The Road is Blocked, Find Another Way (Two-in-One)

Five years later, at the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect.

It should have been a day like any other, with sect disciples of every sort moving through the sect. But just then, almost without warning, an anomaly rose up, and in the blink of an eye, everything sank into dimness.

Specks of starlight dotted the air.

But that was not light. It was space rippling. Apart from that, everything within the sect seemed to have been slowed down.

Leaves of the Golden Ancient Tree, severed by the "starlight" and falling, dropped frame by frame. Sect disciples walking along the roads also moved forward frame by frame; two seconds passed, yet they had not even advanced half a fraction, leaving only the lingering shock on their faces.

Fortunately, the anomaly did not last long. It was more like an epiphyllum blooming and fading at once, vanishing without a trace in mere moments. If not for the panic of the sect disciples who had recovered, stirring up a tremendous uproar, it would have been as if none of it had ever happened.

Yet less than three minutes later, the Sect Master Order had already been issued, declaring that this was a Soul Skill test by a sect elder, not an attack by a powerful enemy, nor some sudden strange incident, so as to calm everyone's hearts.

As for who the culprit behind all of this was...

"This path is no longer suitable for me..."

Inside the secluded cultivation chamber beneath the Golden Ancient Tree, a soft sigh echoed through the room. Chen Junting, dusty all over yet still brimming with vigor, sat cross-legged on a Sword Platform, but his unruffled gaze revealed not the slightest regret to match his words.

He lowered his eyes slightly. The instant he opened them again—

"Clang—"