The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

The wind blew through his full head of white hair. The white hair, silvery-white, fell onto his shoulders, looking like a clump of withered grass in the grayish-yellow sunlight.

He looked down at himself.

The back of his hands was covered with fine lines and dry spots. His fingers were thin and bony like firewood. His clothes hung loosely on his body, not because they were too big, but because his body had shrunk.

His once tall and slender figure seemed to have lost all its moisture, giving him a gaunt and decaying appearance.

He has already entered the stage of the Five Signs of Decay of Gods ahead of schedule.

A broken foundation, depleted lifespan, and loss of vitality... these are the final signs of a cultivator's end.

Chen Hao stood in the wind atop Kunlun Mountain, looking down at his own appearance.

Then he smiled.

The corners of his mouth twitched very slightly. Paired with that face that had aged decades, the smile contained a mix of emotions, yet nothing could be read into it.

He raised his hand.

The art of change.

The magic flowed.

His gray hair was dyed black again from the roots. The lines on his face were smoothed out. His emaciated body stretched out again, his muscles returned, and his bones straightened.

A few breaths later, if someone were to stand in front of him at this moment, they would still see that young man in his early twenties.

His face was gentle. His features were refined. His back was straight.

It was exactly the same as when I went into my study to retreat six years ago.

It's as if nothing ever happened.

Chen Hao flexed his fingers. The transformation technique remained stable. Maintaining this appearance with his remaining cultivation level was effortless.

He turned to look at the archway.

Inside the passage, the framework forged by the power of the Five Elements emitted a soft light.

The void fragments were still there, but they were compressed into a narrow interlayer at the edge of the passage, leaving a safe path in the center large enough for two people to walk side by side.

enough.

Baotian City. The living room lights were off. When Chen Hao pushed the door open, the only light in the room was the pale yellow light from outside the window.

The door to the master bedroom was ajar, and two female voices could be heard coming from inside.

"Should we bring this pillow?"

"Take it with you, just in case the pillows over there are too hard."

"Yaoyao, you still have three boxes of those research notebooks left, are you going to take them all?"

"I want them all. These are more important than anything else."

Chen Hao remained silent. He walked to the tea table, sat down, took out a can of Biluochun tea from the cabinet, boiled water, washed the teapot, and added the tea leaves. His movements were slow.

The sound of water boiling was particularly clear in the spacious living room.

He poured himself a glass, held it without drinking, and looked out at Shenzhen through the floor-to-ceiling window.

Few people were walking on the streets. The windows of several tall buildings in the distance were broken, and no one was repairing them. An overturned truck lay across the middle of the road, and no one was moving it.

Three of the lampposts were leaning, with the attached power lines dangling on the ground like dead snakes.

It was too dark. Although it was still daytime, it looked more like six o'clock in the evening.

The sun is shining, but its light cannot penetrate the edge of the Kuroshio Current.

The bedroom door was pushed open, and Yang Wanqing walked out backwards, carrying a quilt. The quilt was too big, blocking her view, so she stuffed it into her Qiankun bag as she walked.

"I'm going to bring my favorite beef with me, just in case I don't like the food there... Oh, Master, you're back?"

Chen Hao looked at her and nodded.

"Hurry up and pack up."

Yang Wanqing stuffed the quilt into his Qiankun bag and ran towards the refrigerator.

"Okay, okay, Master, don't rush, it'll be right away, it'll be right away."

The refrigerator door was pulled open, and cold air rushed out. Yang Wanqing squatted in front of the refrigerator and rummaged through it, taking out a bag of frozen beef, shank, and oxtail and piling it all over the floor.

"I want this...and this too...this is a big bone, for making soup, bring that too..."

Chen Hao held his teacup, watching her bustling about.

That girl is always like this. Even if the sky falls, her first thought is what to eat.

The tea had gone cold. He took a sip; it had no taste.

Chen Siyao came out of the bedroom, changed into a neat dark outfit, and tied her hair into a ponytail.

She was carrying a bulging Qiankun bag in one hand and a stack of data boards in the other.

"Brother, we're all packed up, we can go now."

Yang Wanqing also ran over from the direction of the kitchen, her hands still covered in ice shards.

"Master, should we take Xiaoyue and Xiaoqing with us?"

Chen Hao's gaze shifted towards the doorway.

Xiaoyue lay in the entryway, her two front paws together, her tail swishing against the floor tiles.

It tilted its head and looked at the three people in the room, its ears perked up and its tail wagging faster... It knew they were about to leave, and it was waiting for them to say "Let's go."

On the balcony, a bluebird perched on the railing, preening its feathers. Sunlight fell on its turquoise tail feathers, their color far brighter than the gray and yellow world around it.

Chen Hao glanced at Xiaoyue for a few seconds.

He looked away.

"I'll bring it next time."

Xiaoyue's tail slowed down. It lowered its head, sniffed the ground with its nose, then raised it again to look at Chen Hao.

Yang Wanqing said "Oh," and squatted down to pat Xiaoyue's head. "Wait for us, we'll come pick you up next time."

Xiaoyue stuck out her tongue and licked her palm.

Chen Hao stood up and put the teacup back on the table.

"Walk."

He walked to the balcony. The three bluebirds tilted their heads to look at him and let out a short chirp. Chen Hao reached out and patted its head. The three bluebirds rubbed against his palm.

Then he withdrew his hand, flipped over, and jumped off the balcony.

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing followed behind. The two women were already capable of flying. The three of them rose from the rooftop of Baotian City and transformed into three streaks of light under the gray sky.

Xiaoyue ran to the balcony railing, put her two front paws on the railing, and looked up at the sky.

The three beams of light grew farther and farther away, smaller and smaller.

Xiaoyue's tail stopped wagging.

It lay on the railing, gazing motionless in that direction for a very long time.

The three bluebirds landed beside it, folded their wings, and stood quietly.

Shenzhen swept past beneath my feet.

Chen Siyao flew to Chen Hao's right, the wind blowing her ponytail backward. She glanced down at the city's outline.

It was incredibly desolate. The once brightly lit CBD had turned into a gray, gloomy block, and there were hardly any stray dogs to be seen on the streets.

She didn't look at it much.

Yang Wanqing flew on the left, still holding a jar of braised beef that she hadn't had time to put into her Qiankun bag. Her expression wasn't particularly heavy, or rather, she was deliberately not letting herself think too much.

The three of them headed northwest.

It swept across the parched plains, the withered mountain ridges, and the frozen riverbeds.

Occasionally, one can see the lights of human settlements on the ground, sparse and scattered, like the last few embers in a dying fire.

An hour later.

Kunlun Mountain.

The wind was much colder than elsewhere. The three landed on a platform atop the mountain, the sound of their boots hitting the stone echoing in the empty space.

The platform was huge. Much bigger than Chen Siyao had imagined. The grayish-white rock surface was polished to an extremely smooth finish.

The patterns were regular, with densely packed runes of law engraved along the edges. At the very center of the platform, the archway stood silently.

The six grooves emitted a faint light.

Inside the archway, a framework of light forged from the power of the Five Elements slowly swirled. The passage had taken shape, a long road traversing the void, its end disappearing into endless darkness.

Yang Wanqing stood on the platform and walked around, looking at the surrounding stone walls and runes.

"Hmm, this place looks familiar."

She frowned, searching her memory. She had never been here before.

Chen Siyao shifted her gaze from the archway and glanced at Yang Wanqing.

"The place depicted in the painting of Jingwei Cave."

Yang Wanqing's expression changed.

Jingwei's Cave. The last painting.

The painting was labeled "New Hope".

In the picture, Jingwei, carrying the forest on her back, stands at the foot of the mountain, looking up at the mountaintop.

A group of figures stood on the mountaintop platform, each radiating a different color of the Great Dao light.

Those figures were majestic and solemn, like pillars supporting the sky.

Looking back now... one of the figures is the master.

The master from ten thousand years ago stood here, sending the entire cultivation civilization to the other side of the starry sea.

Yang Wanqing put away the jar of braised beef and looked up at the archway.

Chen Hao walked to a spot three steps in front of the archway.

He raised his right hand.

The laws of space surged from his palm and poured into the archway. The light in the six grooves suddenly shone brightly.

Five colors and dark blue intertwine and swirl, and the framework inside the passage begins to rotate at an accelerated pace.