The helpless expression from the trio amused Li Qiye.

“Don’t worry, I have a great sense of propriety and won’t ask for anything out of line.” Li Qiye smiled.

Of course, the trio’s eyes said it all, that they thought he was anything but!

“Here, back to its masters, wait, no, back to its home.” Li Qiye handed the tree to them without asking for the payments just yet.

“Finally.” Emperor Nong accepted the tree and became emotional, the same as the other two.

“No more disasters after this.” Emperor Sui stared at the stars and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Creating a rift there mustn’t have been easy.” Li Qiye glanced over at the crack.

The three became awkward again with a forced smile on their face.

“We really brought this upon ourselves and it has been tormenting us ever since.” Emperor Xi sighed in response.

“So first, you three found this place.” Li Qiye had a pretty good guess at this point.

“Yes, that’s a story from long ago. When we returned from that place, we went into a long cultivation session. Once we came out, we entered the expanse for a full exploration…”

Those as powerful as the trio wouldn’t linger around in Three Immortals. They naturally desired to reach a bigger and more colorful world.

There was no secret left in Three Immortals for them since they were the ones who created the order and cultivation system here. Their reign has lasted for many generations so they knew all there was to know.

Only the expanse had some mysteries left and they couldn’t resist the temptation.

“The expanse is ma.s.sive. We went there several times and still didn’t see the whole thing. Thus, it became our goal…” Emperor Sui stopped here.

“We found this place and the tree. We immediately knew that it had special meanings to this world, hence its name. We stayed here for a while to figure it out.” Emperor Nong continued. He glanced over at the stars, seemingly recalling the past.

“You soon found that there was more to it than that.” Li Qiye smiled. He had kept the tree long enough to figure it out.

“Yes, curiosity also kills people.” The three exchanged glances.

“I a.s.sumed there was only one path, who would have thought that there was a rift here.” Li Qiye said.

“We didn’t know in the beginning.” Emperor Xi shook his head: “We figured out that the tree is a dimensional type, breaking this barrier might take us to a world unknown to us.”

“We naturally became curious. This was irresistible.” Emperor Nong smiled wryly.

They have lived in this world for too long so this revelation regarding a new world became their main focus.

“You started working towards this goal with wanton regards. After all, you three considered yourselves unbeatable.” Li Qiye could understand why they did it. Anyone in their shoes would have done the same thing.

The three smiled, agreeing with Li Qiye. They lost patience once they found out about another world.

In fact, they have calculated the potential dangers and possibilities before attempting this. The problem was their overconfidence due to their strength. They believed that they could deal with any complications.

After all, they were survivors from that place. Though they pulled a fast one to flee, this was still a historically great feat. And furthermore, what place could be more dangerous in comparison?

“We spent countless efforts to uproot the tree…” Emperor Sui said softly.

The tree was connected to Three Immortals; its roots coiled deep in this dimension. Uprooting it was easier said than done. Of course, the trio was powerful enough to do so.

“We then opened a rift, wanting to see what lies beyond…” He had a serious expression at this point.

“That’s when it all begins.” Emperor Xi joined in: “We underestimated that world and didn’t prepare sufficiently.”

“The darkness came.” Li Qiye knew where the rift was connected to.

“Right.” Emperor Xi nodded: “As we were about to explore that world, we suddenly got ambushed by darkness. We realized that this was far from good.”

The sudden ambush still managed to catch these three masters off guard.

“We knew that the first thing we must do was close the rift. Unfortunately, the enemies were too strong so we didn’t have enough time.” He sighed and said.

“How many of them got through?” Li Qiye asked.

“Should be three, as far as we know.” Emperor Nong mused for a bit before answering: “The leader was the strongest and kept us preoccupied. Then two more ambushed us a while later. We tried to stop them but they didn’t care about fighting. It took all of our efforts to stop the leader.”

He paused for a bit before continuing: “We were fighting while trying to close the rift. The shockwaves blew the tree away into another dimension. It took us a long time to kill this leader so the other two escaped to Uncrossable Expanse. More darkness was still coming from the other world but we couldn’t close it without the tree. Thus, we had to use our power to forcefully reduce it to a tiny rift.”

The situation back then must have been perilous. Anyone else would have panicked and lost control of the situation.

“By the time we stabilized the situation, one of the two has accomplished his goals in the expanse. He recruited a powerful alliance, many fell to the darkness.” Emperor Xi elaborated.

“We were still injured, unfortunately.” Emperor Sui joined in: “Moreover, the fallen ones were all over the expanse.”

“We started launching an offense against this overlord.” Emperor Xi continued: “But remember that this place was still open. Thus, we couldn’t go all out.”

During this period, dark existences had occasionally tried to sneak in through the rift.

“One of us had to stay here to avoid letting more of them in. The other two focused on offense and defense against the overlord.” Emperor Xi said.

“Fortunately, this overlord hasn’t recovered back to his peak state and chose to avoid a direct confrontation against us. He sent the fallen combatants to their death instead.” He had a sad expression after finis.h.i.+ng.