Lu Zhou dove into the abyss. No obstacles could stop him; even the power of the abyss seemed to retreat in fear. He made his way to the center of the earth, easily passing through the abyss. Soon enough, when he arrived at the place where the seawater met the end of the abyss, he saw the golden and square merit stone.

Lu Zhou flashed and appeared in front of the merit stone before he said, “The Great Maeltrom is the abyss, and the abyss is the earth. Like flowers growing by the water, I finally found you.”

The energy that rushed over from all directions was easily repelled by Lu Zhou with just a wave of his hand.

Lu Zhou’s hand landed on the dazzling merit stone as he said, “All living things have merits…”

Each side of the merit stones had a grid of nine boxes, and each box was a character.

Lu Zhou imbued the merit stone with his divine Dao power. Years and years from the past flashed through his mind immediately. He saw countless lives on this land returning to the abyss, back into the merit stone. Everything has an origin and a destination.

Lu Zhou saw the openings on the merit stone that were supposed to hold treasures. After thinking for a while, he formed a few treasures with his divine Dao power. They were the Heavenly Dao Flag, the Great Stone of Natural Law, and the Scales of Justice. Then, he filled three openings with the three treasures.

…

On the lands, trees began to grow swiftly and wildly.

Primal Qi returned to heaven and earth.

As soon as cultivators from the nine domains sensed the return of the Primal Qi, they greedily absorbed the Primal Qi.

…

In the Evil Sky Pavilion.

The members rose to their feet and walked out, looking at the sky. Their bodies recovered swiftly, and their skin was no longer dull like before. All of them began to age backward again.

“It’s back!”

“It’s back!”

…

Lu Zhou looked at the merit stone and asked, “Why do you want to stop eternal life?”

Naturally, there was no response from the merit stone.

Lu Zhou sighed. “Perhaps, I should have destroyed you back then. If there were no cultivation, that problem wouldn’t exist.”

After a moment, Lu Zhou said, “Unnamed, return to your place.”

Buzz!

Unnamed flew out and entered the center opening of the merit stone.

When Lu Zhou filled up all ten openings, the merit stone glowed brightly with a golden light.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Zhou waved his hand. He carved a character above each of the ten openings: Hai, Shang, Sheng, Ming, Yue, Tian, Ya, Gong, Ci, and Shi.

After that, Lu Zhou stood with his hands on his back, waiting for the changes.

When the merit stone flashed, Lu Zhou revealed a satisfied smile on his face.

Then, the complete power of the merit stone burst forth, completely engulfing Lu Zhou. Then, the power flowed along the abyss toward the earth and to the nine domains and the Endless Ocean.

With that, everyone’s cultivation returned as well.

…

In the sky above the Evil Sky Pavilion.

Streaks of light appeared, attracting the members of the Evil Sky Pavilion.

Soon enough, Yu Zheng appeared from the first streak of light.

The members of the Evil Sky Pavilion were overjoyed. They bowed and called out, “Greetings, Mr. First!”

Yu Zhenghai looked around in a daze. He raised his arm and lowered his head to look at himself. He felt as though he was in the darkness for a very long time, but somehow, he had now returned to the Evil Sky Pavilion. He exclaimed, “I’m back!”

Following that, Yu Shangrong emerged from the second streak of light.

It did not take long before Duanmu Sheng, Mingshi Yin, Zhao Yue, Ye Tianxin, Si Wuya, Zhu Honggong, Little Yuan’er, and Conch all appeared in the sky as well.

“Greetings to the ten disciples of the Evil Sky Pavilion!”

Lu Zhou’s ten disciples looked at a loss as though they had just woken up from a long dream. All kinds of feelings welled in their hearts as clarity returned to them. Although they did not know what happened, when they saw everyone, they revealed joyous and satisfied smiles on their faces.

The ten disciples looked at each other and smiled.

Since their master was not here, their Eldest Senior Brother had the highest seniority.

Hence, the nine disciples bowed to Yu Zhenghai first.

“Eldest Senior Brother!”

“Second Senior Brother!”

They continued to greet each other according to seniority.

“Little Junior Sister.”

After the ten disciples finished bowing and greeting each other in the sky, they laughed.

Upon seeing this, the other members of the Evil Sky Pavilion laughed as well.

This was the first time in a long time that the ten disciples of the Evil Sky Pavilion were all together.

…

In the Evil Sky Pavilion.

The sun set, and night fell.

When Little Yuan’er flew up to the sky, she saw her fellow disciples. She asked curiously, “Eldest Senior Brother, Seventh Senior Brother, why is the moon not in the sky?”

Si Wuya smiled and replied, “It’s hiding.”

“Oh,” Little Yuan’er said and did not ask for an explanation. Instead, she asked, “When will master return?”

Si Wuya replied, “The day the moon returns to the sky will be the day master returns.”

“Seventh Senior Brother, how do you know everything?” Little Yuan’er asked.

Si Wuya smiled as he looked at his fellow disciples. Then, he said, “That’s because I saw a fragment of master’s memories from the Skynet Map.”

“…”

…

Nearly 30,000 years later.

The human alliance managed to drive all the fierce beasts back to the Unknown Land.

Cultivators from the Great Void and a number of cultivators from the nine domains migrated to the Unknown Land, building cities there. Its prosperity was no less than the Great Void of the past. Mankind did not like the name ‘Great Void’ so they called it the New World.

There were a large number of cultivators who treated the golden lotus domain like the Holy Land. Everyone knew the reason for this. As such, the golden lotus domain became the leader of the domains and the New World.

…

In the main hall of the Evil Sky Pavilion.

Si Wuya asked, “Eldest Senior Brother, the ten Great Void Seeds in the New World have matured. Do you want to bring them back?”

Yu Zhenghai said, “Let nature takes its course. If master were here, I believe he’ll do the same as well.”

Everyone nodded.

“It’s been 30,000 years. I wonder where’s master now…”

“As long as master doesn’t return, the Evil Sky Pavilion will not move.”

…

Three days later.

At night.

A bright moon appeared in the sky.

Little Yuan’er, who still remembered Si Wuya’s words from 30,000 years ago, did not see her master so she complained about Si Wuya for three whole days. She also cried for three whole days.

…

One morning.

In the huge gazebo in the Evil Sky Pavilion.

A few female cultivators were seriously cleaning the place when a breeze blew over.

At some point, an old man with white hair appeared sitting in the gazebo with his eyes closed.

When the female cultivators looked over, they recognized him immediately. They were surprised and happy. In the next moment, they fell to their knees and called out, “Greetings, Pavilion Master!”

However, despite their loud voices, the old man did not open his eyes.

After that, one of the female cultivators quickly left to report the matter.

In just a brief moment, the ten disciples and the other members of the Evil Sky Pavilion rushed over.

Yu Zhenghai, who was standing at the lead, was overjoyed when he saw the old man. He kneeled immediately and called out, “Disciple greets master! I’ve been awaiting master’s return!”

Subsequently, Yu Shangrong, Duanmu Sheng, Mingshi Yin, Zhao Yue, Ye Tianxin, Si Wuya, Zhu Honggong, and Conch kneeled and called out in unison, “Greetings, master!”

“Welcome back, Pavilion Master!” the members of the Evil Sky Pavilion called out as well.

After a moment of silence, the old man finally opened his eyes. His eyes shone brilliantly, and a very faint smile could be seen on his face as he said, “I’m back.”

With this, everyone fell to their knees again.

However, Zhu Honggong rushed over and hugged his master’s thigh. Snot and tears could be seen on his face as he cried out, “Master! I really missed you to death!”

“…”

Yu Zhenghai and Yu Shangrong did not know what kind of expression to make so they only stared at Zhu Honggong stoic expressions on their faces.

Lu Zhou looked around before he asked, “Where’s Yuan’er?”

From behind the crowd, Pan Zhong said loudly, “Miss Ninth is here!”

Little Yuan’er was extremely graceful. However, she was like a completely different person at this moment, and she looked like she was in a daze. When she came to the front of the crowd, she bowed. “Disciple greets master.”

Everyone was very puzzled by Little Yuan’er’s behavior.

Lu Zhou asked, “Do you feel unwell?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine… I just slept for too long and had a very, very long dream. I’m just a little muddled now…” Little Yuan’er replied. At the same time, she scratched her head as though she was thinking about something.

At this time, Jie Jin’an and Jiang Aijian stepped forward with smiles on their faces.

“Senior Ji.”

“Brother Lu.”

Lu Zhou nodded.

Jie Jin’an said, “I knew you’d return…”

“Ouyang isn’t here?” Lu Zhou asked.

“He’s at the white lotus domain. He’ll come over later.”

Lu Zhou nodded. A satisfied smile could be seen on his face. Everyone was here. He began to examine everyone from top to bottom. Each time his eyes swept past a person, he would nod.

When Lu Zhou was done, Jiang Aijian suddenly smiled and asked, “Senior Ji, the new Great Void Seeds have matured. How do you plan to distribute them?”

Lu Zhou was slightly surprised. He did not expect that 30,000 years had passed. Although he already had the answer to the question, he wanted to know everyone’s thoughts. Hence, he asked, “How do you think it should be distributed?”

Pan Zhong said, “The ten disciples have profound cultivation and are all supreme beings. They can accept a disciple each, and the seeds can be distributed to their disciples.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zhou Jifeng said.

Yu Zhenghai shook his head and said, “In my opinion, we should let nature take its course. After all, the Great Dao and everything else belongs to nature.”

Lu Zhou looked at his disciples silently as they voiced their opinion. All of them had the same opinion until it came to Little Yuan’er’s turn.

Little Yuan’er squatted on the ground and said, “Why don’t we give the seeds to our future disciples?” Then, she used her finger and began to write on the ground.

‘Lovers pine for each other, lamenting the cold night.’

Everyone nodded in appreciation of the poem. Some gave Little Yuan’er a thumbs-up to praise her, and some said it was a good poem.

Lu Zhou recited the poems as well. However, when he recited it for the second time, he suddenly realized that something was wrong. He recalled the poem that referred to his disciples. In the very beginning when he had come across that poem, he had noticed it was in fact part of a poem from Earth.

‘The bright moon shines on the sea; from far away we share this moment together.’ It corresponded to the characters Hai, Shang, Sheng, Ming, Yue, Tian, Ya, Gong, Ci, and Shi, which also corresponded with the names of Lu Zhou’s ten disciples.

From Lu Zhou’s memory, he knew the second line of the poem was, ‘Lovers pine for each other, lamenting the cold night’, which was exactly what Little Yuan’er just wrote. In the ancient language, the characters that corresponded to this poem were Qing, Ren, Yuan, Yao, Ye, Jing, Xi, Qi, Xiang, and Si.

Lu Zhou’s expression and tone turned solemn as he asked, “Yuan’er, how do you know the two following sentences?”