Yun Canghai was taken aback that his attack had been blocked by an energy barrier of a measly 10th level Spirit Profound realm kid. After all, even though the sealing formation was suppressing his cultivation, he was still at the Emperor Profound realm.
The barrier disappeared from around Yun Che as he deactivated the Sealing Cloud Locking Sun, closing the two gates. Yun Canghai took this opportunity to test out the boy some more.
He once again charged at Yun Che at a very high speed and thrust his palm into his chest. For some reason, Yun Che didn't react at all and Yun Canghai's hand went straight through the body. As the old man was feeling disappointed, he discovered that his hand had not gone through flesh. Rather, his hand had gone through the place as if it had nothing but thin air.
The 'Yun Che' standing there vanished like an illusion and the demon realized he must have used some kind of movement technique to escape – something even he couldn't see through.
He felt the profound aura of the boy from a point behind him and turned around to see him standing there, looking at him seriously. By this point, he had lost the desire to kill the boy. His true enemies were the Four Sacred Grounds; this boy was just caught in the crossfire.
At this moment, when Jasmine was wondering why he didn't just use Destroying Sky Decimating Earth and quickly kill the geezer, Yun Che took out the Mirror of Samsara from the Sky Poison Pearl and after looking at it sentimentally, wore it around his neck as a pendant, to her utter bafflement.
Yun Canghai carefully looked at the pendant and his heart shook. He asked while pointing a trembling finger – "What is that? What is that you are wearing?"
Yun Che made a confused expression and pointed at the pendant, "This?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, "This is a pendant my parents gave to me upon birth. Sadly, I don't even know who my parents are. But this is the only thing I have to remember them."
Yun Canghai stammered, "Are-are you certain? Your parents really gave this to you?" He was incomparably excited. It seemed the Heavens were finally smiling upon him!
Yun Che nodded in affirmation. Yun Canghai asked with great anticipation, "Little boy, can I touch you for a moment? I have to check something. I promise I will not try to hurt you."
Jasmine snorted, "Hmph. Does this old geezer think you are gullible?" But then to her astonishment, Yun Che agreed, "Alright, but I will remain on my guard and I do have many life saving methods."
Yun Canghai nodded delightedly, "Of course, of course. It is only natural that you remain on guard." He then touched Yun Che and passed his profound energy through his body. Soon, he found what he was searching for – an unawakened Profound Handle in Yun Che's left arm.
Releasing him, Yun Canghai started laughing heartily and madly, "Hahaha... haha... the Heavens have taken pity upon me. To think that I would be able to meet my grandson near the end of my life!"
Yun Che curiously asked, "Grandson?"
Yun Canghai then tightly embraced him in a hug, which Yun Che had to open the first two gates not to get injured from, and then proceeded to tell him his story.
He told him about the Illusory Demon Realm, the Demon Emperor, the Little Demon Empress, the Yun Clan, their treasure which was now with Yun Che, the invasion of the Four Sacred Grounds for that very treasure, the Demon Emperor's death and his capture by the Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, and the political scenario of the Illusory Demon Realm as far as he remembered a hundred years ago.
Yun Che then tearfully hugged his grandfather again and began to tell him of his own story, after revealing his true profound cultivation level. He started with the story of his parents that he had heard from Xiao Lie, then told him about the Xiao clan, Floating Cloud city and Blue Wind Empire, about how he was treated as trash due to his crippled profound veins, about his marriage to Qingyue, finding a master who granted him a new set of profound veins and the tournament he had just participated in.
"Heh, Qingyue was engaged to marry Xiao Lie's grandson. I am not his actual grandson but I ended up marrying her instead. This kind of almost stealing another person's destined fiancee feels sort of thrilling when I think about it, Hehehe", he finished with a weird chortle. The old Yun Canghai also shared in the weird chuckling, feeling strangely satisfied.
Then he calmed down and spoke solemnly, "Che'er, the reason I have not killed myself all these years and continued to hold on to my life is because I have something very valuable that belongs to the royal family of the Illusory Demon Realm. This belonged to the Demon Emperor, but now the Little Demon Empress would be its master. I need a favor from you – if you ever manage to get to the Illusory Demon Realm, please pass this to her."
Knowing that he was speaking about the key to the Golden Crow's trial grounds, Yun Che immediately nodded in agreement. After all, this was one of the two things he was aiming for when he came here. Yun Canghai exerted his profound energy and vomited the jade white seal out of his stomach. He gave it to Yun Che, who quickly put it into the Sky Poison Pearl.
Yun Canghai then said, "Alright, now let me give you a gift. As I have told you, we of the Yun Clan unlock a valuable tool called the Profound Handle when we are at the Sky Profound realm. I can awaken your Profound Handle prematurely."
Yun Che, however, shook his head at this, "There is no need for that. As I told you, I started cultivating when my Profound Veins were repaired one year ago. In just one year, I have already achieved Earth Profound realm. It won't take me long to reach Sky Profound realm and awaken my Profound Handle naturally."
Yun Canghai thought about it and concluded that it was indeed reasonable. Still, he was shocked at the speed his grandson had cultivated. He thus offered to train him in combat by becoming a sparring partner. Yun Che agreed and took out his Dragon Fault.
Yun Canghai utilized his Profound Handle at 50% strength and Yun Che easily overcame that after sometime. He went on increasing the strength of his Profound Handle and Yun Che had to open the first two gates in order to deal with the handle at 100% strength.
During this time, he roasted the meat of the corpses of the Flood Dragons he had saved and both he and Yun Canghai ate them. He already had the purest Dragon bloodline and even his Origin Energy, so the Flood Dragon meat was not very beneficial to his cultivation. Still, they were of peak Sky Profound realm, so he did get some slight benefits and his profound strength rose to 7th level Earth Profound realm by the time he had finished both the Flood Dragons.
After that, he went on to the ice elemental Tyrant Profound beast. The Tyrant Profound beast was not a Dragon, so it wasn't hampered by his legacy. Furthermore, it was an entire three large realms above Yun Che, so it gave enormous boosts to his cultivation.
Yun Che had timed it so that he started eating the Tyrant Profound beast at around the same time as he managed to deal with Yun Canghai's Profound Handle at 100%. On the very first day of eating the meat, his profound strength directly broke through the Sky Profound realm.
He felt an enormous amount of pain in his left arm, but far more bearable than the Evil God's profound veins or the Dragon God's bone marrow. It lasted only a short time and he realized that he had awakened his Profound Handle.
Yun Canghai was somewhat shocked and disappointed to see that the Profound Handle was only a red one, i.e., absolute trash. He said this to Yun Che but also tried to console him, "Che'er, you said your profound veins were crippled and had to be repaired. This is most probably due to that. Otherwise with your talent, how could you have only a red Profound Handle?"
Yun Che laughed and shook his head, "No, grandfather. My master gave me an extraordinary set of profound veins, not normal ones. I have a feeling, if I exert enough effort, I will be able to change the color of my Profound Handle and upgrade it to a higher level."
Saying this, Yun Che opened the Evil God's first gate. The color of his Profound Handle indeed changed to orange, which was one step higher. Yun Canghai was shocked at seeing this; this had never happened before as far as he was aware. But it was not the end – Yun Che opened the second gate and the color once again changed to yellow. Finally, he opened the third gate and the color changed to green – another upgrade of one level – before not being able to bear opening the three gates any longer and closing them, turning back the Profound Handle to red.
"Grandfather, my profound veins have not been fully awakened yet. Once they are fully awakened, I will be able to upgrade my Profound Handle even further, maybe up to the highest purple color level. For now though, why don't I try to spar with you only using my Profound Handle?"
Yun Canghai snapped out of his shock and agreed to the suggestion. From that day onward, Yun Che sparred with Yun Canghai using only the physical manifestation of his Profound Handle and not any of his profound arts. It was difficult at first since he was using his Profound Handle for the first time and was not experienced with it, although he had now reached the Sky Profound realm.
Day after day however, as his profound strength continued to grow from eating the Tyrant Profound beast, he learnt how to keep the first gate – Heretic Soul – open at all times, passively, without any backlash. This kept his Profound Handle orange for effectively permanently.
After 4 months of falling into this seal, he finally finished eating all the meat of the Tyrant Profound beast. His cultivation stabilized at 8th level Sky Profound realm. It was also at this time that he was finally able to defeat Yun Canghai at 100% only with his orange Profound Handle and nothing else.
Yun Canghai sighed, "Finally you have become strong enough that I don't need to worry about you Che'er. It is time to say farewell, I will be making a way for you out of this seal."
Yun Che hurriedly stopped him, "Wait, grandfather. There is no need for that. I actually already have a way to get out of this place. Furthermore, I have a way to discreetly take you out with me as well."
Yun Canghai, who was about to commit suicide, stopped and looked curiously at his grandson, waiting to see what other miracle he had. At this point, Jasmine emerged from the Sky Poison Pearl. Yun Che had already discussed this with Jasmine and she had agreed.
"Grandfather, this is the master I was telling you about – master Jasmine. She is beyond the Sovereign Profound realm and will be able to destroy the Heaven's Punishment Sword and get us out of here."
He then explained about the Sky Poison Pearl and Yun Canghai was stunned upon hearing all this. Not only was his grandson's master apparently someone beyond the Sovereign Profound realm, but he even had another valuable treasure – the Sky Poison Pearl. This was indeed a little unbelievable.
Jasmine had never needed to make a move ever since meeting Yun Che, so she had a bit of leeway right now. Making a move would cost her a few months of recovery time, but with the second half of the Sky Poison Pearl integrated, her recovery was going much faster and it wouldn't really matter.
She waved a hand and a crimson slash appeared in the air, which struck the Heaven's Punishment Sword and utterly destroyed it. Both she and Yun Canghai went into the Sky Poison Pearl and Yun Che used his new flying abilities to fly out of the hole created.
He explained to everyone who had been alerted of the commotion that Yun Canghai had died, which had dissolved the sealing formation and the sword, allowing him to get out.