While Ling Qing was destroying a world and sacrificially refining the Azure Emperor Nine-Layer Gate, who knew how much time had passed in reality.
The two merely sensed things briefly and knew that Lu Qing and the others, as well as Shi Fan's group, had long since returned to China.
The Heian-kyo instance dungeon had already been torn apart and picked clean to the bone, so there was naturally no reason for them to remain.
After leaving Japan and reaching the high seas, Ling Qing released the Star River Warship and took Wu Tiantong back to the Eastern Heavenly Gate.
There were no farewells to speak of. Wu Tiantong headed straight for the Special Affairs Department, while Ling Qing returned to the Green Wood Grotto-Heaven by way of the Five Sacred Mountains Blessed Land.
His fellow disciples were all busy cultivating, and his own heart was filled with countless thoughts. He had no inclination to chat or reminisce.
Arriving at his own cave abode, he activated its restrictions and began his secluded cultivation.
Unlike the others, who would casually enter seclusion for three to five years, or even decades and centuries, to raise their cultivation, Ling Qing had rarely spent long periods in seclusion since he began cultivating.
Even when he devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation, he usually lived as normal, merely focusing all his attention on cultivation.
Yet this time, whether it was refining a whole world with the Nine-Layer Azure Gate or the insights he had gained from seeing that long river, he needed to calm his heart and slowly digest them.
Inside the cave abode, Ling Qing sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, his aura absent as he merged with his surroundings.
Within his Purple Palace, an acre of cloud-light drifted about, his Primordial Spirit seated within