Lei Jun bade farewell to Master Faming and the others and headed towards the Void Gateway in the east.

He first contacted his junior brother Chu Kun without delay. Later on, the two brothers met up.

Chu Kun took out the Tianshu Sword and the Breathing Soil Banner and handed them back to Lei Jun. "Brother," he said, "your Sword Control Technique is truly admirable. Even a Shushan Elder of the same realm might find it difficult to deliver such a formidable strike."

The flying swords of Mount Shu might surpass Lei Jun’s strike in agility. If it were the life-bound Magical Sword of a High Merit Elder of Mount Shu in the Eighth Heavenly Layer Immortal Travel Realm, he could recall the Magical Sword, so closely tied to his Immortal Soul, even if separated by a thousand mountains. But in terms of power and speed, perhaps even the flying swords of a Mount Shu Elder of the same realm could not achieve such terrifying might.

Lei Jun accepted the Tianshu Sword and the Breathing Soil Banner. "There’s still much room for improvement."

As the two conversed, they continued towards the Void Gateway.

As they traveled through the wind and rain over the sea, suddenly, far ahead, the Global Spiritual Qi seemed to tremble once more, and wind and clouds surged.

Through the Great Celestial Mirror, Lei Jun could see the Great Ming cultivators being pushed back to Heavenly Principle, and the Void Gateway connecting Heavenly Principle with the Mortal World was now being sealed shut.

Chu Xiuyuan, the old Clan Chief of the Suzhou Chu Clan, who had been resting and providing backup from the sidelines, now personally re-entered the fray. Together with Ye Yan, Clan Chief of the Qingzhou Ye Clan, they joined forces to seal the Void Gateway.

With the "great door" closing, the great battle between the Great Tang cultivators and the Heavenly Order Cultivators on the East Sea finally came to an end.

Of course, they couldn’t rest easy yet. The Void Gateway was unstable and, amidst the turbulence, could still reopen. For safety, cultivators would continue to guard and reinforce it for the time being.

However, with the Void Gateway closing, the few Heavenly Principle Loose Troops still stranded in the Great Tang Realm were the first to experience changes.

Those cultivators who practiced Taoist Heritages other than Confucian Rationalism could still feel the influence of the Principle Constants, but to a lesser extent.

The Confucian Practitioners, however, experienced a much more distinct sensation: the fortune of Heavenly Principle’s mountains and rivers within them had diminished, as if severed.

The elderly felt it instantly, recognizing the signs of aging and weakening brought by the erosion of time and the changing seasons.

It would now be considerably easier for the Great Tang cultivators to hunt them down.

However, tasks like these were left to Chu Kun and his peers.

Lei Jun and the other Upper Three Heavens Cultivators had other matters to attend to next: dealing with the aftermath.

Their opponents were no longer the Heavenly Order Cultivators but the very forces of nature.

Due to changes in the Global Spiritual Qi and the Void Gateway’s instability, the East Sea was now ravaged by tsunamis and towering waves.

This turmoil did not cease with the closing of the Void Gateway.

The disturbance was massive in scale and its impact far-reaching, requiring a long time to dissipate.

Aside from the aging Chu Xiuyuan, who returned to rest, everyone else—including Ye Yan, Lei Jun, and Chu Yu—first focused their efforts on quelling the sea’s rage.

This area of the sea was close to the mainland’s coastal regions; if not handled promptly, the consequences would be severe.

Besides Yuhang and Mingzhou, places like Songjiang and Su Kun could also be affected. Thus, the Suzhou Chu Clan could not afford to ignore the situation, and experts from the Qingzhou Ye Clan also provided assistance.

Only after the turmoil had largely subsided did Lei Jun and the others finally relax a little.

Looking at the East Sea—still roiling but much calmer than before—Chu Yu said to Lei Jun, "We are greatly indebted to you for this battle, Elder Lei."

Lei Jun replied, "Your words are too kind, Minister Chu; it is I who should be ashamed. After I escaped the calamity, I heard from Master Faming of Tianlong Temple that both you and the Commandery Princess attempted to assist me. It is I who should be thanking you both."

Chu Yu replied seriously, "Not at all, Elder Lei. No one anticipated such an upheaval from the Heavenly Principle sacrifice. If you hadn’t been there to handle the situation, and someone else had failed to cope, the entire situation could have spiraled out of control."

Moreover, much work had been done beforehand.

Lei Jun had already slain Wang Feng, a Great Scholar of Heavenly Principle at the Eightfold Heaven Realm.

With this achievement alone, he could have simply packed up and returned to Dragon Tiger Mountain, his contribution to this battle already sufficient.

Although it was a pity he couldn’t participate in the subsequent ambush of the main Heavenly Order force and the sealing of the Void Gateway due to unforeseen circumstances, the Tang Imperial Court would not hold him accountable.

When recounting merits after the war, neither Lei Jun nor the Celestial Master Mansion would be overlooked.

"This battle has brought some unexpected boons," Chu Yu said. "It might help the Cangming Treasure Tree at your sect on Dragon Tiger Mountain sprout new buds."

Lei Jun remarked, "Oh? That is indeed an unexpected boon."

The Celestial Master Mansion on Dragon Tiger Mountain had endured many trials since its founding. The mountain itself had undergone numerous transformations compared to its early days, partly due to shifts in the Global Spiritual Qi and partly due to destruction from human conflicts.

Some once-famous Blessed Land Cave Heavens or Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures no longer existed.

In recent years, with the dramatic surge and changes in Global Spiritual Qi, some things that had vanished began to revive, such as the anomaly on the Ganoderma Terrace when Lei Jun first joined the mountain.

But some things had never re-emerged.

The Cangming Treasure Tree was one of them.

This tree rarely bore fruit, but in its prime, the aura of vitality it exuded greatly assisted Talisman Sect cultivators of lower and middle Cultivation levels in their practice.

Within the range of the Treasure Tree’s aura, it was almost equivalent to a miniature Blessed Land Cave Heaven right within the sect’s gates.

Unfortunately, the Treasure Tree had been withered for thousands of years.

Despite many subsequent events and changes Dragon Tiger Mountain induced in the Global Spiritual Qi, the Cangming Treasure Tree never sprouted new buds.

Regarding this, Lei Jun, Yuan Mobai, and others felt regretful, yet they knew such things could not be forced; it mostly depended on fate and opportune moments.