Chapter 581 Light at The End

"But no matter. Once we arrive at the Beyond we'll manage, my old master was a friend of the Wisest Sun, if we were to meet with them or at the very least, the people who worship the Wisest Sun, we'd be able to get refuge and asylum," he said.

"Who is the Wisest sun?" I asked.

"The very person who made the keys that created the vast expanse. I have little knowledge about it, but the thing around your fingers, that vast understanding of Law and elements, that was the lifelong work of the Wisest Sun. I'm pretty sure that at the very, very least, he'd be interested in someone like you, who was born in the lesser world and was able to grasp his teachings," said the old man.

"Then we have a goal and a destination, what are we waiting for?" I asked.

"Let me burn some incense for my people, then we can leave," he said.

I nodded to the man and waited by the door of the palace.

The old man opened his holding bag and pulled up an incense stick. One would think it too little for the mass of people that died here, however, the incense stick the old man pulled was the size of a pillar.

He lit it up and placed it in the main throne room, allowing the scent to primate the whole of the area we were in.

Soon the old man knelt down and then bowed until his head touched the ground toward the incense stick.

He remained there for a bit then stood up, wiped his eyes, and said, "Let's go."

The old man flew up, and I followed suit, there was no destination in mind as it seemed we were just flying through this void. But soon the old man stopped, "Here, it should be enough," he said and then pulled up a rusty old sword.

All he did with the sword was swing once then place it back in his holding bag.

I didn't seem to understand what happened, but the laws of space which I'm a bit familiar with seemed to have been affected.

The tunnel that had collapsed on me earlier was now opened once again.

"Let's get in," he said. And the two of us entered the tunnel.

"How come you were able to do that? I thought since you were exiled you wouldn't be able to leave," I asked.

"Exiled and imprisoned are two different things. Being Exiled here means that I wasn't allowed back into my motherland, but being imprisoned would have meant that I couldn't go back anywhere. As long as I avoid the lands of the Darkest Sun for now, we should be free to move about in the beyond. Not even the Darkest Sun would dare barge into another Sun's lands just to kill someone like me. Although he can send a lot of people to do that job, we're better off dealing with that kind of people for now," he said.

I nodded to the old man.

I was going to a new land, and thankfully I had a guide. Otherwise, with what happened I would have probably fallen into the territory of a hostile population and would have been in massive trouble.

I don't know why I was separated from the rest of the group, or if everyone had suffered the same fate as I did, all I can do is wish for their safety and once I have more information and knowledge I'll go looking for my friends.

"You never once asked me about my name," the old man said as he moved forward through the tunnel.

"There never was an opportune moment," I said.

"It's Fu Tian," he said.

"Same name that the Shadow told me…" I said.

"Indeed, it was after all a part of me, so it also carried my name, but that isn't the case anymore, I'm no longer a part of the Tian clan."

"You're discarding your family?" I asked.

"No, my family is dead, what I'm discarding is the association with the Darkest Sun. He had brought us nothing but misery. Thus, I'm changing my last name to Shen," he said smiling.

I frowned for a second, but shrugged, "You can do whatever you want," I said as the two of us continued forward. 

Time kept passing, or the semblance of it. Time isn't really a thing where there are no spatial focal points to take for reference. However, the feeling of time trickling down was constant within me.

And after a while Fu Shen asked me, "You know of me, but I have not the slightest knowledge of you, tell me of your life, Shen Mo,"

Since there was nothing else to do and pass up the time, I began telling him my story.

Without mentioning the fact that I came from a completely different world, I began telling him the story of starting Lucid Spring Village.

How I had not been able to cultivate, with broken meridians, how I had grown old looking for a cure, and how I found salvation within death after being captured.

How I turned from an old man to an abomination of disease and sickness due to the poison that permeated my body.

And how I tried and struggled through life carrying nothing but the will to move forward. Immortality was never my goal, but it was a tool for me to satisfy my endless curiosity about this world.

That pursuit helped me meet with Yuyu and with the treatment of her illness, then the fight against the Three-legged Raven sect. My meeting with Zhang Tian in the Celestial city which was apparently a fragmented part of the very place we were in.

The understanding of formation from Master Rain's intricate work and the development of my own way of creating inscriptions. Then the assault on my home planet, its destruction and then me heading to the heavenly academy.

I couldn't speak of many things as I kept their secrets, but the old man was attentive and kept listening.

I continued on with my story, about how I sought the Dao and ascended. How I met the Golden Titan back in the past of the Heavenly Academy and learned more from him than I ever thought possible. How I helped him get his final peace in the Under-Void.

I then told about my journey to a new world where I fought against a King Class corpse and won, and how I was captured and trapped, by the hands of vile people, then to be released in the presence of Zhang Tian, my sworn brother.

Then I explained more and more about the Poison God's Heritage and its trial, and how we had to fight tooth and nail against impossible odds, fighting only for the purpose of losing at the end, but instead how by struggling we conquered the trial and I left it a winner only to fall prey to the Primordial Serpent God.

Then a new venture started within the stomach of a planet-consuming beast that I ended up consuming instead. 

The old man didn't interrupt me not even once as he continued listening more and more and soon we reached the point of fighting the Fire Lord and how somehow he escaped, only then did the old man ask.

"Did the hand look like this?" he asked as he pulled his palm forward and it projected the picture of a decrypt-looking hand with a golden ring that carried a red symbol on it.

"Yes…"

"That's the Darkest Sun… he intervened," said the old man.

"…"

"It matters not anymore, you ventured through seas of fire and mountains of blades yet came out victorious, that is not something that any random person can do. Climbing all the way to where you are from the Vast Expanse is proof enough of your ability, and now, you'll have the chance to do so in the Beyond," said Fu Shen. "Especially since we arrived," he said.

And right at the end of the tunnel, there seemed to be a light…

"Here I come I guess."