The wind atop the Peak of the Nine Heavens blew fiercely, carrying the scorched stench of leftover lightning and golden specks from the ruined Grand Jade Palace. Standing amidst the destruction of what was once a sacred realm, Ye Tian remained upright. The light burns on his skin healed rapidly, thanks to the automatic circulation of the overwhelming vitality from his pure physical True Immortal Realm.

He reached into his robe, retrieving the two items he had gambled his life to acquire: the Boundary-Piercing Compass from the ancient tomb and the Heavenly Emperor’s Astral Dimensional Key.

As the two objects were brought close together, a dense wave of spatial energy detonated in midair. The compass in Ye Tian’s hand spun wildly, projecting millions of silvery latitude lines that pierced through the golden clouds, as if pinpointing and locking onto the coordinates of a world far below. A cold mortal world, yet one warmed by memories.

Xiao Mei... wait for Gege. Just a little longer, Ye Tian thought, tightening his grip.

"Ye Tian."

A familiar, soft voice broke the silence from behind. Ye Tian turned to find Mei Ling (Lady Mei) standing amidst the rubble of cracked jade pillars. Her snow-white battle dress was dusted with debris, and her hair fluttered messily in the celestial gales. Yet her clear eyes no longer held the frost goddess's arrogance from their first meeting in the mortal world, nor the cold suspicion from her time at the sect.

Those eyes were now filled with profound respect, awe, and a deep touch of emotion.

"You actually managed to do it," Mei Ling spoke, her steps halting a few meters in front of Ye Tian. "You knocked the Heavenly Emperor from his throne... with nothing more than a pair of mortal hands."

Ye Tian offered a faint smile—a rare expression during his time in this brutal Immortal Realm. "I had no choice, Mei Ling. The laws of your world are far too rigid. If I didn't break them, I would never see my sister again."

Mei Ling gazed at the tattered hemp bag still bound securely to Ye Tian’s waist—the bag containing the lower realm's half-ration of rice, an object she had once dismissed as worthless trash. Now she realized that very hemp bag was the anchor of Ye Tian’s soul: the reason he could endure the tortures of the Mist Cave, crush ancient monsters, and slice through the tribulation lightning of the nine heavens.

"The Ascension energy you accidentally absorbed from me... I initially believed it to be a catastrophe for the purity of my cultivation," Mei Ling inclined her head slightly before meeting Ye Tian’s eyes with a genuine smile. "But seeing what you have accomplished today, I am proud that my residual energy became part of the foundation for your power. The mortal world may have birthed you, but you... you are the true sovereign of these heavens."

Mei Ling slowly raised her hands before her chest and bowed deeply—the highest gesture of respect from a core cultivator to a supreme master. "May your journey back home be unhindered, Sect Master Ye Tian."

"Thank you for everything, Mei Ling. Take good care of the Cloud Sword Sect," Ye Tian replied, nodding in farewell.

The time had come. Ye Tian turned, facing the open sky at the edge of the Nine Heavens cliff.

He raised the Boundary-Piercing Compass, now slotted with the Astral Dimensional Key, into the air. Closing his eyes, Ye Tian triggered the full potential of the physical True Immortal Realm within his frame. The muscles across his body tightened, and golden veins flared brilliantly beneath his skin, channeling the complete synthesis of earth and heaven he possessed.

"OPEN!"

KABOOM—————!!!

Ye Tian cast no spells. He drove his right fist straight into the central projection point of the compass in thin air. A punch of pure physical force containing sky-severing power exploded, generating an air pressure so immense that the space before his eyes began to spider-web like glass struck by a giant sledgehammer.

CRACK... CRACK... BLAM!

The unyielding sky of the Immortal Realm cracked wide open! A giant dimensional rift in the form of a black and silver vortex tore open, roaring with deafening thunder. From within the dark abyss, Ye Tian could feel a deeply familiar breeze—a wind devoid of spiritual energy, thin, cold, and smelling of mortal dust.

It was the scent of Earth. The road home was fully open.

The wild dimensional vortex began unleashing a colossal gravitational pull, attempting to swallow everything nearby. Jade stones and palace rubble were sucked in, pulverized into ash within the tempestuous storm. For ordinary cultivators, leaping into such a vortex without the protection of a spiritual vessel or a god-tier defensive talisman was pure suicide; their bodies would be shredded by interdimensional friction.

Yet Ye Tian simply stared into the lethal vortex with golden eyes gleaming with absolute conviction. His True Immortal physical frame was the absolute finest armor in the universe.

He touched the hemp bag at his waist one final time, ensuring the grains of rice inside were safe from the dimensional winds. Taking a deep breath, he savored the air of the Immortal Realm one last time.

"Xiao Mei... Gege is coming home," Ye Tian whispered with profound longing.

With a single push of his foot that shattered the remaining marble floor beneath him, Ye Tian leaped without hesitation. His sturdy frame shot forward like a golden meteor, cutting through the golden clouds, plunging straight into the churning darkness of the dimensional vortex.

WHOOSH—————!

The golden light of Ye Tian’s body was instantly swallowed by the darkness of the dimensional labyrinth. Behind him, the rift in the Nine Heavens slowly sealed shut, leaving Mei Ling standing alone, gazing at the sky with an awe that would remain etched in her soul forever.

Ye Tian was gone. The former woodchopping servant once despised by the entire immortal world was now hurtling through space and time, tearing down the distance between realms, all to keep a simple promise in the world below.