A thunderous roar echoed, the clamor of the four Great Celestials assailing the golden light with all their might. Time was fleeting, and the Immortal Emperor knew his window was closing fast!

If he failed to forcibly absorb the ancestral Immortal’s cranial power before the golden barrier shattered, the Celestials would descend, and his efforts would be for naught.

Such a fate he could not abide. He was on the cusp of success, the final stage of his grand design. He would not be denied!

“My plan, even the Grand Tutor couldn’t fathom. That ancient emperor, Jiudi, only came because of his ancestral city residence; but Dao Yi and Wu Feng! They have arrived so swiftly!”

The Immortal Emperor ground his teeth. Without hesitation, he raised his right hand and pointed. The moment his finger descended, it crumbled into a mess of blood and flesh.

“With the blood and flesh of my Immortal ancestor lineage, I invoke the Immortal Astral Laws! Undo the mourning wraith’s eternal seal!” The Emperor roared, his remaining fingers on that hand dissolving in turn, followed swiftly by his palm.

The disintegration spread relentlessly. As the last word of the incantation left his lips, half his right arm was gone!

A torrent of golden ichor erupted, coalescing before him into a symbol of golden blood. The symbol ignited spontaneously, burning to ashes in the blink of an eye!

In the instant that the golden glyph was consumed, within the Immortal Ancestor’s right eye, the Grand Tutor who had usurped Wang Lin’s form, shuddered violently. The binding seal that had shackled his clan of mourning wraiths for generations vanished!

Tears streamed from the Grand Tutor’s eyes – tears of fervent joy. This was the culmination of his life’s pursuit, the goal for which he had sacrificed everything: to break the chains that doomed his people to a preordained fate from birth!

As the cursed seal broke, a force of Immortal Emperor Grand Celestial power surged from beyond the Immortal Ancestor’s skull, bursting into the right eye and slamming into Wang Lin’s body. This force, sweeping through him with ruthless efficiency, erased the Grand Tutor’s existence, obliterating him utterly!

This was the Immortal Emperor’s final gambit. He would not allow the Grand Tutor to survive the unbinding. The breaking of the seal was the Grand Tutor’s death sentence.

At the moment of his demise, a long-dormant memory stirred in the Grand Tutor’s mind, a hidden fragment from a forgotten time.

He dimly recalled the Clan of Mourning Wraiths, dwindled almost to extinction. After his birth, he was one of only three.

He knew not his parents, nor did anyone tell him of them. He knew only that he was of the mourning wraiths. Beside himself, there was a woman and a babe.

These two, mother and child, were as close to kin as he knew!

He remembered that the woman was the previous Grand Tutor. He was not. The true Grand Tutor was the infant.

He did not know the babe’s father, only that she had vanished soon after birth. He, in turn, had been raised by the woman as the Grand Tutor, taught the secret arts of their clan.

Slowly, he had grown, his memories clouded. He believed himself to be the Grand Tutor, and as the woman died, he was a man. He believed his clan numbered many, slumbering, not dead, and his duty was to find a way to break the seal of fate that bound them.

He always believed that his kinsmen were many, but at the instant the seal broke, the truth crashed down upon him. Aside from the missing infant, he was the last of his line!

“No wonder the Immortal Emperor dared break the seal… He knew my clan held only one… that my death would mean its end, seal or no.”

“So, I am not the Grand Tutor… Then… Am I a member of the Clan of Mourning Wraiths…? Am I…? I must be… With the seal now broken, who is that lost infant now, the true Grand Tutor…?” These were the final thoughts of this poor soul who had always believed himself to be the Grand Tutor, willing to sacrifice all for his people. A man who plotted against the Immortal Emperor until his failure brought him despair. They faded with his death.

Even in his dying moment, he felt no resentment. Perhaps this was his purpose, to protect the true Grand Tutor and to break the chains of his clan. A destiny ordained from birth.

As the mortal form and soul of this pitiful being were utterly annihilated, the power of the Immortal Emperor swept across Wang Lin’s body, ensuring no trace of soul remained. Then, with a final sweep, it retreated.

But even the Immortal Emperor did not detect the existence of the celestial defying bead within Wang Lin, nor that Wang Lin’s soul was shrouded within its embrace!

With the seal on the Clan of Mourning Wraiths broken, the Immortal Emperor beamed with triumph. He believed all was under his command, and his confidence never wavered as he began to rapidly absorb the power of the Immortal Ancestor’s skull.

Golden mists flowed from the seven orifices of the skull, entering the Emperor’s own, causing his cultivation to explode.

Excitement and fervor coursed through his being. Lost in the golden haze, he did not see the Celestial Hai Zi, standing far in the heavens beyond the golden light. At the instant the Emperor broke the cursed seal, her body convulsed violently.

Confusion and struggle warred within her eyes, as if memories were rushing back into her mind. As the chains of the Clan of Mourning Wraiths shattered, a power awakened within Hai Zi!

A power belonging to the true Grand Tutor of the Immortal Clan!

Her eyes shone with sudden, brilliant light. Her right hand rose instinctively, and she pointed a single finger towards the golden radiance of the Immortal Ancestor’s skull!
“All that exists, exists by its very nature, and therefore, can be lost. This is Death…”

“All the deceased, stirred by the remembrance of the living, gain thought from nothingness. This is Mourning…”

“The Mournweavers, they take the thoughts of the living, the essence of the dead, the yearning for spirits to dwell, the power of lifetimes past and lives to come, and weave it into incense. With this… they transform Mourning into Death, so that what was, continues to be, and what has passed… returns to the Void!” Hai Zi murmured, and the instant her finger fell, the golden light that filled the heavens contracted with visible speed, vanishing in a blink to coalesce once more within the head of the Ancestral Immortal.

As the golden light faded, it revealed the Immortal Emperor, previously concealed within its brilliance!

Beneath him lay the severed head of the Ancestral Immortal. The golden light upon it flickered and died, and the eyes of the head slowly closed. A deathly pallor returned to its face, and its power to float in the air abandoned it, sending it tumbling towards the earth.

Further, it interrupted the flow of golden essence from the Ancestral Immortal that the Immortal Emperor was drawing into his very being! The golden energy, already woven into the Emperor’s essence, now seemed to lose its anchor, spilling forth from his form and returning to the falling head.

This sudden turn of events left the Immortal Emperor stunned. His eyes snapped wide, filled with disbelief, and he lifted his gaze to find Hai Zi, the Celestial Venerate, standing before him!

“Impossible… This is impossible! The Grand Astrologer is dead, utterly and completely dead! You are not the Grand Astrologer, you are not of the Mournweavers. How could you possess the Grand Astrologer’s power?!” The Immortal Emperor’s sanity frayed, unable to accept what his eyes beheld. This reality, he could not, would not, believe!

“You are not of the Mournweavers! Under the Immortal Ancestor’s seal, the Mournweavers cannot leave the Imperial Palace, leave the ancestral origins… You are not the undead Grand Astrologer! Who are you?!” The Immortal Emperor’s face drained of color. He had believed he held all the threads, that his designs were unknown. He had possessed such a profound confidence.

And indeed, everything had proceeded according to his meticulous plans. Save for the inconveniently swift arrival of Dao Yi and Wu Feng, his scheme had unfolded precisely as he intended!

But just as he was about to achieve his ultimate goal, to absorb the power within the Ancestral Immortal’s head and inherit his divine cultivation, becoming the second Immortal Ancestor, he suddenly realized that nothing was as he perceived. Everything he had done had been orchestrated by another!

“I… am the Grand Astrologer…” Hai Zi, the Celestial Venerate, spoke softly, a complexity in her eyes. Her memories had awakened, intertwined with the memories of her mother, and the legacy of every Grand Astrologer before her.

“Of my clan, I am the last… the last upon this Immortal Galaxy.” Hai Zi sighed, a whisper of sorrow.

“What is happening? This cannot be! If you are the Grand Astrologer, how can you walk beyond the Ancestral Frost! Jiu Di, tell me!” The Immortal Emperor, for all his station as a Great Celestial Venerate, could barely maintain his composure, forcing himself to regain his cool amidst his near madness.

“This plan was conceived by the geniuses of my clan long ago. To achieve it, they even feigned schisms, sought methods to escape, and ultimately succeeded in leaving this place, creating the Great Soul Sect…

Though he perished, he perfected the plan, passed it down through generations, and even located the key to its success. This man… is Wang Lin! A cultivator from the Cave World… Only his body could be seized by my clan, so that the plan could proceed perfectly…”

“As for how I could leave the Ancestral Frost…” Hai Zi spoke softly, “It is because my soul belongs to the Mournweavers, but my body… belongs to the Immortal Galaxy.”

“Immortal Emperor,” Jiu Di spoke after a long silence, “She is my daughter!”

“The reason I have lived to this day, possess such boundless life, and even attained the rank of Great Celestial Venerate… all of this is due to the aid of the Mournweavers!”

“This plan, the Mournweavers have prepared for eons, until they sensed Wang Lin’s arrival upon the Immortal Galaxy, did they set it into motion!” Jiu Di said plainly, watching the truth shatter the Immortal Emperor’s composure.

Within the Ancestral Immortal’s head, Wang Lin had overheard everything. As all eyes focused on Hai Zi, the Celestial Venerate, and Jiu Di’s words, his soul slipped from the Celestial Tremor and once more seized control of his body!

“So, this is the truth!” His eyes shone with understanding, a spark of determination igniting within them!