# Chapter 2098: Luring the Abyss
Xuanmo Realm, a small territory quite close to the Mist Sea. The entire realm was only about two hundred li in size, and its closest point to the edge of the Mist Sea was less than three hundred li away.
Yet precisely because of its proximity to the Mist Sea, this place had become a staging ground for countless training Xuan practitioners to prepare, rest, and flee, gradually developing into a trading hub. As a result, Xuanmo Realm hadn't declined over time but instead showed signs of modest prosperity.
Almost every day, varying numbers of Xuan practitioners perished in Xuanmo Realm. These deceased had all escaped from the Mist Sea, afflicted with Abyss Erosion, dying in Xuanmo before they could return to their homelands... And this kind of misfortune finally befell the son of the Xuanmo Realm King a month ago.
Mo Xifeng, the current Realm King of Xuanmo, governed a small territory but knew many people and had widespread connections. To sustain this realm in such a dangerous place, his cultivation was naturally exceptional. He had achieved the Divine Annihilation Realm a thousand years ago, and though he could make no further progress within that realm, it was enough to maintain deterrence.
His most talented son, Mo Qianyou, successfully broke through to the Divine Lord Realm. With his father's permission, he entered the Mist Sea for the first time, only to encounter a Divine Lord-rank Abyss Beast at the outermost perimeter. Though he had a guardian by his side, he was still severely injured. Abyss Dust invaded his body, Abyss Erosion entered his heart—a certain death.
Upon receiving the sound transmission, Mo Xifeng felt as if struck by lightning from a clear sky. He madly rushed to the Mist Sea. At its edge, he saw his most beloved son surrounded by gray mist. The Abyss Erosion had not only entered his heart but had also corroded his profound veins and meridians—a completely incurable, certain death according to all known knowledge.
As he wept in pain and despair, having lost all dignity befitting a Realm King, he saw a pair of gray eyes hidden within the thick Abyss Mist and received a grace that seemed like a dream...
A month passed. Mo Xifeng once again entered the Mist Sea, bringing Mo Qianyou, who bore almost no visible injuries, only slight weakness in his profound aura.
At the outer perimeter of the Mist Sea, near Xuanmo Realm which was convenient for rest, many Xuan practitioners came and went. Mo Xifeng paid them no heed. He pulled Mo Qianyou and both knelt heavily to the ground, shouting toward the misty expanse ahead: "Xuanmo Realm King Mo Xifeng, together with my worthless son Mo Qianyou, come to thank the Mist Emperor for saving our lives!"
His voice was thunderous, his words sincere, drawing the attention of all Xuan practitioners in the surrounding area.
"The Mist Emperor rules the Mist Sea with boundless heavenly might. I, merely a king of a small realm, truly do not know how to repay the Mist Emperor's heavenly grace. I can only offer my heart here. If in the future the Mist Emperor has any use for me, Mo Xifeng, I am willing to risk my life to serve!"
Xuanmo Realm saw countless Xuan practitioners from all directions every year. In such an environment, Mo Xifeng had always treated others with righteousness and faithfulness.
"Qianyou, quickly thank the Mist Emperor for the grace of rebirth."
Only after Mo Qianyou respectfully kowtowed and thanked the Mist Sea ahead did the father and son rise to their feet.
Strange looks came from all around. Mo Xifeng naturally understood their meaning. According to recent rumors, the Mist Emperor had saved several people, granting them new life from certain death... They were all overjoyed, but no one had ever returned to give thanks after such a miraculous recovery.
Because publicly thanking the "Mist Emperor" was undoubtedly an act of disrespect toward the only emperor of this world.
Just as Mo Xifeng and his son were about to leave, a sudden change occurred.
The roars of Abyss Beasts all stopped at once. The entire Mist Sea seemed to plunge into absolute silence.
The sky suddenly darkened. A mass of Abyss Mist so vast it seemed boundless surged upward, spreading across the heavens.
"This... this is..."
"Could... it be..."
Mo Xifeng and Mo Qianyou spun around, staring dazedly upward... Their gazes locked onto a pair of distorted gray eyes.
"Mist... Emperor!"
Mo Xifeng's throat moved, producing a voice filled with both shock and fear.
The Mist Sea was immense, and the Mist Emperor's appearances were always fleeting. He had never imagined that his gratitude would receive a response from the Mist Emperor.
The Xuan practitioners in the surrounding area were all frozen in place, their spirits tense, staring foolishly at the legendary phenomenon.
"Mo Xifeng..."
The Mist Emperor's voice came from within the Abyss Mist. That terrifying sound entered through the ears and struck the heart, giving them the horrible sensation that their souls were being dragged down into a bottomless dark abyss: "This Emperor has bestowed grace upon countless people, and you are the first to come and give thanks."
"It seems this filthy world is not entirely filled with filthy people."
Mo Xifeng quickly pulled Mo Qianyou down to kneel again: "The grace of saving a life is greater than heaven. We, father and son, will never forget even a fraction of the Mist Emperor's grace for our entire lives. We only regret... not knowing how to repay it."
"How to repay?" The Mist Emperor's voice suddenly turned cold and piercing, each word like a frozen blade scraping the soul: "This entire Abyss Realm was saved by this Emperor! When have you ever repaid me? How could you repay me!"
"...Huh?" Mo Xifeng was stunned. All the Xuan practitioners who heard this voice were equally stunned, completely at a loss.
The entire Abyss... was saved by the Mist Emperor?
What kind of absurd talk was this?
"Mo Xifeng, in consideration of your actions today, this Emperor will grant you another grace."
The Abyss Mist surged, and a black shadow flew toward Mo Xifeng.
Mo Xifeng quickly reached out and caught it, finding an ordinary Abyss Stone with thin mist rising from it.
"If you encounter an insoluble calamity, crush this stone within the Mist Sea, and this Emperor will grant you one opportunity for an audience."
"From today onward, the Abyss Dust of the Mist Sea will no longer disperse toward Xuanmo Realm. Even if you remove the isolation barrier, the Abyss Dust in Xuanmo Realm will be far weaker than before. You may go."
The Abyss Mist rolled and merged into the boundless Mist Sea in an instant, leaving no trace.
The Mist Emperor's voice dissipated into the sky, leaving Mo Xifeng and his son stunned, as if in a dream.
Only when the long-stilled roars of Abyss Beasts resumed did the soul-stricken Xuan practitioners awaken as if from a dream. But none of them had any more interest in training. Their hearts were all filled with the excitement and shock of encountering the legendary Mist Emperor.
When Mo Xifeng and his son returned to Xuanmo Realm, they found that all the core elders were floating outside the realm, apparently inspecting the barrier that isolated Abyss Dust.
"What happened?" Mo Xifeng hurried over.
"Realm King, something very strange has occurred." Several elders gathered around, each with expressions of intense excitement and even more intense confusion: "Just now, the concentration of Abyss Dust in the city suddenly plummeted. We thought the Realm King had strengthened the isolation barrier somehow, but upon arriving here, we found that the Abyss Dust outside the realm had also weakened to this extent."
"..." Mo Xifeng and Mo Qianyou exchanged glances, both unable to speak for a long time.
"Realm King? Could it be... something major really happened?" Their strange expressions drew the attention of all the elders.
Mo Xifeng's hand tightly gripped that seemingly ordinary Abyss Stone, but he didn't answer the elders' questions. Instead, his eyes stared straight ahead, and he repeatedly muttered in a dazed manner: "It's really true... It's really true..."
"That... was really... the Emperor of the Mist Sea..."
...
Deep within the Mist Sea, Yun Che's figure slowly emerged from the rolling Abyss Dust. The moment he stopped, Li Suo's voice suddenly rang out:
"What are you doing?"
Mo Qianyou was at the Divine Lord Realm and had a guardian by his side. At the outermost perimeter of the Mist Sea, as long as he didn't actively seek death, he shouldn't have encountered any great danger... Yet he had encountered a mid-stage Divine Lord-rank Abyss Beast at those outermost reaches where only low-level Abyss Beasts should be.
Because Yun Che had controlled it.
"Baiting the trap as usual." Yun Che said with ease. "And look, today we finally got a 'bite'."
"That's not what I'm talking about." Li Suo said. "Your ability to control Abyss Dust grows by the day, but preventing the peripheral Abyss Dust from spreading toward that Xuanmo Realm still requires a tremendous expenditure of energy. And you'll need to spend several hours every day maintaining it... Are you really going to keep this up—"
"Even you should know with your little toe that's absolutely impossible." Yun Che sat down on the ground. As his eyes closed, the surrounding Abyss Dust gathered around him: "It won't last long. This is just another bait. The most important thing was the stone I gave to Mo Xifeng."
"The events of today, along with the news of the sudden drop in Abyss Dust at Xuanmo Realm, will definitely spread. Rumors that haven't been witnessed will always remain rumors, but the change in Abyss Dust at Xuanmo Realm is something anyone can perceive as fact. This way... the Pure Land should finally make a move."
His voice was cold and calm. Even Li Suo, whose life soul was bound to his, could detect no trace of emotion.
In this short year, Yun Che's ability to control Abyss Dust had grown increasingly terrifying. Or rather, one could say that his body was becoming more and more intimate with this Abyss Dust that everyone in the world feared.
A year ago, when he first appeared as the "Mist Emperor," gathering enough Abyss Mist to conceal the aura of the Qilin God from the Abyss had taken an extremely long time and nearly cost him half his life.
Now, with just a slight thought, the Abyss Mist he stirred could blot out the sky.
Li Suo had a vague feeling... Rather than saying Yun Che was striving to make his body and power align with the Abyss Dust, it was more like he was rapidly recovering an inherent, seamless affinity with the Abyss Dust that had always existed.
While his ability to control Abyss Dust advanced by leaps and bounds, his Xuan Dao cultivation... remained completely untouched.
"How long are you going to suppress your cultivation?" she asked.
Nine months ago, he could have broken through to Divine Lord Realm Level 4, but he had been forcefully suppressing it.
"Oh..." Yun Che opened his eyes. "You've reminded me. Dreamless Divine Venerable is now piling all resources on me, and with a Perfect Divine Rank backing me up, it really would be abnormal if I never broke through."
"I'll break through in a little while."
He said it as if it were a trivial matter forced upon him.
"That's not what I meant." She asked again, a question she had already posed several times: "The last time you deliberately suppressed your cultivation, it was to complete a breakthrough in front of Hua Caili and Hua Qingying. Now, why are you forcefully suppressing it again? Given your current circumstances, I can't think of a reason."
"Of course you can't." Yun Che wore an arrogant expression of certainty. "You just need to know that it's very important, that's all. As for the reason..."
He still didn't give her a concrete answer, but a rather sinister smile appeared at the corner of his lips—so sinister that just looking at it sent chills down one's spine: "Don't worry. You'll find out."
Without lingering too long, he stood up. With just this simple act of rising, the surrounding Abyss Dust instantly gathered, completely enveloping his entire body within Abyss Mist, and then a pair of distorted gray eyes slowly reflected above the mist.
"Time to go see this Emperor's cheap disciple."
"I hope he can withstand today's harsh training."
The Mist Emperor's voice was cold and biting: "If it's not harsh enough, not painful enough, how could he firmly remember this kind of power and the difficulty of this revenge!"
————
Abyss, Pure Land.
The white sky was almost completely free of gray haze, with only faint, indistinct golden light.
This was the purest, most luxurious, and most sacred sky in the entire Abyss Realm.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The clashing of armor marked the solemn footsteps of a knight. As the sound suddenly stopped, Abyss Knight Bai Yu bowed down: "Responding to Commander Weichi's summons, Bai Yu reports for duty."
The tall man before him slowly turned around. His white heavy armor reflected a divine light like starlight.
The twenty-fourth Abyss Knight, one of the thirty-six commanders of the Abyss Knights—Weichi Nanxing.
"Bai Yu," he spoke with lowered eyes, every word and action carrying the weight of an Abyss Knight, "that so-called 'Mist Emperor' has appeared again. This time, I want you to take all your attendant knights and go in person to apprehend him."
Bai Yu did not immediately accept the order. Instead, he said, "The Mist Sea is vast, with nowhere to search. Waiting for him to appear voluntarily would be like looking for a needle in the ocean."
"This time is different." Weichi Nanxing said. "There is a way to lure him out. However, he is shrouded in mystery and countless anomalies. Remember to be cautious in all things and never underestimate him. If you cannot capture him, at least discern his true form and recognize his aura."
"Yes." Bai Yu answered solemnly. "Using the title of 'Emperor'—a crime punishable by ten thousand deaths without pardon! Since the Abyss Knights have set out, there will be no place for him to hide in this world."
He stood up but did not leave immediately. Instead, he asked with an equal posture, "Commander, the rumors of the 'Mist Emperor' have been spreading more and more fiercely in this short year, gradually showing signs of getting out of control. Has the Abyss Emperor or the Divine Official given any clear instructions on this matter?"
Weichi Nanxing said with cold eyes, "Such petty scum are not worthy of the Abyss Emperor's or the Divine Official's attention. Besides, the Abyss Emperor has been in the [Lost Paradise] recently and likely has no mind for other matters."
"Mm." Bai Yu nodded.
"Set out immediately." Weichi Nanxing looked south, his voice growing cold: "Go to that place called Xuanmo Realm."
...
The moment Yun Che walked out of his training space, he sensed that the aura in the Divine Son Hall was different.
Sure enough, Dreamless Divine Venerable was standing in the courtyard, with everyone in the Divine Son Hall respectfully awaiting him. When Yun Che stepped out, Dreamless Divine Venerable turned and smiled: "Yuan'er, I've heard that you've spent eighty percent of this year training. There's truly no need to be so hard on yourself. As this Venerable's son, indulgence and pleasure are also your due."
As he spoke, his eyes suddenly flickered, and then his face showed uncontrollable joy: "Yuan'er, you... have broken through!"
The aura emanating from Yun Che was clearly that of Divine Lord Realm Level 4.
"Mm, I just completed the breakthrough." Yun Che also wore a satisfied expression.
"HAHAHAHA!" Dreamless Divine Venerable's laughter shook half of the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom: "The Heart-Painting Divine Venerable once said you had just broken through to Divine Lord Realm Level 3 last year. In just one short year, you have crossed another threshold! Worthy of being my Yuan'er! Worthy of being my Yuan'er! HAHAHAHA!"