Of Lu Yun’s four disciples, the only one to truly learn his craft and be able to practice the Method of Life and Death was Tianqi.

Once the ruler of the human hell, he’d controlled hellfire back in the day. Now with a second Karmic Tree as his nascent spirit, he could control hellfire again. The flame of the Hadal Hell was part of hellfire, so it naturally feared Tianqi.

As for the purple qi circling around him, Violetgrave had helped him refine it. It’d all become part of his body and one with his being. This qi was a product of the third realm that helped chaos creatures evade the energy of the worlds and enter them with impunity.

……

“Who are you?” Hellfire burned in Tianqi’s eyes as he stared into the reaches of the chaos, searching for the purple figure.

On the eve before the destruction of human hell, a pillar of purple flame—similar to what he’d just witnessed—shattered hell with one blow during a massive battle. Though the fall of human dao was part of their plans, the ruin of its hell was a complete accident.

“Who was that just now?” The little fox resumed human form and stood next to Tianqi.

“He left.” Tianqi shook his head. “He’s the one who destroyed the hell of human dao… but I sense no malice from him. Auntie, you can refocus on overcoming the tribulation. I’ll stand guard over you.”

“Fine, fine,” grumbled the little fox, then asked wryly, “and how should I do that? Keep running for dear life?”

“…just sit tight and don’t move. I’ll handle the rest,” Tianqi chuckled ruefully. It was his first time seeing such a weird earthly tribulation. It could communicate with the Hadal Battlefront and use that hell as an origin point?

Given his previous authority over human hell, Tianqi was familiar with the Hadal Battlefront and the hell it’d become. The existences kept under lock and key there could make all of the chaos tremble.

However, there was no time to consider any of that now. He released his nascent spirit and summoned hellfire to subdue the quaking of the earthly tribulations.

All three of the heavenly, earthly, and human tribulations came from the third realm, so only power from the third realm could be used against them.

The ten Yama Kings, as summoned by the Tome of Life and Death, had dispelled Lu Yun’s heavenly tribulation. Since the Tome of Life and Death came from the even more sophisticated fourth realm, resolving that tribulation proved to be an easy task.

Qiu Luoyu possessed the creation seed and the even more terrifying dark fire from Violetgrave, which effortlessly dismantled the human tribulation.

Though Qing Han was only as strong as a sovereign, her true cultivation realm went beyond the chaos. Lu Yun had thought that she would be the perfect guardian for the little fox, but hadn’t realized that she wouldn’t be able to physically interact with the tribulation. Thus, he’d had to send Tianqi as hasty reinforcement.

……

The little fox’s earthly tribulation didn’t last long after Tianqi arrived on the scene. Hellfire didn’t dare approach them, and the bones from the Hadal Battlefront couldn’t contend with his purple qi.

The ripples of the earthly tribulation fully faded away after roughly three hundred breaths.

“Mistress, are you alright?” Qing Han asked with great concern after everything quieted down.

“Eh? Mistress?” Tianqi blinked. “So master took you to his bed, after all?”

“I. am. still. a decent. and. unmarried. fox!” The little fox glared Tianqi into silence.

“Qing Han greets senior brother Tianqi.” Qing Han raised a cupped fist salute at Tianqi. Though she was stronger than him, Lu Yun’s past self had deemed her to be the fourth disciple.

“Ah, you must be junior sister Qing Han. There’s no need for such formalities.” Tianqi quickly returned the gesture. He knew of Qing Han’s existence, but he’d been preoccupied with keeping the connate demon gods at the border of the chaos under control all this time. This was his first time actually seeing this junior sister.

“Eh? What’s this?” The little fox opened her palm to see a string of beads sparkling with purple radiance. Thirty-six in total, they were strung together by a red silk string.

They seemed to be carved from some sort of wood and varied in size. Some were round, some were flat, and the overall product spoke of clumsy skills. However, the beads were also extremely smooth—a sign that they were often held and caressed.

“What is this and why is it suddenly in my hand?” The little fox was at a complete loss.

Qing Han jerked when she saw the beads and opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut again. The tension between her brows slowly faded away, replaced by a hint of happiness.

Both the little fox and Tianqi missed the change in her expression.

“It’s so ugly, I wonder who made it.” The little fox frowned at the beads. “But I also can’t seem to bear to throw it away?”

She held the string of beads up to her face and gently rubbed her cheek against them. For some reason, her eyes grew wet.

“…why?” She regarded herself with surprise. Even her heart welled up with sadness, as if it was missing someone. However, she couldn’t recall who that person was, or ought to be.

“The earthly tribulation has passed, you should go back now, Tianqi. Those connate demon gods aren’t a docile bunch.” The little fox carefully put the purple beads away.

“Alright, mistress, I’ll be going now.” Tianqi nodded back at her.

“Call me your aunt!” She glared heatedly at him.

“…Auntie.” Tianqi chuckled helplessly and released a blast of purple qi, vanishing on the spot.

Qing Han looked wordlessly at the little fox.

……

With the human and earthly tribulations over, Lu Yun could fully relax on the Inception Spiritrial Arena. If either Tianqi or Qiu Luoyu had failed at their task, then he’d have to send out the Bridge of Forgetfulness.

However, as strong as the bridge was, its true spirit was too weak to control its body. In the absence of control, it could only defeat enemies by smashing them to death with its first appearance. Anything after that required Lu Yun.

On the other hand, the bridge still possessed an aura that could crush sovereigns to death, even though it couldn’t move.

Lu Yun still battled Jin Gushen. The two were truly in the thick of things and sought to kill the other with every move. Their combat arts inched toward great perfection, every move and gesture filled with boundless profound meaning that spoke of the beginning of the chaos and the inception of all.

The divine sect and sacred palace disciples around the arena sank into deep thought.

“Ahhhhh!!” suddenly screamed a sixth level mortal realm disciple of the fire elemental divine sect as his eyeballs burst.