Chapter 260 - The Six Realms and the Great Fissure

Chapter 260: Chapter 260 - The Six Realms and the Great Fissure

Yue Cangyu remained silent for several breaths before finally sighing.

He had already hesitated long enough.

Su Bai had personally witnessed Immortals enter reincarnation. Whatever ordinary boundary once separated him from matters of this level had clearly stopped applying a long time ago.

More importantly, what Yue Cangyu was about to explain concerned reincarnation itself.

If Su Bai was already entangled with it, telling him a little more probably would not make things worse.

Probably.

Su Bai waited without urging him.

Yue Cangyu finally spoke.

"First, you should understand that the Deva Realm is not simply another distant region. It is one of the places where a soul may be reborn after death."

Su Bai’s expression changed slightly.

Yue Cangyu continued before he could ask.

"This knowledge is extremely uncommon, so there is nothing strange about you never hearing of it. Even many major inheritances contain little more than vague references."

His gaze became more serious.

"In fact, if the Great Fissure had never appeared, our world might never have known these places truly existed."

Su Bai froze.

’The Great Fissure?’

That was not the connection he had expected.

Yue Cangyu noticed his reaction and continued.

"When a living being dies, its soul may enter what ancient records call the Six Realms of Reincarnation. Where it is eventually reborn is said to be influenced by karma."

He paused briefly before naming them.

"The Deva Realm, the Asura Realm, the Human Realm, the Animal Realm, the Preta Realm, and the Naraka Realm."

Su Bai silently committed every name to memory.

Yue Cangyu continued.

"They are six distinct realms tied to the same cycle of reincarnation. Ancient accounts also speak of the Netherworld as the central place connected to that cycle, although what exactly happens there is something I cannot explain."

That much was already enough to overturn Su Bai’s understanding.

When the Immortals had spoken about possibly being reborn in the Deva Realm, they had not been talking about traveling somewhere after reincarnation.

They had meant being reborn there.

Su Bai frowned.

"Senior, how does the Great Fissure connect to any of this?"

Yue Cangyu became quiet again.

This time, the silence was shorter.

"Because without the Great Fissure, the Six Realms would have remained something known only through obscure ancient references."

He looked directly at Su Bai.

"The Great Fissure once opened passages between the Human Realm and the other realms."

Su Bai stared at him, as if something had finally clicked into place.

Yue Cangyu nodded slowly.

"Not through reincarnation. Those passages could actually be crossed."

For several breaths, Su Bai said nothing.

That changed everything.

Under normal circumstances, the realms were separated from one another. Souls could pass between them through reincarnation, but their inhabitants could not simply cross those boundaries at will.

The Great Fissure had broken that separation.

Yue Cangyu continued.

"For a time, beings from the other realms could enter the Human Realm, while cultivators from here could cross into theirs."

Su Bai immediately understood what that meant.

Once passages like that appeared, conflict was inevitable.

"That was how the chaos began," Yue Cangyu said. "The more forces that crossed through the Great Fissure, the harder it became to contain what followed."

His expression grew heavier.

"That was one of the reasons the current cultivation world became what it is today."

Su Bai knew the consequences well enough.

The Great Fissure had shattered spiritual veins, weakened earthfire across entire regions, thinned spiritual essence, and left wounds in the cultivation world that had never fully recovered.

Even alchemy had suffered. Yields that should once have been ordinary had gradually become rare enough to be treated as luxuries.

He had known those consequences came from the Great Fissure.

What he had never understood was what the Great Fissure truly was.

"So the disaster that crippled the cultivation world..."

"Was not merely caused by something breaking inside our own realm," Yue Cangyu finished for him. "For a time, our world was connected to others."

Su Bai slowly leaned back.

That explained far too much.

Yue Cangyu watched him absorb the information before giving a faint chuckle.

"Unfortunately, this is where my knowledge begins to run thin."

Su Bai looked at him.

"If you want someone who may know considerably more about what existed beyond the Great Fissure, you should probably ask your father."

Su Bai stopped moving. It seemed the City Lord already knew exactly who his father was.

Yue Cangyu continued casually.

"Su Qingshan entered the Great Fissure personally. Whatever he encountered there, he almost certainly knows more about it than I do."

He paused.

"Your sect may know more than I do as well."

Su Bai barely heard the last sentence. His thoughts had already gone elsewhere.

Su Qingshan had entered the Great Fissure. He had always known that.

Yet until this moment, those words had meant that his father had entered one of the most dangerous places in history.

Now they meant something else.

Su Qingshan had entered a passage that once connected the Six Realms of Reincarnation.

Something clicked inside Su Bai’s mind.

His expression slowly changed.

His origin.

The Immortals had examined his soul. They had found something there.

When Su Bai had directly asked what he was, they had not said they did not know.

They had refused to answer.

Some truths concerned bloodline, origin, and causes binding one life to another.

Speaking carelessly could create karma.

At the time, Su Bai had understood their reasoning.

They were preparing to enter reincarnation, and none of them wanted to create an unnecessary karmic connection immediately before doing so.

Now that explanation suddenly carried far more meaning.

Su Bai became completely still.

His father had entered a place connected to the Six Realms.

The Immortals had recognized something unusual about Su Bai’s origin.

Those same Immortals had refused to explain it because doing so might create karma just before they themselves entered reincarnation.

The pieces were beginning to touch.

A possibility had already formed in his mind.

Could the other part of his origin be connected to one of the Six Realms?

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

Perhaps the immortals’ refusal had never been about his origin merely being unusual.

Perhaps it was because that origin was connected to the very cycle of reincarnation they were preparing to enter.

A faint chill passed through him.

Everything suddenly felt much closer than before.

The Great Fissure, the Six Realms, reincarnation, and his father were no longer separate mysteries in Su Bai’s mind.

Even the missing years before he awakened in this body at twelve now seemed as though they might be connected to the same answer.

Su Bai slowly rubbed his forehead.

Yue Cangyu raised an eyebrow.

"You look troubled."

"I am reconsidering several things about my family."

Yue Cangyu’s expression immediately became understanding.

Su Bai glanced at him.

That reaction somehow made things worse.

He had no proof of anything yet.

For all he knew, Su Qingshan’s involvement with the Great Fissure and his own strange origin could still be separate matters.

But Su Bai had lived long enough to distrust coincidences that gathered this neatly around the same person.

His father, unfortunately, had become increasingly suspicious.

He exhaled slowly.

Yue Cangyu noticed.

"What now?"

Su Bai shook his head.

"Nothing certain."

That was true.

He was not about to accuse his father of doing something outrageous in another realm without evidence.

Even if the possibilities currently forming in his mind were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The ancient saber beside him shifted slightly.

"Young man, you have the face of someone discovering an unpleasant family secret."

Su Bai looked at it.

"I have discovered no such thing."

"Yet."

Su Bai stared at the saber for a moment.

He decided that silence was the safest response.

Yue Cangyu coughed lightly, though the faint amusement in his eyes betrayed him.

Su Bai ignored both of them and returned to the more important part.

He had thought the mystery surrounding his origin belonged only to him.

Now he was no longer so sure.

If his origin truly touched one of the Six Realms, then whatever answer the Immortals had seen inside his soul might belong to something much larger than a strange bloodline or an unusual constitution.