Douluo Hall, cemetery.
Beneath a newly built tombstone, Murong Huai lay quietly inside a crystal-clear coffin of black ice, dressed in a gold-trimmed robe. His eyes were closed, and his consciousness had fallen into endless darkness.
"Where... where am I?"
Murong Huai looked around in confusion. The boundless darkness was like cotton soaked in ice.
His consciousness drifted through the dark. Time did not pass, there was no up or down, and even pain gradually grew indistinct. He could no longer sense how long he had "existed."
He had no idea how long this went on. It lasted until Murong Huai almost felt he would slowly scatter into the darkness, becoming the most inconspicuous wisp of Soul Power between heaven and earth. Then, suddenly, a speck of warm golden light slowly drifted in from the edge of his sea of consciousness.
The light was so gentle that Murong Huai's consciousness stirred despite himself. It floated to the core of his consciousness, trembled softly, then scattered into a warm haze. A voice so familiar it made his heart quiver slowly sounded in the darkness:
"My good disciple, who would have thought we'd meet again like this?"
"Master?!" Murong Huai's consciousness jolted, almost breaking through the shackles of darkness. "Hadn't you already passed away? How are you..."
The glowing orb was none other than the Dragon Pearl the Time Dragon King had left Murong Huai before passing away.
"I did pass away, but I left a wisp of consciousness here, waiting for this day." The Time Dragon King's voice held the composure of one tempered by the years.
"Did you foresee this day long ago?" Murong Huai asked in astonishment.
The Time Dragon King nodded. "That's right. Before I passed away, I used the Great Prophecy spell to cross through time and