Zhong Ziqing achieved Shattering the Void and departed, leaving Xu Qingtong standing there alone, desolate with a sense of loss.
Lü Wenqiu was also taking it hard. He and his senior brother had weathered storms together for nearly two thousand years. Their affection ran deep, and they had sustained each other through hardship. Though they had never become Dao Companions, their bond surpassed that of Dao Companions. Suddenly, like swallows flying separate ways, they had parted. The pain of separation needed no words!
"Qingtong, let's go back!" Lü Wenqiu called to Xu Qingtong.
Only then did Xu Qingtong come to his senses. He nodded silently and followed Lü Wenqiu back to Tianhua Mountain.
"Master, did Senior Martial Uncle succeed?" Du Siwen asked anxiously, holding little Cute Baby.
Lü Wenqiu nodded slightly. "He should have succeeded! You two go back first. I want some quiet."
Xu Qingtong gave Du Siwen a meaningful look, then bowed and returned to the Spring-Knowing Abode.
Phoenix Mausoleum Mountain lay over a thousand li west of Law City. Xu Qingtong had once come here with Huang Chengquan and the others, and had obtained Han Minghui's belongings in a secluded cave abode.
At that moment, a man and a woman stood atop one of Phoenix Mausoleum Mountain's peaks. The man was elderly, his hair and beard white, with the bearing of an immortal. The woman looked only in her forties, a beauty past her prime whose charm still lingered.
Xu Qingtong knew both of them. They were Tianji Zi of the Heavenly Mystery Palace and Nalan Xue of the Jade Sound Pavilion.
"Fellow Daoist Tianji, did Zhong Ziqing really go to the Spirit Realm?"
"I can't say for certain whether he went to the Spirit Realm, but he did indeed leave!"
In a quiet cave abode