Parents Across the Void Gate

"What old feelings could I possibly have with him?"

"You know perfectly well whether you do or not." The two started bickering, completely missing the commotion happening on Soren Lann's side.

Everything happened in an instant.

All they heard was Soren Lann suddenly shout: "Azure Flame!"

Looking up, they saw the patterned section of the Gate morph into a black hole, spewing a Space Storm that swept toward them with unstoppable force.

Soren Lann was wounded, his body spattered with blood.

Azure Flame yanked him behind her, shouting back: "Go, now!"

She reverted to her colossal true form to block the black hole, but her body—once as hard as iron—was soon shredded bit by bit by the Space Storm.

The storm's crushing pressure made them cough up blood, as if they were sinking into quicksand.

Neither teleportation nor spellcasting worked under that oppressive force.

Lily Bai swallowed blood and said, "I'll go on my own—you go save him!"

With that, she turned and ran back the way she came.

Sean Shaw dashed to Soren Lann's side, grabbed her with one hand, and reached for Azure Flame with the other—only to come away with handfuls of blood and torn flesh.

Lily Bai ran for a while; as the pressure eased, she managed to teleport out from underground.

Anyone else might not have been able to pull it off.

Luckily, her cultivation was strong enough.

As soon as she teleported out, she saw Sean Shaw carrying Soren Lann out as well.

In midair, the ground below collapsed at lightning speed—dust billowed, the earth shook, and mountains swayed.

The Space Storm raged for about half a minute before dying down.

They landed and looked over at Soren Lann.

His face and body were covered in wounds, chunks of flesh torn from his neck.

Lily Bai cleaned his wounds and applied medicine; slowly, Soren Lann regained consciousness.

"What happened?" Lily Bai, eyes red with fury, demanded, "What the hell just happened?!"

"Azure Flame?" Soren Lann asked, dazed.

"Azure Flame blocked the storm with her own body and bought us time to escape! She's been torn to pieces!" Sean Shaw's tears spilled onto him. "Tell me what happened! Where did that spatial Black Hole on the Gate come from?"

"It was..." Soren Lann murmured, "A conspiracy... Liam Leshan's conspiracy..."

"Liam Leshan?" Lily Bai's eyes narrowed.

Just then, a long-lost voice suddenly rang out through the swirling dust: "Is anyone there? Anyone?"

Just from the sound... it was unmistakably the Celestial Emperor!

Sean Shaw jumped to his feet and rushed over.

Lily Bai asked Soren Lann, "Are you okay?"

Soren Lann stood up and went over as well.

In the collapsed pit, the Void Gate was fully exposed.

The Black Hole was gone, replaced by an image of the Celestial Emperor.

It was just like a moving, talking image projected by a high-grade Clarity Charm.

"Father! Father!" Sean Shaw called out, "Is that you?"

"It's me!" The Celestial Emperor beamed. "Son! My Little Five! I haven't seen you in ages! Wow, you've ascended to Crown Prince now! Amazing!"

"Father!" Sean Shaw reached out to touch the image, but felt only cold stone. "Where are you? When are you coming home?"

"Little Five! Guess who this is?" The Celestial Emperor pulled someone out from behind him.

It was a woman.

A truly beautiful woman.

Sean Shaw stared at her, stunned. "Mother..."

"You're all grown up now, and you still want to cry when you see your mother?" she teased. "Wipe those tears away!"

Sean Shaw hadn't really been crying, but the moment she said that, two tears rolled down his cheeks.

Her gaze softened; she sighed and said, "Good boy! Don't cry now! At most, just another one or two thousand years, and I'll bring your father back home."

Sean Shaw: "Will you really come back?"