‘What the hell was that!?’

  ‘I don’t know. I have never seen anything like it, it was almost like-no, that can’t be possible no matter how bizarre your existence is.’

  I frowned at his hesitation.

  ‘If you have any theories, tell me.’

  ‘No. The theory I have is far too dangerous for your mentality and I am not even 10% sure about its validity, so it is better to find out the truth through our regular method, through trial and error.’

  ‘…Fine. But, if it becomes a matter of life and death, I expect you to immediately tell me what is on your mind.’

  ‘Deal. Now, get back to reality. looks like your wife-to-be had quite the shock despite her outward stoicism.’

  I turned to Yin Lingxi, and sure enough, the knowledge of body language I inherited from Xiang helped me realize that she was heavily suppressing the shock of whathad happened in the past few hours.

  It is understandable, first, it was that damned ruin, then the shock of whatever she saw in those illusions, followed by the sudden attack on her life by the Baihu empire’s assassins, and now this issue.

  Anyone would feel freaked out by such a strange turn of events.

  I walked forward and sat down beside her, allowing her to hold onto my hand tightly.

  “It’s alright, we are safe now. Not even a Void Refinement realm cultivator can catch up to my ship when it is in Warp.”

  “…I am not worried about that, Wei. I am worried that they will find your village and make things difficult for you, especially now that you have made enemies out of both the Baihu Empire and the Autumn Fang Holy Land.”

  I chuckled at her words before I gave her a gentle hug.

  “Is that what this is about? Don’t worry, even if they comb the entire continent for me and have some way to track me down, they would still need at least two months to travel from the secret realm to my village. We will be arriving within a few minutes at most.”

  I felt my temper rise to the surface for the first time in a long while.

  “And when they do arrive, we will be ready for them. Don’t forget that I am a Grandmaster level inscriptions master, a Grandmaster level Alchemist, and a Master level Large-scale formations master.”

  Yin Lingxi nodded at my words before her eyes turned cold as she glared into the distance, taking on the familiar visage of the powerful and formidable Empress I remember from Xiang’s memories.

  “You prepare in your own way, meanwhile, I’ll have half of the Royal Protectors go to your village-“

  “OUR Village, don’t forget, it is now your home as well.”

  Her persona as the Empress cracked a little as I spotted a faint blush on her face before she regained her seriousness.

  “Yes, our village. As I was saying, I’ll have half of the Royal Protectors look after it while I deal with things at the capital. Between you, your formations, and the protectors, things should be easy to manage.”

  “As I said, it will take them a lot of time to find us, especially since our village is now surrounded by Pure Qi and is extremely hard to detect for a cultivator, partially due to my formation and partly due to its vicinity to the Forbidden Zone.”

  Yin Lingxi nodded at my words and leaned into my shoulder like she had gotten used to in the past few days.

  ‘Speaking of, I think we should start working on that backup plan you made for the Forbidden Zone.’

  ‘The Black Hole Plan? Why? Didn’t you say it was extremely dangerous and could easily end up going out of control, putting the entire world in danger?’

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘That I did, but now that things have come to this, we can’t allow a threat like that to stay near our home. Especially since we don’t know if the invasion will end up accelerating beyond its schedule, thanks to the many changes in this timeline.’

  His reasoning is sound, but his warning still rang in my mind from all those years ago when we first learned of its existence.

  The Forbidden Zone.

  A place within the Great Wilderness, relatively close to our collection of villages. A place where no cultivator dares to enter lest they draw the ire of all the top forces of the continent.

  Long ago, during the 2nd Era, it is believed that this zone that was slightly larger than the island nation of Japan from Earth was a holy ground for Cultivators from all walks of life since it belonged to a force that had eerily similar mannerisms and religious basis as the Buddhists from Earth.

  If it were not for a few differences in these forces, which were also called Buddhists for some reason, and the Buddhists of my home, such as their philosophies and way of life, I would have thought that some Buddhist Monk from my world had also reincarnated in this world.

  Even now, I can’t take this theory off the table since I have no evidence to prove or disprove this theory.

  Anyways, this Holy Land of the 2nd Era was a paradise filled with most types of Qi known to cultivators, allowing anyone to quickly increase their realm and power quickly.

  The fact that these Buddhists never barred entry to anyone and only charged a small amount of spirit stones that allowed even Loose Cultivators to enter their land was also a bonus to their reputation and boosted the respect they held in others’ eyes.

  However, just like always, Greed and jealousy, the fundamental aspects of humanity, would raise their ugly heads and bring the downfall of such a paradise.

  The other forces of those times could not tolerate the existence of such a force. They also coveted the land and resources that this Buddhist Holy Land held. So, they hatched a plan.

  They put false accusations of colluding with the demonic path on the Holy Land and attacked it from all directions.

  The names of these forces, the real name of this Buddhist Holy Land, and what exactly happened during the attack are all details that have long since been forgotten with only word of mouth and legends staying alive till now.

  What is known, however, is that the Buddhists, in their desperation made some kind of an unimaginable mistake, which led to the entire land turning into a desolate wasteland filled with Yin Qi while also wiping out the Buddhist forces, the attackers, and even the bystanders of the nearby area that were caught in this disaster.

  The end result now, is a large sector of the forest that is void of any kind of Qi except Yin Qi and is filled with so much Blood Qi that even a Void Refinement cultivator would feel nauseous and would be forced to relive the times when they took the lives of others, over and over again until they were driven insane.

  Of course, there exist ways to circumvent this effect of the Forbidden Zone with relatively common artifacts, but still, no one dares to go to that place due to the Yin Qi and the overwhelmingly large population of Demonic Beasts that have made their home in that place.

  However, there is one reason why I was interested in exploring that place when I first heard about it from Xiang.

  It is said that deep within this Forbidden Zone is a relic that allows one to ‘Ascend’ past the heavens and into the realm of immortals.

  However, this rumor is completely false since Xiang, as a demonic cultivator in his timeline, had risked his life and limb to explore this Forbidden Zone.

  The truth is that the relic in the rumors is actually a portal that leads to the other side of the world, to an unknown place that no one knows about.

  The portal cannot be opened from this side since its control formation has long since deteriorated and faded to such an extent that even Grandmasters in formations like Xiang could do nothing about it.

  My suspicion is that this portal might have played some role in the Invasion of the Outsiders that happened in Xiang’s timeline and should take place in the next few decades in this timeline.

  That is why I had planned to destroy this entire zone through the use of formations that would create an artificial black hole for a few minutes so that it would not pose any threat to my life and the lives of my loved ones.

  But Xiang disagreed. His objection was that such a force of nature was unpredictable and could easily go out of control, devouring the entire planet.

  His sound logic and reasoning forced me to abandon that idea and put it on the back burner as a last resort.

  But now that things have escalated to such levels, maybe I need to re-evaluate that plan again like Xiang said.

  Shaking my head, I concentrated back on the distorted view outside my ship which was starting to clear up, indicating that we were about to drop out of warp.

  ‘We will look into that later. First, we need to prepare for War. There is no doubt that with their attack on Lingxi in the Secret Realm, they are serious about attacking the Yin Long Empire. I will need to bring out those plans for weapons that we discarded before and arm our people.’

  ‘Hmm. That is true. Alright, tell me if you need anything.’

  ‘Alright.’

  Soon, my airship dropped out of warp right on top of my village, making me smile in relief as I observed that nothing had truly changed and there were no signs of any damage.

  ‘Home sweet home.’

  All my plans for the upcoming era of violence can wait. For now, I can't wait to tell the good news about Yin Lingxi and me to my daughter, my disciple, and my friends.

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