The multi-colored plane trees in the sky disappeared one by one. Once the cracks seem to reach the ends of the galaxy, all the plane trees were gone. All that was left was a pitch-black, broken night sky.There were another series of crashes and the entire sky fell down to the ground in pieces, just like a broken ceiling. Huge amounts of primordial Qi flowed into the s.p.a.ce.
Lonemoon could not help but shout at the group of dumplings who were still celebrating, "Alright, alright! Stop bouncing around! Your planes are free to go now, so go and do whatever you have to do. This place is going to return to dust once more."
The group fell silent. After exchanging several looks, they faced the group of four and said together, "Thank you for your kindness!" The crowd bowed, each one in slightly different postures, but carrying the same solemn expression on their face.
"Mm." Shen Ying nodded. "You should thank us!"
The dumplings: "…"
"Alright, go back to your own planes!"
The crowd began to disperse through their own plane gates. One by one, they disappeared. Lonemoon looked up at the almost-gone sky and quickly opened his own plane gate. Waving at the group, he called, "We should go back too!"
Finally, they stepped through the gate and returned.
——————
The Divine Realm.
This time, they only decided to go to the so-called Big Dao Organization to gain exposure and learn from other managers with skills like their own. They had not expected to meet with such a mess. Saying that they were tired and disappointed was an understatement.
"That"s right!" Lonemoon suddenly recalled something. "Yu Heng and the others are dead - what"s going to happen to the planes they were in charge of?" Planes without managers definitely did terribly. Their planes would be in the same situation as Hong Meng"s and the G.o.dfiend"s earlier.
Shen Ying stuffed a pastry into her mouth and only replied a couple of minutes later. "Their planes" consciousness will select other managers for themselves." Although it was a long process, at least the planes would resolve their own problems.
Lonemoon sighed. Yu Heng and the others deserved to die, but the millions of living creatures in their planes were innocent. Yet, since when did Yu Heng and his group spare a thought for the living creatures in other planes when they killed the other managers? Their planes had to suffer the consequences of picking people like them as managers in the first place.
Lonemoon thought of something and turned to face Shen Ying. "As managers, will we keep facing such huge risks in future?" They kept meeting with invasions and whatnot. By now, Lonemoon was starting to regret accepting the position.
Shen Ying hesitated and smiled. "How could that be? Father Niu! There are still many good people out there, alright?"
"Good people?" Lonemoon"s expression darkened. He gestured at Pear beside her and asked, "Good people like her?" The kind that would take you for a ride and try to stab you?
"Er…" Fang Fang tightened her grip on the cup in her hands. Wasn"t she a part of their team now?
"Speaking of - why exactly are you still following us?" Lonemoon scanned her from head to toe and spat. "Aren"t you supposed to take care of your own little plane? Are you here to live off us?" Did she think she could be a freeloader!
"Actually…" Fang Fang laughed nervously and set down the cup of tea. She said, "I have a favor to ask and I"m not sure if I should talk-"
"You should not!" Lonemoon interrupted her.
"…" Was he always this mean? Still, Fang Fang straightened her back and said, "I know I"m nothing to all of you, but I"ve already changed my ways! From now on, the three of you are my friends!"
"Heh heh!" Who wants to be your friend?
"Really, I am especially grateful toward the three of you. You"ve completely freed me from the clutches of the Big Dao Organization." Fang Fang sighed and said in a serious tone, "If not for your help, my plane and I would have been completely destroyed."
"So…" Lonemoon narrowed his eyes. "You"re returning our kindness with evil and refusing to leave?"
"…" Could he be nice?
"Fellow Daoist Lonemoon, you love to joke indeed! There"s no way I can repay the kindness you"ve shown me…" Fang Fang turned to face Shen Ying and her eyes brightened. "I"ve thought about it. I plan to move my plane next to yours. What do you think?" Once she finished speaking, she pulled out a white seedling in her hands that looked much like a bean sprout. "Where do you think I should plant this? How about right beside those two plane trees?"
"Get lost!"
Hmph! I"ve seen enough of cheats like you!
Fang Fang: "…"
Shen Ying: "…"
Father Niu, do you know that you"ll remain single for life if you continue to act this way?
——————
Fang Fang did not stay long in the divine realm. After all, even though her plane was now free, it was still very weak. It was not even comparable to Hong Meng"s plane. Naturally, she did not have much time to spend outside of her own plane. After Lonemoon turned her suggestion down, she moved her plane somewhere not far off from their two planes, anyway.
She finished her cup of tea and took off. Of course, she did not stay to eat.
Lonemoon returned to where Hong Meng was to take a look. Mysteriously, Rabbit had made progress with its brain-was.h.i.+ng once more. Lonemoon had no idea what Lonemoon was teaching them, but the divine races respected Rabbit much more than they respected Lonemoon. They were so obedient that they were now unrecognizable from before. There was no more screaming and killing. Instead, all of them acted like they belonged to respectable aristocratic families.
Lonemoon praised Rabbit highly for the work it had done in the plane. This Rabbit was much better than the one they had before. Fatty"s situation was not bad either. The three disciples had almost formed their nascent souls and Mushroom had regained consciousness as well. It was not going to be easy for her to re-grow the parts of her soul that she lost, so the best solution was for her to enter Samsara. But once she did, she would forget everything that has happened. Then, Mushroom will not be the same anymore. This was why she herself was putting this off.
The good thing was that Fatty had been using countless immortal herbs and spirit elixirs to nurture her, so she was feeling much better by now. What"s more, Fatty learned several demon techniques to help Mushroom. Under Fatty"s guidance, Mushroom had progressed two cultivation levels. Now, it was a seventh-grade mushroom!
Lonemoon realized a problem from Mushroom"s situation. He had been so focused on the mortals that he had completely neglected the beasts and the demons. When the plane was first set up, these races were there. Since mortals were much weaker, they needed more effort in training and cultivation. That did not mean, however, that the other races were not important. Both mortals and demons lived in the mortal world. Although they were separated in different realms, it was not like they could not cross into each other"s realms. The probability of conflict arising, therefore, was high.
Now that the mortals were making so much progress while the demons were still stuck the way they were in the beginning, there was a chance that the demons would be totally wiped out in the future. That would be too much of a pity. After all, there were good demons just like Rabbit. And more variety was always a good thing.
Thus, Lonemoon left some instructions to Fatty, asking him to add training the demonic races onto the to-do list as well.