The sloppily dressed man appeared on a cliff next to a gnarled tree that was shedding soft pink petals. He puffed out a wisp of purple smoke that curled delicately between the falling flowers to create scenery one might only find within a painting. His eyes were half closed, a very contemplative look that ended with him glancing down and twisting a wooden ring around his finger. The band had a wide circular face with two characters carved into it, one for long and one for life.

This was no common ring and neither was its wearer. After being ejected from the Universe Ring, this man, Guan Zhenyan had stopped to ponder his next moves on one of his favorite levels of the Tianxia Capital. Floor eleven thousand, eleven hundred and eleven. Every level would try to make its number seem more unique to draw visitors. When combined with the varying ecosystems and climates on each floor it made for so many spectacular sights and experiences when Cultivators remodeled landscapes to try to outdo each other. Of course, there were also some levels that were the opposite of this, as its occupants did what they could to deter people from visiting, just like that swampy level where Sage had run into Count Voctem.

Guan Zhenyan rubbed the ring again and sent his senses inside where he saw a weakened soul.

Sage’s final option was to abandon his body and hide inside the Peachwood Ring. The ring was known as a Soul Locker, a storage device that could contain souls within its strangle swirling waters. The reason Sage had been so weak in his body before was that he’d nearly split his soul in half, preparing this final option as soon as he’d felt that rank seven heading toward him with ill intent. The time dilation of the Inner World gave him ample time to create plans and make the difficult decision. By the time the Sea King caught up to him, he’d already suffered the terrible splitting, not just breaking off a small fragment but losing almost half of what remained.

This choice did not come without consequence as Sage’s Nascent Soul was not just his Qi, Spirit, and Mind, but it also housed the whole of the Inner World and the Heavenly Materials he’d incorporated into it. Suffering such a severe weakening of his soul caused natural disasters to ripple through the whole of the Inner World. Cataclysmic damage was inflicted upon the whole of the world, devastating the population and the achievements of their civilization. Sage did his best to keep the damage to the half of the world that was lightly populated. Of the two main continents, the one populated by insects was utterly ruined. The place was mainly used as a giant ranch to breed insects and grow natural treasures, but now it was cracked into many tiny islands, most of them scoured by lightning, lava, earthquakes, or floods in the process. Most places on the Insect Continent had been hit by more than one of these disasters, while those places on the other continent only suffered from one of these disasters happening some distance away.

There were still hundreds of thousands of casualties, but the many millions of others survived even if many of them were made into refugees in the process. The Lang Clan and Purple Mist Sect busied themselves with trying to restore order and help people recover, but their numbers were insignificant among a whole world full of Cultivators.

If there wasn’t a semblance of a Nascent Soul in his body, then there’s no way he could truly appear dead which would put him in further danger. He’d been careful to hide his unique abilities and also to thoroughly fake his death in order to keep any further trouble from finding its way back to his family.

Unfortunately, he didn’t do a good enough job.

After pondering over his future course for a few hours, Guan Zhenyan started to descend the Tianxia Capital. As Sage guessed, the man had run out of friends here and allowed Sage to defeat him so he could go into hiding. It was just too bad that he’d opened himself up a little bit too much to Sage’s attack and had suffered some real injuries in the process which he still hadn’t fully recovered from even now.

Despite how large the Tianxia Capital was and how obscure his identity, Guan Zhenyan was still noticed by someone who recognized him on his way out. On level 414, sometimes known as ‘death certain death’, a very unpopular place, Guan Zhenyan found a silver haired and black eyed man standing in front of him. Worse yet, this whole level was filled with a massive sea and perpetually plagued by storms. With such an unpopular name they embraced the theme, with only the ramps around the outside being a safe territory, the rest of the level was a vicious storm that drew those wishing to challenge death or looking for excitement through fear.

It was also a place where the Sea King could show his greatest strength.

A wisp of purple smoke drifted towards the Sea King, but the water swelled up to block it and swept the smoke stained water off into the distance. Guan Zhenyan smiled, “Long time no see, old friend. It seems you really miss me coming all the way down here to see me.”

“When was the last time we met? Decades ago, wasn’t it? Why haven’t you come to visit me, Zhenyan?”

“Ahh, I’ve just been in bad shape. I didn’t want you to see and worry about me.”

“So you were being considerate? That’s not good, how can I help you if I don’t know you’re suffering?”

“I have things well under control. In fact, I am on my way for my next treatment right now so I’m afraid we can’t spend too much time catching up.”

“Is that so? That must be why you’ve got someone going around collecting debts for you.”

Despite the piercing tone of the Sea King’s words, Guan Zhenyan didn’t seem affected. He was still extremely calm and serene as he answered, “Oh, you heard about that? Just a small matter. Collecting some pocket change after paying so many medical fees.”

The Sea King’s solid black eyes were extremely disconcerting, yet Zhenyan still acted unperturbed, “Your man may have been a little too bold and suffered an accident. Just come to me directly next time, I’ll have someone collect everything owed to you.”

The air crackled with power and a huge wave rose up in the distance, a wall hundreds of feet tall, curling at the top as it swept towards the two of them from afar. Then Guan Zhenyan took a deep draw from his pipe and pursed his lips to the side, puffing out a cloud of smoke in the direction of the incoming wave. The smoke drifted slowly, dispersing over a wide area and losing much of its concentration as it went. The comparison between the massive tsunami wave and a faint haze of smoke was drastic, yet somehow the soft smoke broke the wave. Like a reef, the smoke stopped the waves, causing them to crash and break apart.

The two men exchanged a smile and then Guan Zhenyan walked off down the gravel path, trudging cheerfully through the ankle deep water without further interruption.