After a few days of dual cultivation with Han Xinrou, Han Ling inevitably had to leave the Open Sky Sect to begin his journey to the "End of the World."
Han Xinrou opened a spatial rift that would take Han Ling as far away from the sect as possible.
"Wait!" Before Han Ling could step into the spatial rift, Han Xinrou grabbed his hand, preventing him from going any further.
"What is it?" Han Ling's voice was neutral and restrained.
"Take this." Han Xinrou placed a storage ring in his hand. Han Ling was a little confused. That storage ring was ordinary—there was nothing special about it.
Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Han Xinrou smiled softly.
"This ring contains a high-level spiritual ship..." her voice became lower and more possessive with each syllable. "...You can use it to go and return quickly, with the utmost protection... I don't want to see my sweetie getting hurt."
Han Ling stared at the ring in his hand, feeling the weight not only of the object but of the concern embedded in that simple gesture. Her touch was still warm, as if her care could transfer through the skin. He lifted his eyes, gazing at Han Xinrou, who was watching him with a mix of determination and fragility.
"Thank you, Xinrou," he said, his voice hoarse, loaded with a feeling that didn't need to be stated aloud. "I promise I'll use it wisely."
Han Xinrou smiled, a smile that seemed to contain all the pain of that moment and, at the same time, the hope of a reunion.
"Don't be foolish, sweetie. Just come back to me as fast as you can, okay? I'm already dying from missing you."
Han Xinrou's eyes glowed for a moment, her gift activating spontaneously and giving her a vision of the future.
Her face turned pale, her eyes filled with fear, and she pulled a manual from her storage ring.
It was the Sword Art of the Immortal Void. She had taken that technique from Han Ling because she saw his inner nature and the sealed goddess within that technique.
She didn't want Han Ling to practice it, but the vision she had just seen made her change her mind.
"Ling... practice this technique..." her voice came out weak, almost pleading.
"Besides 'her' saving your life... you will become unmatched if you 'master it.'" When she said that sentence, it seemed she wasn't referring to the technique itself, but to something else...
Han Ling found that strange but took the manual. His trust in his sister was absolute.
"Alright, I'll master this technique for you." Han Ling's voice was firm.
"Thank you... Just don't go replacing me with 'her'." The words came with a possessive smile. The fear had been erased from Han Xinrou's eyes, but the sadness still remained.
Han Ling nodded slowly, his amber eyes shining with a silent determination. He took a step toward the spatial rift, but stopped, turning to Han Xinrou one last time.
"Xinrou… when I return, I promise nothing will separate us again. Not even the heavens." His voice sounded firm, relentless.
Han Xinrou smiled, the soft glow of tears still glistening in her crystal-clear eyes. "I'll be here, always waiting. In white, in the lotus garden."
Then, with one last soft kiss on her lips, Han Ling entered the rift.
***
Inside the spatial rift, the landscape Han Ling saw was completely distorted; the colors were constantly compressing and expanding. It was like a psychedelic artwork made by someone insane.
The scenery was so distorted that the sense of direction became confusing, making it extremely easy to get lost inside.
However, with the spatial perception of a cultivator at the peak of the Void Refinement realm, Han Ling had no trouble locating himself within the distorted space.
The world around him changed once more—this time, he was in the middle of a garden of spiritual herbs.
The pleasant smell of the spiritual herbs filled Han Ling's lungs with every breath.
"Ahhh... What a wonderful scent, but not as good as Han Xinrou's." Han Ling's voice was calm and serene, as it always had been.
Suddenly, a spiritual explosion occurred in the distance. With his divine sense, Han Ling discovered it was a cultivator in the Soul Formation realm.
He was the owner of the spiritual garden Han Ling was now stepping in.
The Soul Formation cultivator was furious with the audacious cultivator who had invaded his spiritual garden.
However, upon sensing Han Ling's cultivation level, his angry thoughts instantly calmed down. After all, the intruder was a cultivator in the Void Refinement realm. Even if he wanted the entire spiritual garden, the poor cultivator could do nothing.
"Honored immortal, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to my humble spiritual garden?" The cultivator's tone was humble, with no hint of arrogance.
Han Ling ignored the cultivator and simply opened a spatial rift, throwing the poor cultivator into the chaotic space.
After killing the cultivator, the turbulence in Han Ling's heart visibly calmed. His heart had been like that ever since he parted from Han Xinrou. Without Han Ling realizing it, she had already become an irreplaceable part of his life.
Han Ling exhaled softly. Since his reincarnation, he hadn't been able to leave the Jade Peak often, since the Open Sky Sect was full of cultivators in the Tribulation Transcendence and Dao Integration realms, not to mention the nine elders in the Mahayana realm.
Even though Han Xinrou had given him a concealment artifact, he was still weak, so just the pressure of a Dao Integration realm cultivator could seriously injure him and compromise his disguise. For this reason, Han Ling limited his visits within the Open Sky Sect—after all, if discovered, it would mean his end.
So this was the first time Han Ling had killed someone since reincarnating. He would remember it for the rest of his life, treasuring that happy memory.
Coming out of his insane daydreams, Han Ling's mind returned to his goal—to become a cultivator in the Dao Integration realm and return to Han Xinrou as quickly as possible.
Waving his hand, a strange ship emerged from the storage ring Han Xinrou had given him. The ship was completely white with countless formations and spiritual arrays across its hull and deck.
Controlling the spiritual ship was very simple—one just had to use divine sense to steer it and remain at the center of all the ship's formations, supplying the spiritual qi used for movement.
Han Ling didn't waste time and climbed aboard, entering the control room where the core of all the spiritual arrays and formations was located.
Sensing more of the spiritual ship, Han Ling realized that Han Xinrou must have really gone through a lot to obtain it. After all, that spiritual ship could navigate the chaotic space of spatial rifts.
It should be noted that even Void Refinement realm cultivators who could bend space couldn't remain in chaotic space for long.
But that ship could travel through chaotic space indefinitely—and best of all, it could be controlled by cultivators in the Void Refinement realm.
After getting a bit emotional in his heart, Han Ling calmed himself again, his determination hardening even more.
He activated the spiritual ship, opened a spatial rift, and entered the chaotic space with it, returning to the familiar chaotic scenery.
Once the spiritual ship was fully activated, it transformed into a ray of light, traveling through the chaotic space at the speed of light.
This way, what would normally take years for common Void Refinement cultivators could be reduced to just a few months using the high-level spiritual ship.
***
Seven months of travel passed. During those months, Han Ling's understanding of space greatly increased—he even managed to condense a Divine Law of space using the power of law he had obtained through dual cultivation with Han Xinrou.
However, his most surprising achievement in those seven months was that Han Ling had finally managed to comprehend the true meaning of the Sword Art of the Immortal Void, something not even the nine elders had understood.
The fact was, that technique wasn't about swords—it was about opening a portal to another dimension.
Before his departure, Han Xinrou had handed it to him, saying it could save his life, and that he could become unmatched if he could understand the true meaning of the technique.
This made Han Ling curious about what had made her change her mind about the technique. After all, Han Xinrou had taken the Immortal Void technique and stored it, giving him another cultivation method instead—the "Origin Refinement" technique, a supreme-grade technique that allows one to refine any type of Qi.
However, Han Ling's thoughts were interrupted—he was nearing the "end of the world."
"The space in this region is getting more and more chaotic... I think I'm getting close to the 'end of the world.'"
Han Ling stepped onto the deck of the spiritual ship, stored it in his storage ring, and soon after opened a spatial rift, leaving the chaotic space.
FWOOOSH!!
Right after leaving the chaotic space, Han Ling was greeted with an explosion of fire to his face.
The explosion didn't damage Han Ling's body, but it definitely irritated him a lot, as his calm and serene expression shifted to something cold and indifferent.
Looking around, he saw a group of three cultivators chasing a woman.
Even though her clothes were torn and her face dirty, that couldn't hide the fact that she was a beauty.
The woman's face lit up the moment she saw Han Ling appear. Feeling his powerful aura, she ran to him while pleading.
"Powerful immortal! Please save this humble ant from her terrible fate at the hands of these pursuers."
Han Ling watched her for a few moments, surprised that she had sensed his power when he was actively concealing it, then his gaze turned to the pursuers.
While she was just a cultivator in the Qi Refinement realm, her pursuers were in the Foundation Establishment realm.
Which was a shame—three cultivators unable to catch a girl with a lower cultivation realm.
The leader of the pursuers stopped, surprised that Han Ling had survived his attack.
"I don't know who you are, but I suggest you don't meddle in the affairs of the Blazing Lotus Sect."
Han Ling looked around once more, observing the completely scorched landscape as he said sarcastically, "Really?! If you hadn't told me, I never would have figured that out."
In a way, what Han Ling said was true, but the pursuers took it as a provocation.
"Are you mocking me?" the leader said, full of rage—if looks could kill, Han Ling would have been shredded long ago.
"Don't listen to him, let's kill him and take the saintess," a bald cultivator said with a lascivious smile, clearly harboring ill intentions toward the saintess.
The third pursuer, who was also the strongest, had remained silent since he arrived, seemingly lost in thought.
Grinning widely, Han Ling actually found the dynamic of these pursuers amusing—a pity they were going to die.
Thus, Han Ling decided to test his newly acquired spatial law. He used his law to freeze the space around the three cultivators, using the space itself to slowly crush them.
Han Ling didn't hear the screams of the three cultivators, as the frozen space didn't allow the propagation of sound waves. Divine sense could bypass that limitation, but just seeing the expressions of pain and despair on the faces of the three pursuers was enough to temporarily satisfy his heart.
After literally erasing the existence of the pursuers, Han Ling turned to the woman who had been the cause of all this.
The woman was completely pale and trembling—after all, with the cruelty and coldness with which Han Ling dealt with the pursuers, it was hard not to resemble a demon, especially when doing it all with a smile on his face.
She was beginning to regret asking Han Ling for help, but now she had no time for regrets.
***
End of the chapter.