Taking out a pot of wine, and filling a cup with it, Bai Wen says—
"Honestly—under these circumstances, if the Leng Bing Realm explodes, it might be a good thing. At least then, when all hell breaks loose in the Everlasting Spirit Realm, the Ling Yuan family won't be the first ones to get targeted. Still, I guess by then it would have already been dissolved—so whichever branch that made off with the most amount of resources would be the first to get hunted down?"
"…"
"…"
As Bai Wen takes a sip, Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng twitches their eyes.
Shaking his head in response to Bai Wen's statement, Long Hua says—
"Actually, if the Leng Bing Realm explodes, whatever outer realm forces that went to war with the Everlasting Spirit Realm from eons ago—they can use this as an opportunity to invade again."
"...…"
Just as Bai Wen is about to take another sip, his hand trembles, as he freezes.
Similarly to Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng, Bai Wen also looked as if he had just been struck by a bolt of lightning.
"Lao Long, you…-?"
With an uncaring tone, Long Hua says—
"Think about it. The souls that are trapped in the Leng Bing Realm, they need to go somewhere after its destroyed. The only place that they can go to after…"
Raising a smile that seems to enjoy watching everything go to hell, Long Hua adds—
"Is the Everlasting Spirit Realm."
"…"
Compared to Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng—who have yet to catch on to the severity of the situation, Bai Wen can't help but grit his teeth.
"I need to hasten my plans. At this rate…"
Clicking his tongue, Bai Wen feels a headache welling up. He doesn't know where to even begin.
With his current cultivation base, Bai Wen can't possibly hope to traverse the outer heavens with his physical body alone.
As for constructing a vessel that is capable of the feat—where would he even get the materials to build, and to fuel the vessel without raising a few alarms?
Asking Zhen Qing Huai is the first thing that comes to mind, but even with the former's abilities as a merchant, there's still a limit to what she can hope to accomplish on such short notice.
As for attempting to get more people onboard to construct the escape vessel, the more people that are involved—the larger the vessel would need to be, and this translates to the need to obtain more materials.
"Dammit, it's an endless cycle…"
Knowing how unusual it is to see Bai Wen putting on such a solemn expression, Lin Yu Heng, who has a feeling of bad premonition in his heart, asks—
"…Bai-daren, forgive junior's ignorance, but what does senior Long mean by outer realm forces using the Leng Bing Realm's destruction—as an opportunity to invade again?"
Taking out a spirit herb cigar, Long Hua gets up, and says—
"Merry chatting, I'm going out for a smoke."
Having said this, Long Hua leaves the room with Tian Cheng.
"…"
As the door closes, Bai Wen glances at the three in front of him, and says—
"Surnamed Lin, surnamed Qing, Chen Shi family's little girl, what I'm about to tell you is something that mustn't ever be leaked. Without my permission, you're to never speak of this matter to any uninvolved person, or you can leave right now. But if you plan to stay, swear a Dao oath."
"…Un."
The first to comply with this is Yao Ying, who raises a nod.
Momentarily, Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng—having dipped their toes this far in, figured that they may as well continue.
Simultaneously, the three swore their Dao oaths, and upon their oath's completion, Bai Wen explains—
"From what I know, the Everlasting Spirit Realm went to war with three outer realm forces eons ago. They are the Chì Yùn Continent, the Ancient Divinity Continent, and the Primordial Star Realm. Once all the souls in the Leng Bing Realm are freed from this world, those three forces have an excuse to invade again. The first excuse that they'll use—is to have us return their native souls back to them. However, would we be able to do that? There're far too many souls to count, and it's impossible to pick them apart. Even if we did end up returning a reincarnated individual—who was a native of theirs, they'll simply say, they don't recognize them, and continue with their plans to invade anyways."
Taking all this information in, Qing Ming Yang and Lin Yu Heng suck in a cold breath of air, whereas Yao Ying—who has a difficult time processing this information blinks her eyes.
"W-Wait, Bai-daren, even if they did invade us—by the time they do, we won't have anything left to give. We're trapped in this world because of the Immortal Emperor's barrier, so-"
Towards Qing Ming Yang's statement, Bai Wen can't help but chuckle aloud, as he asks—
"Surnamed Qing, ever heard of a furnace? What about a blood pill? There're various creative methods in the practitioners' circle—to turn a living, breathing practitioner into resources. The Leng Bing Realm, it's one such method."
"…"
Immediately, Qing Ming Yang's complexion turns pale.
Heaving a sigh, Bai Wen adds—
"Those three star regions, they may have lost their strongest practitioners to us all those years ago, but if they work together, the barrier of that old tortoise doesn't stand a chance…"