Tianyi's eyes widened as he looked up. Although he was a vast distance away from the Huang Realm, he could still sense its destruction. "Is this what Senior Immortal Court Spirit meant by price? Isn't it too big?"

No wonder Immortal Court Spirit had to contact him secretly. If Sect Master Xia knew of the price, he would definitely disagree. Hell, Tianyi would disagree too. The price of a realm and all the lives within would weigh too much on his mind.

He stood there uncomprehendingly as he felt the released realm essence resulting from the Huang Realm's destruction. Tianyi's body twitched as he rushed towards the broken realm, wanting to save whatever life he could, but before he did, a voice entered his ears.

"What are you doing?! Hurry up and enter the Nether Realm. The entrance won't last long!"

A chill crawled up Tianyi's spine. What would happen if he was a member of a branching timeline? No, even now, he could not guarantee that he lived in a timeline with lower priority than all the ones the Buzhou Immortal Sect existed in.

He gritted his teeth and averted his eyes. The Cosmic Cloak shrouded Tianyi's body as he entered the closing portal to the Nether Realm.

On the other side, the Nether Realm trembled as it received an influx of souls, creating spacetime distortion. One of them suddenly widened, but just as soon, it began to close. As it almost disappeared, a humanoid figure popped through.

Tianyi scrunched his face and looked down at his body. His black robes were in tatters; even his cosmic cloak couldn't protect him. Worse, he was even missing one of his hands, and there were several gashes on his body leading to the Nine Heaven Universe.

"Ugh, this is the worst injury I have received since I've became an immortal. And I need to upgrade the cosmic cloak. It can no longer keep up with me," Tianyi said

He looked around him to see a depressing world. There was no grass or vegetation at all, and what trees that existed were leafless and seemed dead. Drab colors filled the realm, not helped by the perpetual twilight and the blood-red moonlight.

'This isn't helping my mood at all.' Tianyi thought. He sighed, closed his eyes, and spread his arms.

Soon, the air, the spiritual qi, and even parts of the landscape swirled toward Tianyi. As Tianyi converted matter into energy and absorbed them, his wounds started to heal. Even his missing hand regrew.

Now that his hand had healed, Tianyi took out the Heaven Bearing Seal. He did a preliminary refinement and mastered the basics. Now, he could sense where the major destinations were. There were the ten Yama Palaces where the souls of the departed were judged, the Nether Capital where most of the ghostly residents lived.

Oh, and there was the Bridge of Forgetfulness, where Old Lady Meng makes the souls preparing to undergo reincarnation drink the soup of forgetfulness. Well, the proper name was the Five-Flavored Tea of Forgetfulness.

More importantly, the Three Lives Stone was said to be placed in front of the Bridge of Forgetfulness.

Tianyi decided to fly there first. After he retrieved the Three Lives Stone, he could take his time. He turned into a black stream of light filled with tiny motes of light.

Even without the Heaven Bearing Seal, Tianyi was pretty sure he would recognize the Bridge of Forgetfulness. The bridge was thin, supremely so. It seemed like it would collapse any moment and fall into the River of Lost Memories.

There was a crazy amount of departed spirits on one side. Rather than spirit, they seemed closer to the walking dead, zombies. All of them were trying to rush through the bridge and overcrowding it.

Some were pushed into the River of Lost Memories. There, skeletons would pop out and drag those departed souls into the river with them.

Once the souls reached the other side, they seemed to have lost all motivation and just started to wander around.

'Is this fine? There's no one guiding them and taking care of them. If they don't reincarnate, new lives won't be born. No wonder this timeline is doomed. Although... I feel that there are too many souls right now. Have they recently become deceased? I can't see an end to them. Just what kind of event would...'

Tianyi's thoughts stopped as pity, and a bit of guilt entered his eyes. He gazed at the endless horde of souls. He tried to count how many there were, but even with his immortal sense, it was impossible to calculate the exact number.

Billions, trillions, or perhaps even more?

Tianyi shook his head as a gloomy aura surrounded him. 'I better just get the Three Lives Stone and leave. Staying here will just make me depressed.'

His eyes zeroed in on the stele-like stone in front of Bridge of Forgetfulness. When he flew over, he was surprised by how reflective the surface was. Although, he could still see the character Three Lives written on it.

Since a throng of souls surrounded it, Tianyi flew next to it and grabbed the top. He pulled, and pulled, and pulled...and puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllld...

"Move, dammit!"

No matter how much strength Tianyi used, the Three Lives Stone wouldn't budge even a single inch. It was as if it was part of the land, and even when the land started to shake, the stone didn't.

Although a few souls fell into the River of Lost Memories because of the quakes. Tianyi had to make a quick apology to those souls.

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He roared and then grabbed the Three Lives Stones with both of his hands, but even with the full power of both his hands, he still couldn't make the divine artifact budge even a single bit.

"Just what do I have to do to move this damn thing?" Tianyi asked in frustration. It was the first time he met something that he couldn't budge with his brute strength. 'Oh, maybe I should see if the Heaven Bearing Seal can help.'

Tianyi took out and tried to control the Three Lives Stone through the intermediary. A while later, he realized that the Heaven Bearing Seal couldn't control the Three Lives Stone, but he discovered some information about it.

The Three Lives Stone was intricately linked to the Nether Realm. It wasn't as if the Nether Realm would be destroyed if he removed it. Though, the operations of the Nether Realm would definitely change if he did so.

If taking the Three Lives Stone destroyed the Nether Realm, Tianyi would have to consider giving up the Concealed Sovereign's mission.

Tianyi grabbed his head, "Grr, then I just have to separate the connection between the Three Lives Stone and the Nether Realm!"

With him at the center, a domain that cut off the external world appeared. Tianyi grabbed the Three Lives Stone again and pulled. The stele-like stone shook as it was slightly shifted from the ground, but the moment it did so, the spiritual qi in the area turned turbulent.

That turbulence interfered with Tianyi's domain and caused the Three Lives Stone to revert to its original position. Afterward, the turbulence died down as if it had never appeared.

'There's actually a spiritual vein under the Three Lives Stone. So this is what it meant by intricately connected. Just budging it a bit will cause untold turmoil and might even shatter those souls. If I want to remove the Three Lives Stone, I can't do it with my domain alone. I'm going to need to transform this plate into a territory of the Nine Heavens Universe and then take the spiritual vein along with the Three Lives Stone.'

Tianyi immediately got to work. First, he expanded the domain and penetrated through the ground. Slowly, he released the essence produced from Ninth Heaven and had them integrate with the environment.

It took over five years for his essence to seep into everything. During this time, Tianyi lent the Heaven Bearing Seal to Daoyi for her to comprehend.

"Universe Assimilation!" Tianyi opened up a portal to the Nine Heavens Universe and connected the land to it, but the moment he did so, tribulation clouds gathered above him.

At an unprecedented speed, far faster than any previous heavenly tribulation or heavenly punishment Tianyi experienced, the tribulation punishment lightning condensed and struck towards him.

Tianyi snorted, and his own tribulation shot through the portal and countered the Heavenly Dao's heavenly punishment. The punishment lightning shattered Tianyi's lightning and struck the ground.

In that instant, Tianyi felt as if part of the region he planned to absorb had been taken over. It was like a go board that had all one single color, but suddenly a few of the pieces reversed.

'The Heavenly Dao is trying to prevent me from absorbing this land?' Ever since the heavenly punishment arrived when he dealt with Lei Jingye and Xi Longyi, he had been careful not to draw another round. Now, it seemed that if he used too much of his Nine Heavens Universe, it would draw the ire of the Heavenly Dao.

Tianyi increased the amount of essence and reconquered the portion taken back by the Heavenly Dao. As the Heavenly Dao continued to send forth lightning, so did Tianyi. Since one of his bolts couldn't match a single bolt from the Heavenly Dao's, then he simply had to increase the numbers.

Defeat quality with quantity!

This war between Tianyi of the Nine Heavens Universe and the Heavenly Dao of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System lasted over ten years.

When the Three Lives Stone and the spiritual vein connected with it disappeared, the heavenly punishment increased by a hundredfold. Tianyi just allowed the punishment of lightning to strike him.

After a prolonged war with the Heavenly Dao, even he was beginning to feel fatigued. And it would waste more energy combatting the punishment lightning than just healing the damage done to his body.

So, he just lay on the ground and let the punishment lightning strike him until it was tired. He apologized to the innocent souls killed by the punishment lightning, though.

'What is with the Heavenly Dao? During the ten years, I seemed to have felt anger from it, but isn't the Heavenly Dao supposed to be emotionless?'

'What's more,' Tianyi's eyes pierced to the center of the tribulation clouds as they continued to gather more energy for the next bolt. 'Isn't it using too much energy? I thought my Nine Heavens Universe had limitless energy, but those ten years actually made me feel a drain.'

'Well, is my Nine Heavens Universe bigger or the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System bigger? Honestly, I don't know.' Tianyi continued to stare at the twilight sky as the lightning continued to descend. 'The Heavenly Dao must manage the distribution of energy in the whole system, taking the surplus and adding to the deficient areas. Isn't using all this energy counterproductive?'

'Unless it's better off to kill me no matter the price? I wonder if the Heavenly Daos of different timelines are connected. Can it sacrifice a whole timeline to kill me? That's scary, but it kinda reminds me of Immortal Court Spirit and the Concealed Emperor.'

"Ain't that a terrifying thought?"

Another ten years later, the heavenly punishment finally dissipated. The whole area around Tianyi had been turned barren. No souls dared to go near it because of the immense yang qi derived from the continuous punishment lightning that lingered.

"Well, time to leave," Tianyi said. He could already sense some gazes locking onto him. Recalling Immortal Court Spirit's warning, he quickly opened a portal and stepped through it.

----------------------------------------

"You seem down," Daoyi said as she and Tianyi flew through the twilight sky of the Nether Realm.

"Maybe," Tianyi said. "I–"

He wanted to tell her about the destruction of the Huang Realm, but he decided that he didn't want it to weigh on her mind, so he changed the topic. "How's the comprehension going? Have you mastered the Law of Death?"

Daoyi nodded. "I did a few years ago."

"So fast?"

"Considering all my advantages, I wouldn't call it slow, but I wouldn't call myself fast either," Daoyi said.

"Yeah, aren't you suppose to break through during a life and death battle?"

Daoyi glared at him. "Do you think this is some hot-blooded novel or manga?"

"Why are you staying as a true immortal then? Why not enter the Seamless Immortal Realm?" Tianyi asked.

"Because I embarked on the Law of Life. I want to Master the Law of Life and Death to build a firmer foundation. I don't know if I can succeed, but it won't hurt to try," Daoyi said. "If I still can't master the Law of Life and Death in a thousand years, I can still use the Law of Death.

"All things considered, a thousand years is like a blink of an eye for us immortals," Tianyi said. He looked forward. "Oh, we've arrived."

In front of them was a high city wall, and above the gate into the city was a plaque with the word "Youdu" written on it. Just from glancing at it, Tianyi could sense the Law of Death within.

They had arrived at the Nether Capital of the Underworld.