The ravine started to fracture and crack, its pieces disappearing into nothing even before it could become one with the world, revealing the soft grass and the azure sky of the Barren Plains.

The ravine was a spatial dimension created by Tian Gui, who used himself as the fuel and the core eye that held it all together. But now that he has met his own demise, it was only natural that the spatial dimension would break apart.

The crimson swords of the moon and the azure scarf of the stars started to fizzle in and out of existence, one instance corporeal, another incorporeal. But Hou Shu didn't even glance at them. He was shaking, shaking like an old withered tree that was about to fall over at any moment.

At this moment, the three Yan slowly descended, each of them having a solemn expression on their fierce faces. They didn't speak, as if hesitating over a great matter in their Sea of Consciousness.

Yet, the uncomfortable silence was broken as they dropped down to their knees and cuffed their fists, kneeling towards Hou Shu.

Yan Que Zi spoke out, "I, Yan Que Zi, 63rd Patriarch of the Yan lineage of the True Fire Sect greet the Young Guardian!"

The wrinkles on Hou Shu's face creased as he let out a carefree soft chuckle, but one could feel boundless sorrow and regret buried deep within it, "The past is in the past, neither True Fire Sect nor the Immortal Passageway exists anymore, so why should Huo Jing?"

"Young Guardian, the oath..." Yan Que Zi, the fierce man who led a force that is one of the Seven Hegemons, a ruthless Soul Transformation expert, one of the few that almost everyone in this world wouldn't dare to look in the eye, uttered those words with great difficulty and care as if he was a junior greeting a senior, not having any demeanor of a great expert.

"Just like the oath your ancestors made, I too made one," Hou Shu looked down towards his scarf and swords, which had turned into an incorporeal mist, "An oath to Heaven and Earth to never use them again, to never let the identity of Huo Jing walk out of the passages of history." The incorporeal mist dispersed into countless particles, dissipating from the bellows of Heaven and Earth.

"I may have broken it for my disciple, but no matter other than this will make me break it," Hou Shu's voice firm and unyielding, but it gradually mellowed out, "So you should meet your daughter, for I know how eager you are."

Hou Shu spread his bloody and torn start embroidered robe towards the grassy plains to his left, releasing all the people Tian Gui abducted to be used as guiding flames from his life storage ring.

Yan Que Zi didn't delay any further and instantly appeared in the middle of the unconscious guiding flames, before his daughter. He quickly picked her up and tightly embraced her among his strong arms, "Zi'er..."

Seeing this, a gentle smile spread across Hou Shu's lips, with his current appearance, making him seem like an elderly who has seen the world.

Soon, he turned towards the two elders, the tall Yan Li Yun and stout Yan Shen Jun, who were still kneeling, and spoke in a soft voice, "Since Daoist Que Zi is busy, I will have to bother fellow Daoists and request that they care for the rest of the cultivators Tian Gui abducted."

"Of course we will, Daoist Hou doesn't need to worry at all, we swear by the name of the Yan family!" They spoke both at the same time, but the reverence in there was something that didn't exist in the past.

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Taking in this sight, Hou Shu couldn't do anything but helpless, as he let out a small peal of laughter and shook his head, saying, "Then I will take my leave, please say my farewell to Yan Que Zi, take care!"

Despite their reverence, Hou Shu still bowed towards them and then waved his hands towards the guiding flames, making a gentle wind come by, which made Bai Ling float as she gently made her way into his hands as he carried her close to his bosom.

Without any delay, on the clear and azure sky of the Barren Plains, Vajrayana appeared once more, taking Hou Shu in. Thus, it spread its majestic wings like a kun transforming into a peng, and quickly ascended into the sky, as if desiring to visit the Northern Oblivion Pool, soon leaving Yan Shen Jun and Yan Li Yun behind on the ground as they watched this majestic view.

Yet, just as Vajrayana was crossing through the overturned sea-like azure skies, above the forests upon forests of the Nanqing Immortal Province, the sky in front of it started to glow and squirm like maggots, and from it, Yan Que Zi appeared.

"Daoist Hou may have forsaken the oath, but this one will at least keep my word, please take the reward fellow, Daoist!" Saying this, he brought out a pristine black box.

It was a box made out of a strange metal, for it didn't have the sheen most metals have. Instead, it seemed to devour all the light it was in contact with. And when the black box's lid opened slowly, revealing the abyss-like interior, it seemed like this box had been molded by the void itself.

From the abyssal gorge of the black box, a faint light, a light as if someone shined it through dewdrops, rose, revealing a sphere that was neither light nor was it matter, but certainly had existence. It was the Illusory Nurture Gu, refined by Granny Jia Zhu herself.

At this moment, Hou Shu, with Bai Ling in hand, appeared on the bow of Vajrayana, standing straight like a spear. As if expecting him, he let out a soft smile and said, "Daoist Que Zi is being too polite, without fellow Daoist's help, how would I form the True Flames of All, not to mention defeating Tian Gui?"

But this time Yan Que Zi didn't relent, "We could only enter because Daoist Hou discreetly burned a pathway through the Bloodline Restriction Array when marching towards Chijia village, not to mention that Tian Gui, although afflicted with Mortality, couldn't sense us approaching because felloe Daoist kept him occupied!"

Hou Shu burst out into a hearty laugh, his eyes turning into crescents, "I am not just being courteous, I don't need it anymore."

Hou Shu's injured Nascent Soul left his body and rose to the skies, becoming corporeal on its own as it aged, from its child-like appearance to adolescence to adulthood to its prime. But it didn't stop, it continued to grow, not in age but in size! And it grew, grew and grew! Until it rose to a gargantuan figure spanning thousands of li! Formation of the Origin Soul, the mark of those in the Soul Transformation stage!

"Sever the Spirit! Return to oneself!"

The Origin Soul shook, then slowly dissipated throughout the heaven and earth, making the skies burst with seven colors of the rainbow as countless figures from the both past and future appeared on the painting that was sky, as if the Heaven and Earth themselves were rejoicing!

Hou Shu's hair once again turned to black as all the wrinkles on his face smoothened out like northernmost snow, his figure burst out with an aura, an aura countless times stronger than Great Completion Nascent Soul but it was not the aura of Soul Transformation!

At this moment, Bai Ling, who was carried by Hou Shu, fluttered her eyelashes, finally awakening. But at the sight in front of her, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Tian Gui... No... Is that you, Master?"

Hou Shu's laughter went away as he lowered his head, meeting his gaze with his disciple, giving her the gentle smile she was all so familiar with.

He then turned towards Yan Que Zi, who was frozen mid-air with his eyes bloodshot, both dumbstruck but also filled with boundless anticipation, then towards the various figures in the sky, who lowered their heads, as if showing their respect and reverence.

He spoke with majestic awe, his voice thundering throughout all four corners of the world, as if announcing to the Heavens and Earth "From henceforth, the Yang Spirit shall be severed, for the Immortal Dao has recovered!"