With one last unwilling roar, San Jiuling was sucked into the Vast Void. He did everything to return. Immortal Qi of life rolled off his figure, transforming into a green shroud. However, that only decreased the damage from the true immortals.
"Do you think I'll die so ignobly?!" San Jiuling shouted. He did his best to charge back into the Huang Realm, but the attacks didn't just stall him, they pushed him further back.
San Jiuling's dread grew with each moment as he saw the spatial crack slowly shrink. He abandoned all defense, allowing the spells to land and injure him. He knew that if he could not reenter the Huang Realm, he was all but doomed.
Alas, he failed. The spatial crack healed, trapping San Jiuling in the Vast Void.
San Jiuling didn't give up, even as the spatial boundary pushed him farther away. The immortal qi of life covering him thinned until it was like a second layer of skin. The green layer rippled from the harsh environment of the Vast Void.
True immortals would die in the Vast Void, but immortal monarchs and emperors could survive as long as their qi did not run out. However, San Jiuling was an incomplete immortal monarch. He hadn't completed his transformation into a seamless immortal. And in the Vast Void, he couldn’t find any spiritual qi to sustain the process.
Even if he wanted to halt the advancement, he couldn't. He had already started. If he forcibly halted the process, he would suffer a backlash and die without a doubt.
Still, his prospects did not look good. While attempting to reenter, he spent a large amount of his already low qi reserves. Now, his qi reserve continued to dwindle as his body absorbed it to transform.
San Jiuling brandished his spear. Knowing that each second wasted allowed death to creep closer, he struck. His spearhead transformed into white streaks resembling shooting stars. Although he could only be considered a half-seamless immortal, his attack had already solidly reached an immortal monarch's level.
However, only an attack at the immortal emperor level could leave a mark on the spatial boundary protecting the Huang Realm. Unless San Jiuling miraculously became a fifth-step immortal monarch or understood the Law of Space, he had no hope of piercing the barrier and reentering.
Seeing that his attacks had no effect, San Jiuling did not give up and persevered. However, despair slowly took over as his qi dwindled to less than five percent. He stopped attacking to conserve his qi.
Mind spinning, he tried to figure out a way out of his predicament, like he always had. No matter the danger, he would always find some way to reverse his fate. However, no matter how San Jiuling racked his mind, he couldn't find a method to solve his dilemma.
"Am I really going to die here?" San Jiuling muttered to himself. He had released the thin layer of qi, allowing the hostile environment to injure him just to conserve his qi. "Think, what can I do? I've always survived. I've been given another chance at life, I don't want to die ignobly like this! Think!"
"Fool, you can't even keep yourself alive, can you?"
"Turt Little?" San Jiuling called out. His eyes widened in excitement, like a man dying of thirst in the desert discovering an oasis. But no matter how much he called out, Turt Little didn't respond. Just as he started to despair again, the scenery around him changed.
San Jiuling found himself floating inside a white sphere. No longer did he feel the harsh environment of the Vast Void, but it was filled with abundant qi that he could absorb. Through the sphere's thin membrane, he could see the Vast Void outside, but what caught all of his attention was the beast in the center.
It was a giant tiger, but instead of its usual orange pelt, the tiger before him had a black pelt with white stripes all over his body. Another eye-catching feature was the long scar running down one side of his face. The lone eye covering the scar was milky white, blind.
He could feel the demonic qi emanating from the black tiger, but San Jiuling still saluted. No matter what, the demon had saved his life, and he could sense that the demon had strength far above him. "Thank you, Senior, for saving junior's life."
The black tiger snorted. "If you hadn't formed a contract with my old friend, I wouldn't have saved a human like you."
San Jiuling's confusion cleared up soon enough as a small black tortoise floated out of his tamer pouch and stopped next to the black tiger. "Turt Little!"
The moment he said that, he collapsed into a fetal position. "You dare call the mighty Xuanwu that disgusting nickname again, I'll make sure you wish you were dead!"
Without waiting for San Jiuling to react, he turned his body around and lay down. San Jiuling's spiritual beast was placed in some sort of bowl-shaped treasure. Through their link, he could sense that Turt Little was recovering at a fast rate.
Since the black tiger demon no longer paid attention to him, San Jiuling sighed in relief. For now, his life had been saved. He turned around and saw that the white sphere was traveling away from the Huang Realm. Seeing this scene, San Jiuling clenched his hand. 'I'll return in the future and wash away this shame once and for all.'
San Jiuling moved into a lotus position and focused on remodeling his body and fully entering the Seamless Immortal Realm. As time passed, the aura of life emanating from his body increased, giving him a sense of otherworldliness.
Since he majored in the Law of Life, he had some attainments in the Law of Wood and its underlying concepts. After fully stepping into the Seamless Immortal Realm, he fused the qi of wood into his immortal qi of life, becoming a first-step immortal monarch.
When he opened his eyes, San Jiuling felt as if the world had changed. He could sense the worldly law in the Vast Void, but the only danger the Vast Void posed to him now was death from after qi deprivation. 'Why did the sect records all tell of how horrifying the Vast Void was? Although I can't shatter the barrier, the many monarchs who mastered the Law of Space should be able to return, but why didn't they?"
"Done recovering?" Hearing the unfamiliar voice, San Jiuling snapped his gaze toward the origin and raised his guard. He saw a young man wearing black robes with silver dragons and covered baleful aura. He, too, wasn't human, as identified by the two horns sprouting from his head.
The man smiled, not at all concerned with San Jiuling's wariness. "I'm Donghai Longzi. I don't know whether to call you unlucky or lucky."
"What do you mean?" San Jiuling asked.
Donghai Longzi pointed near the center. Under his guidance, San Jiuling finally noticed the floating landmass filled with demons. Unlike Donghai Longzi, they did not take on a humanoid form. "We're demons that were trapped or stranded in the Huang Realm after the Human-Divine Beast War. Demon Emperor Blacktiger would covertly come to the Huang Realm and ferry promising demons."
San Jiuling listened carefully. The demon equivalent of a true immortal was a true demon; the equivalent of an immortal lord was a demon lord; the equivalent of an immortal monarch was a demon king; the equivalent of an immortal emperor was a demon emperor; the equivalent of a sovereign was a great sage.
The black tiger's status as a demon emperor did not surprise San Jiuling much. It was his name that surprised him. 'Isn't calling himself Blacktiger hitting the nail too much on the head?'
"What's the identity of that turtle?" Donghai Longzi asked.
San Jiuling still didn't trust Donghai Longzi. He was a human, and Donghai Longzi was a demon. So, he spoke half-truths. "I don't know. I found him in an immortal grotto and hatched him before contracting him."
"Your spiritual beast may have a special identity for Emperor Blacktiger to address him as an old friend," Donghai Longzi said. Just as San Jiuling thought he would probe more, he changed the subject. "Aren't you San Jiuling, the young master of the Leakless Sect? How'd you find yourself trapped outside the Huang Realm?"
San Jiuling suppressed the shame rising from within. "I didn't expect a demon like you to know of me."
Donghai Longzi laughed, not at all offended by San Jiuling's words. In fact, he took it in stride. "I have to. As a lone demon among humans in the Huang Realm, I have to keep my ears out for potential dangers."
"Though that is no longer the case," Donghai Longzi said, openly looking San Jiuling up and down. "How's the three-way stand-off in the Heaven Continent now?"
San Jiuling couldn't contain the shame anymore. Since the fall of the Leakless Sect, not one thing had gone well for him, and now, he was openly looked down upon and mocked. "If you're looking for a fight, just say it. No need to beat around the bush."
Donghai Longzi blinked a few times in response to his words. "I don't know why your temper suddenly appeared, but I don't mind testing your skills. I haven't had a chance to fight the young masters of first-rate forces before."
"But I have to warn you, I'm far beyond a first-step monarch," Donghai Longzi said.
San Jiuling stared him in the eyes. "Bring it."
The two retreated until there was a distance of around a hundred meters, practically nonexistent for experts at their level. Their incoming confrontation caught the attention of the demons inhabiting the landmass. Even Emperor Blacktiger paid attention, although he didn't deign to turn around and look with his own eyes. Everything within the white sphere could not escape his detection.
A white spear appeared in San Jiuling's hand. While he didn't think his chances of victory were assured, neither did he think Donghai Longzi would be able to defeat him. However, he wouldn't look down on his opponent either. Demons typically had more powerful flesh than even martial immortals.
Donghai Longzi didn't reveal a weapon and just flung his wrist a bit. San Jiuling could see something dark shroud his hands.
San Jiuling exhaled, expelling a misty green vapor. Soon, a green glow covered the spearhead, making it resemble a leaf—if a leaf was sharper than steel. He didn't hesitate and, in a burst of green, charged at Donghai Longzi.
CLANG!
Spear met fist, and to San Jiuling's surprise, he was flung back. It wasn't that he was defeated in a contest of brute strength that surprised him, but the sheer difference between them. He had been forced back over a thousand meters from that single clash.
San Jiuling brandished his spear and didn't give up. He charged again. This time, he didn't aim for a head-on clash but to pinpoint strikes. Like before, Donghai Longzi used his hands to deflect every strike. Each deflection made his hands and arms numb, but San Jiuling persevered.
Now that he was blasted back, he could take a closer look at the black film covering Donghai Longzi's hands. It wasn't energy but scales. Donghai Longzi had partially manifested his true form. Furthermore, his spear strikes couldn't leave a mark on them. The scales must possess the defensive attributes of a monarch artifact.
"Against people at a similar level, your strikes will certainly suppress them and even give you an advantage," Donghai Longzi lightly said. "However, against people like me who can easily block your attacks, you're only wasting your energy. I heard that you possessed nine lifebound artifacts. Why aren't you using them? If you don't, it'll be a bit boring."
San Jiuling disengaged. It wasn't that he didn't want to use them. He would have used them to protect himself in the Vast Void, but they had been damaged when he escaped from the collapsing immortal grotto and when he was chased. Taking them out and getting them destroyed would only hinder him more than it would help him.
"I don't need it," San Jiuling said. A green aura covered his body, and soon, it expanded until it formed a ten-thousand-meter-wide domain.
Inside the domain, Donghai Longzi gazed at his hand as he flexed it. Little green motes of light appeared from his body and floated away. Those motes were his vitality and life force. He could feel them integrate with the domain, strengthening it.
"Impressive, you managed to turn the Law of Life into an offensive technique. Although weaker than the Law of Death, it still has its merits. But." Donghai Longzi stared San Jiuling in the eye, and the latter had an illusion as if the former had suddenly grown into a giant. "It only works if you can fend off my attacks."
Donghai Longzi started emitting black wisps. With a roar, those wisps exploded with thunderous force, spreading and corroding San Jiuling's domain in black. San Jiuling felt his heart go into overdrive as he sensed the destructive aura destroying his domain.
If he allowed the aura to reach him, his body would suffer unimaginable damage. Cutting losses ahead of time, San Jiuling severed his connection with the immortal qi used to construct the domain. Then, he fled out of the domain, all while keeping his eye on Donghai Longzi.
Suddenly, Donghai Longzi disappeared. Moments later, he sensed a condensed aura of destruction behind him. "Behind you."
San Jiuling only had enough time to turn around and hold his spear in a defensive position as Donghai Longzi's fist smashed into it. A wave of destructive qi traveled through the spear and into San Jiuling's body. He was blasted away, all while he left a trail of blood from his mouth.
"I have to admit I'm disappointed. As the Ninelife Young Master, who is in the same generation as Xi Tianyi, you're quite weak," Donghai Longzi said. "Perhaps I'm being too harsh. After all, I'm a fifth-step monarch while you just entered the Seamless Immortal Realm."
San Jiuling gritted his teeth as hatred filled him, "It's not over yet!"
He glared at Donghai Longzi, but to his increasing anger, Donghai Longzi wasn't even looking at him. San Jiuling tightened his grip around his spear, but he didn't recklessly charge. Seconds later, he noticed something wrong.
Not only did Donghai Longzi stare out the white sphere with a grave expression, but Emperor Blacktiger also stood up and stared in the same direction.
San Jiuling focused on healing himself, all the while keeping his guard up. The tension increased to the point that a knife could cut through it. Suddenly, the white sphere split in half, causing the harshness of the Vast Void to assault him.
But San Jiuling didn't care as he stared at the culprit. Without a doubt, the violet-robed woman was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, but she was also the murderer who took everything he cared about from him, Xi Mengfei!
