The sound of cracking echoed in Wang Lin’s ears, his skull spiderwebbing with fissures. His chest, beneath the rent flesh, revealed bone splintered into a myriad fragments.

In this desperate moment of life and death, Wang Lin closed his eyes. With his eyelids sealed, the world and all its torments became illusion. All pain dissolved into nothingness. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his hands, his blind gaze fixed upon the false sky and earth. With a single gesture, the heavens dulled and the land withered. The ethereal figures of the ancient Three Clans vanished, dissolving into illusory breaths. Some rose to the heavens, others sank into the earth.

“The Art of Dreams, intertwined with the Return to Antiquity… this dream, then, is *my* dream,” he breathed. “The aura of the Dao Ancient, the power of the ancient Three Clans, woven into the power of dreams! It shall birth Wang Lin’s own sorcery… An Eternal Dream! I close my eyes, all is false! I open them, and you enter *my* dream!” With a roar, Wang Lin’s eyes snapped open!

He had studied the Dream Return to Antiquity technique contained within the azure shield. Though potent, it was limited. This so-called return to the past was merely the shield’s late master’s attempt to capture everything he had seen, and to trap his enemies in this distorted dream world.

But the shield’s master was dead. His dream, too, was dead – unable to change. Wang Lin’s self-created Art of Dreams had been inspired by this Return to Antiquity. Now, fused together, he had usurped the shield’s master, becoming the architect of this dream. As the master, his thoughts could warp its very essence! As his eyes opened, he seized control of this Return to Antiquity! When his eyes opened, the illusory sky and earth trembled. The sky *became* Wang Lin’s eye, and the earth *became* his other eye! In that instant, the entire world was his ocular sphere! The Son of Yemo blanched, whirling around, shock stealing his sanity.

He saw it: a colossal pupil looming in the heavens, radiating a cold and deadly light. The sky served as the upper lid, the earth as the lower. Together, they formed a gigantic, all-seeing eye. Yet, this was not the most terrifying revelation. His spirit sensed something far grander! As his spirit drifted beyond the dream, he saw a face of impossible scale. His physical body, his battle with Wang Lin – all were contained within the *left eye* of this behemoth!

It was not merely a face, but a body of boundless immensity, clad in white robes, hair like a silver cascade flowing. It was Wang Lin! The Son of Yemo’s mind reeled. He stood frozen, his senses struggling to comprehend the truth. He hesitated. In that split-second of bewilderment, the vast white-robed Wang Lin’s left eye gleamed with cold light, then slowly closed. As it sealed shut, the world within that eye dimmed. A power that could annihilate all existence erupted as Wang Lin’s eye closed.

“This is impossible!” the Son of Yemo shrieked, turning to face the Wang Lin he had been tearing apart. But there was nothing there.

Wang Lin had vanished. Not only Wang Lin, but every living thing in this fading world, save for himself. An inexplicable terror gripped the Son of Yemo’s heart.

“What kind of sorcery is this!?” The Son of Yemo’s face was ashen, his eyes wide with fear. He scrambled backward, but he could not outpace the collapsing world. As the colossal Wang Lin’s left eye closed, the heavens and earth crashed together.

“I refuse to believe it! This is all an illusion!” The Son of Yemo threw back his head and hurled himself at the descending sky, fists hammering, but his blows could not stem the sky’s implacable descent.

Moments later, the world had shrunk to a mere thousand feet, and the Son of Yemo stood with arms outstretched, his feet rooted to the ground, face contorted with pain, his body straining against the crushing pressure.

“This is all a lie!” A deafening crack echoed as the Son of Yemo’s knees buckled. He collapsed, kneeling. The world shrank to a mere few hundred feet!

“I am the Son of Yemo, forged from his heart’s blood! I will not be defeated!” With a tortured roar, his arms exploded, and the world closed shut, crushing everything within its grasp, leaving no trace.

From afar, the vast figure of Wang Lin vanished in a shimmer of crystalline light as his left eye finally closed.

The dream was over!

As the dream ended, the familiar starry sky of the Transcendent Array returned, the countless cultivators none the wiser.

They saw only the Son of Yemo suspended in mid-air, writhing and howling in agony, with no enemy in sight.

A few thousand feet away, Wang Lin stood with closed eyes, motionless. Less than ten breaths later, his eyes snapped open, their depths reflecting weariness and killing intent. He stepped forward, a shooting star streaking toward the Son of Yemo, a bloody gleam appearing in his right hand, as the Blood Sword materialized. In the instant when the Son of Yemo opened his eyes in bewilderment, Wang Lin flashed past him. A thunderous boom echoed as the Son of Yemo’s body split apart. Even in death, his eyes held only confusion. As his body shattered, eight drops of purple blood flew toward Wang Lin, imbuing his brow.

Wang Lin’s weariness deepened. He didn’t absorb the blood immediately but strode toward the Transcendent Array. Stepping within, he could no longer restrain himself and coughed forth a mouthful of blood. Swaying, he immediately sat cross-legged beside Xi Zifeng, desperately seeking to heal his wounds.

That battle had been perilous. Slaying the Son of Yemo without the Li Guang Bow was immensely difficult. He might have won, but he was injured by the terrifying Heaven-Rending Art. Even now, Wang Lin shuddered at its power. As he sat in meditation, the bloody line on his brow remained. All that had transpired in the Return to Antiquity had been real. He had almost been displaced, torn asunder by the Son of Yemo!

As he recovered, the tens of thousands of cultivators of Beyond the Realm observed him, and after a brief silence, bloodthirsty roars exploded. “He’s wounded!” “He’s injured! Now’s our chance to kill him!” “Weakened as he is, he cannot fully control the Transcendent Array! We can break through and kill him!” The tens of thousands of cultivators of Beyond the Realm surged forward, a cascade of power aimed at Wang Lin within the Transcendent Array.

As the attacks rained down, the Transcendent Array twisted and buckled, sending ripples across its surface. Xi Zifeng, nearby, blanched, her eyes filled with worry. Outside the array, the five injured Grand Empyreans gritted their teeth and launched their incense deity arts, heedless of their wounds. Under the combined assault of tens of thousands of cultivators, the Transcendent Array quivered, its countless vengeful spirits roaring as they pushed the wheel, deflecting the devastating blows.

Just as Xi Zifeng’s worry intensified, and Mu Bingmei and the pink-robed woman within the array grew anxious, Wang Lin’s eyes snapped open, a cold light flashing within.

“Though wounded, I can still slay you,” Wang Lin said. Suppressing his injuries, he thrust his right hand toward the Transcendent Array, and the array trembled.

“Transcendent Transformation, Spin in All Directions!” Wang Lin roared, forcing all of his cultivation into the array, unleashing a torrent of power. The array manifested as a gargantuan wheel on the outside, driven by countless vengeful spirits, grinding relentlessly forward. As it spun, the power of the heavens and earth was drawn into the wheel, unleashing destruction on anything nearby. Cultivators who ventured too close were crushed and absorbed into the wheel to push it along. The tens of thousands of cultivators of Beyond the Realm recoiled in terror, fleeing without daring to look back. Wang Lin rose to his feet, waving his right hand, summoning the drop of immortal blood from his brow. The Li Guang Bow materialized in his hand. Despite the weariness etched on his face, his eyes burned with killing intent, fixed on the starscape beyond the array. “Take one more step, and I shall slay you again!”

A ripple stirred in the starscape a hundred feet beyond the array, and Sovereign’s figure appeared. He stared at Wang Lin, silent, before turning and vanishing. After Sovereign’s departure, Wang Lin sheathed the Li Guang Bow, his wounds flaring up again. Blood trickled from his lips, and he sat cross-legged once more. Time flowed on, and nine months passed.

During these nine months, no one from Beyond the Realm returned. Xi Zifeng’s wine had been warmed and re-warmed, but had never entered Wang Lin’s mouth. When a full year had passed, Xi Zifeng glanced at Wang Lin with a complex expression and softly sighed as she departed. After Xi Zifeng came the pink-robed woman.