“Really!” Rabbit exclaimed with joy. Its ears were standing upright and its eyes twinkling as it stared at Lonemoon.

“Of course.” Lonemoon nodded, grinning and patting Rabbit on the shoulder. “We’re old friends – don’t stand on ceremony with me. If you can’t move it, we can send a few disciples to lend you a hand.”

“Alright, thank you, Exalted Immorta- No, Sect Master!” Rabbit bowed out of excitement. “I’ll go and pack now, then.” Rabbit turned around, starting to leave, but halted when it noticed the person behind it. As if recalling that it had a task at hand, it said, “But he…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll discuss with Little Biao.” Lonemoon turned to glance at the Earth Mortal and asked, “This… Fellow Daoist, Rabbit is not free at the moment. Why not I send others to Qing Ze Heavenly Palace instead?”

The Earth Immortal was pretty easygoing. He respectfully responded, “Thank you, Supremacy!”

Lonemoon instructed Yu Hong, “Yu Hong, please personally send Fellow Daoist Zuo to Little Biao’s Heavenly Palace and tell him what is going on. Then, once you get back, send a few disciples to help Rabbit with moving. It’ll be good if you pick the disciples training in earth-elemental techniques.” That’ll make digging the soil a much easier task!

“Yes, Elder!” Yu Hong answered.

After that, Lonemoon raised his hand and set up a transportation array that led straight to Little Biao’s cave. A moment later, a white array appeared beside him.

Perhaps it was the first time he was seeing a transportation array in the immortal real – Zuo Shuming studied the array curiously and thanked Lonemoon once again. “Thank you, Supremacy!” He turned and walked excitedly into the array, standing still in the center of it.

Yu Hong was just about to follow suit when her expression suddenly changed. She stared at the person in the array and exclaimed, “Elder Lonemoon!”

Lonemoon turned around instinctively and saw what Yu Hong was exclaiming about. The array had not been activated, yet all around Zuo Shuming were white specks of light. No! It was not just all around him – in fact, all over his body, the same white specks could be seen. As these white specks left his body, his figure seemed to get more and more translucent.

“Eh?” Zuo Shuming looked confused. He looked like he had no idea what was going on. “Is this what a transportation in the immortal realm-”

Before he could finish speaking, he disappeared into thin air.

“Chef!”

Yi Qing appeared at once in the array. He reached out to grab Zuo Shuming, but he was just a second too late. He grasped at thin air. Zuo Shuming was already gone. All that was left was the array that had still not yet been activated. It was almost as if Zuo Shuming had never existed.

“Well…” Rabbit looked fearful at once as he kept gazing at the spot where Zuo Shuming disappeared.”What happened to Fellow Daoist Zuo? What kind of… array was that?”

Lonemoon and Chef’s expressions darkened. No, that was not any kind of sorcery. They did not sense any sorcery taking place around them. That person had really disappeared into thin air. Even the manager, Chef, could not save him.

Yi QIng conjured a seal with both his hands and used it to trace Zuo Shuming’s aura. A moment later, he sighed and said, “He… is no longer in the immortal realm.”

“Huh!” Rabbit stared blankly at Chef. He was not in the immortal realm? Could he be in the mortal one? “But didn’t he just ascend here?”

As the few of them continued to ponder over this mystery, they began to hear drips coming from the table. The screen in front of Shen Ying, which only displayed endless rows of numbers earlier, was now displaying yellow exclamation marks that only the three of them could see.

Lonemoon and Yi Qing immediately stiffened. Lonemoon walked toward the two people behind him and said, “Yu Hong, take Rabbit back down first. Arrange for disciples to help him with the moving. I will explain to Little Biao about what just happened with the Earth Immortal.”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Oh. Alright.” Rabbit still had many questions left unanswered, but he decided to follow Yu Hong, anyway.

As soon as the two of them left the room, Lonemoon and Yi Qing addressed the woman seated at the table. “Shen Ying, what do these exclamation marks mean?” How could it be that even Chef could not save the man? After a second, Lonemoon seemed to realize something else. “That Earth Immortal was not an invader, was he?”

“It has nothing to do with him.” Shen Ying shook her head.

“Then why did he disappear all of a sudden? Where did he go?”

“I traced the data relating to his disappearance earlier.” Shen Ying glanced at the screen, then tapped on it. After two seconds, she said, “Chef was right. He has returned to the lower realm.” But she didn’t know which small world he returned to.

“How could that be?” The two of them exclaimed. Yi Qing took one step forward and said, “Master, I didn’t sense the activation of any realm gates.” How did that man go back to the lower realm without going through a realm gate?

“He didn’t just returned to the lower realm,” Shen Ying responded, pointing to the screen. “In that moment, his data and characteristics all reduced by more than half.”

“His data reduced…” Lonemoon paused. Suddenly, he said, “You mean his cultivation deteriorated!” By more than half… That meant that he deteriorated to a cultivator in the Nascent Soul stages!

“Mm, and his data and characteristics were still within the normal ranges for human beings.”

That meant that he was not injured.

The Heavenly Dao may suppress a portion of a cultivators’ powers in the mortal realm, but it was merely suppression. It would not cause one’s cultivation to deteriorate! Apart from being dealt with a severe blow, what else could have caused his cultivation to deteriorate so much?

Wait! Deteriorate?

Lonemoon seemed to have realized something. He turned to Shen Ying and said, “He reloaded!” It was not like such a thing had not happened before. Chef himself reloaded the last time!

“I guess you could say that,” Shen Ying responded. After a second, she added, “But in that moment, there were other anomalies detected in the data. He was not the only one who reloaded. It could be that everyone in the small realm where he was from experienced the same thing.”

“Huh?” Lonemoon stared blankly at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Shen Ying narrowed her eyes. “The small world went back in time.”

“…”

(⊙_⊙)

How is this possible!

Nobody could cause time to turn back, apart from managers and the gods of creation. The only ancient god left here was Shortie. She would never do something like that for no good reason. In other words, the person who turned back the time in the small world was…

“An invader!” Lonemoon exclaimed.

Suddenly, Lonemoon recalled the hole that had appeared in the River of Forgetfulness. He could not help but curse under his breath. Shit, everywhere they turned, there were invaders causing trouble.

“Master, I don’t sense an invader’s aura,” Yi QIng said in a low voice. He should be the first to sense any foreign living thing entering his plane.

“An invader that can turn back time will naturally be able to escape your senses,” Lonemoon said. “Didn’t we only notice that manager invading the last time after he took over an entire small realm?” He even managed to grow an entire mushroom on the plane tree.

Yi Qing frowned even more deeply. “If that’s the case… we should go and locate the invaders immediately.

“…” If he could not sense the person, they would not be able to locate him.

“Why not… We ask Little Biao?” Shen Ying suggested.

“…”

The two of them stared blankly at her, then realized what she was saying. Shit! They nearly forgot about him!

Little Biao was the one who summoned Zuo Shuming to the Heavenly Palace. He must know which small world that man was from.

Lonemoon immediately retrieved a transportation jade token and sent a tinge of immortal Qi through it. Immediately, the jade token lit up. A familiar hologram appeared on top of it.

Little Biao’s voice came through. “Young Emperor Lonemoon, I wonder what you’re looking for me… Ex-Ex-Ex.. Exalted Goddess!” Before he could finish his sentence, he caught sight of Shen Ying through the token. He began to tremble.

“Hey, Little Biao!” Shen Ying called out.

Biao Ting’s legs turned to jelly at once. The hologram seemed to grow a lot shorter as he fell to his knees. “Little Biao is here!”

Lonemoon: “…”

Yi Qing: “…”

How traumatized was he?

o(╯□╰)o