"Eldest Brother, Senior Blade Ghost! You're finally back!"
Inside the Pine and Bamboo Residence in the Bamboo Sea Dao Field.
Seeing Xu Taiping and Blade Ghost emerge together from the Dragon-Trapping Tower, Ping'an, who had been keeping watch inside the Pine and Bamboo Residence, immediately stepped forward in excitement.
"Ping'an, how many days were we gone altogether?"
Xu Taiping asked curiously.
Blade Ghost was equally curious.
Ping'an said in some surprise:
"Three days."
Xu Taiping immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's a relief."
Blade Ghost, however, said thoughtfully:
"Before the Netherworld shattered, one day below was ten days above. Now time passes at the same rate in both worlds. It seems the shattering of the Netherworld Edict has slowly begun merging these two worlds."
Xu Taiping's heart jolted.
"The Netherworld merging with the Mortal Realm-that can't be a good thing, can it?"
Blade Ghost said gravely:
"Once they merge, there will be life and death in this world, but no reincarnation."
"When that happens, all living beings in the world will become dead things like ghost corpses after they die."
"Until they perish completely."
"In the end, this cosmos that contains the Shangqing Realm will become a death domain without a single living being."
Xu Taiping's heart trembled.
"Isn't that precisely the day of annihilation that Buddhism has long spoken of?"
Blade Ghost nodded, his expression solemn.
"Although the process will be very slow, taking seven or eight hundred years at the shortest, or six or seven thousand at the longest."
"That's long enough for mortals, but it's hardly good news for cultivators."
Xu Taiping nodded.
"Indeed. Mortals live less than a hundred-odd years, but for cultivators, especially those beyond the Dao Integration Realm, living several thousand years is perfectly normal as long as they successfully undergo tribulation transcendence."