Xuandi was silent for a long time, then gently shook his head.
The motion was slight, yet it carried the relief accumulated over hundreds of millions of kalpas.
"There is no need to rebuild my Dao Foundation."
"I am already but a remnant soul. Making it this far was sheer luck."
"If not for clinging to a single obsession, I fear I would have scattered away long ago."
"Now that my obsession has been resolved and my Karma cleared, my wish has been fulfilled. I no longer wish to trouble myself."
He paused, then raised his eyes to Xuandu. In the depths of those bright eyes lay a tranquility unseen in all his hundreds of millions of kalpas.
"You should go. Go do what you must do."
"I will remain here, guarding this secret realm, guarding the last foundation of this Heavenly Domain."
"If one day you break through to Hunyuan Taiji, you may return to see me. That way, it will have both a beginning and an end."
Xuandu looked at him and fell silent for a moment.
Then he bowed slightly, lowering himself in a full salute.
"This Junior will remember Senior's instructions."
"If I one day break through to Hunyuan Taiji, I will surely return and speak with Senior again."
Xuandi looked at him, and the smile on the corner of his mouth deepened a little.
"Good."
"I'll wait for you."
As those three characters fell, the stagnant light screen in the void slowly dispersed.
The purple clouds of Golden Ao Island, the smiling faces of the Human Race Cultivators, and the turning of Houtu's Samsara Seal all turned into a rain of light that scattered through the pure white void.
The rain of light fell upon Xuandi, upon Xuandu, and throughout the core of the secret