Invincible Dad-Chapter 788 Can’t Go Back_1

"..."

Ah Lan didn’t answer. Chen Xin would ask this question every now and then, and she had gone from offering initial comfort, to later telling the truth, to her current silence.

Yes. They couldn’t go back.

It had been impossible from the moment the Realm Gate was closed, from the moment the natives of the Lower Realm went mad, trying to kill them to force the gate open and rush to The Other Shore.

They would never return.

The Other Shore Cultivators felt no sense of belonging in the Lower Realm, and the Lower Realm cultivators would not accept them, only treating them as foreign abominations.

It was either live or die.

There was no possibility of coexistence between the two sides.

Luckily, Chen Xin was fortunate. When he first came to the Lower Realm, he had stolen a powerful treasure from his clan and kept it on his person. This allowed him to break free from the Divine Metal’s restraints and escape Earth ahead of schedule, rather than withering away for a whole cycle, becoming farmed livestock that could never leave, only to die of old age or in battle at the Realm Gate.

In Ah Lan’s view, the Lower Realm was not as dangerous as the six of them had imagined, but it held few opportunities. Other than the reigning Emperor Realm cultivators, who could barely put up a fight against them, the other cultivators were too weak to withstand a single blow.

But to rule this place?

Never mind that high and mighty gods wouldn’t even consider trying to reign supreme in an ant nest. Even if they did dominate this world, so what? They still couldn’t return to The Other Shore.

On the contrary, a great war would throw the Heavenly Dao of this place into disarray, causing the cultivators on The Other Shore to notice the anomaly at the Realm Gate. The Realm Gate was not just a barrier to stop cultivators from the Lower Realm; it was also a vital instrument for monitoring this place and a medium for communication between the two realms. Not that Chen Xin and his people had ever received a response.

"I wonder how Gu Yan and the others are doing," Chen Xin muttered, lying on the ground in the Dead Realm with his hands behind his head. He stared blankly into the void, and it was unclear if he was asking himself or Ah Lan.

"Chen Xin, instead of worrying about them, you should be thinking about how we’re going to fill our stomachs," Ah Lan said.

"I’ll just go to the Immortal Domain and catch a few Dragon Veins."

Chen Xin stood up and looked at the sky, then asked hesitantly, "Ah Lan, is there no Heavenly Dao in the Dead Realm?"

"There is," Ah Lan explained earnestly. "The Heavenly Dao of the Lower Realm is like a single, colossal tree. The Heavenly Dao of each star is a leaf, and there are countless of them. They flow from the branches that represent each star system into the Heavenly Dao of the entire Immortal Domain, which acts as the tree’s roots."

"Although the Dead Realm has died, its Heavenly Dao hasn’t completely disappeared. A budding seed still exists."

"Then why is the Heavenly Dao of our Dead Realm in a state of Hundun? I can’t see through it at all," Chen Xin said in astonishment.

Ah Lan quickly looked toward the heavens and was speechless for a long time. After a long pause, she finally uttered, "The Heavenly Dao has returned to Hundun. The Epoch of Emperor’s Demise... is about to begin."

Chen Xin frowned.

Ah Lan sighed softly. "You shouldn’t go out anymore. We’ll just stay here quietly in the Dead Realm and wait for this epoch to pass. Don’t stir up any trouble."

Chen Xin nodded gravely.

Great chaos was coming. They absolutely could not be discovered by the Emperor Realm Cultivators of the Lower Realm. Although the number of people who could pose a threat to them was small, the danger was still immense. After all, the blood of an Other Shore Cultivator could rapidly trigger the opening of the Realm Gate, an effect countless times more potent than the lifeblood of ordinary beings.

***

Time trickled by.

The Four Immortal Domains remained as they had always been. The various Dao Orthodox Holy Lands appeared harmonious on the surface, but they schemed endlessly against one another for their own interests. Yet, these ancient Tao Lineages gradually realized something was amiss, because the Heavenly Court was recruiting soldiers!

Members of any race and with any background could become Heavenly Soldiers and Generals, or even serve as substitute Divine Generals. This was a tremendous temptation for many cultivators.

"Why is the Heavenly Court recruiting?"

"This is bad, this is bad! Is the Heavenly Court planning to move against us?"

There were countless other whispers of doubt and fear. The Heavenly Court was the foremost power in the Immortal Domain, presided over by an Emperor Realm powerhouse, so its every action sparked all sorts of speculation. According to irresponsible rumors, a certain Lord of the Immortal Domain with a complicated relationship with Emperor Qingfeng had inquired with the first and second Divine Generals of the Heavenly Court but had received no answer.

For a time, hearts trembled with unease all around the Four Immortal Domains as rumors and gossip abounded, painting a picture as if the end of the world approached.

The Heavenly Court never responded to any of it.

Instead, Taotie and the other Divine Generals each led troops of freshly enlisted Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to various parts of the Immortal Domain for training.

A rebellious land?

Suppress it!

A traitorous clan?

Suppress it!

An irredeemable villain?

Suppress them all!

After tens of thousands of years, the Immortal Domain was finally reminded of the fear of being dominated by the Heavenly Court. The grim purges and bloodshed made the major Holy Lands and Tao Lineages behave themselves. Those pampered immortal scions of the second and third generations were punished by their elders with at least a hundred years of secluded cultivation, terrified of provoking the Heavenly Court during such a sensitive period.

As a result, the Heavenly Court’s recruitment and training proceeded with incredible smoothness. It was so smooth, in fact, that Divine General Taotie began to suspect that The Supreme Emperor himself was providing covert support by quietly dealing with those bothersome old fogeys.

***

Meanwhile on Earth, Xu Lai hastened his efforts to decipher the Cloud Water Rust Characters and converted a room in Haitang Court into a Refinement Workshop.

Xu Lai planned to use some of the Divine Metal in his Storage Space to craft Magical Treasures for his wife and daughter. He would make ten or twenty sets each of offensive and defensive Magical Treasures, enough to at least allow Yiyi and Ruan Tang to escape an encounter with an Emperor Realm cultivator.

While waiting for the Divine Metal to smelt, Xu Lai used various precious materials and Immortal-grade Spirit Stones to create twenty small-scale Zhoutian Star Fighting Formations. Their lethal range was less than a hundred paces. It would be difficult to kill a Great Emperor with them, but a person would be relatively safe inside one. He estimated that with the help of the Emperor Artifact, the Qingfeng Sword, even an Emperor Realm cultivator wouldn’t dare to charge in recklessly.

Then, Xu Lai split off a strand of his consciousness to continue studying the Cloud Water Rust Characters, effectively multitasking three ways at once.

Consequently, for an entire month, Ruan Tang had trouble sleeping. Xu Lai, that jerk, had completely abandoned her, holing himself up in the Refinement Workshop! 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Finally, one night at eleven o’clock, when Xu Lai still hadn’t returned to his room, Ruan Tang couldn’t bear it any longer.

Standing outside the Refinement Workshop, Ruan Tang was just about to open the door when she heard a gentle female voice from behind her.

"Qingfeng was worried you might be bored, so he sent me to keep you company."

"Who’s there!"

Ruan Tang jumped in fright. She spun around and saw it was her Senior Sister, Yu Guiwan. Ruan Tang bit her lip in exasperation and said, "Senior Sister, Xu Lai hasn’t left this room for a month. I’m worried about him. Can you please talk some sense into him?"

"Don’t worry, Junior Sister-in-law," Yu Guiwan reassured her. "It’s common for an Emperor Realm expert to enter secluded cultivation for eight hundred or a thousand years, and Artifact Refining is an incredibly time-consuming process."

She said with a sigh, "After all, those are Divine Metals capable of forging Emperor Artifacts. It taking longer is perfectly normal."

Ruan Tang didn’t understand anything about Divine Metal. She just wanted Xu Lai to relax and not work himself so hard.

"Where’s Ruan Lan? She said she was going to take me to experience the nightlife in Hua Country."

Yu Guiwan blinked. "Right, where is the Black Horse Club in East Sea City? She was being so secretive and told me not to mention it to you or Qingfeng."

"..."

Ruan Tang’s pretty face darkened, and she silently made a mental note of this.

She glanced worriedly at the Refinement Workshop but ultimately decided to take her senior sister upstairs to her room first.