Returning from the Immortal World

Tang Xiu gave his young brother a look of schadenfreude. He, too, had been pressured to get married and have children countless times previously. As his younger brother had become an adult, Tang Xiu’s mother had shifted focus from him to his younger brother now. As Tang Xiu watched Tang Xing leave, he chuckled inwardly as breaking free from such pressure was also a type of happiness.

Nefas Abyss.

Tang Xiu had been making preparations to visit this place for a few years already, as a lot of the resources he needed to cultivate were items related to the Demon Realm. Even though he had an abundant amount of Demon Stones and Demon Crystals, a lot of these resources could only be obtained in Nefas Abyss.

Tang Xiu’s sole focus right now was to cultivate and achieve breakthroughs. Even though he was the emperor of the Great Tang Empire, his current strength only allowed him to contend with an early-stage Perfected Golden Immortal Stage expert. He would have no choice but to ambush or flee from a middle-stage Perfected Golden Immortal Stage expert as he simply had no chances of winning in a direct battle.

“Master.”

A beautiful figure floated into the room with a smile on her face. Gu Yan’er arrived before Tang Xiu with a golden lotus that shone with a golden luster in her hands and said, “The Golden Lotus Regulus from the Lotus Sea in Chacledoneum has already shown signs of manifesting. Now is the best time to harvest it.”

Tang Xiu’s sight fell on that golden lotus. He could faintly hear a weeping voice from within the golden lotus. After some time, he placed this golden lotus in his hands, searched its interior with his spiritual sense, and entered a golden space after breaking through the barrier with ease.

A mini-human-like golden entity who seemed to have donned starlight on its body was hugging its knees and weeping inside this empty golden space. Its tears, a viscous golden liquid, turned into specks of starlight and drifted all over this space.

“It has already formed a sentient soul.”

When Tang Xiu saw the thumb-sized mini-human-like entity raise its head, he looked at it with his spiritual sense and revealed a smile. After withdrawing his spiritual sense, he poured his Primal Chaos Force into the golden lotus while chanting an ancient immortal incantation that turned into a river of immortal character and merged with the golden space.

“Waah…”

The golden entity blinked and stopped weeping suddenly. It sat on its knees and allowed the Primal Chaos Force to enter its sea of knowledge. The immortal incantation that had turned into immortal characters were akin to delicious and nutritious food to it, so it absorbed them rapidly.

Gu Yan’er revealed a somewhat annoyed expression as she watched this action of Tang Xiu and stamped her foot in anger before turning around to leave, leaving behind whisperings of words, “Such goody shoes you are. It’s such a great restorative treasure, yet you’re actually helping it evolve into an essence. That’s no fun at all…”

Tang Xiu’s lips curled into a smile as he saw Gu Yan’er leave. Three days passed by, and when Tang Xiu had expended almost half of his Primal Chaos Force, he let out a somewhat surprised sigh and stopped pouring in the Primal Chaos Force. Then, he beamed a smile and said, “Little Golden Lotus, how come you haven’t thanked me yet for granting you this immortal fate?”

The golden lotus turned into a hazy golden light and transformed into a naked petite girl before Tang Xiu. She had fair skin and looked very adorable, but unfortunately, she was only a few dozen centimeters tall. She did appear very good-looking when she smiled.

“Thank you, Master.”

Tang Xiu smiled and said, “You’re pretty clever to have actually recognized me as your Master right away. I’ve already transmitted the transformation art to you, so dress up now!”

“Understood!”

The little girl spun around, and in the next instant, she had donned a battle armor similar to the one Tang Xiu wore. The only difference between them was the insignia on it. Tang Xiu’s battle armor had nine golden dragons on it while the little girl’s battle armor had nine golden loti.

Tang Xiu continued, “The golden lotus enters battle in this strife-stricken world. You shall be called Battle Lotus henceforth. Go look for Andy now, and learn cultivation from her.”

Battle Lotus, who had been conferred a name just now, inquired, “Who is Andy? Will she treat me well?”

Tang Xiu said, “Andy is my woman, so she will naturally treat you well. Wait for her outside the palace, she will be there soon. Go now.”

“Understood, Master.”

Battle Lotus nodded cutely and flew outside.

The golden lotus gaining human form was just a brief interlude to Tang Xiu. He was willing to help any plant that had awakened its wisdom to gain a human form as his Great Tang Empire’s strongest force was none other than a thirty thousand-year-old behemoth-ranked immortal monster.

A few months later, Tang Xiu declared he was entering closed-door cultivation and handed control of the overall affairs of the Great Tang Empire to Gu Yan’er and Apotheon Bella. Then, he secretly left the Misty Spring Ocean for the Nefas Abyss. As this trip would be filled with danger, he was accompanied by four Perfected Golden Immortals, as well as Old Sycamore, who was in the Supremacy Stage.

Two years later, Tang Xiu and his group arrived at Nefas Immortal Domain. Nefas was separated from Immortal Lyceum by hundred immortal domains and was located in an extremely desolate region in the Immortal World. It would take at least a few months for even a Supremacy Stage expert to travel from here to the nearest immortal domain through teleportation.

“Master, the entrance to Nefas Abyss is right ahead of us. I’ve visited the Nefas Abyss once. It’s a very chaotic place, and it’s pretty common to encounter robbers or killers even if it’s at the entrance zone,” Seaway Monarch explained as he surveyed the black vortex ahead of them.

Tang Xiu’s lips curled into a smile as he said, “I once got blocked by robbers at the entrance of Nefas Abyss, but the result of that was that I snatched a lot of their treasures instead. Let’s go in. Although we haven’t brought much wealth with us from the Great Tang Empire, we have amassed some amount of wealth over the past two years while journeying over here. That should be more than enough for us to spend at Nefas Abyss.”

Seaway Monarch’s lips twitched a few times when he heard Tang Xiu refer to the wealth as just “some amount,” and made him look to the other side silently. Actually, it would have just taken one year for them to have reached here from the Immortal Lyceum with their speeds. However, his Master had robbed a lot of people throughout the journey to gain some wealth. The wicked cultivators especially got the worst of it since they not only lost their wealth but also their lives too.

According to his calculations, the amount of wealth they had amassed over the past two years would be at least worth a hundred million Crystal Essences.

Soon after, two figures entered the black vortex and appeared inside a dark world after the spatial teleportation had ended. There were no sun, moon, or stars, and the vast sky was in the color of a gloomy grey. The floor was made of black hearthstone and was pretty hard. There were also all kinds of grotesquely shaped plants growing here, and most of them were all black or red-colored.

Nefas Abyss had a total of nine layers, and each layer was as huge as one of the great immortal domains. The indigenous population and the cultivators from the Immortal World, Demon Realm, Monster Realm, Spirit Realm, and Asura Realm that lived in the first layer weren’t that strong, so the chances of danger were pretty low here. However, each deeper layer was much more dangerous than the upper one, and the strength of experts also increased in tandem.

In truth, Nefas Abyss didn’t belong to the Immortal World. Yet, it also didn’t belong to any of the other worlds and was instead a nine-layered dimension. However, a deific expert had opened portals to all the realms from here, and as a result, this place became a nexus of chaos and a paradise for countless sinners.

Kind-hearted people would get swallowed whole here and not even have a bone left for burial. It wasn’t a place where a fable similar to the farmer and the snake would ever take place.

“Which layer are we visiting, Master?” Seaway Monarch asked, after checking that there weren’t any cultivators present in the vicinity.

Tang Xiu said, “To the ninth layer, Nefas City.”

Seaway Monarch’s breath turned rushed as he smiled bitterly. “Master, how about letting Supreme Sycamore accompany you while I return to the Heavenly Abode?”

Tang Xiu chuckled and said, “Rest assured. Although there’s a lot a danger from the sixth layer to the ninth layer, unless we’re attacked by a powerful enemy, it’s too early to let Old Sycamore and the rest come out. We will rest for a while in the Lost Nefas Forest when we reach the sixth layer. There’s an expert from the Spirit Realm who sells Myriad Spirit Immortal Wine there. Don’t you want to have a taste of it?”

“Myriad Spirit Immortal Wine?” Seaway Monarch gulped down and said with a smile, “I tried it once before, but I was only able to purchase a cup of it and had to spend a whole one million Immortal Crystals for it. However, its flavor really is the best among wines, and it’s also pretty beneficial to the body.”

Tang Xiu smiled faintly. “It’s already been thousands of years since I last had a sip of Myriad Spirit Immortal Wine. There are many good wines in the entire Immortal World. However, there’s perhaps only a few that can compare with Myriad Spirit Immortal Wine.”

It took a few days for the two of them to reach the entrance of the second layer. They never thought they would have a smooth journey yet end up getting blocked at the entrance to the second layer. Moreover, the person who blocked them was a muscular middle-aged with an unkempt beard who had a broken sword on his back.

“Selling swords,” the 150 cm tall man stated in an overly stiff tone.

Tang Xiu laughed at the man’s attitude and said, “Are you going to force us to buy it?”

“Yes!” The middle-aged man slowly pulled the broken sword from his back, and then, he handed it over to Tang Xiu. “20 million Crystal Essences, not one less.”

Tang Xiu rolled his eyes and said unhappily, “Do you think we are spendthrifts? Isn’t it too outrageous to sell a broken sword for 20 million Crystal Essences? That’s almost the price of a 9th-grade immortal artifact, while this is just a broken sword, that’s all.”

The middle-aged man said, “I need Crystal Essences, so you won’t be making a loss.”

Tang Xiu said in a cold voice, “So what if you need Crystal Essences? That doesn’t matter to me at all. If you want to do business with me, you’ll need to let me appraise your item first. If I think it’s worth that much, I’ll naturally strike a deal with you. However, if I don’t feel like it’s worth that much, it’s up to your skills to place a sword on my neck to make me pay or else I won’t even take out a single Immortal Stone to give you.”

After saying this, he took the broken sword and poured his Primal Chaos Force inside it. To his shock, unlike other immortal artifacts that rejected his Primal Chaos Force a bit, it had smoothly entered this broken sword.

There were only two possibilities for such a thing to occur.

The first one was that it was an immortal artifact personally refined by the individual. After nurturing it inside the body for an extended amount of time, the immortal artifact would gain sentience and become the individual’s immortal life artifact.

The second one was a situation similar to how Tang Xiu had obtained the divine sword. An individual could go through a trial of fire and become the artifact’s owner by gaining its recognition and make it into their divine life artifact.