There was a flash of light.

With it, the entire World formed by Nineorigin was torn apart. Beginning from the Sword and spreading to the Nine Elements, a spectacular lightshow could be seen as the ‘World’ formed by Daoist laws disappeared.

The surrounding world returned to the original condition. Upon the ground, Heifeng Jiansui and Nineorigin faced each other. Nineprime, the legendary sword was pointed at the weaponless World Spirit. She looked quite amused.

“So, that sword of yours has Dao laws of the Nine Elements and the Sword engraved upon it… But I didn’t expect it to mirror my own comprehension. Like this, you could breakthrough the Swordworld I created even with an inferior amount of power.” Stroking her hair, she remarked. “I almost forgot that I am the Spirit of the World whose Dao laws you’ve gained enlightenment into. It wasn’t unexpected then, let’s call it a slip of mind.”

“A minute will run out soon. Let’s call it a tie then. This battle is similar to a spar between disciples of the same lineage. Master and disciple, the two of us unexpectedly are like that. Now that the spar is over, why are you still disrespectfully pointing that weapon at me?” Nineorigin’s tone changed from amused to sterm in a blink.

Immediately returning Nineprime to his soul, Heifeng Jiansui gave a martial salute to Nineprime. With a finger flick, a drop of green light flew to Heifeng Jiansui’s body, returning him to peak condition.

That done, she simply summoned the spectating disciples over with a breeze of wind.

Langyu, Fu Li and Fu Ying. The three had an awed expression looking at the ‘Grandmaster’.

“I am quite a mighty existence, aren’t I? Your Master, Heifeng Jiansui’s Quintessence Sword Sect Lineage has only four disciples remaining. You are his closing disciples, his final legacy. As such, you have to try your best to live up to his legacy.” Nineprime glanced at Heifeng Jiansui once before adding.

“Your Fourth Senior Brother is in the Wind Supreme World facing his trial. Now that you’ve been initiated as disciples, after you too shall embark on your trials. Are you willing?” Cold and chilling, Nineprime’s intimidating voice still did not deter the three from nodding.

“Good. As your Grandmaster, I shall grant you this. It will be helpful for your cultivation.” Three streaks of light flashed and three rings were on the fingers of the girls. Spatial rings.

Seeing this, Heifeng Jiansui raised his hands up to the sky, and the energy and law of the surrounds solidified, forming three streaks of light. Three tokens flashed into his hand.

“You can have this, the token signifying your status as my true disciples. Keep it.” Those tree tokens were thrown almost carelessly by Heifeng Jiansui, all immediately caught by the trio.

“Me and your Grandmaster will talk for a while. In the meantime, you can go and take a look in the Treasure Palace, have some good fortune… After you choose a treasure you have fate with, you’ll be whisked off to the Wind Supreme World. Prepare yourselves for your thousand year trial.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui shooed his disciples off.

+++

Finally alone, Nineprime stared at Heifeng Jiansui. “Thanks for entertaining my request for a battle. The pointers very helpful to me.”

“I battled you ‘at my strongest’, without using my trump cards, the sealed Chaos Sovereign soul and Nineprime. Only using the energy of this Ninelight Stellar Circuit did I battle you for a while. While it is undoubtedly detrimental for the Sect… Well, there aren’t any disciples here, so I can’t be bothered with it.” With a morose expression, he looked towards Nineprime.

“I simply wanted to have a battle of laws with you. As expected, the source is the same. What you comprehended originated from the Nineprime Chaosworld, that is, me.” With a complex expression on her face, she looked at him.

“Are you thinking of why I challenged you even though it was your request. Well, the weaker party must challenge the stronger or it is considered bullying. Nothing important…” A wry smile appeared on his face while answering.

“That said, your domain… it feels quite nostalgic for me. As if something I long for is sealed here.” Nineorigin’s words were a statement rather than a question.

“Oh, I think you would have realized it by now. Don’t you wonder what happened to the countless broken and shattered souls in the conclusion of the war that gave birth to you, that should have returned to the Samsara and Heavenly Dao of the Chaosworld? They are sealed here. As their master, I can’t allow them to enter nonexistence.” Nostalgically, he replied.

Countless red threads that bunched together to form chains. They were everywhere. Like razor sharp wires, their broken edges contained a sword intent. The Quintessence Sword Intent.

“The entire Ninelight Stellar Circuit is a place formed to ward off the invasion of the non-sentient Heavenly Dao and the Samsara of the Chaosworld. As you are a conscious World Spirit, you should be able to break through the restraints… But please don’t. My disciples, the ones who gave their soul and spirit to save the Nineorigin Chaosworld, to save you… don’t deserve to be exterminated by the existence that they gave everything to save.” Heifeng Jiansui’s voice cracked as he spoke.

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“Of course, I won’t. But, what do you hope by keeping them like this?” Nineorigin asked.

“It is a necropolis of my mistakes, symbolizing the grave of Sheng Jiansui’s disciples. It is impossible for broken souls to amount to anything other than nutrition for the Chaosworld’s systems after all.” Seeing Heifeng Jiansui’s expression, Nineorigin realized that she had to quickly change the topic.

“Why did you hurry off your ‘closing disciples’ to the Wind Supreme World already? And for 1000 years? That one kid doesn’t have experience living for 25!” The topic shifted to the bunch that she just became Grandmaster to.

“That should be enough to seal off the karma between us. After all Sheng Jiansui, the ‘Quintessence Sword Saint’ should have died more than a million years ago. As Heifeng Jiansui, I need to cut off the few threads of karma as fast as I can.” His tone taking a cryptic turn, Heifeng Jiansui nevertheless answered.

“That’s right. ‘Sheng Jiansui’ should be dead after all. That said, while his body has turned to dust and his cultivation has been destroyed, his Chaos Sovereign soul still shines bright as ever and the treasure he cast his Dao into exists at its full strength as well. What are you planning regarding that?” Nineprime continued with a curious tone.

“Of course, his poor soul needs to be laid to rest. His Dao… now that the Quintessence Sword Dao has been passed on to its successors, it would be fine for the Sword to lay in rest as well. Soul shatters and Dao comes to an end…” Heifeng Jiansui wryly smiled.

“So, that’s the reason why the Yin-Yang Supreme Couple went into a 1000-year seclusion. I guess I will be meditating for a thousand years as well. I wonder what will happen to my sect without my presence though. Would you mind keeping it afloat until I return?” Nineprime asked him.

“Of course, I’ll try my best.” Heifeng Jiansui couldn’t promise anything. While he was her personal disciple, he had no contact with the sect except for meeting Nineprime’s Immortal King protégé that one time.

“This is my final question, then. Did my action of reincarnating you bring you any problems in your plans? I have the feeling that I have disadvantaged you in some manner.” Nineprime had a strange expression as she asked.

“As if. While I did have some fallbacks in case of my death, saving them was quite welcome. You don’t have to worry about disadvantaging me… I am the kind of person the world stands against after all.” With a confident smile, he gave the answer of a tragic protagonist.

“Well then. I’ll be fixing up some issues before my oncoming seclusion. Goodbye.” Having run out of questions to ask, Nineprime decided to bid goodbye.

“I hope your seclusion bears some fruit.”

“And I hope your endeavors are successful as well.”

With that exchange, Nineprime disappeared. Sometime later, his disciples teleported off as well.

Finally, he was alone.

“Karma… No, it is the principle of cause and effect. My current state is simply the effect of the causes I put into place way back then. Even though reincarnation is supposed to sever it…” Idly muttering to himself, Heifeng Jiansui cast out his hands as if to summon something. A bead necklace fell from the sky into his palm.

“I surely am a God in this damned necropolis. I ask, and the world answers. Even a 108 Star Bead Necklace that can be cast as a mortal… I didn’t even know I stashed such a treasure here.” Thinking back, he didn’t bring this himself. So it must have been someone in the sect. The him of that time didn’t care about trivial things…

Carefully pinching the necklace with his fingers, he held the necklace such that it formed a complete 360° circle, with there being a certain distance between the beads.

“72 Earthly Fiends and 36 Earthly Spirits, I ask the stars that are eternal through past, present and future. 28 Stellar Mansions of Four Symbols, I ask for the mysterious strings of fate to unfold before my eyes, invisible karma to be revealed.” His fingers started dancing and the perfect circle transformed into a four-sided rectangle. Inside it, countless red strings flashed.

“Most of the karma of Sheng Jiansui has been mitigated. Yin-Yang Supreme Couple went into seclusion and Nineorigin is following, so that thread can be considered sealed as well. The only one who knows Sheng Jiansui and Heifeng Jiansui is that Nakshatra Shivaputra and there is no way for me to settle that karma…” Most of the chart reflected what he knew.

There were many ways to calculate karma and predict destiny, though the primary way was to cast the Eight Trigrams. Heifeng Jiansui preferred the 108 Stars and 28 Lunar Mansions Divination Art himself. It was quite restricted and wasn’t as versatile as the Eight Trigrams. That said, for simply finding out something as basic as connected karma, it was wondrously useful.

“…Wait what?! Nakshatra Shivaputra is dead?!” As a string disappeared into dust, Heifeng Jiansui realized that heaven had favored him for some reason.

“That woman, who could have killed her? Whatever, I‘ll count it as good fortune. While I intended to enter the Black Phoenix Inheritance for insight into sealing karma, I don’t need to bother…”

“Are you sure? Don’t you want to know about what happened after you reversed fate and chopped off karma like a butcher? Don’t you want to know what happened to your wife and your daughter, those two you fought so hard for? Don’t you want to know why you have a tribulation hanging over your head even after reincarnating? Or do you want to stay like an ostrich with its head underground, with your ignorance an active liability?” A voice of a man appeared behind him.

Without turning back, Heifeng Jiansui knew who had arrived.

“Old programmer bro, long time no see… Since you’ve come, the cause behind Nakshatra Shivaputra’s death is clear… Well not really, but I can imagine.” Looking at the man with a nondescript face dressed in a sharp business suit with a briefcase, many memories welled up within his heart.

"Yeah, I told your wife and she took care of things." A completely toneless voice. The programmer seemed fearful even though all Heifeng Jiansui could see was nondescript averageness.

"I didn't expect we would meet at this moment." Heifeng Jiansui couldn't help but feel uneasy.

“You did go and fulfil my request when it would have been advisable to simply give up and go home. You went above and beyond... It will take a long time to repay you... But since I believe in repaying my debts at the earliest, I came to meet you.” The programmer had a strict code of conduct. That's what Heifeng Jiansui assumed of him.

“As for your first question, your wife is doing fine, she has successfully attained the position of the Asura Sovereign, becoming a superpower in the Hinduism Sector. Your daughter is rising in the Demon Sector, having successfully disguised herself as a Aeonian.

As for your second question, all connections that can be traced to you from them have been severed. Do you want to ask anything else?” The rapid fire answers to questions that had yet to be asked were disorienting, but Heifeng Jiansui persevered.

The uneasy expression on Heifeng Jiansui's face calmed down. But before he could ask, he received an answer.

“By the way, you can call me the Tianyuan Overseer. That’s what I am, the overseer of Earth, the Tianyuan Point in the center of this universe. I am unaffected by karma, for I oversee it. So ask what you will.” Smiling, he waited.