Emperor Zun remained cold and indifferent, his true body standing beyond the universe as he confronted Gu Tuo, ruler of the Immortal Realm. He was deeply wary of him. After all, according to the inhabitants of the Immortal Realm, it had once shone in magnificent splendor, with True Immortals falling like rain and Immortal Kings gathering in hosts. At its zenith, it had even produced several Quasi-Dao Ancestors who pioneered cultivation methods and nearly broke through kingship to become emperors.
Later, turmoil engulfed the Immortal Dao, and brutal, bloody battles erupted at the end of the Chaotic Ancient Era. Heaven collapsed and earth split apart. The Foreign Realm was destroyed, the Nine Heavens were crippled, and even the Burial Domain was buried. The vast Immortal Realm, hailed as the realm of immortality, could not escape either; the war swept through it and shattered it.
The Immortal Realm now neighboring the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths was only a small fragment, merely somewhat larger than the Human World and the Strange World. Gone was the grand vitality of its former territory, formed from three thousand universes.
Yet even a starving camel was larger than a horse. The Immortal Realm was still the Immortal Realm. Though incomplete, its reserves remained beyond mortal imagination. It might well possess some heaven-defying treasure or world-destroying object.
Whoosh!
A rain of light showered across the great universe, revealing a boundless world. Its skies were high and its lands stretched far, covered with divine medicines and immortal trees. Dragons roared and Golden Crows cried. Ancient and primordial, steeped in untold ages, it brimmed with the aura of immortality.
"My homeland."
The Immortal Emperor fell into a daze. He had cultivated since the Mythic Era, stained his hands with emperor blood, and struggled to cross the mortal dust.