The Return

Tap, tap, tap. Da Hai's soft footsteps touched down upon the beach around Yingzhou's shore. The sea god sighed before heading up the main pathway. He'd been away for quite some time, nearly a thousand years but even so, Yingzhou did not look any different

Not a single bush was out of place, not a single but of weed. The trees were well maintained and the decorations showed regular signs of polish. The various statues and his own palace did not look any different, well maintained and clean.

"I'm home," Da Hai muttered to himself. He walked steadily up the trail leading up to his palace. The trail was quiet and peaceful, Da Hai immediately noticed new vegetation added. The end result was a beautiful trek through nature.

"When did?" He looked around confused. Yingzhou had excellent natural beauty but it seemed between the time he was gone and now, more had been added. There were thousand year old spiritual trees and gourd trees and this wasn't even the dedicated farm.

These trees didn't use to be here. The sea god calculates that these were likely planted several centuries ago. Either by the head moth fairies as decoration to liven up the place or by the dragons for the same goal. Either way, the trees flourished under the rich environment of Yingzhou.

Looking around, Da Hai admired the beauty of the flora around him. He'd never partaken in such actions before, even Yingzhou was little more than a good base for him up until now. He took a gourd and took a bite out of the fruit.

"It's good," he said smiling softly. He tilted his head hearing soft footsteps. Coming through from a path that led to the spiritual farms, a group of the moth fairies maids passed through. They immediately noticed Da Hai and made to prostrate themselves.

"Welcome back great lord," The surprised voices of three of the moth fairies called out. They were carrying baskets that were filled with various types of plants and fruits. It made sense to Da Hai, these spiritual fruits looked to be ripe for usage.

"This is wonderful news, the young lords will be very pleased," the moth fairies exclaimed excitedly. "Big sister was so worried when the young lords returned with you gone. We've been without news for a very long time."

"It's fine, inform them of my safe return," Da Hai instructed. He gestured for them to leave.

"My lord, I shall prepare a banquet for you," one of the fairies enthusiastically said. However, Da Hai raised his hand and stopped her.

"No, there is no need for that," he said. "I admire your enthusiasm but celebrations for such small things are unnecessary."

"Uh, if you're sure," she managed to say shyly. Da Hai instructed her to follow her sisters then proceeded to make his own way up.

Watching them leave, Da Hai sighed. "I don't deserve this," he muttered. He looked down at the trails of golden light in the palm of his hand. "I don't even believe in your cause, I don't even really care about you," he said lowering his hand. What little amounts of karmic luck that remained disappeared back into him.

Strolling up the pathway, he stopped as the figures of two of his disciples came to view.

"Master!" Qinglong and Yinglong called out in unison rushing down, barely stopping themselves. They bowed respectfully to the sea god and made joyous faces.

"You all," Da Hai didn't know what to say.

"Master, it is good to see you safe," Qinglong said joyfully. "How did the battle go? Has that old villain been vanquished?"

"I…" Da Hai sighed and shook his head. At his air of depression, the dragons' expressions fell. "Do not worry about that matter. That is something for I, your master to deal with," Da Hai assured. "Focus on your own cultivation and do not worry over it."

"But master, he threatened you. That is more than enough reason for…" Yinglong began saying before Da Hai stopped him.

"That person is an ancestor before even my time. Let me handle things for now and when you all reach the realm of the Great Principle, I will properly brief you," Da Hai promised.

"Heh, in that case, master you'd better prepare for that debriefing soon," Qinglong said smirking.

"That confident in attaining the Great Principle?" Da Hai said raising his eyebrow. "Ha, I expect you to follow through with such a claim," he said with a small warm smile.

The two dragons were slightly stunned at Da Hai's more amiable behaviour but gave it no mind. The most important knot in their hearts had untied.

"We will not disappoint master," they proclaimed. The ancient sea god felt no small amounts of pride, this time he did not suppress it. Within his heart, he sighed with disappointment and regret directed at himself.

"Where is your senior brother?" Da Hai inquired. "I do not feel his presence on Yingzhou. In fact, where is the Yi Fei'e? Her presence is also missing." Yi Fei'e was the given name of the head moth fairy. Da Hai had bestowed rather uncreative names on all of them when they became fully sentient.

"Oh! Big brother and the ms Fei'e are tending to Nan Dao Chen as we speak," Yinglong explained. "The city has been allocated within the primordial turtle clan's territory for now."

"I see, so she made it safely back after all," Da Hai sighed with relief. One of the first actions he made before confronting Si Hai was to punt the head moth fairy across the void. He aimed her directly at the east sea with instructions to deliver Nan Dao Chen back to Yingzhou.

Normally, it could take tens of thousands of years for her to travel on foot. The head moth fairy had sailed across the void with speeds unfathomable to her. She reached the east sea after a few decades but had to trudge her way back.

Thankfully, she received no trouble due to her identity. All residents of Yingzhou carried a unique energy signature placed there by Da Hai. It was something most experts of the east sea recognised. According to Yinglong, she met up with the dragons sometime after they returned to the east and they carried her with them.

To Da Hai, this was great news. Yi Fei'e had been a good assistant and had been equally steadfast in her loyalty. Though Da Hai had never paid her too much attention until now. 'Perhaps I should upgrade her status to a proper disciple,' he pondered.

Pushing his thought aside, Da Hai turned back to the two dragons. "Inform them of my return but don't rush them back, I will want to see their progress myself," he instructed.

"It shall be done," they said bowing.

…

THOOM!

A chain of mountains collapsed into rubble. Resting around the edges of the dimensional wall towards the central continent, large continents of devil soldiers sat nursing their wounds.

The cataclysmic clash of several ancestor level figures had unintentionally caught many high ranking devils in the crossfire. The resulting losses were quite severe for the devilish Dao.

"Well that was a disaster," Mara snarked taking a seat beside a frowning Luohu. The demon king was missing his entire left side and one of his legs was encased in ice. Not far from them, the gargantuan form of Qiong Qi lay motionless mid air within a bubble.

Mara reached out to interact with the time bubble before pulling back. "Fascinating," he said. "Now that I'm out of combat, this technique is quite sophisticated. It's not quite of Shiva's level but it's par beyond anything from the devas."

"What the fuck were they doing here?" Luohu growled.

"You recruited us into your sect, are you really surprised Hongjun would do the same?" Mara said placing his right arm on his knee. "What do you think Hundun?" He asked the faceless god.

Hundun floated nearby facing the time bubble. His six skinny arms were stretching outperforming some sort of magical ritual. The godfiend was in actuality trying to undo the time bubble trapping his fellow evil beast.

"Yinyang was expected but nothing to worry about, Sichen was a surprise and a threat but nothing we can't handle," Hundun said smoothly. "But the destiny demon god presents a problem," he admitted.

"How the fuck did that old fool gain the loyalty of the destiny demon god much less find him?" Luohu growled. "His whole shtick prevents others from tracing him."

"He does present quite a conundrum doesn't he," Mara sighed.

"Alone he is a difficult opponent," Luohu admitted. "I can't beat him easily and he can escape anytime he so chooses and I'd be unable to stop him. But him and Hongjun together are not a match I can handle," the devil ancestor gripped the shaft of his god killing spear so tightly that a creaking sound was heard.

Silver and blacklight hovered around the devil ancestor and all those around him skirted a wide breadth. Only those such as Hundun and Mara could remain within his presence.

"We need another edge," Mara said. "I will be frank with you when I say we should've attacked sooner, your lack of confidence costed us the advantage." Luohu remained motionless but hesitantly nodded. His expression was the ugliest Mara had ever seen.

"The ideal choice is to recruit more godfiends to our side," Mara concluded. "Who else is still alive?" He mused.

"The starry skies' guardian, empress Wangshu, the ancestor of the universe, great immortal Qiankun, and the hermit of the seas, Da Hai, the mysterious vertigo immortal Shangxia,. Then we have emperor Si Hai of the four seas, and the scavenger Shen Feng," Hundun listed one after the other.

"Of these, the former likely hold a grudge after the last war. The latter is more amiable but their power level is too low to make a meaningful difference," the faceless godfiend said.

"Doesn't Si Hai have a deal with us?" Taotie asked approaching the trio. "He's indebted to us."

"He's a moron who doesn't recognise that fact," Luohu scoffed. "Even back during the chaos days, that moron was always too arrogant for his own good. I sometimes wonder how he survived so long without getting killed."

"But the pressing matter remains. We could still approach those experts and try to win them over. However, Wangshu is the only one we know the definite location of. We'll approach her and try to win her over. Hopefully, she doesn't hold too much of a grudge," Luohu pressed his hands on his chin in thought.

"Fuck, things are not looking good," Luohu tapped his lip. A million thoughts raced through his mind.

"Perhaps we should look into the new era innate gods," Mara suggested. "Hundun, do you have any news on them?"

"This generation is a slippery bunch," Hundun said. "Most are smart enough to remain in hiding or pretend to be a member of an innate creature clan. However, we do have news of one calling herself phoenix sovereign."

"Oh? Do tell," Luohu spoke up, his interest piqued.

"She's an expert on the South Continent and maintains a large territory near. Her cultivation though should still be in the Great Unity Golden Immortal level," Hundun reported.

"That's a shame, Great Unity is much too low," Luohu frowned. "We need a weapon, relying on another expert is too unreliable."

"You want to craft another treasure?" Mara asked.

"No, unless we're dealing with a bonafide Dao artefact, another treasure won't add much. My destruction mill and god killing spear are equal to what Hongjun can pull out. Fuck he really lucked out grabbing Pangu's stuff," Luohu cursed. Why did Hongjun have such good luck whereas he had to hunt for treasures in the chaos sea.

"Give me some time to think about it," Luohu said getting up. "I'll be entering secluded cultivation. You two, get the devilish Dao up and running again," he instructed before disappearing in a haze of light.

…

A portal opened up within Zixiao palace. The palace of purple clouds rested peacefully atop Mt Yujing in a sea of soft purple clouds. Its lustrous walls hummed with divine chanting and immortal insight.

Hongjun stepped through the portal frowning. A deep gash ran down his wrinkly face and red stains were on his beard.

The hulking monstrosity that was the destiny demon god followed after him. His yellow eyes slanted in an ugly glare. Sichen chose to remain silent while Yinyang wisely skirted to the side.

"Explain yourself," the destiny demon god's deep voice rumbled. His unsatisfactory feelings were on full display.

"I made a tactical retreat, it is not the right time to face Luohu," Hongjun explained calmly wiping the blood off his body with a few gestures.

The destiny demon god lacked a proper human form. His emotions could not be easily read based on his expression. However, the air around him was permitted with irritation.

"Then why did you initiate the battle?" The destiny demon god asked slowly. Every word was said with power and dissatisfaction. His very presence made even Hongjun slightly uncomfortable.

The ancestor of time, Sichen leaned on a pillar remaining silent. He too was surprised that the battle Hongjun. Though, unlike the destiny demon god, he was not that upset at having to retreat.

"It was…an unfortunate accident," Hongjun said. "Luohu detected me while I was in the area hence the initiation. Luckily, we were able to deal him a humiliating blow."

"Improve your hiding ability Hongjun," destiny demon god growled. "Only contact me, when the real battle begins," he said. With a loud crack of thunder, the hulking form of the godfiend vanished.

"I take it Shangxia's dead?" Hongjun asked after a few moments.

"His life bound crystal shattered," Sichen said.

"Shame, do we know where his corpse fell?" Hongjun inquired.

"Only that it's somewhere in the west sea. But now Luohu will be paying more attention. I don't think we should go there," the god of time said. Hongjun nodded as well, he strolled forwards and took a seat on a meditation cushion at the middle back of the hall. He appeared both imposing and grand.

"Very well, you should all improve your cultivation," Hongjun advised. "We still need to prepare."

"Just remember your promise Hongjun," Sichen and Yinyang said.

"I will uphold my end of the bargain. Your Daos will no longer be of use to the heavenly Dao once the earlier heavens are set in motion. By then, you'll be free to progress once more," Hongjun said smiling kindly. 'After all, you lot have no place in the world to come,' he added in his mind.

"I'll hold you to that," Sichen said narrowing his eyes before splitting open the void and teleporting away. Yinyang followed soon afterward.

Left on his lonesome, Hongjun massaged his temples. His face was flushed with embarrassment and a solid cloud of red anger radiated from him. "How dare they," he said softly but angrily.

"The timeline is progressing too slowly," he said. "I must cut out my next corpse."