“Have you seen Qi Manwei?” Lan Xiaobu showed no concern for the Thunder Saint’s injuries; his worry was entirely for Qi Manwei.
The Thunder Saint nodded. “Yes. After the Reflective Path Saint fell, I was disheartened and planned to leave the Land of Eternal Life. Since I lack a primordial treasure, I decided to enter the Burial Path Great Plain to refine my Great Path.”
Refining his Great Path was a pretext. The Thunder Saint had heard from the Heavenly Mechanism Saint about a fourth step beyond the Creation Saint realm and intended to pursue it.
Having lived in the Land of Eternal Life for so long, how could the Thunder Saint not know about the Burial Path Great Plain? Unsure if he’d ever return, he planned to use the plain to purify his Great Path before wholeheartedly seeking the fourth step.
Zeng Feiyu, standing nearby, found it amusing. Disheartened? More like terrified that Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji would come for him.
Lan Xiaobu, of course, saw through the Thunder Saint’s intentions. Besides purifying his Great Path, what else could he be doing in the Burial Path Great Plain?
“Your injuries are from the Burial Path Great Plain?” Lan Xiaobu glanced at the Thunder Saint, his tone flat.
He was certain the Thunder Saint hadn’t touched Qi Manwei. If he had, he wouldn’t dare show his face here.
“Yes. After entering the Burial Path Great Plain, I kept going deeper, travelling for over a century…” the Thunder Saint nodded.
Lan Xiaobu looked at him in surprise. Travelling deeper into the Burial Path Great Plain for over a century was no small feat. Even when he and Mo Wuji had spent considerable time there, they hadn’t ventured deeper continuously.
The deeper one went, the stronger the burial laws became. When Zhen Changyuan and the others mentioned the sudden intensification of the burial laws, capable of burying a cultivator’s entire Great Path foundation, Lan Xiaobu had wondered if the innermost burial laws were spreading outward.
“If you were purifying your Great Path, why go deeper for a century?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
With the Thunder Saint’s speed, travelling inward for a century and then appearing in the City of Eternal Life so soon seemed implausible.
The Thunder Saint nodded. “It shouldn’t have taken so long. But a few years after entering, a vision suddenly appeared in my mind—a great tomb deep in the Burial Path Great Plain, the ideal place to purify a Great Path. To do so, I had to reach it.
Not only that, but a clear path to the tomb appeared in my mind. So, I sped up, eager to reach it. After over a century, I finally arrived and began purifying my Great Path. That’s when Friend Qi suddenly ambushed me.”
“You’re saying Qi Manwei followed you for over a century just to ambush you?” Lan Xiaobu stared at the Thunder Saint in disbelief.
The Thunder Saint nodded, then shook his head. “I suspect she initially followed me to ambush me, but later, like me, she sensed the great tomb in the Burial Path Great Plain and reached it before I did.”
“Why would she follow you?” Lan Xiaobu asked, puzzled.
The Thunder Saint hesitated, thinking, *Why did Qi Manwei follow me? You’re her dao companion—don’t you know?* But since Lan Xiaobu asked, he answered, “Because Qi Manwei was upset that I, along with the Eternal Life Saint and others, surrounded you in the City of Eternal Life. She wanted revenge and followed me all the way to the Burial Path Great Plain.”
Lan Xiaobu sneered. “Qi Manwei was only in the Derivation Realm. How could she follow you and seek revenge?”
It took the Thunder Saint a moment to realise Lan Xiaobu didn’t know Qi Manwei had reached the Creation Saint realm. He said, “Friend Qi has already stepped into the Creation Saint realm, and her strength far surpasses mine.”
Her strength wasn’t *that* much greater—likely comparable at best. But in front of Lan Xiaobu, the Thunder Saint naturally exaggerated Qi Manwei’s prowess.
Qi Manwei, a Creation Saint? Lan Xiaobu was stunned.
He recalled sensing someone in the Land of Eternal Life stepping into the Creation Saint realm, but he had dismissed it as unrelated to Qi Manwei. Now, he realised his mistake. The Creation Saint laws he sensed had contained both spacetime and immortal laws because the Immortal Saint had also broken through at the same time.
Lan Xiaobu quickly pieced it together. He had promised Qi Manwei that if she reached the Creation Saint realm, they could become dao companions. While searching for him, she must have learned that he and Mo Wuji were being besieged by the Eternal Life Saint and others in the City of Eternal Life.
Given her personality, she wouldn’t let that slide. Spotting the Thunder Saint, she followed him, eventually reaching the Burial Path Great Plain. There, like the Thunder Saint, she received a sudden vision of the great tomb and its location. At that point, she stopped tracking him and followed the vision, arriving at the tomb alongside him.
“Go on,” Lan Xiaobu said, his mood growing heavy. If Qi Manwei had been trapped in the Burial Path Great Plain because of him, he couldn’t rest easy.
As for the Thunder Saint’s injuries, Lan Xiaobu felt they had nothing to do with Qi Manwei. If they did, the Thunder Saint wouldn’t be here.
The Thunder Saint nodded. “When I reached the tomb, a voice in my mind urged me to sacrifice my Great Path, to bury it at the tomb’s edge, and I would glimpse the opportunity for the fourth step…
At that point, I shuddered instinctively. I was so consumed by the idea of the fourth step that I was about to bury my Great Path. That’s when Qi Manwei ambushed me. I snapped awake and realised she, too, was about to bury her Great Path. My arrival startled her, so she attacked me abruptly.”
“Where’s Qi Manwei?” Lan Xiaobu’s expression shifted. After obtaining the Heavenly Mechanism Bone, he had vaguely sensed that the Creation Saint realm wasn’t the ultimate, though he wasn’t certain. He and Mo Wuji had only felt the limitations of the Land of Eternal Life, not a clear indication of a fourth step.
Now, with the Thunder Saint mentioning the fourth step, Lan Xiaobu was convinced there was indeed a fourth step. The Thunder Saint likely knew because he had reached the peak of the Creation Saint realm.
The Thunder Saint sighed. “Friend Qi’s ambush, triggered by my arrival, was meant to keep us both清醒, to prevent us from being drawn back into the tomb’s illusion. She told me to leave the Burial Path Great Plain immediately and made me swear to deliver this message to you. She wanted you to know she didn’t fail to find you but perished in the Burial Path Great Plain. And she hopes you never enter it. Friend Lan, I’ve fulfilled my promise. If you wish to act against me, I accept it.”
Lan Xiaobu was dazed. He hadn’t expected Qi Manwei to reach the Creation Saint realm so quickly, completely beyond his predictions.
Likewise, he hadn’t anticipated that she would pursue the Thunder Saint for attacking him, intending to deal with him before finding Lan Xiaobu.
Her final ambush and message were because she knew if she let the Thunder Saint block the tomb’s burial laws to let her escape and deliver the message, he wouldn’t agree.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu silent, the Thunder Saint remained still.
After a while, Lan Xiaobu came to his senses and clasped his fists to the Thunder Saint. “Thank you, Friend Thunder, for bringing me this message. If you don’t mind, you can heal here. I have some questions for you.”
The Thunder Saint quickly said, “Friend Lan, ask away. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Lan Xiaobu nodded. “What did you sense in that tomb? Is the extreme spread of the Burial Path Great Plain’s burial laws related to it? How did you escape, and was Qi Manwei still there when you left?”
The Thunder Saint answered promptly, “Around the tomb, I indeed sensed a Great Path aura—immensely vast. I’ve been a Creation Saint for years, having proven my path with the Thunder Scroll, but I could still tell that aura surpassed Creation laws. I’m not sure if it was the fourth step’s aura. As for the changes in the Burial Path Great Plain, I believe they’re tied to the tomb. When I came to my senses, I felt Qi Manwei blocking something from burying my laws, giving me the chance to activate my Eternal Life Talisman to escape.”
“Isn’t the Eternal Life Talisman for leaving the Land of Eternal Life?” Lan Xiaobu asked, puzzled.
“The Eternal Life Talisman can also be used to escape from the Burial Path Great Plain back to the outside,” Zeng Feiyu interjected.
