Returning Home After Shattering the Void

Within the Space Passage, bizarre and dazzling sights flashed rapidly past.

Xiao Chen stood with his hands behind his back, the Power of Space around him flowing obediently like gentle lambs. His twenty-four-year-old face bore a trace of weathered sharpness far beyond his years. The aura of a Seven Star Dou Venerate was perfectly contained, and only when his deep eyes opened and closed did they occasionally reveal a gleam powerful enough to make mountains and rivers change color.

"Fourteen years..."

He murmured softly. Before his eyes seemed to appear once more the slightly run-down streets of Wutan City, his father Xiao Zhan's stern yet kindly face, and that little snot-nosed brat who had always followed behind him, calling him "Brother"—Xiao Yan.

That sudden spatial storm had swept him away as a ten-year-old child into the broader, more brutal world of the Central Plains. Fourteen years of fighting through life and death, countless brushes with death, had forged the Seven Star Dou Venerate he was today—Xiao Chen!

"Rip—"

Ahead, space was forcibly torn open, and the long-missed familiar aura of the Jia Ma Empire rushed toward him. Xiao Chen took one step forward, and his figure appeared high above the skies. His lightning-sharp gaze instantly locked onto the rolling mountain range below, as well as the majestic cluster of palaces atop it.

The Misty Cloud Sect!

At that moment, countless auras of varying strengths erupted from that area. Killing intent soared into the heavens, while the roars of colliding energy were clearly audible even from the high sky.

"A battle? At this point in time..." Xiao Chen frowned slightly as he calculated inwardly. Could it be... after the Three-Year Agreement, when Brother Yan came to the Misty Cloud Sect in search of Father?

At that thought, icy killing intent spread from his body, and the temperature around him plummeted. He remembered that in the original story, his younger brother had suffered immensely here and nearly lost his life!

"Misty Cloud Sect, if my father and brother suffer even the slightest harm, today will be the day your sect is erased from existence!"

Before his words had faded, his figure vanished from the sky like a ghost.

Misty Cloud Sect Plaza.

The scene was utter chaos. Xiao Yan was covered in blood, and even the Purple Cloud Wings on his back had grown somewhat dim. He leaned on the Heavy Black Ruler, breathing heavily, yet his eyes remained stubbornly fixed on Yun Shan with fierce defiance.

Yao Lao's power was fading, while Yun Shan, this newly advanced Dou Zong, placed far too much pressure on him.

"Xiao Yan, this sect gave you a chance. You are the one who failed to cherish it." Yun Shan stood in the air, his tone indifferent and faintly teasing, like a cat toying with a mouse. "Hand over the soul within you, then cripple your own Dou Qi. This sect may spare the Xiao Family from death."

"Pah!" Xiao Yan spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his eyes wild and unyielding. "Old dog, if you want to touch my father, step over my corpse first!"

"Stubborn fool!" Yun Shan's face darkened. With a sweep of his sleeve, a massive cyan wind blade condensed, carrying the force to tear apart everything as it slashed toward the exhausted Xiao Yan.

Hai Bodong, Ling Ying, and the others were all being desperately held back by the Misty Cloud Sect elders. Xiao Yan was about to perish here.

"Yan'er!" Xiao Zhan, imprisoned to one side, watched with his eyes nearly splitting apart.

Yun Yun closed her eyes in anguish.

Everyone believed the outcome had been decided.

At that critical moment—

"You want to touch my brother? Did you ask me?"

A calm voice, yet one containing supreme majesty, seemed to descend from the nine heavens, ringing clearly in every person's ears.

The voice was not loud, yet it carried a strange power. The terrifying wind blade, capable of killing a Dou Emperor, abruptly froze just three feet from Xiao Yan's forehead. Then, like fragile glass, it shattered with a bang, breaking into the most basic motes of energy and dispersing into the world.

"Who goes there?!" Yun Shan's expression changed drastically as he shouted. To dissolve his attack so effortlessly, the newcomer's strength was unfathomable!

The entire plaza instantly fell into Dead Silence.

Everyone stared in horror toward the source of the voice.

At the center of the plaza, space rippled like water as a tall figure slowly stepped out from within.

The newcomer wore a simple green robe, with black hair cascading loosely over his shoulders. His features were handsome, and he looked only a little over twenty, but the accumulated years and vast pressure within his eyes made no one dare meet his gaze.

He did not even spare Yun Shan, who faced him as though confronting a great enemy, a glance. His eyes fell directly upon Xiao Yan, who was covered in blood and staring in stunned disbelief.

The coldness and killing intent in his gaze instantly melted away, turning into endless warmth and guilt.

Xiao Chen walked before Xiao Yan. Looking at the face that was seventy percent like that little brat in his memories, yet so much more mature and resolute, his voice trembled almost imperceptibly.

He raised a hand, wanting to pat his younger brother's head, only to realize that his brother had grown taller than he was. In the end, he merely patted Xiao Yan lightly on the shoulder.

"Brother Yan, your brother is back."

Xiao Yan stared blankly at the young man before him, who was both unfamiliar and faintly familiar. That word, "brother," seemed to cross fourteen years of time and strike the softest part of his heart. He opened his mouth as countless questions surged through his mind, but in the end, they became only one choked word:

"Brother...?"

Xiao Chen smiled faintly, and his smile carried a reassuring strength.

"Yes. Leave the rest to your brother."

He slowly turned around. When his gaze fell upon Yun Shan again, every trace of warmth on his face had transformed into winter-like frost.

In an instant, a terrifying aura as vast as an abyss and as mighty as the sea erupted from his body without the slightest restraint!

The clouds in the sky were instantly blasted apart, and the entire Misty Cloud Mountain began to tremble violently. Every Misty Cloud Sect disciple in the plaza, including the Dou Wang and Dou Emperor elders, shook beneath that aura. They could not even maintain their Dou Qi wings and fell from the air one after another.

Yun Shan bore the brunt of it. He felt like a tiny boat tossed upon a raging sea. His face instantly turned pale as paper, his eyes filled with boundless terror and disbelief.

"Dou... Dou Venerate?!!"

Xiao Chen stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at this ruler of the Jia Ma Empire. His voice was calm, yet it pronounced the final judgment:

"Yun Shan, will you kneel and beg forgiveness yourself, or shall this Venerate... personally tear down your Misty Cloud Sect?"