A small boat cut through the strangely still water around Final Curse island, using the darkness of night as a cover. The boat was only barely large enough to hold the people sitting in it, all three of them clad in dark robes that almost made them merge with the darkness around them. The three people were huddled close together, looking over the small 3-d projection that showed the map of the island.

"We'll land on the northwestern shore soon so check over your equipment. The night is hiding it, but don't forget the dark dome covering the entire island, you will not be able to see a damn thing if you don't activate your bracelets. And if you end up lagging behind, we will leave you behind, time is of the essence. It's already been four months since we lost contact with our guy on the island so it's safe to assume that the Elemental Lotus has evolved and the battle for it has taken place."

"Whoever acquired it is definitely wounded after the battle, and taking into account the time needed to heal, they shouldn't have started absorbing the lotus just yet. We might be the first to arrive, but that doesn't mean we can get careless, we rush in and crush anyone still left alive, then we take the lotus and make a break for it. And if the lotus has been absorbed, we bring with us the guy who absorbed it and refine him into medicine, at least that way we won't lose too much."

The voice of the male leader was low and solemn as he once again went over the plan with his associates. A Four-Petaled Elemental Lotus was definitely something that countless people were willing to fight and kill over so his group had rushed here the moment they lost contact with the friend they had living on the island.

There luckily hadn't been anyone here yet, the lotus and barrier of darkness would definitely have vanished if that had been the case. But there was no telling when anyone else would arrive, there were probably hundreds of other groups rushing across the ocean as they were speaking. If they were too slow, another great battle would break out and their odds of getting the lotus would plummet.

The two other men nodded their head seriously, the group of three going over the plan several more times in hushed murmurs, partly to ease their nervousness and partly to make sure that there were no mistakes. Their boat stopped when it touched the shore of the island, all three men hopping out from the boat and plunging into the dark dome that surrounded the island.

Their feet touched the earth within the darkness, a dry crackling sound breaking the previous silence. All three men traced the moon-decorated bracelets that they were wearing, a thin stream of Qi seeping out and congregating within their eyes. The Qi allowed their vision to pierce through the all-encompassing darkness all around them, their brows furrowing slightly as they looked at the ground.

"What the blazes...? This doesn't look like something brought about by the law of death, have you ever seen anything like it?"

The earth beneath their feet was a sickly ashen grey in colour and had a texture similar to dried bones, even their faintest movements caused the earth to fall apart into ashen sand. The strangeness wasn't just present on the earth, even the trees, stones, plants, everything around them looked the same as the earth. The only sound audible was the slight cracking as the things they touched fell apart, causing an eerie sensation to fester within the three people.

"The lotus must have evolved more than expected, the number of deaths in the great battle might have actually pushed it a step further. Stay vigilant and move fast."

The three men hurried away from the shore, following the route they had decided on beforehand as they rushed towards the distant city. They quickly managed to spot the city in the distance, increasing their speed even further when they saw that even the walls of the city had suffered the same fate as the land. But their steps halted abruptly when they got within a handful of kilometres of the city, their expressions twisting slightly.

There were hundreds of corpses scattered across the earth in front of the city, some of them already taking on the properties of the land around them. Others, however, were so fresh that they hadn't even started to rot yet, the Qi within them still in the process of dissipating.

There was a girl sitting on a crude metal throne amongst all the corpses, a large portion of the throne already looking the same as the land around it. The elegant girl turned her head to look at the group, her sapphire blue eyes drilling straight into their souls. She stood up from her seated position with a light sigh, brushing away a few strands of the cyan hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.

"He's resting right now and I don't want anyone to interrupt him so I would really appreciate it if you could just leave. Of course, you can just stay here and join the other corpses, that's fine too."

The three men tensed up once the girl finished talking, the quiet and nonchalant way she was looking at them made them certain that her words weren't just an empty threat. The three men glanced at each other and locked eyes, simultaneously coming to the same decision. There were three of them and just one of her, if they acted quickly enough then there was a chance that they could do it. Their bodies exploded forth with all their power, the girl simply waving her finger through the air.

"Suit yourselves."

The movements of the three men halted abruptly, their bodies twitching slightly. A red line appeared on their throats, quickly stretching out and covering their entire neck, blood spurting forth as their heads slid off and fell to the ground with a dry thud. The girl remained nonchalant after killing the three men, turning back to look at the city with a slight trace of worry in her pupils.

"So this is your Void Storm... You really are as freakish as always."

--

Liang Chen's entire consciousness was flooded by visions of a howling storm and the desolate wasteland that was the void. He could sense his own body and the energy rampaging through it, but the all-encompassing storm roaring within his consciousness prevented him from even being conscious of the thing his hand was resting on.

He could only put all his focus on the energy rampaging through his body, forcing it to move according to his wishes. He hadn't forgotten what he was doing, he knew that there was a good chance that Yumao might die if he made a mistake with his cultivation and became unable to provide Yumao with the necessary blood.

So he wrestled the energy into submission, a daunting task thanks to the never-ending flow of energy that sank into his body. His veins fell apart as the energy rushed through them, boiling, roasting, and disintegrating while his skin slid off in bloody patches. But this was what he wanted, this was what he needed to do right now. Once all his veins and skin had been replaced with a concentrated version of the elements he used for his body cultivation, that was when he would formally enter the Mortal God realm, the body-equivalent of the Primordial Immortal realm.

So he fought, he grit his teeth and endured the pain, he persevered for the one who he couldn't even sense right now despite actually touching him. And bit by bit, his veins, his skin, and the few remaining parts of his flesh and blood that had yet to be replaced changed. They were replaced by a dull grey mass that occasionally blinked in and out of existence, a tremendous amount if exceedingly heavy energy wriggling around within the mass.

And then, before he realized it, the grey mass started to change. Some parts took on a red colour, some became a bit more colourless and transparent, taking on the role of his flesh and veins. And the final part of the grey mass stretched out to cover his flesh, pulsating and hardening before peeling off and revealing fresh skin, the storm in his mind and violent energy in his body vanishing.

Liang Chen's senses fully returned to him, his eyes sliding open and revealing the surroundings to him. The first thing he noticed was that the hand that was supposed to be on Yumao's heart was now touching a black cocoon pulsating with energy. Darkness surrounded him, but his gaze managed to easily pierce through it, he could even faintly peer into the cocoon and see that Yumao was coiled up in it. He didn't seem to be hurt, allowing Liang Chen to let out a sigh of relief, it seemed like things had gone well.

The next thing he noticed after he became unable to drop his worry about Yumao was the change to his surroundings. The land all around him had turned bone-like in texture and taken on an ashen grey colour, some places had fallen apart and disintegrated into ashen sand, making it a nearly spitting image of the wasteland that was the void. Liang Chen's gaze landed on the tiny portal he had opened to the void, his hand stretching out and covering it, closing the portal so that it stopped encroaching on the world.

The storm he had conjured up earlier seemed to have dissipated at some point so the influx of nearly endless energy vanished as he closed the gate to the void. Having finished checking the surroundings, he sank his senses into his body to check up on his own state, checking how much his own cultivation had grown.

His soul cultivation hadn't increased at all, but that was only to be expected as he had focused practically all the energy on his body. His Qi cultivation had increased slightly to his surprise, pushing him into the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. But even so, it was still his body cultivation that had seen the greatest growth. He had perfectly merged the elements he used to cultivate his body and successfully altered everything but his organs, officially entering the Mortal God realm.

He extracted his sense from his own body and clenched his hand, relishing in the tremendous amount of power he could sense coursing throughout him. This wasn't a small leap in power, this was a qualitative change that increased everything but the power of his soul and the three laws he used in his soul cultivation. As he was sensing the power coursing through his flesh, a voice came from behind him, his entire body stiffening as a shock ran through him.

"You really know how to sleep, don't you? You haven't even bothered opening your eyes once in half a year, I almost thought you got lost in some sweet dream. But why is it that every time I see you, your strength leaps forward? I can just be blinking and suddenly you'll have left me in the dust, barely able to look at your back.

That voice was far too familiar to Liang Chen, it was one that resonated with every cell in his body. His head riveted around, his movements slightly stilted due to the shock he was feeling. And then his gaze landed on that familiar face, those sapphire blue eyes and cyan hair tied into a neat braid. The colours were different from the last time he had seen her, having returned to what they originally were, but even if they had changed more drastically, he would still be able to recognize her. That smile she flashed him was one he had seen countless times, one that had branded itself into his mind.

"I've missed you, Little Freak."