After so many mortal years, he barely recognized the sensation of another realm beckoning, he simply stumbled through the door. Then the void consumed him and he welcomed it like an old friend, embracing the abyss between worlds. When he emerged on the other side, his world spun, but it was no longer his world.
Chen Tian collapsed to the earth, his fingers clawing into grass and soil. He didn't know his location, but he could feel the spiritual qi of the Nine Sacred Realms in the very air. His hands grasped at the alien earth as if he could absorb all of it into his being.
He wept. Forty long, bitter years, constantly tormented by memories of another existence. For the first year he had believed he would stumble upon a door at any moment, but gradually realized it wouldn't be so simple and descended through stages of despair. Sometimes he prepared for his return, sometimes he tried to build a new mortal life, and often he feared he would die without ever tasting qi again.
The final moments of his dao companions never visited him in nightmares, as if they had no place in the mortal realm, but he summoned them to mind until the memories were so worn he could barely recall their faces. All that remained was the pain and trauma, the sense of betrayal, and the final separation. Everything else in his mortal life had been nothing but a pale shadow of what he had lost, until the moment he stumbled across an unmarked doorway standing in an empty field...
Pushing through the overwhelming emotions, Chen Tian drew a deep breath and rose to his feet, tears drying. If this entrance resembled his last, Immortal Wei would soon arrive, and that would mean certain death. But he had contemplated this moment throughout his entire mortal existence and prepared for every possibility.
Judging from the vast orange sun blazing warmly overhead, he had arrived in the Peaceful Earth Realm. That was fortuitous. The Peaceful Earth Realm was mundane, but mostly harmless. Had he emerged in the Infernal Ice Realm or the Savage Beast Realm he might have perished before taking his first breath, and an unfamiliar realm like the Mysterious Shadow Realm would have offered no advantages. Unless immediately killed, he could work with this.
Fields of golden grain stretched in all directions, divided only by dirt paths and the occasional fence of living stone. He stood within a grove of trees heavy with sweet spiritual fruits. That could describe nearly anywhere in the Peaceful Earth Realm, so it provided little guidance. What mattered was finding cover in case he was being tracked.
Though the spiritual reality of his surroundings initially overwhelmed him, as he left the clearing, Chen Tian took inventory of himself. Strangely, his body was young again, as if restored to the same age as his last visit to the Nine Sacred Realms. Yet when he attempted to examine his dantian, he found nothing, he wasn't even capable of sensing his qi, as if he had never begun cultivation.
This wasn't shocking. After having his soul wrenched between incompatible realms twice, it would have been miraculous if his former power remained. Besides, he had spent decades contemplating how he wished to rebuild. It might take years before he formed his Golden Core again, but when he did, he would far surpass his previous self.
Branches snapped to his left and he whirled, obsolete instincts trying to channel qi he no longer possessed. But what he saw wasn't Immortal Wei or some demon, but an ordinary man who appeared to be from the Silver Moon Realm. When Chen Tian noticed the silver hair and pale skin, for a painful moment he thought of Bai Yuehua, but they shared only their world of origin.
"What... what is happening?" the man asked, staring at him in amazement. The words were composed of sounds meaningless to Chen Tian, yet in his mind he heard pure meaning as if it were his native tongue. Though the man might not realize it, he was no longer speaking a Silver Moon dialect, but local Peaceful Earth language. The wonder of this old sensation made Chen Tian hesitate in his response, then the sky cracked open nearby.
An elderly woman tumbled through the fissure before it sealed, crushing some of the crops. In the brief glimpse he caught, Chen Tian thought she might be from the Fire Crystal Realm, though he wasn't well-versed in that world. This was more than just a door, there must have been damage to the space between realms, displacing many people.
Once, Chen Tian would have rushed to help the old woman out of pure compassion. The bitter years spent searching for a path back to the Nine Sacred Realms made such kindness feel naive, but he decided that approach would serve him best. He headed into the field to help her rise. "Are you injured?"
"W-who are you?" She flinched from him, and he wondered if the hand he offered was considered threatening in her realm, but eventually she allowed him to assist her up. "I... I was just organizing my pottery for the shop, when suddenly... suddenly..."
"You have fallen far from home. Rest for now." Chen Tian gently guided her to one of the stone fences, helping her sit against the warm, yielding material. The living stone seemed to calm the old woman.
As he stepped away, Chen Tian considered his next move. Though prepared to flee at any moment, he was beginning to doubt this was an ambush. When he first reached the Nine Sacred Realms, he had been alone and soon greeted by Immortal Wei. This appeared to be a major disruption between realms that he had accidentally discovered.