While the Tu Shan avatar was busy in the Northern Plains, Jiang Ding had already left the Great Sun Celestial Pool. He descended through the atmosphere, entered the planet, and returned to his home in Banyan City.
Jiang Ding walked through the residential complex. As always, curious gazes followed him.
He paused.
It was happening again. Yet again.
The last time he had come home might have been decades ago, or perhaps more than a century. Back then, he had met a pair of neighbors, a young married couple.
But this time, they were gone. He had not even seen them grow old.
Across this entire complex, the place where he had grown up from infancy, there was no longer a single person he knew.
Even if he met someone now, they would be gone by his next visit.
Jiang Ding lost all desire to greet anyone or meet his new neighbors.
He went straight home, took out his key, and opened the door.
He had been gone only a few decades, yet another thick layer of dust had settled over the house. He spread his Great Sun Annihilation Sword Domain and spent some time cleaning it.
Jiang Ding carefully infused everything around him with Immortal Sword Intent, preserving the television, tables, chairs, quilts, pots, bowls, and utensils so they would remain as they had been more than four hundred years ago.
"That should do it..."
Jiang Ding swept his spiritual sense through the house. After confirming that he had covered every corner with Immortal Sword Intent, he nodded in satisfaction.
As long as he lived and the house suffered neither an external Spirit Transformation-level attack nor a prolonged Nascent Soul-level assault, the furnishings would not decay. They would stay just as they were until his mother and sister woke