After leaving through Dong Ye's portal, Yuan found himself back in the Eighth Heaven.
"You could've at least said goodbye to your family," Yuan said to Xiao Hua, who emerged from his Dantian afterward.
"Why?" she asked with a genuinely puzzled look on her face. "Well… forget it." Yuan sighed.
Lingyue appeared a moment later and asked, "Brother Yuan, where will you be going next?"
"I'm going to visit the Myriad of Techniques first before I head to my next destination—the vault this key opens," he replied while showing the sword-shaped token.
"I see. It's been a long time since you visited your friends, after all."
Some time later, Yuan arrived at a nearby city. However, Myriad of Techniques didn't exist in the city, so he had to teleport to another one that did. Upon arriving at the Myriad of Techniques, Yuan entered it.
"Welcome to Myriad of Techniques!" A beautiful woman greeted him at the door.
"Hm?" The woman suddenly raised her eyebrows. "You… why do you look so familiar? Have we met before?"
Yuan responded with a smile, "Maybe."
"What's your name?"
"Yuan."
"Yuan… Yuan?!" The woman exclaimed with a shocked look on her face, and she started analyzing him from head to toe.
"No way… I can sense Immortal Qi emitting from you, but that's only possible for those who have entered the Immortal Realm!" she muttered in a dumbfounded voice.
"That's because I am at the Immortal Realm. A True Immortal, to be precise," he said.
The woman's jaw dropped, leaving her mouth wide open.
"It's been a while, Miss Zhu. How have you been?" Yuan suddenly greeted her.
This woman was Zhu Yuying, someone he met during his first visit to the Myriad of Techniques.
"You're really… Yuan?" Zhu Yuying muttered in disbelief.
He had changed so much since their last meeting. Not only had he grown taller and more strikingly handsome, but the sheer speed of his cultivation left her utterly stunned.
"Is it really that hard to believe?" Yuan chuckled at her exaggerated reaction.
"Of course! I have never seen anyone progress as fast as you!" she exclaimed.
"Anyway, what are you doing here? Looking for more techniques? Or…?"
"I'm here to speak with Senior Bai. Is he available?" "He was… until a few hours ago."
"Where did he go?" he asked.
"I'm not sure, but it seemed to be an emergency."
"In that case, I'll leave him a message and come back later."
Yuan retrieved Senior Bai's communication jade slip and left him a message.
"You have Master Bai's communication jade slip? Just what is your relationship with him?" she asked, her eyes full of curiosity.
"Close friends, I guess."
"Is that so… By the way, do you have to leave immediately? It's been a while since we last spoke. Why don't we have a little chat? Who knows, maybe Master Bai will return soon."
"I guess I can stay here for a little." Yuan nodded.
"Great! Give me a moment to find a replacement."
Zhu Yuying retrieved a communication jade slip and spoke into it. A few moments later, she said to Yuan, "Alright, let's go."
"Is it really that hard to believe?" Yuan chuckled at her exaggerated reaction.
Zhu Yuying led Yuan to a private room used by those working in the Myriad of Techniques. After serving him some simple tea, she asked, "So, what have you been doing recently? Since your cultivation improved so much, I guess it's mostly training, right?"
He nodded, "Yes. I took a trip to White Hell." "White Hell?!" she exclaimed, and nearly dropped her teacup. "That means you're already in the Eighth Heaven…" "Remember when I said we could meet again once you reached the Fifth Heaven?" she chuckled.
"At that time, I also couldn't have predicted how fast I'd climb the Nine Heavens."
The two spent the next hour catching up. Yuan shared stories of his recent adventures without mentioning any of the crazy stuff, while Zhu Yuying spoke about her experiences as a disciple of the Gates of Heaven.
"To be honest, I was recently promoted to the Gates of Heaven in the Seventh Heaven, so I no longer need to work in Myriad of Techniques. However, I still decided to come back here one last time, so this will be our last meeting here," she said.
"Gates of Heaven, huh? I'll take a look when I have time," said Yuan. "Make sure to visit me when you do!" Zhu Yuying chuckled.
Yuan nodded.
At that moment, Yuan sensed Senior Bai's communication jade slip trembling.
"Looks like Senior Bai responded," he said as he listened to Senior Bai's message.
A moment later, he stood up and said, "He said that he'll be coming soon and that I can wait in his world."
"Alright. I'll lead you there."
Once they arrived, Zhu Yuying said, "See you next time at Gates of Heaven."
"See you." Yuan nodded before entering Senior Bai's world to wait for him.
About ten minutes later, Yuan could sense another presence entering the world.
When Yuan finally saw Senior Bai, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Senior Bai looked utterly exhausted, as if he hadn't slept in ages.
"Sorry for the late response," Senior Bai said as he landed before Yuan.
"No worries. Did something happen? This is my first time seeing you look so tired."
Senior Bai rubbed his eyes and sighed, "It's related to the Celestial Overlords. It's in a mess right now because of some crazy bastard."
"Crazy bastard?" "Our faction's karma suddenly plummeted out of nowhere, throwing everyone into a frenzy," explained Senior Bai.
Yuan tilted his head slightly, still looking puzzled.
"You know how factions gain karma when their members perform righteous deeds, right? Well, the same karma declines when someone does the opposite." "The Celestial Overlords have always held the highest karma among all factions in the Nine Heavens, and it's been that way since its founding. But for some reason, our karma has recently plummeted to rock bottom, shocking everyone."
"With how drastically our karma has fallen, someone must have committed a crime so heinous it defies imagination. After all, even slaughtering an entire city of innocents wouldn't cause such a massive decline."
He continued with a troubled look, "What's worse is that, under normal circumstances, we can track every member's karma. But this time, for some reason, we can't trace the cause of this phenomenon at all, almost as if it was committed by a ghost."