ancient zither. He looked up, and with a flick of his sleeve, strode from his chamber.

Li Qianmei sat cross-legged nearby. She looked at her father, her expression serene. She did not speak, but in her eyes, the mists of confusion seemed to have parted, revealing a clarity. It was as if she had remembered much, and more was to come. She rose, and followed him outside.

As Blue Dream Daoist stepped from his chamber, he raised his right hand to the sky, performing a series of incantations. The entire sky was flooded with blue light. As the light intensified, it coalesced into a series of images:

The very scene of Wang Lin’s three breaches of the Empty Gate!

Blue Dream Daoist stared, unblinking, at the images, scrutinizing every detail, his expression growing ever more grave. At last, a look of astonishment crossed his features.

Such an expression had not been seen upon Blue Dream Daoist’s face in millennia!

“I… …, …I underestimated him… I, for the first time, have looked… …, …” After a long silence, Blue Dream Daoist whispered, disbelief lingering in his eyes.

“You will continue to be wrong. No one can truly see his future. Even you, one of the Five Supreme of the Ancient, cannot.” Li Qianmei gazed at the man in the images above, defying Heaven and Earth to break through the Empty Gate, a smile gracing her lips.

“Are you… blaming your father?” Blue Dream Daoist turned to his daughter, a complex emotion in his eyes.

Li Qianmei shook her head. “My memories are not yet fully restored, only fragments have returned. And that is good. If I had truly forgotten him, then we would have passed like ships in the night. But now that I remember something, I cannot let go… When my memories are fully restored, I will seek him out.”
In the ancient starfield, a hidden island rested upon a shimmering lake, within the ethereal domain of the Vanishing Clan. There, a woman cloaked in shadows, belonging to that ethereal clan, sat in deep meditation. But the moment Wang Lin’s presence stirred the void, a ripple of arcane energy pulsed through the island.

The verdant flora, once vibrant, withered and crumbled into dust. The tranquil lake churned into a furious maelstrom, a colossal vortex engulfing the island in its roaring embrace. The woman’s eyes snapped open, revealing a gaze filled with wonder and dread.

“The First Sign: Ruined Bloom and Decayed Thicket… The Second Sign: Lake Turned Tempest…” she began, her voice a hushed whisper. “…The Third Sign: Heaven’s Wrath Descending… The Fourth Sign: A Sea of Fire Consuming… The Fifth Sign: The Island Adrift… The Sixth Sign: The Ancestral Bones Shattered…”

But as the words left her lips, the heavens trembled. A bolt of pure celestial fury, a lightning strike of unimaginable power, crashed down upon the lake just beyond the island’s edge. The thunderclap shook the very foundations of reality, and the woman’s face contorted in alarm.

“Of the Nine Prophecies handed down by our forebears, three are now unfolding before my very eyes!” she exclaimed, her voice a mixture of awe and terror.

[…]

Far across the ancient starfield, in a chaotic region teeming with thousands of lesser worlds, lay the place known as the Shattered Lands. A haven for outcasts, rebels, and those fleeing the wrath of powerful clans, it was a lawless expanse composed of three hundred and seventy-two warring factions.

The anarchy of the Shattered Lands drew a steady stream of refugees from across the ancient starfield. Exiles from noble houses, deserters from mighty armies, and those who dared to defy the Long Venerate Council all sought sanctuary within its borders.

Despite the Long Venerate Council’s disapproval of such a haven, and the hostility of numerous clans who sought to punish their former members, few dared to challenge the Shattered Lands directly. Two millennia past, a great clan attempted to retrieve a disgraced noble who had fled there. They invaded with a thousand warriors, but as soon as they crossed the border, a gale of ethereal energy materialized from nothing and annihilated them all, dissolving their bodies and extinguishing their souls.

More recently, it was whispered that the Nine Heavens Demon Lord, one of the Five Great Sovereigns of the ancient starfield, attempted to infiltrate the Shattered Lands in secret. But he was driven back, wounded and humiliated, and swore never to set foot there again.

And a thousand years ago, the Long Venerate Council itself sought the capture of a thief who had stolen a precious artifact. The thief fled into the Shattered Lands, and even the Council, with all its power, hesitated to pursue. After lengthy negotiations, they settled on a century-long truce and retreated.

These tales and many others had shrouded the Shattered Lands in a veil of mystery, obscuring its true nature. Yet, despite the dangers, countless individuals continued to seek refuge within its chaotic embrace, drawn by the promise of sanctuary from their pursuers.

The Shattered Lands had become a bustling hub of trade, a place where forbidden knowledge and potent artifacts could be bought and sold without fear of the Long Venerate Council.

Within the Shattered Lands, on a barren world devoid of spiritual energy, Wang Lin sat in meditation within a secluded cave. He had carved out this refuge in the side of a desolate mountain, claiming it as his own.

The decision to seek sanctuary in the Shattered Lands had been made long ago, after Wang Lin had absorbed the memories of countless individuals from the ancient starfield. He knew of the region’s reputation, its dangers, and its peculiar immunity to the Long Venerate Council’s authority.

Now, with the Mark of the Ancient Star upon him and the Long Venerate Council hunting him across the starfield, the Shattered Lands offered the best chance of survival. Within its borders, the Mark held no power, and the Council’s influence was nonexistent.

Even if it proved to be a temporary reprieve, the situation was no different from any other corner of the ancient starfield. Capture and death could come at any moment, with even the powerful Third Step cultivators joining the hunt.

The Shattered Lands cared nothing for reputation or heritage, only for valuable goods. Rare elixirs, powerful artifacts, and even ancient crystals were traded freely. Upon his arrival, Wang Lin had exchanged a few potent pills for a century’s worth of residency in this desolate mountain cave.

For days, Wang Lin had been meditating, replenishing his depleted spiritual energy and consuming elixirs to heal his wounds. His physical injuries, thanks to his Ancient God heritage, were already beginning to mend.

On this particular day, as he sat with his eyes closed, a subtle shift in the air caught his attention. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The cave entrance was creaking ajar, and a figure was rushing towards him with obvious haste.