“Why are you still here?”
Li Qi looked at the girl before him, who seemed a little lost.
The girl looked at Li Qi and said timidly,
“Lord Miao asked me to stay and serve you.”
“But I don’t need your service.”
“But Lord Miao said you like eighteen-year-old girls, and I’m exactly eighteen.”
“No, I don’t. Your Lord Miao is talking nonsense,”
Li Qi shook his head and said.
“…”
The chaotic Heavenly Dao space fell silent for a while.
The not-so-young man and the tender girl stood opposite each other.
The girl’s lost expression grew stronger, gradually being overtaken by confusion.
Li Qi’s gaze shifted to beyond the Earthly Void Realm.
Miao Suyao had already gone somewhere unknown, likely impossible to find, cutting off Li Qi’s idea of sending her back.
Instead, Li Qi’s calm gaze fell upon the girl before him.
The girl said her name was Miao Yunke and she shared the same surname as Miao Suyao.
However, she had no special relationship with Miao Suyao.
It was simply that before the Qi Huang Realm was destroyed, many people in the Qi Huang Realm had the surname Miao.
“I really don’t need your service,”
Li Qi said again.
“Then what should I do?”
Miao Yunke asked blankly, almost involuntarily.
The Qi Huang Realm had been destroyed, and she had nowhere else to go.
When Miao Suyao left earlier, she had told her to serve this adult before her. This was now her entire purpose.
Li Qi looked at Miao Yunke deeply.
He sighed.
“Come with me.”
After that day, Li Qi returned to the Feisha Sect again, with Miao Yunke in tow.
Upon hearing the news of Li Qi’s return, Zhang Yinjun was the first to come out and greet him.
“Senior Uncle Li, after all these years, you’ve finally returned.”
Zhang Yinjun said with some emotion.
She hadn’t seen her elusive Senior Uncle Li for many years.
Even when she broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, her Senior Uncle Li had not returned.
Li Qi nodded slightly at Zhang Yinjun.
Then he glanced at Miao Yunke again. Miao Yunke was only eighteen this year, and her cultivation was not too high, having only just reached Body Tempering.
Li Qi said to Zhang Yinjun,
“From now on, you will guide her cultivation. If she achieves anything, continue to teach her. If not, send her down the mountain to make her own living.”
“I understand, Senior Uncle Li.”
Zhang Yinjun replied.
After entrusting Miao Yunke to Zhang Yinjun, Li Qi left the Feisha Sect.
For a long time afterward, Li Qi did not return to the Feisha Sect.
Miao Yunke, meanwhile, diligently cultivated in the Feisha Sect.
As for Zhang Yinjun herself, she did not inquire too much about the background of the girl her Senior Uncle Li had brought back.
However, as they spent more time together, Zhang Yinjun would occasionally overhear Miao Yunke muttering to herself when she was alone.
“Is it because my cultivation is too low that the Master doesn’t want me to serve him?”
“But I’ll be eighteen soon, and the Master doesn’t like old people. What should I do?”
…
Several months after Li Qi sent Miao Yunke away.
He, who was in the Heavenly Dao space, sensed something at a particular moment.
The authority of the Earthly Void Realm’s Plane Lord was reactivated.
Li Qi’s gaze shifted towards a direction within the Earthly Void Realm.
In the sky above that location, a dense mass of dark thunderclouds floated, exuding an oppressive aura.
These thunderclouds were not a product of the Earthly Void Realm.
This was a Void Returning stage tribulation forming from outside the Earthly Void Realm.
Up to this point, the Earthly Void Realm’s strength had been continuously increasing.
However, Li Qi vaguely felt that.
It would still take some time for the Earthly Void Realm to be able to generate a Void Returning stage tribulation on its own, or rather… it needed to devour some more Heavenly Dao will.
At the same time, Li Qi also sensed that.
If one day the Earthly Void Realm truly reached the point where it could generate a Void Returning stage tribulation.
The entire Earthly Void Realm would likely undergo a massive promotion.
Li Qi’s gaze turned towards the person about to undergo the tribulation beneath the thunderclouds.
As expected, yet beyond expectation.
This person was none other than the one captured from the Yellow Profound Realm, who had guided Li Qi back then, the one at the eighth level of the Spirit Transformation stage.
He had now lived in the Earthly Void Realm for over two hundred years.
When Li Qi had asked his age that day, he had said he was already eighteen or nineteen hundred years old.
Now, another two hundred years had passed.
He had surpassed two thousand years of age.
This was the limit of a cultivator’s lifespan at the Spirit Transformation stage.
And at this moment.
Beneath the thunder tribulation, the old man, who appeared frail and on the verge of death, had a determined look in his eyes.
The cultivation in the Yellow Profound Realm had consumed too much of his time.
It was only these remaining two hundred years of lifespan that he had spent in the Earthly Void Realm.
Otherwise, if he had remained in the Yellow Profound Realm, it was uncertain whether these two hundred years of lifespan would have been enough to reach the ninth level of Spirit Transformation.
Moreover, in his current state, although he had successfully reached the peak of Spirit Transformation, his lifespan had not increased significantly.
If he did not undergo the tribulation now, who knew if one day he might pass away in his sleep while in seclusion.
Since he was already close to death, there was nothing to lose.
“Rumble.”
From within the oppressive, dull thunderclouds, thick, blue-purple lightning arcs descended, engulfing the old body.
Following that, continuous, terrifying lightning strikes rained down.
Simultaneously, thousands of miles away from the thunder tribulation, four figures stood together, their eyes filled with solemnity.
They were naturally the other four cultivators who had been captured back then.
One of them suddenly spoke, his tone filled with complexity and a hint of worry.
“That old fellow Huang Tao is about to break through to Void Returning. I wonder if he can succeed.”
“What if he doesn’t succeed? He is the oldest among us. If he doesn’t attempt to break through to Void Returning again, perhaps he’ll die of old age without even knowing it.”
At their words, the four couldn’t help but sigh.
“Indeed, the lifespans of us old fellows are dwindling. Within fifty years, I also plan to attempt a breakthrough to Void Returning.”
As they spoke, the four figures continued to gaze at Huang Tao, who was undergoing his tribulation beneath the Void Returning stage thunderclouds.
As time passed.
The Void Returning stage thunder tribulation, which had initially seemed to be just warming up, appeared to have reached its peak.
Wave after wave of terrifying lightning struck down incessantly.
The pressure that Huang Tao, within the thunderclouds, endured grew increasingly immense.
Judging by the cultivators who had previously undergone the Void Returning tribulation.
The current tribulation had barely passed two-thirds of the way.
Yet, Huang Tao, who was undergoing the tribulation within the thunderclouds, seemed to be weakening, nearing his limit.
Seeing this, the hearts of the four observing the tribulation grew heavier.
Li Qi also watched Huang Tao undergo his tribulation quietly from within the Heavenly Dao space.
And at a certain moment.
As a bolt of lightning descended again from the Void Returning stage thunderclouds, completely engulfing Huang Tao, whose lifespan was nearing its end.
Li Qi’s eyes flickered slightly.
The control mark he had previously left on Huang Tao was completely gone.
But Li Qi knew that this did not mean Huang Tao had used some method to erase his mark.
He lacked the ability, and he wouldn’t dare.
At the same time, the four old men standing thousands of miles away fell into complete silence.
The Void Returning stage thunder tribulation in the sky was slowly dissipating.
But this was not because the tribulation had been successfully passed.
It was because…
In the center of the thunder tribulation, Huang Tao’s figure had completely vanished.
Of the five individuals from the Yellow Profound Realm, Huang Tao, the first to undergo tribulation.
Had failed.