Within the inner demon illusion.
Qin Ming had finally found the crucial point of that nearly forgotten obsession buried deep in his heart!
It had kept his thoughts from flowing freely, preventing him from breaking through into the Body Integration Realm for so long.
It turned out that old fellow Cai Lao Jiu still had not repaid his debt!
That trace of karma from the mortal world had been infinitely magnified by the Heavenly Demon Genesis Tribulation, becoming the shackles that kept him from leaving the illusion.
But now that Qin Ming had seen through it all, he was at peace.
Gradually.
Before long, the river of time returned to when Qin Ming had achieved the status of a Golden Core Adept and returned to the Cloud Marsh Great Wilderness.
In Qingyang Market's Shantytown, dawn had just begun to break.
A wooden door opened in a winding alley, and an old farmer-like cultivator emerged, carrying a spirit hoe over his shoulder as he prepared to head out to work. This man was Cai Lao Jiu.
However, he had already reached his seventies and had aged considerably.
Before leaving, Cai Lao Jiu looked wistfully toward a small courtyard not far away—the place where Qin Ming had once lived. Then he headed toward the spirit fields.
Along the way, he encountered many neighbors from the Shantytown, who teased him:
"Yo! Cai Lao Jiu, with those old arms and legs of yours, why aren't you staying home to enjoy your old age? Why are you still going out to work?"
"I heard that neighbor who was especially close to you back then became a Golden Core Adept. Why didn't you rise to glory alongside him?"
"Then again, that makes sense. Why would a Golden Core Adept think highly of little bottom-dwellers like us?"